Imagine God's Realm. A sermon on Mark 13:1-8
A sermon offered at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings
Daniel 12:1–3
Mark 13:1–8
Imagine God’s Realm!
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Creator, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We’ve read several difficult passages in Mark this fall, great looming hard teachings, texts that seem to be stumbling blocks in our paths of discipleship. This fall we’ve heard Jesus’s suggestion that we gouge out our own eyes rather than give in to temptation (someone in Senior Forum asked, “is that in the New Testament?” It is!) We’ve heard Jesus teach that it’s easier for a camel to fit through a needle’s eye than it is for a rich person to draw near to God. And today Jesus takes up the topic of chaos, wars, and the end times. He foretells the destruction of everything that seems to give us comfort.
I was sorely tempted to take a detour around this apocalyptic stumbling block. I was tempted to explain to you how Biblical scholars believe that Mark did his writing about 70 AD, at about the same time as the Roman army actually did wreck Herod’s great temple, casting stone down from stone as they sacked Jerusalem. I was tempted to describe the tradition that interprets famines and earthquakes as signs of divine displeasure. I was tempted to talk about how this thirteenth chapter of Mark is a literary device that foreshadows Jesus’s betrayal and passion, and the ripping open of the temple veil at the moment of Jesus’s death on the Cross. All those explanations and rationalizations are true in their own ways, but they are detours around the stumbling block.
Many Christians think these words specifically apply to us today. Many think these words mean that Jesus is coming very soon to raise and judge the living and the dead. By our faith we know that’s possible, and indeed it’s an event for us to hope for. But I’m reminded of my New Testament professor’s words. “Jesus is coming in glory very soon,” he said, “but in the meantime I suggest you study for the quiz next Tuesday.”
We’re called to live together in faith before Jesus comes in glory. So, what does this passage mean to us? Let’s journey together into the heart of this great stumbling block of an end-times prophecy. On his deathbed Moses said to God’s chosen people that he led out of Egypt “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life!” (Deut 30:19) Let’s take on this Gospel reading together. Let’s face it squarely in the knowledge that it will show us a choice between death and life. Let’s face it squarely in the certain hope that God has already, by God’s grace, chosen life for us. Please come along with me as we look at this scripture and imagine what it is like to be born into the life God has chosen for us.
I have a confession to make to you this morning. I have a favorite gospel writer: Mark. I empathize with the plight of the disciples in Mark’s account – they just don’t understand who Jesus is or what he’s trying to teach them, even though he repeats himself again and again. They’re stuck in the world, even though Jesus is trying to get them to imagine God’s reign. I know I am like those disciples; like them I just don’t get it.
I like Mark’s gospel account for a particular reason. The way tells the story he gives us a little bit of humor, a little bit of distance, a little bit of perspective, on the disciples, so we can learn. He gives us hope by letting us understand a little better than they do, by making us feel just a bit superior to the disciples. In that way he helps us imagine life in God’s realm.
Our reading follows immediately from last week’s reading, remember what happened? Jesus and the disciples sat opposite the temple treasury and wondered over the rich folks strutting around ostentatiously and a poor widow giving everything she had, giving what she needed for her next meal. Jesus has, with his divine patience, explained to them the significance of this incident: free of the self-important distractions she could imagine the realm where everything belongs to God and so she could put all her trust in God’s care for her.
It’s the same paradoxical lesson he has been teaching all along: the path to greatness is through slavery; the path to wealth is by giving everything away, the path to life leads to the cross, away from the imagination-sapping glory of the gigantic temple.
So after all this … on the way out of the temple what did the disciple say? “Wow, teacher, what big stones, what great buildings!” Here is where Mark’s way of telling the story is such a gift. We who read the gospel can smack our foreheads, laugh at that disciple, get a sense of superiority, be smug that we’re not quite as clueless as he was, rejoice that maybe we’re a little closer to imagining the realm of God than he was.
Mark teaches us who Jesus is by showing us how the disciples always miss the big point, and lets us fill in the gaps. Of course, Jesus doesn’t laugh at his friend. Jesus is far too patient for that. Jesus is teaching quite a few steps ahead of you and me too.
Jesus doesn’t laugh at the disciple’s country-bumpkin observation. He does respond by saying the temple will soon be destroyed. He gathers them together again. He sits down with them opposite the temple mount, in a place where they can see it clearly and take a detached perspective on it – imagine what the world would be like if it were destroyed. He invites them to ask their questions: How will we know—by what signs will we know—when the temple will fall?
We know how Jesus answers. He warns that life is going to be messy and hard. He warns that all kinds of wannabe messiahs will pop up saying, I have the answer – follow me. He says there will be wars and rumors of wars, that tribe will rise up against tribe, and country against country. There will be earthquakes, and famines.
In other words, don’t be suckered in by the massive temple, the seemingly eternal temple. When it falls it will be the least of your worries. It is an earthly thing. Keep your Realm of God perspective! He tells them, don’t be surprised when you hear about wars, earthquakes, and widespread hunger. He’s telling them, rise above your tribal loyalties – Galilean, Samaritan, Judean – for those are earthly things. Rise above your status as a Jew or a Roman – for those are earthly things too. He says leaving all these things behind will be hard and messy physical work. Our passage says it will be just like going into labor and giving birth. But that labor brings the beginning of an entirely new life in the Realm of God.
What has this got to do with us, here in Massachusetts, in 2006? Isn’t it obvious? Wars. Check. Rumors of wars. Check. Tribe against tribe. Check. Country against country. Check. Famines. Check. There was even an earthquake someplace in the Pacific this past week. These words have everything to do with us.
These things are terrible evils. We do get worked up when we hear about tribes ruthlessly fighting against tribes, be they rival street gangs in Boston, be they Shi’ites kidnapping Sunnis in Baghdad, be they Janjaweed militias butchering natives in Darfur. We yearn and pray for humanity to imagine a better way. But when we hear Jesus’s teaching we aren’t surprised by this kind of evil in the world. These evil things are nothing new; conflicts and earthquakes and starvation are continuously part of the world’s institutions, principalities, and powers. Jesus’s words about the signs of the destruction of the temple were true in 33AD when he said them. Also in 70AD when Mark wrote them down. Martin Luther, in the late middle ages, really believed that he lived in the end-times based on the signs he saw around him. Also, now. They have been continuously true. But they are NOT of God, not in 33AD, nor in Luther’s time, nor today, nor anytime. Jesus invites his disciples, and us, to sit opposite the institutions and violence of this world and take a Realm-of-God perspective on them – to imagine what life is like in that realm and be prepared to go into labor to enter into that life.
You probably know that Boston is wracked by dangerous gang violence these days – tribe against tribe. Members of rival gangs have been shooting each other on sight. Last summer the leaders of a couple of those gangs – gangs named for city blocks and city streets – got fed up with the violence and came together to talk. They gathered at the Kennedy School of Government out at the edge of the harbor, in a room where they could see the whole city.
See this news article in The Boston Globe from Nov 5th, 2006.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/11/05/2_gangs_find_real_peace_in_secret/
In their conversation they were able to imagine a city where they were not at war. So they shook hands on a truce. That’s where their hard work began. They didn’t magically wake up in a peaceful world. Now they need strength, an occasional drink of water, and steadfastness. They need coaches to hold their hands and reassure them, just like mothers need companions in the delivery room. They need the presence of the Holy Spirit reminding them that God has chosen life for them. And with the help of ministers, imams, and community leaders they have all those things to bring them into the realm of God, right here in Massachusetts.
Can we lay aside our temples, our tribal loyalties, our principalities and powers, the great distractions in our own lives? By laying aside these things we can begin to imagine the realm of God. Mark’s gospel helps each one of us imagine living in that realm. It gives each one of us the confidence to face the messy hard work of entering into that realm, and helping each other along that journey. And we’re not undertaking this journey alone. Christ is walking with us and giving us, at his table, food and drink to keep us going in our hard labor. He offers us a taste of the life God has chosen for us.
Imagine the realm of God in your life! Come to Christ’s banquet!
These things I say to you in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Readings
Daniel 12:1–3
Mark 13:1–8
Imagine God’s Realm!
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Creator, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We’ve read several difficult passages in Mark this fall, great looming hard teachings, texts that seem to be stumbling blocks in our paths of discipleship. This fall we’ve heard Jesus’s suggestion that we gouge out our own eyes rather than give in to temptation (someone in Senior Forum asked, “is that in the New Testament?” It is!) We’ve heard Jesus teach that it’s easier for a camel to fit through a needle’s eye than it is for a rich person to draw near to God. And today Jesus takes up the topic of chaos, wars, and the end times. He foretells the destruction of everything that seems to give us comfort.
I was sorely tempted to take a detour around this apocalyptic stumbling block. I was tempted to explain to you how Biblical scholars believe that Mark did his writing about 70 AD, at about the same time as the Roman army actually did wreck Herod’s great temple, casting stone down from stone as they sacked Jerusalem. I was tempted to describe the tradition that interprets famines and earthquakes as signs of divine displeasure. I was tempted to talk about how this thirteenth chapter of Mark is a literary device that foreshadows Jesus’s betrayal and passion, and the ripping open of the temple veil at the moment of Jesus’s death on the Cross. All those explanations and rationalizations are true in their own ways, but they are detours around the stumbling block.
Many Christians think these words specifically apply to us today. Many think these words mean that Jesus is coming very soon to raise and judge the living and the dead. By our faith we know that’s possible, and indeed it’s an event for us to hope for. But I’m reminded of my New Testament professor’s words. “Jesus is coming in glory very soon,” he said, “but in the meantime I suggest you study for the quiz next Tuesday.”
We’re called to live together in faith before Jesus comes in glory. So, what does this passage mean to us? Let’s journey together into the heart of this great stumbling block of an end-times prophecy. On his deathbed Moses said to God’s chosen people that he led out of Egypt “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life!” (Deut 30:19) Let’s take on this Gospel reading together. Let’s face it squarely in the knowledge that it will show us a choice between death and life. Let’s face it squarely in the certain hope that God has already, by God’s grace, chosen life for us. Please come along with me as we look at this scripture and imagine what it is like to be born into the life God has chosen for us.
I have a confession to make to you this morning. I have a favorite gospel writer: Mark. I empathize with the plight of the disciples in Mark’s account – they just don’t understand who Jesus is or what he’s trying to teach them, even though he repeats himself again and again. They’re stuck in the world, even though Jesus is trying to get them to imagine God’s reign. I know I am like those disciples; like them I just don’t get it.
I like Mark’s gospel account for a particular reason. The way tells the story he gives us a little bit of humor, a little bit of distance, a little bit of perspective, on the disciples, so we can learn. He gives us hope by letting us understand a little better than they do, by making us feel just a bit superior to the disciples. In that way he helps us imagine life in God’s realm.
Our reading follows immediately from last week’s reading, remember what happened? Jesus and the disciples sat opposite the temple treasury and wondered over the rich folks strutting around ostentatiously and a poor widow giving everything she had, giving what she needed for her next meal. Jesus has, with his divine patience, explained to them the significance of this incident: free of the self-important distractions she could imagine the realm where everything belongs to God and so she could put all her trust in God’s care for her.
It’s the same paradoxical lesson he has been teaching all along: the path to greatness is through slavery; the path to wealth is by giving everything away, the path to life leads to the cross, away from the imagination-sapping glory of the gigantic temple.
So after all this … on the way out of the temple what did the disciple say? “Wow, teacher, what big stones, what great buildings!” Here is where Mark’s way of telling the story is such a gift. We who read the gospel can smack our foreheads, laugh at that disciple, get a sense of superiority, be smug that we’re not quite as clueless as he was, rejoice that maybe we’re a little closer to imagining the realm of God than he was.
Mark teaches us who Jesus is by showing us how the disciples always miss the big point, and lets us fill in the gaps. Of course, Jesus doesn’t laugh at his friend. Jesus is far too patient for that. Jesus is teaching quite a few steps ahead of you and me too.
Jesus doesn’t laugh at the disciple’s country-bumpkin observation. He does respond by saying the temple will soon be destroyed. He gathers them together again. He sits down with them opposite the temple mount, in a place where they can see it clearly and take a detached perspective on it – imagine what the world would be like if it were destroyed. He invites them to ask their questions: How will we know—by what signs will we know—when the temple will fall?
We know how Jesus answers. He warns that life is going to be messy and hard. He warns that all kinds of wannabe messiahs will pop up saying, I have the answer – follow me. He says there will be wars and rumors of wars, that tribe will rise up against tribe, and country against country. There will be earthquakes, and famines.
In other words, don’t be suckered in by the massive temple, the seemingly eternal temple. When it falls it will be the least of your worries. It is an earthly thing. Keep your Realm of God perspective! He tells them, don’t be surprised when you hear about wars, earthquakes, and widespread hunger. He’s telling them, rise above your tribal loyalties – Galilean, Samaritan, Judean – for those are earthly things. Rise above your status as a Jew or a Roman – for those are earthly things too. He says leaving all these things behind will be hard and messy physical work. Our passage says it will be just like going into labor and giving birth. But that labor brings the beginning of an entirely new life in the Realm of God.
What has this got to do with us, here in Massachusetts, in 2006? Isn’t it obvious? Wars. Check. Rumors of wars. Check. Tribe against tribe. Check. Country against country. Check. Famines. Check. There was even an earthquake someplace in the Pacific this past week. These words have everything to do with us.
These things are terrible evils. We do get worked up when we hear about tribes ruthlessly fighting against tribes, be they rival street gangs in Boston, be they Shi’ites kidnapping Sunnis in Baghdad, be they Janjaweed militias butchering natives in Darfur. We yearn and pray for humanity to imagine a better way. But when we hear Jesus’s teaching we aren’t surprised by this kind of evil in the world. These evil things are nothing new; conflicts and earthquakes and starvation are continuously part of the world’s institutions, principalities, and powers. Jesus’s words about the signs of the destruction of the temple were true in 33AD when he said them. Also in 70AD when Mark wrote them down. Martin Luther, in the late middle ages, really believed that he lived in the end-times based on the signs he saw around him. Also, now. They have been continuously true. But they are NOT of God, not in 33AD, nor in Luther’s time, nor today, nor anytime. Jesus invites his disciples, and us, to sit opposite the institutions and violence of this world and take a Realm-of-God perspective on them – to imagine what life is like in that realm and be prepared to go into labor to enter into that life.
You probably know that Boston is wracked by dangerous gang violence these days – tribe against tribe. Members of rival gangs have been shooting each other on sight. Last summer the leaders of a couple of those gangs – gangs named for city blocks and city streets – got fed up with the violence and came together to talk. They gathered at the Kennedy School of Government out at the edge of the harbor, in a room where they could see the whole city.
See this news article in The Boston Globe from Nov 5th, 2006.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/11/05/2_gangs_find_real_peace_in_secret/
In their conversation they were able to imagine a city where they were not at war. So they shook hands on a truce. That’s where their hard work began. They didn’t magically wake up in a peaceful world. Now they need strength, an occasional drink of water, and steadfastness. They need coaches to hold their hands and reassure them, just like mothers need companions in the delivery room. They need the presence of the Holy Spirit reminding them that God has chosen life for them. And with the help of ministers, imams, and community leaders they have all those things to bring them into the realm of God, right here in Massachusetts.
Can we lay aside our temples, our tribal loyalties, our principalities and powers, the great distractions in our own lives? By laying aside these things we can begin to imagine the realm of God. Mark’s gospel helps each one of us imagine living in that realm. It gives each one of us the confidence to face the messy hard work of entering into that realm, and helping each other along that journey. And we’re not undertaking this journey alone. Christ is walking with us and giving us, at his table, food and drink to keep us going in our hard labor. He offers us a taste of the life God has chosen for us.
Imagine the realm of God in your life! Come to Christ’s banquet!
These things I say to you in Jesus’s name. Amen.
