As he came out of the temple, one of
his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great
buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown
down.”
When he was sitting on the Mount of
Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,
“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things
are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no
one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they
will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be
alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For 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.
I really do feel as if I’ve drawn the short straw here: what
a passage! End-times theology? Well out of my comfort zone. The problem is that
down the ages every generation has had its prophets of doom announcing that the
end-times are near. Only this week I read that a former American presidential
hopeful for the Republican Party, Michele Bachmann, has gone on record as
saying that she feels the end of the world is near. She says, “Events are
speeding up so quickly right now, and we see how relevant the Bible is, and
we’re reading our newspaper, at the same time we’re learning about these
biblical events, and it’s literally day by day by day, we’re seeing the
fulfilment of scripture right in front of our eyes, even while we’re on the
ground. We recognise the shortness of the hour…” For the record, her
pronouncements are based on the ongoing violence in Israel/Palestine. So, we’re
straight into it, trying to fit the events of our age into some template of the
fulfilment of scriptural signs. It’s tempting to dismiss her if only on the
grounds that if her grasp on theology turns out to be as tenuous as her grasp
on politics was, we should all be perfectly safe.
Of course you may also remember Harold Camping – another
American – who announced the end of the world and the second coming of Christ
that many times, with specific dates, always revised after each non-apocalypse,
that you’d think public humiliation and ridicule would have led him to be more
circumspect.
These people are not alone: a whole industry of spurious
theology has grown up around the idea of The End Times: you may have heard of
the Rapture, the belief that Jesus will gather up his faithful suddenly and
dramatically, leaving the rest of the world scratching their heads as to where
they’ve gone and of course this is good film material: we have the film “Left
Behind” depicting what happens after the Rapture, “The entire planet is thrown
into mayhem when millions of people disappear without a trace -- all that
remains are their clothes and belongings. Unmanned vehicles crash and planes
fall from the sky, overwhelming emergency forces and causing massive gridlock,
riots and chaos.”
Only Nicholas Cage can save the day – if not the film from a
critical panning.
What are we to make of all this?
It is true that scripture seems to drop tantalising hints
about the end times but not in any credible, helpful timetable. Taken
individually, or as a group of “prophecies” – and I put that word in inverted
commas – they are as vague and misleading as the prophecies of Nostradamus, and
he still pops up with monotonous regularity.
If I sound deeply cynical at this point … that’s because I
am. In every Christian based Myers-Briggs type personality profile or on the
Enneagram, I come out as a Thomas in my pattern of discipleship. (I am
strangely proud of that.) Thomas the doubter, you may remember.
And yet there is a strong discipline of Biblical scholarship
called Eschatology, the study of the destiny of humankind as described in the
Bible. The major issues in Christian eschatology are death and the afterlife,
Heaven and Hell, the Second Coming of Jesus, the Resurrection of the Dead, the
Rapture, the Tribulation, the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the New
Heaven and New Earth of the world to come. Eschatological passages are found in
many places in the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testaments. There are
also many extrabiblical examples of eschatological prophecy, as well as church
traditions so perhaps people like me need to curb the impatient cynicism that
is our default position when the Michele Bachmanns and Harold Campings of our
time take to the media.
So what are we to make of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel
passage?
When you hear of wars and rumours of
wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.
For 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.
And this is the problem: every time there is an earthquake or
a famine, are we to think of the end times? Every time there is a war?
Now it isn’t in today’s Gospel passage, but Jesus goes on to
tell Peter, James, John and Andrew some disturbing things that would by anyone’s
standards be seen as predictions – false prophets; false Messiahs; conflict;
persecution; suffering; religious desecrations and the like and he suggests
that they would live to see it – as has every subsequent generation. So should
we seek to read the signs like Bachmann and Camping and seek to be Christian
clairvoyants?
Well, as ever scripture needs to be seen in its own wider
context. What else are we told about the end times? Or at least what are we
told that is helpful? Later on in this chapter Jesus tells his followers, But about that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the Angels in Heaven, nor the Son but only the Father. We also have
Jesus’ words from the opening chapter
of Acts, It is not for you to know the
times and periods that the Father has set by his own authority. To put it
another way, I think we are being told not to waste our time speculating
because like Nostradamus or Harold Camping it is something of a pointless
exercise. It is time wasted when we should be concentrating on other things.
We live in the in-between times. We always knew that, surely?
We live between the start and the finish; between the start and the finish of
God’s plan for the institution of his Kingdom, that reign of peace and justice
ushered in by God’s intervention in history in the incarnation of Christ.
Yes we can look at the “signs” but to read them as any more
than reminders of the fragility of human existence seems to me to be missing
the point. Personally, I see such signs – if I register them at all – as akin
to punctuation marks in a narrative, points to pause and reflect on before we move
on.
So, there is a famine, an earthquake, a war and I am reminded
of the fragility of human existence and, mindful of that and of the fact that
there will one day be an end, I move on.
But it is how I move on – how we move on - after that period
of reflection that is important, because we move on as Disciples. We move on in
this in between time, conscious of the ultimate finality of the Kingdom of this
world, as those called to the mission of bringing God’s Kingdom closer.
In some respects it is a shame that the Lectionary leaves
Mark’s Gospel at this point as it heads to Christ the King and Advent in the
coming weeks so I don’t feel too bad about looking a bit beyond today’s reading
because I won’t be guilty of spoilers for next week’s preacher when I tell you
that Jesus tells his followers to be alert because they don’t know when that
time is coming. Remember, these were people who expected the return of Christ
and the end times within their own generation.
Given the time lapse, such a sense of urgency seems rather
lost on us – well, it’s lost on me anyway. I don’t live with the urgency of an
imminent Second Coming ushering in the end times. I’m sure I should, but I don’t
and I guess you don’t either, but we are still in the in-between times. So what
is this sense of urgency all about? Remember too, the parable of the wise and
foolish bridesmaids: some were prepared when the bridegroom finally arrived and
were admitted to the reception: those that had gone off to get more oil for
their lamps missed his arrival and got left outside. It seems to me to be a
similar warning.
But what is it a warning about? What’s the urgency about?
I always remember an episode of the Vicar of Dibley, where
Dawn French has a postcard on her wall: Jesus is Coming – look busy! I’m sure I
had a vicar who had that on his coffee mug too, but that is the essence of the
warning to urgency: because we don’t know when it’s all going to get eschatological
and apocalyptic we are in danger of not being busy about the Lord’s work.
What does that mean in practice?
We are all called to discipleship but beyond that the nature
of that calling is individual and personal: our individual discipleship has
different patterns and emphases so I am reluctant at this point to try to offer
answers which will inevitably appear glib. This is a congregation noted
for its spiritual maturity. What is it as a church and as individuals that you
feel is your calling? And that’s the answer: do that. Carry on doing that,
being that, whatever it is that the Holy Spirit has given to you as your
template of discipleship. There aren’t many Christian congregations as aware of
their sense of mission as this congregation. That’s your warning, that’s your urgency
as we seek to grow the Kingdom of God while there is still time.
If there is anyone still in doubt about the nature of their call
to discipleship, I would leave you with the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats:
He will separate them “as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He
will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left” He says to those on
his right, the sheep, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was
thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me
in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I
was in prison and you came to visit me” The righteous will not understand: when
did they see Jesus in such a pitiful condition and help Him? “The King will
reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers
of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25.31-46)
No comments:
Post a Comment