Gospel: Mark 13:1-8
Grace and Peace to you from God, the Alpha and Omega, and from Jesus the Christ, Amen
"When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come."
This Gospel lesson today signifies the beginning of the end. In Jesus' own words, "This is but the beginning of the birth pangs"… The end. The culmination of all that has been. In the context of this particular text in the church year, this Gospel text is indeed the beginning of the end of the church year. Next week is the end of the church year. The end of the month is the beginning of our celebration of Advent and the beginning of a new church year. We are truly at the beginning of the end today.
In the context of the Gospel, Jesus was also at the beginning of his end. After this, Jesus and his disciples march into Jerusalem and the rest is Holy Week. But before they do that, Jesus warns his disciples that the beautiful temple with the giant stones will soon fall. And, in truth, the temple of Jerusalem did fall about 35 years later in 70 CE - sending the people of Israel into a nearly 1900 year journey through Europe, Asia, Africa and the new world looking for a new home.
Jesus warned the disciples that the temple would fall. That the world that they knew was going to be turned upside down. That buildings would fall, empires would rage, and famine would continue. Because war, war never changes. The people of Jerusalem were expecting a zealot. A military leader as their Messiah to tear down the Roman Empire. To tear down the oppression they felt under Roman leadership. Well, it would take a few hundred years more, but the Roman Empire would fall eventually. Empires come and go, but the world continues to turn. At one point, the world turned and the sun never set on the British Empire...
But times change. The world changes. And yet, it still turns. The sun will shine until it burns out. All good things must come to an end. Did you know that when one looks out at the clear night sky and looks at the stars - that some of the stars we see... aren't in existence anymore? That some of the stars that we see are so far away that their light reaching our eyeballs took millions and billions of years to travel? That even the light from our own sun takes eight minutes to reach our eyeballs? The closest star to our solar system is still four lightyears away. Which means that if that star burned out right now, we wouldn't know for another four years?
Mayflies live and die within a matter of days. Mosquitos and other bugs last at most a couple weeks. Whereas, some trees and species of marine animals live for centuries. There’s even a tree in California that is thought to be over 5,000 years old… How long life is for different creatures; different entities is all relative. The average human lifespan for people in the United States has increased dramatically in the last 100 years.
With technology and better living conditions, our lives are longer. And yet, the passage of time has remained constant. The earth rotates a full rotation every 24 hours, and the earth rotates around the sun every 365.25 occurrences of those 24 hours. This has fluctuated a little over the billions of years, but time has still marched on. And even when life on this planet ceases, when an eye for an eye finally makes the whole world blind… Time will still march on.
God was there when the world began, and God will be there when the world ends. In our lesson today, Jesus warned his disciples of the end of the world. Mark’s author was writing this gospel about the same time as Mount Vesuvius’ explosion at Pompeii, and yes, after the temple burned in Jerusalem in the late 1st century CE. The gospel writer was sharing the good news with those whose life may have been literally falling around them… but whose life would be saved by Jesus the Christ.
The Good News that even while life on Earth is fleeting, life with God is forevermore. That Good News that even though Jesus’ life on Earth would soon be ending, his death and resurrection would guarantee salvation for all. That Good News that all are saved through his death and resurrection.
So, when Mount Vesuvius, Jerusalem, and Rome burned in the first few centuries; when Berlin, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Baghdad, New York, Kabul, London, Beirut and now Paris burned in the last century… when world ending heartache explodes onto the scene… When lives are changed forever by war, violence, and oppression… the Good News of salvation seems… not as important as what is going on now. And that’s okay.
For it is the Good News that Jesus the Christ died for us all, and saves us all from ourselves through the unending, undeserving, and unwinnable Grace, Love and Mercy of God, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End of all things. It is God that saves us from ourselves, and there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn it or abuse it. There is absolutely nothing we can do to make God love us less or not save us. The salvation of the world is already taken care of. We are called to go out into the world and proclaim this Good News. We are called to go out into the world and fight for justice against oppression. Peace against violence. Love against hate. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.
The people of the world are traumatized. The world weeps for the people of Baghdad, Beirut and Paris. The world turns to point fingers at those responsible… But when will it end? When will the need to exact revenge stop? Jesus warned us of wars, of empires and of famines. Temples will fall. Buildings will fall. Empires will fall. The end of the world is at hand, but not yet.
We cannot throw in the towel. A pundit warned that this was the beginning of World War III. I think the world is tired of perpetual war. Because war, war never changes. Whether it’s with sticks and rocks, or bigger sticks and bigger rocks… The concept is all the same. As a country, we celebrated Veteran’s Day last week, and thanked all those who served in the military. And don’t get me wrong, I’m very thankful for all of you who have bravely served in our military. I just yearn for a time when our young adults no longer have to sign up to go fight other young people in the name of democracy, or freedom, or country.
Our daughters are sick. Our children are watching us. We lack one thing. Death is not the end. The end of the world is almost at hand, but not yet. The temple in Jerusalem fell, and Jesus warned his disciples it was going to happen. The world was eventually, coming to an end. But not yet. There is still hope. When enough people rise up and tell the world that enough is enough. Too much blood has been spilled to satisfy someone’s ego… When enough people realize that there is too much work to be done on this planet to sit around pointing fingers at the wrong direction. An eye for an eye eventually makes the whole world blind. We won’t have to worry about choking on our own greenhouse gases or starving ourselves when we run out of food if we continue pointing fingers.
I’ll end this sermon not with a song, but with a prayer. This prayer comes from our partners in Ministry, the Presbyterians, and I ask that you all join me in prayer.
God of mercy, whose presence sustains us in every circumstance,
in the midst of unfolding violence and the aftermath of terror and loss,
we seek the grounding power of your love and compassion.
In these days of fearful danger and division, we need to believe somehow that your kindom of peace in which all nations and tribes and languages dwell together in peace is still a possibility.
Give us hope and courage that we may not yield our humanity to fear..,
even in these endless days of dwelling in the valley of the shadow of death.
We pray for neighbors in Paris, in Beirut, in Baghdad, who, in the midst of the grace of ordinary life–while at work, or at play, have been violently assaulted, their lives cut off without mercy.
We are hostages of fear, caught in an escalating cycle of violence whose end can not be seen.
We open our hearts in anger, sorrow and hope: that those who have been spared as well as those whose lives are changed forever may find solace, sustenance, and strength in the days of recovery and reflection that come. We give thanks for strangers who comfort the wounded and who welcome stranded strangers,for first responders who run toward the sound of gunfire and into the smoke and fire of bombing sites.
Once again, Holy One, we cry, how long, O Lord? We seek forgiveness for the ways in which we have tolerated enmity and endured cultures of violence with weary resignation. We grieve the continued erosion of the fabric of our common life, the reality of fear that warps the common good. We pray in grief, remembering the lives that have been lost and maimed, in body or spirit.
We ask for sustaining courage for those who are suffering; wisdom and diligence among global and national agencies and individuals assessing threat and directing relief efforts; and for our anger and sorrow to unite in service to the establishment of a reign of peace, where the lion and the lamb may dwell together, and terror will not hold sway over our common life.
In these days of shock and sorrow, open our eyes, our hearts, and our hands to the movements of your Spirit, who flows in us like the river whose streams makes glad the city of God, and the hearts of all who dwell in it, and in You.
In the name of Christ, our healer and our Light, we pray, Amen.
http://pres-outlook.org/2015/11/a-prayer-for-paris-beirut-and-baghdad/
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