Sermon: Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Mark 13:1-8
November 17, 2024
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church
Pastor Jonathan Linman
Does it seem as though we’re approaching the end of the world as we know it? Current events in our nation and world certainly seem to point in that direction.
Do you remember the Doomsday Clock developed at first to warn us about the impending threat of nuclear war and annihilation? When the Doomsday Clock was established in 1947, it was 7 minutes to Midnight. It’s gone back and forth since that time with as many as 17 minutes to Midnight in 1991 as the Cold War ended. But now in 2024, we’re 90 seconds to Midnight, the closest we’ve been to the end in the whole history of the Doomsday Clock.
Why? Because the nuclear threats have not gone away since the Cold War ended. In fact, they’ve arguably increased. Then there’s also the specter of climate change and how rapidly things are happening with ever increasingly extreme weather events. A Hurricane in the cool mountains of North Carolina? Are you kidding me? But that’s where we are with what I call “global weirding.”
Then there are the outcomes of the recent elections, ushering in a new administration that threatens to be full of chaos and cruelty and unpredictability. And then also the upheaval throughout the world. These days may well feel like the end is near.
But civilizations have always come and gone. There have always been wars and rumors of wars, as today’s gospel passage suggests, and nations rising against nations and countries against countries and earthquakes, and famines. That’s been the rough and tumble of human history. But I would argue that the threats of nuclear war and climate change put us at risk of more ultimate endings in terms of the very viability of life on this planet.
That said, doomsday in one form or another is always just around the corner, especially in terms of our own personal mortality and the fragility of companies and institutions and even the church in the tumult of the changes and chances of history.
It was no different in Jesus’ day when he walked this earth in his ministry and mission in the flesh. When in Jerusalem, the disciples were impressed with the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, surely one of the wonders of the world at the time. “Look, Teacher,” the exclaimed, “what large stones and what large buildings!”
But to that Jesus replied, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” And so it came to pass shortly after Jesus’ earthly sojourn.
In the year 70, some 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Romans destroyed the temple as punishment for a Jewish revolt against Roman rule. To this day, only the ruins of the Western wall, the Wailing Wall, remain. And yes, the stones are very large indeed even by today’s standards.
Amidst all the threatening forces around them, the wars, the earthquakes, the famines, Roman imperial oppression and more, Jesus tells his disciples, “Do not be alarmed.” That’s very much in keeping with what the angelic messengers of God always say to bewildered people on the receiving end of their news flashes – “Fear not!” Don’t be afraid.
For the ending to come is not about the wars and earthquakes and famines, but about the birthing of the fullness of God’s reign of peace, of Shalom, of holistic well-being for all of creation. That’s where we find ourselves as we approach the end of our church year when we’re on the brink of a new year with the season of Advent when we look forward to Christ’s return to complete what he began two-thousand years ago. Endings usher in new beginnings, and ultimately so when it comes to Christ.
That’s the prophetic, apocalyptic message we heard in today’s reading from the book of Daniel: “There shall be a time of anguish such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But [and that simple conjunction holds the good news] but at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life…” (Daniel 12:1b-2a)
Anybody who has given birth knows that the labor pains are excruciating. But then there’s the birth of new life just on the other side of that pain. And that’s the reassurance and promise that Jesus gave to his disciples. And it’s the same message that our Lord Jesus gives to us to this very day. We’re amidst the birth pangs, the labor pains, of new birth in Christ whose promise to return will usher in the consummated fullness of God’s reign of love and mercy and justice and peace.
Pangs of pain to the pleasures of paradise – that’s the dynamic we see on the cross and in the empty tomb, Jesus’ death and then his new birth in resurrected life, the victory over the forces of sin and death. God is at God’s most active on the edges of and amidst the agonies we endure. That’s good and great news, folks!
Remember that as a new administration in Washington, DC unleashes what looks to be a cruel and abusive reign, especially for the most vulnerable among us.
In these times, we are beckoned to hold fast to the realities and promises of God in Christ. The temple in Jerusalem may be gone. And many of our churches have closed or will close. But Jesus Christ himself is the new temple of God. Jesus Christ is the stone that the builders rejected, but who has become the chief cornerstone of all creation (cf. Psalm 118:22 and Mark 12:10). And remember what Jesus said according to John’s gospel when Jesus cleansed the temple in Jerusalem: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John observed that Jesus was talking about the temple of his body (cf. John 2:18-22).
These bedrock, fundamental realities are the foundation for all of Christianity and they are the grounding for our hope and courage during these profoundly troubled and threatening times in our nation and world.
It was Jesus’ death and resurrection that gave the author of the letter to the Hebrews the wisdom and insight to write these words which we also heard today – and listen to these words as if they are addressed directly to us now: “Therefore, my dear family, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that Christ opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for the one who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:19-25) What a beautiful letter to us, words of encouragement echoing through the centuries.
These wonderful words give us what we need for troubled times such as these. And we hear echoes of baptism and the Eucharist in this passage. “Our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” – that’s all about baptism and what baptism does. And “entering the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that Christ opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)” – that points to the holy meal of the Eucharist, where Christ is made known to us in the flesh.
These sacraments impart to us not just grace and forgiveness but also the blessings of faith, hope and courage and confidence as which the Spirit showers on us through these means of grace. It’s the washing and the meal we need to go forward courageously.
And we also hear in the exhortations from the letter to the Hebrews that we are beckoned to provoke one another to love and good deeds – this love and these good deeds will be lifesaving in the coming months and years of hatred and evil deeds.
Furthermore, we hear in Hebrews the central importance of meeting together and encouraging one another – we need each other during these trying times. And we give to each other the gift of encouragement. And we do that when we meet together in person Sunday after Sunday and on other occasions in our shared life.
But Jesus gives us other work to do as well. Again, remember how he instructed his disciples in today’s gospel reading. And, by the way, Jesus gives the same instruction to us: “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am the one!’ and they will lead many astray.”
One of our jobs is thus to warn others of these false prophets. There are many who call themselves Christians who fully support the diabolical intent of the coming administration, and they do so in Jesus’ name. We are called to expose their false prophecy and warn others about them.
With our faith and trust emboldened in Christ by the gift of the Spirit, we are called, in short, to resist and to protect. Those two words have been echoing in my mind and heart since the election results came in. Resist these new powers that will be and their Christian enablers. And protect the most vulnerable among us. Resist and protect in Jesus’ name and for Christ’s sake. It’s that simple, but that profound.
It looks to be a wild ride. But God in Christ is on our side, and by our side, among us and within us, and will give us what we need for these days. Remember that when the going gets tough, God in Christ gets going to do the greatest of divine works in the power of the Spirit. God in Christ help us. God in Christ save us. Amen.
