November 18, 2018

26th Sunday After Pentecost
Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16
Hebrews 10:11-25
Mark 13:1-8

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who shows us the path of life. Amen
 
This is one of those Sundays
where it seems like there should be a question mark
after the gospel response.
Thanks be to God?
 
How is it good news that stone shall not be left on stone
and that people will come and pretend to be God
 and there will be wars and rumors of wars
before the final end will come?
 It sure doesn’t seem good,
 
 And today we have this gospel paired with our first reading,
 another passage predicting a time of anguish.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of good news in these apocalyptic passages.
 
As a side note, apocalyptic refers to a genre of writing that deals with a prophetic revelation, not necessarily but often including descriptions of disasters to come, and only secondarily but more commonly has the term come to be used as a description of an end of the world type scenario.
 
So we have these apocalyptic texts,
these prophetic passages predicting disasters,
and the question is: what do they have to do with us?
 
On the face of it,
 it seems like not much.
 A group of Pastors and I meet at the beginning of each week
 to read and discuss the texts for the week,
 and this week we pretty much agreed
 that our best chance of finding a sermon,
 finding good news
lay in the other readings assigned for the week,
we weren’t going to mess with these texts.
 
And then the other day
 I was driving to a meeting
and I was listening to NPR,
and they did a story, an update really
on the wildfires in California,
 
 particularly the Camp Fire
that wiped out the town of Paradise
10,000 homes destroyed,
 
and the reporter on the ground
interviewed a resident, who’d seen her former house
 and the woman said something to the effect of
 ‘it looks like there’s been an apocalypse.’
 
 I don’t remember the exact quote
but she used the word apocalypse.
And it hit me,
the people of Paradise are in the midst of a catastrophe,
life as they know it is over,
 in a sense that world ended
and they are faced with the question: now what?
 
And as I thought about the people in the midst of world altering catastrophes,
 the disasters of our readings began to fade
 and the hope began to shine through,
 
 yes Daniel begins
“There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence”
 but then he continues
 “But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.”
 
and sure Jesus says
“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.”
but then he pauses and goes on
 “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”
the birth pangs of what?
 Of the new world,
The new way of life that Jesus has promised
he will bring about,
 
Jesus is saying that the turmoil he is describing,
that the disciples will experience
is not the last say
God will work through it,
 and there lies the good news.
 
For those of us who are relatively safe and secure,
apocalyptic passages sound scary,
 we focus on the pain and suffering
that we’d really rather avoid,
 
 but for those in the midst of pain and suffering
they bring hope,
because they describe reality
 and a life on the other side of the suffering,
a life brought about by God who goes through the suffering with us
because we have a God who promises never to leave us.
 
Our God is realistic,
not making promises that won’t come true.
That’s one way you can tell you’re dealing with a false god,
they promise that if you follow them,
give them $9.95 a month
then everything will be okay, your problems will be solved.
 
Our God does not sugar coat things,
part of life is experiencing pain and suffering
and instead of making false impossible claims
 our God promises never to leave our side throughout all of life.
 
We see this in our psalm,
 the psalmist describes different phases of life
 and in each God is there.
 
For those in danger
God is described by the psalmist as a refuge.
 This is a familiar image for us,
we turn to God when we’re in trouble.
 
But the psalmist also assures us
that God is present with those who are content,
 at one point the psalmist says
“My boundaries enclose a pleasant land; indeed, I have a rich inheritance.”
 
God is with us in the times when life is going well,
 these are often times
we bless God as a way of giving thanks for the good in our lives.
 
 God is with us in the bad times,
God is with us in the good times,
 and God is with us when we are in between,
in need of direction,
 
The psalmist sings “I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel;”
and speaks with assurance
that because God goes before the psalmist
they will not be shaken by whatever comes their way.
 
“My heart therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope.
For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the pit.
You will show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of you, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
 
Whether it seems like the world has ended
or life could never get better
 or somewhere in between
God is with us
 
God shows us the path of life,
God travels the path with us.
 Whatever comes our way,
God is there,
and we are never alone. Amen