St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – 24th Sunday after Pentecost - Nov. 15, ’09
“A Sight To See – At the Worst! What’s Best!”
Text: Mark 13:8
What to you think? Are things these days going from bad to worse? Are some things “definitely gonna get worse?” Have you heard talk like that recently?
“What’s gonna get worse!” The war in Afghanistan!? Unemployment!? Global warming!? Social Security running out of money!? At our Hastings Circuit Pastors Conference this past week, area pastors all agreed that these days there is declining public trust not only in financial institutions & stimulus packages, but there is declining public trust in all institutions, hospitals and churches included!
I also read just recently where Generation Y, the children of “baby boomers” also called “Millennials” are showing surprising interest in a movie titled 2012 just released this weekend. Trailers for the movie are posted on the Internet. 2012 is a movie based on an ancient Mayan calendar that says the world is going to end with huge natural disasters, volcanic eruptions, typhoons, glaciers, massive earthquakes on December 21, 2012 because that’s when this supposedly accurate Mayan 5,125 year long-count calendar ends.
Now regardless of what we may see or hear or say about the way things look or the way things are going, we are none of us, not even the ancient Mayans, experts on the future shape of things or end of things.
We do have our hopes & fears. But just how much worse things are going to get morally, politically, financially, socially, spiritually, or when this old world is going to end who really knows?
Which is one more reason for the overall theme of my messages for these final Sundays of the Christian Church year based on the Gospel readings for each Sunday, the theme being: Sights to See!
In the ominous-sounding Gospel reading from Mark 13 for this Sunday, a sight to see is not just Jesus sitting opposite that great & majestic temple in Jerusalem and saying that great temple is going to be reduced to rubble and things are going to go from bad to worse for Jesus’ followers. But the sight Jesus asks his disciples to see is in every age when things are going from bad to worse – when things are gonna get worse – not to be alarmed - not to despair – not to be terrified but to see it all as “the beginning of the birth pains”.
What in the world does that mean? On one other occasion, in the Gospel of John, chapter 16, before going to His own bitter, cruel, suffering & death, Jesus said to His disciples, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.
You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a mother is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, (the birth pangs) for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Frustrating, sorrowful, disastrous as things can sometimes get the question that challenges us is: How do we handle bad things happening to good people? How do we handle bad news we weren’t expecting? How do we handle things not getting better but getting worse?
In Mark 13, Jesus does not offer easy, painless answers to these questions but instead He offers to be with us, offers to work faith & hope in us, even to be born in us, be present with us, alive in us!
In Mark 13, when Jesus pictured for His disciples how one day that great temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, not one huge stone left standing on another; when Jesus described things His followers would face, false Messiahs, wars & rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, kingdoms against kingdoms, earthquakes, famines, Jesus said, “These are the beginning of the birth pains.”
Jesus’ sight to see, His point well taken, is not to be over-whelmed by depressing problems. His point is not to look for ways to avoid persecution. His point is not even that we Christians are to be blamed for the world passing from a Christian era to a post Christian era. With Jesus, His sight to see, His vision to embrace, is when He urges His followers in every age to see that no matter how much worse or how bad things get, something marvelous that God is doing is yet to arrive, yet to be born.
In the meantime, in all the good days, dark days, troubling times we face, Jesus urges us: Keep faith, keep on trusting in the stead-fast, unfailing, unending presence & love of God.
Do not despair in the midst of disastrous & violent times, and do not be led astray by false teachers -- or off-the-wall books -- or “apocalypse” type movies about what’s coming.
Do not for one minute doubt that “those who endure to the end will be saved.”
As it was in Jesus’ day so it is in our day, and a movie like 2012 is a good example. There are “alarmists” today, fear-mongers, some of them even Christian who add to the hype & hysteria of this world’s future with fear-filled forecasts and “worst-case scenarios”.
Jesus tells His disciples then and now. “Do not go after them. Do not agree with them. Do not listen to them.” With all your heart & soul, with all your mind & strength, focus on God’s Word, on God’s love, be sure of God’s promises, “See that no one leads you astray.”
Even when the sky is falling in? Even when the world seems to be coming to an end? “Do not be terrified,” says Jesus. “ Do not be led astray.”
A TV preacher with his own show was talking about his new book that explained everything people needed to know about the coming of Jesus and the end of time.
“You must have this book,” he said over & over again, as a telephone number kept flashing at the bottom of the screen.
The charismatic preacher sounded as if he was the only one who had prophetic insight into world events, and for a mere $14.95 viewers & believers could have the benefit of his wisdom. People would not survive the coming terrors unless they had this book.
A pastor called the number and suggested to the operator who took his call that if this preacher really thought his book was so vital to the survival of the planet and that the end was so near, he should be giving the book away.
The pastor said, “He won’t need the money, right? It’s all coming to an end anyway. Who needs a bank account? Yes, the book cost money to print, but he wouldn’t have to pay for it if all went as he said.”
The woman taking the call was not amused. “Sorry, sir,” she said, “but I don’t know much about theology,” to which the pastor responded, “Neither does the writer of the book you’re selling.”
When the risen Lord Jesus first appeared to His disciples after the resurrection, He told them, “Peace be with you.” Peace – not chaos. Peace – not fearfulness or trembling. The Prince of Peace came into this troubled world by way of a cradle & a cross bringing a hope-filled message that we can have peace in the midst of strife and hardship turning to and trusting in Him.
When our moment of truth comes, when our faith is put to the test, the promise of Jesus is that we need not be afraid or wonder what to say or do. God’s gracious, merciful, uplifting presence thru the inner working of the Holy Spirit will melt us, mold us, fill us, and give us what we need to say & do.
When that peace is what we long for, Jesus says, “. . . in me you have it. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (Jn.16:33)
Down through the centuries in times of persecution, in times of hardship & loss, in times when there is no end to persecution against Christ’s church on earth, it is no small wonder that the “passing of the peace of Christ” is a sign, a ritual, a connecting with fellow brothers & sisters in Christ that encourages Christians to encourage each other.
When a believer takes the hand of another believer and says, “May the peace of Christ be with you,” and the other responds, “and also with you,” that is not only a bold witness to Christ’s peace “at the beginning of the birth pangs,” but it is an also an enduring sign to the dark & troubling world we live in that we are God’s people who came through Y2K all right and we will come through 2012 all right.
So the pastor says to you at the end of the sermon, “The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. “The peace of the Lord be with you.”
Would you rise, shake each others hands, and share this blessing of peace with each other!
