ON A NEED TO KNOW BASIS

SCRIPTURE READING: Mark 13:1-13

If you were listening to the Gospel reading today you might have asked yourself, “What does that have to do with Thanksgiving? I thought this was Thanksgiving Sunday.” It is true that if you were looking for the words turkey, cranberries, football and pumpkin pie any where in the gospel you would be disappointed.

You might be equally disappointed with the end time or apocalyptic theme of the gospel lesson. If you think that you are dismayed by a text which doesn’t deal with present reality, think of the disciples. It must have been so frustrating to be a disciple of Jesus. He often ignored his disciples’ questions, go on to something else, and then he would speak in metaphors that were difficult to penetrate. We have, here in the gospel of Mark, one of those occasions. His disciples had just been looking around at the great city. They were used to the country where the towns were dusty and the houses were small, and now they were in the great capital city, the center of culture and learning and faith. They, naturally, looked around and marveled at what they saw of the great public and religious buildings, especially the temple. There were the public Roman buildings, all things calculated to cause these people from the boondocks to stare in awe and wonder. “Look, teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

My reaction to such an announcement would be, “When, when is this going to happen?” That was exactly what the disciples wanted to know. Such a statement presumes some kind of natural or man-made disaster. I would want to know what I could do to prevent or prepare for such an event. “What should I look for? What will the signs be?”

Jesus did not answer them. Instead he told them to beware of those who could lead them astray. Then he told them that there would be earthquakes, famine and wars. That isn’t the end. That is only the beginning of the birth pangs.

And haven’t we experienced the birth pangs into the future? We have seen the metaphorical stones of the walls of the Temple come tumbling down. We have experienced in our age the coming apart of the fabric of racial prejudice. We have seen great strides in equality for all people regardless of their gender or sexual orientation. Those edifices of inequities are coming apart. None of these things have been accomplished without the pain equivalent of childbirth. It has not been accomplished without the commitment of women and men who have heard the gospel call of Jesus to love all of God’s creation and have fought for the right to have those words said to those in power. We are not where we ought to be yet on any of those issues. We have not learned to live with one another in peace.

That doesn’t seem a very satisfying answer to the question the disciples asked about, “When?”

This whole chapter is one dire warning after another. Then, Jesus in verse 32 comes back to the point of the disciples’ question of, “When?” and he says, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, not the Son, but only the father.”

That settles it. No one knows. What are we as latter day disciples to do with that?

That is a signal to us not to worry about the day or the hour. There is nothing you can do to change anything about the timing of the world’s events. That may seem fatalistic, but I think that it is a faithful response to Jesus’ words. We can neither hurry up nor slow down God’s timing.

None of us would have allowed the terrorists who flew those planes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on 9/11. It was beyond our control. Who of us would allow the terrorists preying on our troops or even their own people in Iraq to commit their reign of terror? Who of us would visit illness on another human being? Those are things over which we have no control as terrible as they are. It is unthinkable for us to allow such things to destroy the fabric of the human community if the choice were given to us. Still, they do happen and there is no stopping them until the world learns to live together in peace and harmony.

If I cannot control those tragic events, which visit trouble on others and on me, then I have to live with the consequences of my helplessness. However, helplessness does not mean hopelessness.

That’s what Jesus was saying. The glories of Jerusalem will fade and pass away. The buildings will fall and crumble in the dust. An example of this is that the streets that Jesus walked are ninety feet below the current streets of Jerusalem. Archaeologists count 22 layers of rubble from the present to get to the stratum of Jesus’ day 20 centuries ago. Jesus knew what he was talking about. That is what is happening as God is working God’s purpose out among us. “Time makes ancient good uncouth”, as the words to the hymn go.

When the dust is settled from all those centuries of human activity, what really endures? It is the consistent love of God for humanity no matter how badly we mismanage our lives and the lives of others.

It is that love of God for us on which we can rely and on our hope in the sure grace, which God visits upon us. That grace comes unwarranted, unmerited from the great heart of God who gave us Jesus Christ who helps us to see the nature of that love which God bears for us.

So, yes it is difficult being a disciple of Jesus living with uncertainty, not knowing what tomorrow will bring, but it is an adventure of the highest sort to live in the faith that no matter what comes that we are carried along on the love of God.

Every few years someone will come up with a new prediction about the end of the world, as we know it. They are certain that the Day of Judgment is at hand, because they have carefully read the Bible and have seen signs in current events that lead them to conclude that it is so. Such speculation is idle. Jesus says that no one knows the day or the hour. It is up to us to live in faith and to care for those around our planet and ourselves in the best way we can, and leave the rest to God. The future comes to us on a need to know basis.

That is cause for thanksgiving, and it might not seem such a strange text to us if it indeed points us away from turkey, football, cranberries and pumpkin pie toward God’s grace.

After all, Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday. It is a one shot deal once a year. It is a day off, the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The kind of thanks that the Christian gives goes on and on. We know no season of thanks, for each day is a time of thanksgiving for the strength to labor on in the name of Jesus Christ seeking to right the wrongs of injustice, labor for peace and spread the love of Jesus Christ to a world desperately in need of a healing word.

We rely on God’s grace to carry us through the whole year, and it is that for which we give thanks and Jesus’ words fill us not with despair, but hope. “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Sermon preached by Reverend Jake Close at First Congregational United Church of Christ, Appleton, Wisconsin on November 19, 2006.