Raw Materials for the New Creation
Gethsemane
Episcopal Cathedral, Fargo, ND
Pentecost 25/Consecration Sunday/November 14, 2021
Mark 13:1-8, [9-11]
Every year, right about now, it happens: days grow shorter, nights last longer, temperatures fall, and we find ourselves contemplating all sorts of “endings.”
In the church we reflect, not just about these multiple “endings,” but about the End…both the End that is our death, as well as the End of the world as we know it.
You and I and everyone else and this world itself all have expiration dates. And harsh realities like Covid 19, climate change, plus world-wide social and political unrest all drive home for us the sober truth that everything fashioned by human beings and every human being born into this world has a limited shelf life.
No one and nothing that we see with our eyes lasts forever.
That’s the unsettling truth Jesus names here in Mark 13. Oohing and aahhing at the marvelous construction and lavish decoration of Jerusalem’s temple….an unnamed follower of Jesus was probably aghast when Jesus responded to his expression of architectural awe, by declaring: “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
Not surprisingly, four of Jesus’ closest disciples took him aside in order to pump him for more information: Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?
They were intensely curious and so are we. And Jesus helps us with these questions in our gospel lesson from Mark 13.
Jesus helps us by recalling some bedrock truths we too often forget:
· Namely, that it’s
a fool’s errand to speculate about the timetable for when this world will end…
· ….and that as
history moves forward, we’ll be wise to anticipate wars and natural disasters
and cosmic events that shake us to our very core…
· ….and that as all
this scary stuff happens we’ll feel less and less “at home” in this troubled
world…and we may well endure the sting of disrespect or persecution, simply
because we stubbornly cling to our God who in Christ alone holds the future in
his hands.
All that being said, though, what’s most surprising here in the 13th chapter of St Mark’s gospel is the way Jesus calls us to a deeper engagement with this passing-away world—an engagement that seems counter-intuitive.
When we contemplate how no one and nothing in this world lasts forever….many of us are paralyzed by a mixture of fear or depression. So we tend to avert our eyes, turn our faces away, and lose ourselves in cocoons of distraction…
….but Jesus, rather, calls us to step out and speak up, in the face of the falling-apart-of-it-all…Jesus invites and empowers us to testify to others regarding him and the rescue he brings…because “the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations.”
This hope-engendering word from Jesus is consistent with the whole biblical witness regarding the End-Times. As God’s dearly beloved children, we know that whatever fate brings our way, God will make sure that “not a hair of [our] head[s] will perish”….
We face the future with boundless hope only because we believe that in Jesus Christ we have seen what God does with death, decay and destruction. We’ve witnessed how God is in the “resurrection business”…..that the passing-away of this old creation is the essential precursor, the necessary pre-requisite for the New Creation…the very raw materials of the New Heaven and the New Earth that God is laboring to bring forth, even in this very moment.
And all of that began, decisively, in the oddest of places: on a garbage heap outside of Jerusalem where everything old and sinful and mortal was nailed to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ….where you and I and everyone else have been crucified with Christ and buried with him through Baptism into death….so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of life! (Romans 6)
That, that, my dear friends is what allows us to be brutally honest about the End, both the conclusion of our lives and the culmination of all things. For we wait with eager anticipation for a new heaven and a new earth!
And because our God always finishes all that he has begun, we actually believe so firmly that God is accomplishing this New Creation, so that we find ourselves “leaning into” it even now.
Here’s
how Anglican bishop and New Testament professor N.T. Wright has put it in his
book, Surprised by Hope: “Every act of love, gratitude and
kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in
the beauty of his creation;…every act of care and nurture, of comfort and
support for one’s fellow human beings….and of course every prayer, all
Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, [and] builds up the
church…will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new
creation that God will one day make.”
(N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope:Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection,
and the Mission of the Church, © Harper/One, 2008, p. 208)
Friends, our world is dying for this amazingly good news, this hopeful, alternative way of facing the future.
Because, when Jesus talks about the End of all things he draws our attention not to mysterious timetables or speculations about disasters or obsession with Armageddon-like battles…
But when Jesus talks about the End of all things he consistently directs our attention back to what you and I are called to do now, today, before the End arrives.
The best way to get ready for the End of all things is to be about the work God has already given us to do right now: trusting God, loving our neighbors, caring for the earth….
…and yes, my dear friends, it also includes consecrating ourselves, our time and a generous portion of our treasure—as we shall do in the most tangible of ways, later in this Consecration Sunday worship service….
….for that too—something as simple, common and down to earth as filling out our “estimate of giving” cards…that too bears witness in word and deed to the only One who knows what lies ahead, our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ who holds the future in his nail-scarred hands.
Once in colonial New England there was a total eclipse of the sun. This inexplicable cosmic event took place while the colonial legislature was in session. When the eclipse brought sudden, unexpected darkness over the land (in the middle of the day!) a number of lawmakers panicked—and some moved that the session adjourn.
But then one of the legislators arose and addressed his colleagues, saying: “Mr. Speaker, if it is not the end of the world and we adjourn, we shall appear to be fools. But if it is the end of the world, I should choose to be found doing my duty. I move, sir, that candles be brought so that despite the darkness our work may continue.”
If the end is coming, where should you and I be found? Hunkered down in a fallout shelter, hiding? High on a mountaintop dressed in white ascension robes—waiting? Locked up in a church building—praying?
Here’s Jesus’ response: If the End is coming let us be engaged in the world—offering testimony, bearing witness to God’s loving lordship, in word and in deed…and yes, this very day, consecrating to God’s continuing service our time, our talents and our treasure.
And as we go about those tasks, we’ll find that we travel in God’s promise that this is not really so much our business…as it is the wondrous business that God carries out in us and through us.
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
