The Ven. Richard I Cluett
November 19, 2006
Daniel 12:1-3 + Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25 + Mark 13:1-8
“Famine, social unrest, institutional deterioration, bitter internal conflicts, class warfare, banditry, insurrections, intrigues, betrayals, bloodshed, and the scattering of people throughout the country...”
Sounds like the evening news, but it’s not. Sounds like the world today, but it’s not. It is how the historian Josephus described the scene in Israel & Palestine about the time when the Evangelist Mark was putting the Gospel to pen and paper.
Jesus spoke of wars and rumors of wars. He predicted the destruction of the temple that had been built by Solomon in Jerusalem. And when Mark put pen to paper it had come to pass or was about to. About the year 70 in the Christian Era.
Rome had been laying siege to Jerusalem for years, there were popular messiahs, prophets crying out woes on the city and temple, mock trials, and crowds creating tumults. There were wars and rumors of wars for the better part of ten years and Josephus reports portents, including a brilliant daylight in the middle of the night...
I have a photograph in my office that I took from the Mount of Olives at a place that had to be near where Jesus spoke to his disciples. There is now a chapel on that spot. You sit down and look out over the Kidron Valley, across to the Old City of Jerusalem and you see the lower walls that had held up the Temple. They are all that’s left of the Temple of Solomon. The wall is called the Wailing Wall.
The place is called the Temple Mount by Jews. It is called the Dome of the Rock by Muslims and contains Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is the site where many people believe Jesus will return to when he comes again to complete the work of creation.
It is also the site of major conflicts that keep the Middle East full of war and the rumors of war. “Not one stone will be left here upon another.”
Many individuals, many groups eagerly anticipate the Second Coming, eagerly anticipate the completion of this world and the inauguration of the next. Are you ready for the rapture?
Preacher Fred Craddock once said, "Maybe people are obsessed with the second coming because, deep down, they were really disappointed in the first one."
We are now in a period of the Christian year, this end of this aone and the one to come on Advent 1, when scripture focuses on the end time, the second coming, the eschaton, the eternal consequences of the Now.
Millennial thinking or more accurately, millennial guessing, is very popular in our time. Lots of people have a view of how it will go, “The Left Behind Series” being only the latest and most egregious example. I am sure you remember all the hoopla, fear, and prognostication in 1999 and 2000 about what will happen in this new millennium.
The Book of Daniel is an example of apocalyptic writing about the end time that was popular in the century before Jesus. The war then was with Syria. The basic theme is, “The present time is one of suffering because of evil, but those who persist, those who are faithful will be vindicated. God will win; God will deliver, so be faithful.
But what do we do while waiting for the Messiah?
Mark and the early followers of the Way believed that the end was imminent. The prediction of Jesus had already come to pass. But, now, we know more than 2000 years later that it is not imminent, that we are in for the long haul.
There are indeed wars and rumors of wars and false prophets, and portents, and earthquakes… but we know, we think, we believe, , we hope that the end is not today.
But when it comes “it will be all right.”
We have been assured that in the person of Jesus, in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that “by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us…” Everything will be all right.
Lutheran pastor Brian Stoffregren puts it this way. How often do parents say that to their children, "Everything will be all right"? A child falls and leaves some skin on the ground. "Everything will be all right," we say to the sobbing child. We tell the bed-ridden grandparent in the hospital, "Everything will be all right," even when we know that it might not be all right.
Just because we proclaim that everything will be all right, that doesn't mean that we do nothing. When children have fallen down and blood is all over the place, we don't just say, "Everything will be all right." There may be a fast trip to the emergency room. There may be bandages and antibiotics applied from the medicine cabinet. We do all that's in our power to make sure everything will be all right.
"How can I make ends meet, when more bills are coming in than income?"
"Everything will be all right"
"I'm having surgery tomorrow and I'm scared."
"Everything will be all right."
"The tests for cancer came back positive."
"Everything will be all right."
"My brother was just sent to Afghanistan."
"Everything will be all right."
"My mother just died."
"Everything will be all right."
And then we do everything in our power to try to make things all right and to encourage and support those in troubled times.
What do we do while waiting for the Messiah?
In the book Everything I needed to know I learned in Kindergarten one of the rabbi’s learnings is, “When you go out into the world, watch out, hold hands, and stick together.”
The author of Hebrews tells us this way, “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together… but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day coming.”
Those who know Jesus know the way through troubled times and the way to wait for the end of time.
Amen
