Mark 13:1-8
As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” 2Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
3When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 6Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.
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This is the age-old story right? A tale as old as time. Over and over again through God’s story that is laid out for us in the Bible, we hear about people who have been given everything, squander it, and turn back to God with their hands on their hips saying, “well, when is it going to get better? What are you going to do what you promised?” As my theology professor puts it, rather harshly, if humans had the choice between a bucket full of ice cream and a dog turd, we would always choose the dog turd. It doesn’t make any sense but it’s true. We know well these stories of waiting and wandering and wondering.
At the very beginning, God’s people were already given everything, perfect creation, harmony, and shalom with our God.
And we chose to neglect God. Yet our God is faithful and gives God’s people another chance for shalom, gifts them the commandments and boundaries to live within so they can prosper. But they chose to turn away from God, to continue to fight and worship other gods and neglect people, and lust after earthly things.
So God, who is faithful and merciful, gifts us Godself in Christ Jesus. And we are given new life. New life in Jesus Christ, in his life, death, and resurrection. Yet the world continues to live like nothing has changed.
This is what Jesus is describing here. More than that, I think that’s what the author of Mark’s gospel is trying to explain. Written about 30 years after Jesus’ death, there were wars going on, there was famine, and imposters, and kingdoms rising against kingdoms. It was all happening. The temple was, indeed, about to be destroyed. And Jesus’ followers wanted to know why. Why are all of these terrible things happening? When will it end? When will all be back to the way it should be, the way God originally intended? We often ask why God lets bad things happen in this world. But we should be asking why we let bad things happen in this world.
The gospel text for this morning cannot be separated from last week’s text. Just before this story, Jesus is sitting in the temple watching the haughty priests give their money with flourish and circumstance. Then a widow comes in with her two coins and gives all the rest that she has. He admonishes the priests and religious leaders, saying that they devour the widows and orphans. The temple was built on the backs of the most oppressed and ostracized in the society.
Yet as they are walking out the temple, his disciples says, “Look at how beautiful this is! Look at these stones! It’s so impressive!” And Jesus replies that this grandeur is nothing. This building is temporary. In fact, it will be destroyed. And I think what Jesus says has everything to do with what they just witnessed inside the temple.
You see, the temple was supposed to be a gift from God, just like creation and the commandments. It was given to the Jewish people as a place to worship and be present with God. Instead of being nomadic people who carried the ark of the covenant around with them, they would be able to settle down and worship and be present with God in this one holy location. It was also supposed to be a place of community, where the people on the margins were taken care of and included, where resources could be brought together for the benefit of the whole community.
But instead, they made the temple into something gaudy and gross, something that was no longer praising God and furthering God’s will but exploiting the most vulnerable for the sake of the most rich and powerful. It was grand and beautiful with it’s large stones and buildings, but it was rotting from the inside out. The very structure was crumbling under the corruption. And it would be destroyed.
It sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it? I was recently chatting with a friend who said, “my dad was watching the news yesterday and he turned it off in a flurry and said, ‘I’m telling you, we’re living in the apocalypse.’” She was surprised when I said, “well, he’s right. We are living in apocalyptic times.” I think she thought that as a pastor, I would roll my eyes or wave away his thoughts. But it is true! Apocalypse means unveiling or uncovering, and we know that from the time God was revealed to the world in Christ Jesus, we have been living in apocalyptic times.
That’s why a lot of the readings we hear during Advent are very apocalyptic. It’s also one of Jesus’ first public statements, “the Kingdom of God has come near!” Which might as well have been “the apocalypse is now!” Jesus has given us the gift of this declaration, sort of like a rumble strip on the side of a highway, meant to jar the community awake as it nods off and drifts toward the ditch. Yet we so often choose to ignore it.
God came to us as God’s own self to let us know that times are a-changin’ and we better be prepared… and we, more often than not, ignore it. God came and walked among us, healed and fed and preached, and died and rose, yet we act like nothing has changed. We, like the disciples, sit here with our hands on our hips looking up and saying, “well, when is it going to get better?”
But God has already given us everything we could possibly want or need. We have the opportunity to join in this apocalyptic work of unveiling and uncovering. We have been made new and changed by God’s faithfulness in Christ Jesus, but we have chosen to stay the same.
More than that, we have been washed in the water of salvation and brought into the body of Christ, but we still choose to live as if we are not redeemed and forgiven.
We have been gifted this meal that we are invited into every single week, to literally have Christ become a part of us and instead of consuming it and letting it consume up, we spit it out as we curse one another, neglecting our neighbors, and ignoring our siblings.
In this time of unveiling, where we see structures that are rotting from the inside out, when we see systems that are intended for good being used to exploit and diminish. We have an opportunity. We can fall asleep like the disciples did as Jesus prayed in the mount of olives. Or we can stay awake and keep watch. We can join the unveiling of brokenness and sin. And we can seek and tell the truth. We can be midwives in the birth of the reign of God in this time, actively helping the world move through these birth pangs as they grow longer, stronger, and closer together. We can join in this holy work as we see it unfolding.
We have the opportunity in this time of deep division, sorrow and fear, to remind the world that it is pregnant with hope. In this holy time of waiting, we have the opportunity to believe survivors, welcome refugees and asylum seekers, we have the opportunity to love and affirm the identities of our transgender siblings. We have the opportunity to gather with one another and provoke one another to love. We have the opportunity to invest in young people through camp and campus ministry. We have the opportunity and privilege to stay awake and notice racism, sexism, ableism, and ageism when we see it in our communities and structures.
God has given us the gift of this community, this baptism, Christ’s body and blood in this bread and wine, so that we can be midwives to the world that is groaning in birth pangs. So that we can be a part of the kingdom come that we so often pray about. Let’s not squander this gift, let’s not allow this opportunity to pass us by. We are called into the work of midwifery, holy waiting, and holy ushering, and through God’s grace and faithfulness, we have everything we need to answer the call.
Amen.
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This sermon was preached at Advent Lutheran Church in Orange Park, Florida on November 18, 2018.
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