Sermon from Sunday 29th November 2008
Today our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Mark 13 verses 24-37
An Anglican Vicar, a Pentecostal pastor, and a New-Age guru were once all staying at a retreat house in rural Wales. During their time there they fell into a discussion about how to pray. “Of course, the only way to pray is on your knees”, the Vicar began. “Well,” replied the pastor, “I get much better results by standing to pray, with my hands outstretched to heaven”. The guru said, “Actually you have to lie flat on the bare earth to pray properly”.
This conversation took place next to an open window, on a glorious summer's day. Unbeknown to the speakers, they had been overheard by a BT engineer, who was fixing the phone line outside. He suddenly stood up, stuck his head in the window, and said, “To be honest, the best praying that I've ever done is whilst hanging upside down by my foot from a telephone pole!”
There's an old saying that goes, 'there are no atheists in the trenches'. And that's very likely a true saying, because it's in times of crisis that we realise how helpless we truly are. But of course most of us enjoy the luxury of spending the majority of our lives under the delusion that we are in control of them. Often it's only when some dramatic event exposes that delusion for what it really is that we realise how badly we need God's help. For example, how many people were praying fervently as they were marched up hotel stairs in Mumbai at gunpoint this week, I wonder?
We do have a choice, though. We don't have to wait for the crisis to happen. We can instead recognise in advance that at some point a crisis, of some kind, will come. Then we can get ready for it – by getting straight with God now.
For any regular church-goer, Advent Sunday is the day when we are starkly reminded about the ultimate crisis that everyone will have to face one day. It is quite a way to start the new church year! But it's probably the only right way to begin it, though. We do need to set the tone for the year right from the outset. This time we have even had advance warning of what today brings. The end of our recent series from Matthew gave us not one but two great opportunities to get ready for this day, the day when we think about how we must be ready for the great crisis that is to come.
Now, we don't know when this crisis will happen – and the fact is that we will never know. Jesus made that very clear – both in our Matthew series and also in today's reading from Mark. As we have heard, he told his disciples that not even he knew the 'when'. But Jesus was just as clear about what is going to happen when this crisis arrives. And there is no doubt what his main intention in telling his disciples about it in advance was. It was so that they – and we – can be ready for it, whenever it may happen. So that's a good point for us to pause, and ask ourselves if we are indeed ready for this great crisis ...
I'm sure you have realised by now that the crisis I've been talking about is Jesus' own return. We'll come back to that prospect time and again. We'll also come back to whether we really are ready for that world-ending event. But the most sensible thing to do next is to put these words of Jesus into context. That will help us to understand them as fully as we can. But it must be said that this passage has often been described as the biggest problem in the Bible! Mark chapter 13 has puzzled Bible scholars for years. It has been the subject of endless speculation about exactly what Jesus meant, what specifically he was talking about, and how he saw the future. I won’t bore you with the details of the learned debates that I have waded through again this week. I'll just give you the headline: however you look at it, this passage poses problems!
That’s true whether you’re a Bible scholar or an ‘ordinary’ Christian trying to live the way Jesus wants you to. Now God doesn’t expect us to suspend our brain, and just accept that we won’t ever understand certain things. So, let's try to unravel some of the complications. If you want to follow along, look on Pg 65 in the New Testament of the church Bible. And you may need one open, because we have got to go back a way.
Today’s reading picked up Jesus’ words in the middle of his teaching. We have got to go back, to the start of Mark chapter 13 to find out what specific question Jesus was responding to. We’ve got to go even further back – to chapter 11 – to see where this incident fits into Jesus’ life. There we see that Jesus had entered Jerusalem in triumph – so we’re still in the last week of his life. And, in 13 verse 1, we learn Jesus had been teaching in the Temple all day. He'd just come out with his disciples; they had then commented on how wonderful a sight that building was.
By all historical accounts they were quite right. Herod had spared no expense in rebuilding the Temple. As they said, it was magnificent – and it must have looked solid enough to have lasted for centuries. But, Jesus said, it wasn’t going to last. He predicted that no stone would be left on top of another. And, not surprisingly, his disciples wanted to know what he meant. When they got back to their camp in the Mount of Olives that evening, they asked Jesus to tell them when this amazing event would happen.
Now this is where it begins to get complicated. Everyone agrees that Jesus had two things in mind when he replied to the disciples' question. He began by talking about when the Temple would be destroyed – as indeed it was, in 70 AD. He even gave them some signs to look for that it was about to happen, as they had asked for. But, somewhere along the way, Jesus then began to speak about his own return. The trouble is that nobody can be sure exactly where in this passage that dividing point is!
The assumption has always been that Jesus didn’t see the fall of the Temple and his own return as happening at the same time. If he did, the mere fact that we are here today proves he was wrong: the world clearly didn’t end in 70 AD! And Christians generally assume that Jesus knew what he was talking about – and that he wasn’t mistaken about it.
So the way that most people see it is as being a bit like a two-dimensional painting. Jesus did have both those events in mind – the fall of Jerusalem and his own return. What you can’t tell from a two-dimensional image is how far apart they are. It’s like looking at a painting of two mountain peaks: on canvas you can’t see how many miles there might be between them – but they are both there for you to see.
Now I don’t know how that explanation works for you. It still leaves the questions about where the dividing point in the passage is. The fact is that nobody knows, because Jesus didn't ever say. His focus was on the need to be ready at all times for his return. As I have said, Jesus himself didn't know when it will be. But he certainly knew how it'll happen: look at verses 24-27. It’s not like this can be missed: Jesus will come in clouds, with great power and glory. He will send his angels out to bring his people in from the ends of the earth. That image in itself may give you an idea of why this is a crisis worth preparing for! On that day the world will end, and we will each face God’s judgement. Are you ready for that? Granted it hasn’t happened in the 2 000 years since Jesus died. But that doesn’t mean that it might not happen tomorrow. So are you ready for it? In the words Jesus used repeatedly here: are you watching for his return; are you alert to it; are you on guard? If not, maybe you ought to be.
Throughout Mark 13, and in the parallel passages in Luke and Matthew, Jesus told his disciples about the signs that would indicate he was about to return. Most generations since then have believed that it would happen in their life-time. There are parts of Paul’s letters that suggest that he didn’t expect to die before Jesus returned. Martin Luther rushed his translation of the Bible into German to be sure that he finished before Jesus appeared. Those are just two, of many, examples – and they all have much to teach us.
Now of course we should learn the lesson from the fig-tree that Jesus referred to in verses 28-29. Today we are one day closer to Jesus’ return than we were yesterday. We should note the signs – and heed them. I’d say that’s part of the watching that Jesus told us to do. But we are not to get obsessed with the signs or what they mean about just when Jesus might come back.
You see, the signs Jesus that talked about – wars, natural disasters, and all the rest – aren’t the same as a sign that says, ‘End of motorway: 1 mile’. Rather they’re more like hazard signs that we might see on a motorway. They tell us to look out for danger. That’s why we must watch, be alert, and on guard. We don’t know when it will happen, just that Jesus will be back and that we must be ready for him when he returns.
That was the main point of the parable Jesus told at the end of our reading. He is like the owner of the house who has gone away for a while. Jesus has put his servants – us - in charge. He has given us each our tasks to do while he’s away. What we don’t know is when he’ll be back. It might be in the evening; or at midnight; or at dawn. If he does return suddenly what will he find you doing? Will you be asleep? Do you think you have got time to sort things out, with God or some other person, when you are ready? What if you don’t? What if the owner comes back today? Are you doing the things that he has told you to? In other words, are you ready now for this great crisis?
Now perhaps you're thinking that this all sounds like rather a waste of time. But just think about how much time you spend preparing for any major project that you’re involved with. How long will you take to plan a party? How much time do you spend on a piece of work that you have to present? Or on your garden? How about Christmas Day: how much effort will you put into that this year? Well, what about the return of Jesus, then? How much have you prepared for the most important event in your life? Don't forget, the consequences of our preparation – or lack of it – for this crisis are eternal.
This Advent Sunday God has very graciously given us all one more opportunity to get ready for the crisis that is to come. Today we can choose to keep on pretending that we are in control of our own lives. Or we can choose to hear God's renewed warning about this coming crisis. Like it or not, ready or not, Jesus will return. The choice about what we do with that fact is, as always, our own. We can prepare, and be ready for, that day, by watching for Jesus, by being alert, on guard, and obedient in the things that he has told us to do. Or we can not. What's your choice today? Let's pray ...
An Anglican Vicar, a Pentecostal pastor, and a New-Age guru were once all staying at a retreat house in rural Wales. During their time there they fell into a discussion about how to pray. “Of course, the only way to pray is on your knees”, the Vicar began. “Well,” replied the pastor, “I get much better results by standing to pray, with my hands outstretched to heaven”. The guru said, “Actually you have to lie flat on the bare earth to pray properly”.
This conversation took place next to an open window, on a glorious summer's day. Unbeknown to the speakers, they had been overheard by a BT engineer, who was fixing the phone line outside. He suddenly stood up, stuck his head in the window, and said, “To be honest, the best praying that I've ever done is whilst hanging upside down by my foot from a telephone pole!”
There's an old saying that goes, 'there are no atheists in the trenches'. And that's very likely a true saying, because it's in times of crisis that we realise how helpless we truly are. But of course most of us enjoy the luxury of spending the majority of our lives under the delusion that we are in control of them. Often it's only when some dramatic event exposes that delusion for what it really is that we realise how badly we need God's help. For example, how many people were praying fervently as they were marched up hotel stairs in Mumbai at gunpoint this week, I wonder?
We do have a choice, though. We don't have to wait for the crisis to happen. We can instead recognise in advance that at some point a crisis, of some kind, will come. Then we can get ready for it – by getting straight with God now.
For any regular church-goer, Advent Sunday is the day when we are starkly reminded about the ultimate crisis that everyone will have to face one day. It is quite a way to start the new church year! But it's probably the only right way to begin it, though. We do need to set the tone for the year right from the outset. This time we have even had advance warning of what today brings. The end of our recent series from Matthew gave us not one but two great opportunities to get ready for this day, the day when we think about how we must be ready for the great crisis that is to come.
Now, we don't know when this crisis will happen – and the fact is that we will never know. Jesus made that very clear – both in our Matthew series and also in today's reading from Mark. As we have heard, he told his disciples that not even he knew the 'when'. But Jesus was just as clear about what is going to happen when this crisis arrives. And there is no doubt what his main intention in telling his disciples about it in advance was. It was so that they – and we – can be ready for it, whenever it may happen. So that's a good point for us to pause, and ask ourselves if we are indeed ready for this great crisis ...
I'm sure you have realised by now that the crisis I've been talking about is Jesus' own return. We'll come back to that prospect time and again. We'll also come back to whether we really are ready for that world-ending event. But the most sensible thing to do next is to put these words of Jesus into context. That will help us to understand them as fully as we can. But it must be said that this passage has often been described as the biggest problem in the Bible! Mark chapter 13 has puzzled Bible scholars for years. It has been the subject of endless speculation about exactly what Jesus meant, what specifically he was talking about, and how he saw the future. I won’t bore you with the details of the learned debates that I have waded through again this week. I'll just give you the headline: however you look at it, this passage poses problems!
That’s true whether you’re a Bible scholar or an ‘ordinary’ Christian trying to live the way Jesus wants you to. Now God doesn’t expect us to suspend our brain, and just accept that we won’t ever understand certain things. So, let's try to unravel some of the complications. If you want to follow along, look on Pg 65 in the New Testament of the church Bible. And you may need one open, because we have got to go back a way.
Today’s reading picked up Jesus’ words in the middle of his teaching. We have got to go back, to the start of Mark chapter 13 to find out what specific question Jesus was responding to. We’ve got to go even further back – to chapter 11 – to see where this incident fits into Jesus’ life. There we see that Jesus had entered Jerusalem in triumph – so we’re still in the last week of his life. And, in 13 verse 1, we learn Jesus had been teaching in the Temple all day. He'd just come out with his disciples; they had then commented on how wonderful a sight that building was.
By all historical accounts they were quite right. Herod had spared no expense in rebuilding the Temple. As they said, it was magnificent – and it must have looked solid enough to have lasted for centuries. But, Jesus said, it wasn’t going to last. He predicted that no stone would be left on top of another. And, not surprisingly, his disciples wanted to know what he meant. When they got back to their camp in the Mount of Olives that evening, they asked Jesus to tell them when this amazing event would happen.
Now this is where it begins to get complicated. Everyone agrees that Jesus had two things in mind when he replied to the disciples' question. He began by talking about when the Temple would be destroyed – as indeed it was, in 70 AD. He even gave them some signs to look for that it was about to happen, as they had asked for. But, somewhere along the way, Jesus then began to speak about his own return. The trouble is that nobody can be sure exactly where in this passage that dividing point is!
The assumption has always been that Jesus didn’t see the fall of the Temple and his own return as happening at the same time. If he did, the mere fact that we are here today proves he was wrong: the world clearly didn’t end in 70 AD! And Christians generally assume that Jesus knew what he was talking about – and that he wasn’t mistaken about it.
So the way that most people see it is as being a bit like a two-dimensional painting. Jesus did have both those events in mind – the fall of Jerusalem and his own return. What you can’t tell from a two-dimensional image is how far apart they are. It’s like looking at a painting of two mountain peaks: on canvas you can’t see how many miles there might be between them – but they are both there for you to see.
Now I don’t know how that explanation works for you. It still leaves the questions about where the dividing point in the passage is. The fact is that nobody knows, because Jesus didn't ever say. His focus was on the need to be ready at all times for his return. As I have said, Jesus himself didn't know when it will be. But he certainly knew how it'll happen: look at verses 24-27. It’s not like this can be missed: Jesus will come in clouds, with great power and glory. He will send his angels out to bring his people in from the ends of the earth. That image in itself may give you an idea of why this is a crisis worth preparing for! On that day the world will end, and we will each face God’s judgement. Are you ready for that? Granted it hasn’t happened in the 2 000 years since Jesus died. But that doesn’t mean that it might not happen tomorrow. So are you ready for it? In the words Jesus used repeatedly here: are you watching for his return; are you alert to it; are you on guard? If not, maybe you ought to be.
Throughout Mark 13, and in the parallel passages in Luke and Matthew, Jesus told his disciples about the signs that would indicate he was about to return. Most generations since then have believed that it would happen in their life-time. There are parts of Paul’s letters that suggest that he didn’t expect to die before Jesus returned. Martin Luther rushed his translation of the Bible into German to be sure that he finished before Jesus appeared. Those are just two, of many, examples – and they all have much to teach us.
Now of course we should learn the lesson from the fig-tree that Jesus referred to in verses 28-29. Today we are one day closer to Jesus’ return than we were yesterday. We should note the signs – and heed them. I’d say that’s part of the watching that Jesus told us to do. But we are not to get obsessed with the signs or what they mean about just when Jesus might come back.
You see, the signs Jesus that talked about – wars, natural disasters, and all the rest – aren’t the same as a sign that says, ‘End of motorway: 1 mile’. Rather they’re more like hazard signs that we might see on a motorway. They tell us to look out for danger. That’s why we must watch, be alert, and on guard. We don’t know when it will happen, just that Jesus will be back and that we must be ready for him when he returns.
That was the main point of the parable Jesus told at the end of our reading. He is like the owner of the house who has gone away for a while. Jesus has put his servants – us - in charge. He has given us each our tasks to do while he’s away. What we don’t know is when he’ll be back. It might be in the evening; or at midnight; or at dawn. If he does return suddenly what will he find you doing? Will you be asleep? Do you think you have got time to sort things out, with God or some other person, when you are ready? What if you don’t? What if the owner comes back today? Are you doing the things that he has told you to? In other words, are you ready now for this great crisis?
Now perhaps you're thinking that this all sounds like rather a waste of time. But just think about how much time you spend preparing for any major project that you’re involved with. How long will you take to plan a party? How much time do you spend on a piece of work that you have to present? Or on your garden? How about Christmas Day: how much effort will you put into that this year? Well, what about the return of Jesus, then? How much have you prepared for the most important event in your life? Don't forget, the consequences of our preparation – or lack of it – for this crisis are eternal.
This Advent Sunday God has very graciously given us all one more opportunity to get ready for the crisis that is to come. Today we can choose to keep on pretending that we are in control of our own lives. Or we can choose to hear God's renewed warning about this coming crisis. Like it or not, ready or not, Jesus will return. The choice about what we do with that fact is, as always, our own. We can prepare, and be ready for, that day, by watching for Jesus, by being alert, on guard, and obedient in the things that he has told us to do. Or we can not. What's your choice today? Let's pray ...
posted by Parish Administrator at 11:50 am
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