November15, 2009 Sermon

“Sunday is a Coming” Mark 13:1-8 Lawrence Jackman

My mother seemed to me to be olfactory fixated. She had a whole series of things that she would say that were all about aroma. “I smell a rat’” “Something is rotten in Denmark” (I am aware that wasn’t quite original). “That just stinks.” “That is a stinking lie.” Coach, as we called her, named the pet cat of the family. His name was “Stinky”. Now I wanted her to say something memorable—maybe, “Life is like a box of chocolates”. She didn’t.

My dad said lots of memorable things, but I can’t quote very many of them in a pulpit. That is not the point anyway. Here is my point, under certain circumstances lots of people (my mom included) resort to symbolic language that is well understood within their culture, but which makes almost no literal sense. The rat was not real nor did it smell It was a way of saying, “there is a hidden agenda here and maybe even a hidden player in this drama. I know it is here, I just can’t put my finger on it, but I am going to tell you when the smell gets stronger.”

So it is often with the Bible. So it is with Mark 13 -- what is called the “little apocalypse of Mark”. It is a passage full of symbolic images and standard expressions that were well understood in the culture of the day, but which are not to be understood in a literal sense. That chapter of Mark (corresponding places in the other Gospels,) the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation are all apocalyptic literature. To really dig down into the message of any of this, you need to start with the fact that it is all symbolic and coded.

Apocalyptic literature was created by cultures of folks who lived in a time of persecution and peril. It was a way of talking about their current realities that would be “under the radar” of persecutors. This was not unique to Jewish or Christian style. It was shared by other cultures. Many believe, for instance, that the Book of Revelation is merely a Christianized retelling of an old Mithraic tale called the Baman Rasht. At least within the Semitic peoples this material was understood.

Now I am as big a fan of Dan Brown as anybody, but cracking the code here doesn’t really interest me. There is a big story about Mark 13 and similar passages. It is that overall story or picture which fascinates me and which I believe holds the powerful meaning. .

Just like in New Testament times, stories of an apocalyptic nature emerge in tough times. The global story is about groups, tribes, nations and religions trying to describe a crisis and a way through what seems to be an impossible world scene.

There is a reason why right now the movie offerings include such things as “2012”, “Deep Impact”, “The Core”, “Independence Day”, and other films that include the plot of an impending cataclysm. The tale is one of defiant human survival (or of a group) against the disaster that is about to happen. We started these stories in earnest again in the fall of 2001. Enough said.

These are the tales that humans tell themselves on the brink of (or in the midst of) massive crisis. Most often they are thrown back against an historical drop as in the Book of Daniel. In truth these tales have nothing to do with history—they are tales of a present day.

Here was the New Testament’s present day tale. Again, one thrown back on history. In New Testament times, Jerusalem was about to fall and be destroyed. A.D. 70 would mark the end of the Jewish state till 1947. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke are written either just before or at the time of this impending doom. Mark places the words of an apocalypse into the mouth of Jesus.

Here are the elements of this and any other apocalyptic tale 1) the end of life as we know it is just around the corner. 2) the marshalling of good people and bad people has begun. Pick your side. 3) hang on tightly for a time of trial and tribulation while the world ends and begins again. 4) you need not be afraid (this is only the end of the world) and you can hear the promise ringing in your ears—“It will not end here for the children of the Light.”

The Apostle’s Creed, which we often use as an affirmation of faith, is part and parcel of this sort of statement. We say, “I believe in—birth, life, suffering, crucifixion, death, burial”. And then we say we believe in one more thing. “I believe in resurrection”. That is a pattern written into the DNA of this universe. At the end there is Resurrection.

We stand in the midst of Good Friday; but Sunday is a coming.

For so many every Friday is a Good Friday of sickness. Over the last two years our small group of people has lost an eighth of our membership to illness. We are disciplined to think of prayer requests that are all about cancer, heart disease, and other serious illness. We dread the capricious impact of this new influenza. HIV / AIDS remains over humanity’s shoulder like a relentless predator. We have our share of and continue to live in the midst of illness. We got a Good Friday, now, of illness. But, Sunday is a coming.

We live in the midst of a Good Friday of fear. We combated fear by building bigger barns, larger portfolios, more substantial IRAs and bank accounts. We knew while we were building that these were not really a dependable way to have security. Yet we did it. The world shrank impressively over a matter of a few months and left us only with our fears. Today we have a Good Friday of fear; but Sunday is a coming.

We have for ourselves a good Friday of conflict, hostility and of war. The unquenchable fire of destructive wars touches our shores now. Human inhumanity plagues us always as we try to change the fundamental way in which we settle disagreements. We are engaged in conflicts now in which only the primary players seem to change and never the reality of war. These clashes are like “tag team” wars. If it is not one nation in a theater of conflict it is another. It is a Good Friday of crucifixion through war. And the children of light can affirm only one thing. Sunday is a coming.

To me the world seems to have more than its share of Evil. Manifested in people who act in ways that are almost too dark to even describe, evil appears to reign. The man in Cleveland and his house of murderous torture and murder holds our attention. He, however, wrested that attention form the kidnapping story in California. And the story in California had been preceded by another story in Missouri. In each case the perpetrators of Evil seem so incredibly dark that you know even a flashlight would reveal the fase of Satan himself. It is Friday and we have way more evil that it takes to go around….but…..Sunday is a coming.

It is Good Friday now and even that most profound enemy of the human condition, death, lurks at the door. No matter what we manage to survive, work our way through, or avoid in this life; we know in our heart of hearts that this last enemy remains. This one always appears to win. This is what the first Good Friday was about—the final enemy: the one that always appears to win. Children of the Light have been this route before. We know even in the face of death there is this much we can affirm. Sunday is a coming.

So, then, in the midst of sickness, fear, war, evil and even in the face of death the children of the light gather. We gather, join hands, embrace one another, comfort one another and encourage one another with these incredible words of promise. “It is Good Friday now, but that means only one thing to us sisters and brothers. It means that Sunday is a coming.”