Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "Between the Beginning and the End"

Text: Mark 13:1-13

one of my normally favorite

commentaries on Mark’s gospel

has to say about this passage …

in fact, about this whole chapter of Mark.

These remarks are from Lamar Williamson, Jr.,

who is – or was – professor of biblical studies

at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond.

He says:

"The thirteenth chapter of Mark

is a happy hunting ground

for persons fascinated by

the end of the world.

It figures prominently

in books by doomsayers

and in sermons by evangelists

more interested in the next world than in this one.

On the other hand,

this chapter is largely ignored by

pragmatists, activists, believers in progress,

and all who dismiss

preoccupation with the end of the world

as a juvenile state of human development

or an aberration of unbalanced minds."

Nevertheless, says Williamson,

"Here the chapter is, in the church’s Scripture."

And here it is in the common lectionary.

What do we do with it?

We’re not doomsayers.

Most of us are probably

much more interested in this world

than in the next one.

Yet these are the words of Christ,

so we don’t want to dismiss them!

What do we do with them?

Well, let’s start by

trying to hear this text the way

Christians in the first century might have heard it.

I don’t mean in their language,

just their context.

At the beginning of the passage,

Jesus and the disciples are leaving the temple.

Jesus has been teaching them there,

along with anyone else who cares to listen.

Remember?

Last week,

we saw them watching the scribes

walking around in their long robes,

and Jesus said,

"Beware of the scribes,

who like to walk around in long robes."

Then immediately following that, we observed them

as they were watching people

put money into the treasury …

and the disciples must have been impressed by

the sheer amount that some of the wealthy were able to give,

because Jesus had to re-focus their attention

on someone who gave all she had,

even though it was only two little coins.

They have been focusing on the Temple,

and what goes on there,

as any observant Jew would do.

But as today’s passage begins,

they’re finished in the Temple;

they are leaving it.

And like many of their contemporaries,

some of the disciples

are just awed by the Temple.

"Look, Jesus," they say.

"Isn’t this a magnificent building?

Look at the huge stones it’s built with!"

Whereupon Jesus calmly predicts

that these great buildings will be thrown down.

The disciples of course want to know when,

which launches Jesus into

his lengthy discussion of the end times.

A couple of things to note:

First, the disciples would not have expected

Jesus to prophesy the Temple’s destruction.

As observant Jews,

the Temple would be their main focus.

It was the place where you came

to make sacrifices and to worship God.

And since Jesus was a spiritual leader,

in their minds, that would

link him strongly to the Temple.

They might have expected him

to teach there, or heal someone there,

or even challenge the authorities there.

But not to predict its utter destruction.

Second thing, though:

The readers or hearers of Mark’s gospel

were living in the time

immediately after the Temple

had, in fact, been destroyed.

So they would have heard those verses

a little differently.

For one thing,

it was a pretty good demonstration

that Jesus was a true prophet:

he said something was going to happen,

and it did happen.

But also,

because Jesus had predicted it,

and put it in a context,

it helped them see that

they didn’t need the Temple

as the focal point for their spiritual life.

The end times would come,

but in the meantime,

they needed to carry on,

with or without the Temple,

not knowing the exact time of the end.

Now I suppose you could say,

that one thing we definitely need to learn from this,

even in the 21^st century,

is that the place where we worship God

has no ultimate importance.

Our trust is not in bricks and mortar …

And even if Trinity Church were thrown down,

so that no stone was left

standing on another –

that wouldn’t change anything

about our life with God.

And that’s true,

but it barely scratches the surface

of what Jesus is trying to get his disciples to see,

and what Mark is trying to get his readers to see.

If we look in a little greater depth,

beyond the issue of just the Temple,

we see Jesus starting to issue warnings

that in a strange way are also reassurances.

Wars and rumors of wars,

earthquakes and famines,

persecution,

people who claim to be God’s messengers,

but aren’t.

Be forewarned, Jesus says;

there are days coming

when it will look like

evil is winning out over good.

Now why would I call that reassuring?!

Simply this:

Once the people around Jesus

really made up their minds

that he was the Messiah …

they would have expected his coming

somehow to bring an end to all that stuff.

He would usher in the kingdom of God,

and they’d all live happily ever after.

And when that didn’t happen right away,

many might have feared:

we were wrong.

Jesus can’t have been the one,

because nothing has gotten better.

He should have wiped out evil.

Instead, it seems more powerful than ever.

How reassuring to know

that Jesus understood, and was preparing them.

Even more so, for Mark’s audience,

who were already beginning to see

troubles, warfare, destruction.

"Look," they could say,

"Jesus told us it would be like this.

It doesn’t mean that we were wrong to follow him."

Likewise, perhaps, for us.

We are all too aware that

the world still doesn’t measure up

and evil is still way too powerful.

We also may be in need of Jesus’ reassurance

that despite appearances …

despite civil war in Iraq, whether we call it that or not,

and natural disasters triggered by wind and water …

and in spite of nuclear-weapon rattling in Iran and North Korea,

and hunger at our own doorstep …

God is still Lord,

and has not forgotten us.

Now, another layer

of what’s going on in a text like this one,

is the question of

what do we do in those in-between times?

Well, Jesus begins

by telling the disciples, and us,

what not to do …

Don’t be led astray.

Easier said than done, right?

Be skeptical of those who claim to know

what even Jesus doesn’t know.

Be leery of someone who claims to read the signs

and makes predictions

that Jesus himself wasn’t prepared to make.

Run away from anyone

who claims the name of Jesus,

or the authority of Jesus,

as their own.

Okay, that list of "thou shalt nots"

doesn’t sound too complicated,

all things considered.

What about the "thou shalts"?

What should we do,

living as we do,

in between the beginning of the coming of God’s kingdom,

and its final coming at the end?

Here, Jesus doesn’t say specifically,

except to indicate that the gospel

must be proclaimed to all nations.

But when he talks about

his disciples being handed over,

brought to trial,

betrayed, hated, etc. …

Those things wouldn’t be happening

if they were just sitting around

passively waiting!

Nobody would find them offensive or dangerous

if they just stayed home

and quietly awaited the end time,

or the day of the Lord,

or whatever you want to call it.

So those of us, centuries later,

who are still waiting,

also need to be sure that we

are not just waiting.

The author of Hebrews suggests to his readers

that they should

"provoke one another

to love and good deeds,"

and "encourage one another,"

and "all the more

as you see the Day approaching."

Since Hebrews was written long after Mark,

those readers or listeners

already had some experience of

trying to figure out what to do with themselves

in between Christ’s death and resurrection

and the end times.

Provoke one another to love and good deeds.

I like that.

Not only because I think

good deeds are important,

but also because we do, sometimes,

have to push each other.

Sometimes the temptation is strong

to sit back and wait for God to act.

To say,

"God, whatever good deeds I do won’t be enough;

you come fix the problem."

We do need to encourage each other

to keep plugging away,

to not give up,

even while we wait for the day to come

when God will act decisively.

I don’t think it’s our job

to usher in the kingdom of God.

Only God can do that.

I do think it’s our responsibility

to make this world look as much like the kingdom of God

as it is within our power to do.

Of course, our power is limited.

Of course, there are those who will oppose us.

Of course, the job will never be finished.

At least, not in our lifetime.

Lamar Williamson says this about that [p.241]:

"If Mark 13 offers correctives

to apocalyptic enthusiasm on the one hand,

it addresses a challenge to jaded skepticism on the other.

To planners who face the future

with only such guides as

actuarial tables and economic indicators,

this chapter announces

God’s intervention in history to judge and to save.

To disillusioned disciples

whose faith has been institutionalized

and whose hope is restricted

to the possibilities of human institutions,

this text predicts the destruction of institutions

and calls for hope in the coming of the Son of man."

In fact, he says,

what we have in this scripture is

Jesus announcing

"the good news of the end of the world."

That’s kind of an unexpected spin

on a text like this, isn’t it?

Usually we think of "the end" as bad news.

But it isn’t …

not as long as it’s in God’s hands.

The good news is,

the world as we know it

will some day come to an end.

The better news is,

until that time,

God is trusting us

to love the world

and do good deeds in it and for it.

The best news is,

our past, present, and future,

our beginning and our end,

are in the hands of God.

And in the end,

that’s the only thing that matters.

Alleluia!

Amen.