Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Summer Series Week Nine
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
And God mends the world through us. And I don't know why God doesn't just mend it all by God's own self, but it's just not God's way.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 1:Hello, everyone. I'm so delighted to welcome you to Commons. If we haven't met, my name is Bobbi. Today is your final message in the Speaking Sunday series. Next week, we launch into our seventh year.
Speaker 1:As a community, I know, I know, I can hardly believe it. It was the 2016 when I joined Commons as one of the pastors, so fall marks an anniversary for me. Yay, me. But truly, I love being a pastor with my whole heart, and I love being a pastor here. So thank you for trusting your story with me, and of course with comments.
Speaker 1:It means everything to us. So this has been a summer unlike any other, hasn't it? At no time in our lives have we been so tuned into the health of our families, our neighbors, and nations all over the world. And I know we haven't loved every minute of it. I mean, unless you're the introvert who can't deny that the slower pace and less social pressure have been a welcome respite for you, then maybe you have loved it just a little.
Speaker 1:But many of us have felt anxious and disoriented, nervous, angry, sad, lonely. And now as back to school and the fall are here, we realize that we have a long road ahead. And that feels hard. I know. Today, we talk about the meaning of the word apocalypse.
Speaker 1:Seems kind of appropriate. Right? Some days, it feels like the world is ending. But right away, I want you to think about apocalypse as less Mad Max Fury Road and more hope in hard times. We're in Mark 13.
Speaker 1:And if you take notes, your outline has these three points. Number one, falling down temples. Number two, nightmares and fig trees. And number three, apocalypse of battered hope. Alright.
Speaker 1:Please join me in prayer. Loving God, we take a moment to check-in with our own hearts. What has been trying to get our attention? What needs to be uncovered? Creator, create alertness to our own lives.
Speaker 1:And we take a moment to consider the hearts of those we love. Who is struggling? How can we draw near and bring support? Jesus, will you bring your wisdom through us to those we love? And we take a moment to extend compassion to those who struggle, who fight against their own health and wholeness.
Speaker 1:What might it look like to lay our weapons down? Spirit, will you move in places where justice is needed? We pray these things together. Amen. The text we are in today is intense.
Speaker 1:It's a sermon from the end of Mark, from the end of Jesus' life. And scholars call it the little apocalypse, meaning it isn't one of the main Christian apocalypse texts. Those are John's Revelation in the back of the Bible and the apocalypse of Peter, meaning you won't find that one in your standard NIV. But I like the idea of considering apocalypse through the words of Jesus, and I'm the one giving the sermon, so deal with it. Let's dive in.
Speaker 1:Mark 13. Jesus is in Jerusalem and he's leaving the temple with his disciples. And one of them looks back at the temple and says, look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings. And the temple was a sight to behold. It occupied a platform of over 275 meters by 450 meters.
Speaker 1:The front of the building was 45 meters by 45 meters and the white stone was adorned with silver and gold. So during the sunset, the whole place was aglow. Now, I relate to their awe. The disciples were ordinary people from the countryside. And as someone who grew up on a farm, believe it or not, I get so psyched by the sight of a city skyline.
Speaker 1:For me, the city represents my freedom and exploration. I've always been all heart eyes emoji for the city. Maybe you have a place that symbolically holds a lot of meaning for you too. Well, to these disciples, the temple represents their identity and destiny. It's magnificent.
Speaker 1:In fact, the Talmud claimed that one who has not seen the Temple Of Herod has never in his life seen a beautiful building. So it's shocking to hear Jesus's reply. Do you see all those great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown down.
Speaker 1:In verse three, Jesus crosses over to the Mount Of Olives, and it's from this symbolic place Jesus will teach this rather lengthy apocalyptic sermon. The prophet Zechariah said that the Mount Of Olives was the place where Yahweh would deliver Israel from her enemies once and for all. And yet, Jesus surprises everyone by talking not about victory, but demise. Now, before we get to what Jesus says, let's talk about Mark's use of Jesus' words to uncover hard times. Now, Mark's gospel is doing many things.
Speaker 1:It weaves sayings into stories. It interprets what Mark had heard from Peter. It strengthens the persecuted community. Also, a note about context. War is everywhere.
Speaker 1:The Jewish Roman war went in waves. The Judean people in Palestine would revolt against Rome, and then Rome would march on Jerusalem and put down the insurrection. But general after general was called back to Rome for political reasons, and the Judeans would settle into life without Rome's dirty little fingers in their business. And that would never last, however, and it culminated in the '70 when Titus and company overtook Jerusalem and burned the temple to the ground. Now during the time of on again off again war, there were these Jewish rebels who put pressure on Mark's community to pick a side.
Speaker 1:Either they were with Rome or they were with the rebels. And Mark says, no. That's not the way of Jesus. Jesus offers a profound way forward with his nonviolent death. So let the temple fall.
Speaker 1:It's time to build something you cannot tear down. And doesn't that sound important to the moments that we are living in? Like, if a structure or system can't hold up, maybe it's outlived its purpose. If your temple, your system, your faith practice cannot hold up in hard times, it might be time for it to fall down too. Maybe something of your faith has already fallen down.
Speaker 1:It's just toppled stone by stone, just rubble on the ground. Something really hard happened to you or someone you love and you cannot keep holding on to the faith that used to hold you up. Hard times reveal so much. They reveal the weakness of a structure, the insecurity of a setting, the values that need to shift. Our faith has a surprising way of evolving.
Speaker 1:Like the temple in ruins, eventually something or someone will take its place and we could be better for it. Now, Mark 13 is a wild ride of a sermon. Jesus recycles the apocalyptic language of Isaiah and Joel and Ezekiel and Daniel, all to offer a new way of trusting God in hard times. So the disciples want to know when the horrific event of the temple's demise will take place. Like, what will the signs be?
Speaker 1:And for 20 verses, Jesus lets them have it. You want signs? Wait till you see these signs. Wait until you are deceived by those you thought you could trust. Wait until you experience wars and rumors of wars.
Speaker 1:Wait for nations to fight nations. Wait for the earthquakes. Wait for the famines. And that's just the beginning. Be on your guard and wait for your arrest.
Speaker 1:Wait for your beating. Wait until your brother betrays you. Wait until your kids fight you. Wait for the hate that is coming for you. Wait until objects that are utterly offensive to you are put in your most holy places.
Speaker 1:Just wait. You haven't seen anything yet. He's like, pretty fun guy, isn't he? Jesus hammers home the nightmare when he quotes Isaiah saying, wait until the sun is darkened, the moon gives no light, the stars fall from the sky, the heavenly bodies shake. Apocalyptic literature uncovers horror.
Speaker 1:Now, let me coax you out from the bed you were hiding under. Jesus' sermon is an exercise in connect the calamitous dots. Meaning, horrible things had happened in the past and horrible things would happen in the future. Antiochus Epiphanes had put an altar to Zeus in the temple in January and they survived. Famine had hit Palestine especially hard in the early fifties.
Speaker 1:Earthquakes Earthquakes toppled Pompeii and Laodicea in the sixties and they survived. Titus' mighty army would trample Jerusalem and tear down the temple and still their faith would survive. None of the horror is a sign that God is far from Mark's community or against them. Survival does not look like violence or cursing the world or thinking God owes us a pain free life. Mark's community was committed to a crucified savior after all, so pain free is just not on the table.
Speaker 1:Biblical scholar, Chad Myers, says, against rebel eschatology, Mark pits the death life paradox of his own narrative symbolics and the politics of nonviolence. Meaning, we often associate apocalypse with the end, with death, with the need to fight for your life, and that's a nightmare. So Jesus points to an Old Testament metaphor to make a new point. Let's take a look at the sign of a tender twig. Jesus says, learn this lesson from the fig tree.
Speaker 1:As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know the summer is near. With this sign, Mark has actually altered the words of the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah, the leaves fall from the fig tree, but here the leaves are blossoming. It might feel like the bad is so much bigger than the good. Don't believe it.
Speaker 1:The point of the tender twig is that you will find God's presence in every age, in every struggle, in every set of circumstances. Louise Chautraf says, The signs of God's saving work are already present. She writes about the twig metaphor. God's presence is already palpable for you because you need not absolutize the sufferings of the present and can hope for their end. So will the present become a moment of happiness in the midst of suffering.
Speaker 1:Your nightmare might include a pandemic, back to school anxiety, work insecurity, a sick loved one, a sick body, a very tired mind, death of someone you can't imagine living without, the cycle of conflict you can't get out of, cruelty to those who already suffer so much, injustice to black and brown bodies, bad decisions, worse consequences, psychosis, loneliness that doesn't let up, what feels like the silence from God in your pain. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the ways that you suffer. But I believe in the sign of this tender twig. I believe in our ability to find the presence of God in any struggle we face.
Speaker 1:We exist in a world of complex systems, life and death, expansion and contraction, calm and storm. And God mends the world through us. And I don't know why God doesn't just mend it all by God's own self, but it's just not God's way. God's way is cocreative, collaborative, less over the top empire, more organic garden, using all kinds of detritus to bring new, nourished life. Now, let's take one more close look at this word apocalypse.
Speaker 1:We'll start with the last story Jesus tells in the sermon. Jesus says to his disciples, about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels nor the human ones standing before you, but only our maker. He tells them, be on your guard. Be alert. You do not know when the time will come.
Speaker 1:And then he says, this is what the end will be like. It's like a man going away. He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their own assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. So keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back, whether in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or at dawn. Verse thirty six and thirty seven.
Speaker 1:If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone. Watch. Now let's talk about how this parable serves a couple of main purposes. First, it's proleptic, meaning images from Jesus' passion narrative in the next two chapters are foreshadowed here in the sermon midnight, as in when Jesus will pray in Gethsemane.
Speaker 1:The rooster crows, as in when Jesus is betrayed by Peter, the dawn, as in Sunday's resurrection. The first Christians were baffled by life after Jesus' ascension. I mean, why wasn't the world so much better? If Jesus was going to come back, where on earth was he? And Mark says, despite the lack of noticeable success, the powers that abuse will be toppled through the nonviolent power of the cross.
Speaker 1:Second, the parable is actually pragmatic. There was something that they could do while they lived and loved and waited and worshiped. They could live, stay alert, keep watch, notice the needs in the world, and get to work serving them. That could be enough. The word apocalypse is not as ancient as you might think.
Speaker 1:It's a modern term used to describe a discrete body of theological and eschatological works, meaning talk about God and talk about the end of time. And you can find apocalyptic literature in many religions. The word itself is derived from the Greek word apocalypses, and it actually means unveiling, revealing, uncovering. So apocalyptic words are not just words that describe a catastrophe. They are words that reveal the meaning behind suffering and hard times.
Speaker 1:Apocalypse stares right at what's wrong and then uncovers hope. It does this with wild images and intricate patterns and imposing symbols, but I get it. Like, we want hard facts and good timelines and answers so solid we can stand on them. But apocalypse is visionary. It connects connects one bad time to another, and then it insists that the good will always come back around like spring.
Speaker 1:To live apocalyptically is to watch for what is being uncovered. There's always truth to uncover no matter how Mad Max your life might feel. And I know, I know, you will want to know when the hard time will end, but you can't know that. Jesus says, I don't even know that. So while you watch, lead with vision that is not toppled by insecure times.
Speaker 1:Love with grace and gentleness. Love is needed more than ever. Parent and teach with your vulnerability showing so kids can see what resilience looks like. Be the friend who checks in with and tells hilarious stories for and buys that nice bottle of wine for another friend. Care for your health.
Speaker 1:Get outside. Get a therapist. Get quiet to hear your thoughts. Hard times will batter you. That is simply a part of what it means to be human.
Speaker 1:Don't be afraid to lead and love with your bruises showing. Hope has scars. It just does. Following Jesus did not does not give you a pass on any of that. This is the human one put to death by the violent ones and still he will rise.
Speaker 1:And after your hard time, you will rise too. Watch for it. Let us pray. Loving God, every one of us has a part of our lives that feels like a struggle, that demands more from us than we feel we can give, that has pushed us to our limit. And still there is hope.
Speaker 1:There is hope for some truth to be uncovered. Jesus, you poured your life out. And every time we give of ourselves, we live in love with you. So spirit of the living God present with us now, enter the places of our fear and pain and heal us of all that harms us. Amen.
Speaker 1:Well, that's it for speaking Sunday. Thank you for tracking with us this summer. It's been a bit of a weird one, but I think we've learned some beautiful things together. Next week, we we begin our seventh year together. Thank you for being a part of it.
Speaker 1:We have some cool things planned and can't wait to see you either in the room or online. And if you have a moment, join us in the Zoom Lounge. It's a lovely place for you to show your face. There's also a prayer volunteer if you'd like prayer in the Zoom Lounge today. Finally, we'll end as we always do.
Speaker 1:Love God, love people, tell the story, and peace to you this week. Thanks for being here, everyone.