Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Scott Borden, OHC
Proper 28 B - Sunday, November 18, 2012
Daniel 12:1-3
Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25
Mark 13:1-8
 |
| A model rendition of the Herodian Temple |
We humans have an interesting ability to reorient messages to suit our desires. This 13th Chapter of Mark smacks of apocalypse. And any time we hear anything apocalyptic, we rush ahead to the Book of Revelation and the so called “end times.”
But remember – Mark doesn't know about the Book of Revelation, nor would early readers of Mark's Gospel. Maybe apocalypse and “end times” are not the lens for the Gospel according to Mark. So if some whiff of “end times” and all the fanciful energy our modern culture puts into that particular narrative have found their way into the back of your mind, stop it.
Mark is an amazingly sparse narrator – so it's natural that we want to fill in extra details – to guild Mark's lily for him, as it were. But if we do that, we miss the actual lily with which Mark presents us.
Jesus comes out of the Temple with his disciples and this terribly important conversation takes place – in the space of just two sentences... In the first sentence, one of the disciples admires the grandeur of the Temple – how big its stones are and how big the entire edifice is. Though the disciple does not use the words, he is no doubt commenting on how rich, how powerful, and how permanent the temple structure is. This is, after all, part of the message that such structures are intended to convey.
Many of our modern buildings are designed to make exactly the same statement. Great bank buildings erected after the Great Depression were built massively and opulently – in order to assure depositors that the bank was dependable and would not, as so many banks had recently done, disappear.
What large stones and what a large building...
The second sentence... Jesus says – oh, so you think this building is big? It is going to be wiped away. The building may speak of power and permanence, but the building lies.
You may also have lurking in the back of your mind a reference like “Destroy this temple and in 3 days I will rebuild it.” But, like “end time” thinking, that's also not part of this particular story. Jesus isn't being metaphorical so much as he's being prophetic. For this very temple will, in fact, soon be destroyed.
This is the first message we have to hear: Something very big and very permanent can be wiped away in the blink of an eye. Of course we know that.
But what are our great monuments to permanence and power? What structures tell us that our way of life is safe and secure... tell us that we are protected... Jesus stands with us and tells us that these edifices are lying to us. They are not permanent. They are not powerful. They can, and they will, be wiped away.
Big, powerful, and permanent institutions, ironically, demand that WE defend THEM constantly in big and powerful ways. This is not what Jesus calls us to do. Yet how many lives have we been willing to sacrifice in the quest to protect our wealth and power and our lavish way of life?
Alright, so we've gotten this far in just the first two sentences of the passage of Mark...
There is certainly an apocalyptic quality to the passage which starts to become clear in the third sentence. Deceivers will come in my name... There will be wars and rumors of wars... Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom... There will be famines and earthquakes... And, really, we all know that these are the harbingers of the “end times.”
Except, it seems, in Mark's telling of the Gospel, Jesus doesn't know this. Jesus says: “Do not be alarmed, the end is still to come...” In other words, this isn't it...
Jesus is not talking about “end times.” He is talking about bad times. Jesus is preparing his followers for difficult days ahead. This is extremely important – because living in bad times is totally different than living in end times.
Living in end times might be terrifying, but it isn't all that difficult because you are not in it, after all, for the long run. You're in it for the ending. Living in bad times requires endurance and persistence. Job, for example, lived, for much that particular book, in bad times, not in end times. And Job persisted.
Jesus tells his disciples how to live in bad times. We stopped reading at the 8th verse, but if we kept reading for just a few more verses, we would hear that we will be dragged before governors and kings – as witnesses. The gospel, Jesus says, must be preached.
Need more? “You will be hated because of me,” Jesus says, “but the one who endures will be saved.” That is where Jesus is going in this particular discourse. We have to endure in witnessing to the Gospel.
The Gospel, the good news is not, after all, terribly obscure. Jesus asks specific things over and over from his followers. Sometimes it's phrased like “if you love me, feed my sheep.” Sometimes it is in the form of direction: “visit the prisoners, protect the widows and the orphans, feed the hungry.” And other times it is in the form of the ancient temple creed: “Love the Lord your God” – which includes the additional element to love our neighbors as ourselves. Sometimes is an observation: “blessed are the peace makers, blessed are those who are poor in heart.” And sometimes it's a mandate – “love one another as I have loved you.”
To witness to the Gospel is to express God's love in all that we do. The harder the times, I suspect, the harder the challenge; though good times surely pose their challenges as well. We have to endure.
The challenge of the Gospel is not that it is unclear or uncertain. The problem is that is is not easy. Love demands justice – for all. Comfort, security, power, wealth, the status quo all feed on injustice. The Gospel demands change.
Jesus warns us not to be led astray – there are deceivers who will come in the name of Jesus. There were false prophets in Jesus' time. There have been false prophets in the intervening centuries. And today, thanks to the amplifying power of the internet, we have an apparently limitless supply of false prophets from which to choose.
False prophets will appeal to us by saying mostly what we want to hear – wrapped in stern and moral sounding images.
For example, there is that chorus of so called preachers who appear after every disaster to tell us that its God's wrath for some wicked thing we are doing. And its fascinating that Jesus, in Mark's Gospel, seems to identify just exactly this scenario. There will be wars and rumors, there will be earthquakes and famines... but don't be alarmed.
Yet in our alarm, urged on by the false prophets, we double down on defending our status quo, our stuff, our way of life – and at the same time perpetuating injustice, failing to live the Gospel.
The next time someone begins interpreting a natural event as God's wrath – tune him or her out. When you hear of wars or rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Stick to the Gospel – to loving God and to loving neighbor.
Jesus tells us the Gospel must be preached. There is a famous quote, attributed to St Francis, but who knows... “Francis” says: “Preach the Gospel always. Use words only when necessary.” In the very actions of our lives we are able to preach the Gospel. And if our lives, our actions, don't preach the Gospel, our words are useless as a broken pot, just noise like a clanging symbol.
In good times and in difficult times we must bear witness in word and in deed – for the Gospel must be preached. That is what Jesus is telling us in the passage from Mark. God is love, and those who abide in love, abide in God. In hard times and in good Jesus calls us to endure – to persist – to abide
No comments:
Post a Comment