FIRST READING Daniel 12:1-3
1“At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”
PSALM Psalm 16
1 Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the LORD, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.” 2 All my delight is in the godly that are in the land, upon those who are noble among the people. 3 But those who run after other gods shall have their troubles multiplied. 4 I will not pour out drink offerings to such gods, never take their names upon my lips. 5 O LORD, you are my portion and my cup; it is you who uphold my lot. 6 My boundaries enclose a pleasant land; indeed, I have a rich inheritance. 7 I will bless the LORD who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me night after night. 8 I have set the LORD always before me; because God is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9 My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. 10 For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the pit. 11 You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
SECOND READING Hebrews 10:11-25
11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” 13 and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,”
17he also adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 19 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
GOSPEL Mark 13:1-8
1 As [Jesus] came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” 2 Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” 3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. 8 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 birth pangs.”
WHEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPRNS
A priest, a rabbi and a Lutheran pastor from local parishes were standing by the side of the road holding up signs. The rabbi’s sign read, “The End is Near!” The priest, on the other side of the road, held up a sign which read, “Turn before it’s too late!” The Lutheran pastor next door held up a sign that said, this could be your last chance, turn now! They all planned to hold up their signs to each passing car.
“Get a job,” The first driver yelled at them when he saw the sign. The second driver, immediately behind the first, yelled, “Leave us alone you religious freaks!” A third driver simply waved them off and shook his head in disgust. Shortly, from around the curve, the three pastors heard screeching tires and a splash followed by more screeching tires and two more splashes. The rabbi looked over at the priest and then at the Lutheran pastor and said, “Do you think we should try a different sign?” The priest looked over at the Lutheran pastor and then responded thoughtfully, “Perhaps our signs ought to say simply ‘Bridge Out.’” Keep the Rabbi’s sign, “The End is Near!” in mind as we deal with a somewhat somber topic: “When The Unthinkable Happens.”
“Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” said the voice over the radio. It was the voice of David Johnston from his monitoring station on the North flank of Mount St. Helens. The date was May 18, 1980. What Johnston had witnessed, as he called in his warning, was the largest landslide in recorded history. A magnitude 5.1 earthquake had caused a wave of earth and ice to rush down the side of Mount St. Helens at approximately 150 mph. By the time it was over, the landslide had entombed some 24 square miles of forest. This landside in effect left the mountain, which contained a volcano, with no cap.
Without that cap of earth to keep the volcano sealed, Mount St. Helens then exploded, sending a 100 story high mixture of ash, magma, rocks and sand into the air spreading a path of destruction 10 miles wide as it plowed down valleys and over ridges at speeds nearing 700 mph. There were 57 fatalities that day–including David Johnston. Neither he nor his trailer was ever found, both presumably hurtled into the next valley and buried in debris. Such destruction, as the eruption of Mount St. Helens produced, was unthinkable . . . until it happened. And it did happen as the unthinkable so often does. And this event isn’t an isolated one.
On the morning of August 28, 2005, the National Weather Service issued this ominous alert, “Devastating Damage Expected.” Hurricane Katrina had morphed from a relatively weak Category 1 hurricane to a Category 5 tropical monster–and was moving straight toward New Orleans. The city would be “uninhabitable for weeks . . . perhaps longer,” the weather service warned. Half the houses would lose their roofs. Apartment buildings would be completely destroyed and Commercial buildings would be rendered unusable. Residents should expect long-term power outages and water shortages that would “make human suffering incredible by modern standards.” The prediction was right on target as was the hurricane.
Many of us can remember pictures of the Louisiana Superdome where 20,000 plus people sought refuge from Katrina. Conditions inside the dome were insufferable due to heat and humidity. There were reports of crimes within the dome as well. At the nearby New Orleans Convention Center, where another 30,000 people had fled, reporters interviewed people who had waded through “chin high” water, and who told of friends and families vanishing in the flood. Hurricane Katrina affected 90,000 square miles in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. More than 1300 people tragically lost their lives across the region, and bodies were still turning up in condemned homes eight months later. Again, such destruction was unthinkable . . . until it happened.
It was Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. I was stationed at McGuire AFB in New Jersey and had just left my morning meeting when nineteen members of the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners so they could be flown into buildings in suicide attacks. Two of those planes were crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Within two hours, as the whole world watched, both 110-story towers collapsed. A third plane was crashed into the Pentagon, leading to a partial collapse in its western side. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers tried to overcome the hijackers.
In total, 2,996 people died in the attacks, including the 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes. It was the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers killed while doing their duty. Prior to 8:46 am on 9-11-2001, an attack within the shores of the U.S. was unthinkable, but it happened.
There are many unthinkable events recorded in history. There are some detailed in the Bible; one of which is documented in today’s gospel lesson from Mark. As Jesus was leaving the temple at Jerusalem, one of His disciples said to Him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” The historian Josephus said that much of the exterior of the temple at Jerusalem, which was expanded and refurbished under Herod the Great. Under Herod’s direction, parts of the exterior of the Temple were covered with gold that reflected the fiery rays of the sun. Moreover, he said that, from a distance, the temple appeared like a mountain covered with snow. This was probably because those parts not covered with gold were made of white stone. And the temple was enormous.
The outer court was nearly a quarter of a mile long and three football fields across. It was bordered by walls. On top of those walls were magnificent, covered cloisters or walkways, with richly carved wooden ceilings. The temple was a huge undertaking which required an enormous amount of labor and money. Records indicate that it was larger and more beautiful than the temple that Solomon built. It was quite a sight for all to behold–an architectural wonder of the ancient world. And as the disciples stared with wonder at this magnificent edifice, Jesus brought them back to earth as He said, “Do you see all these great buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.” What Jesus is not so delicately saying is, that their precious temple would be destroyed.
The thought of this was unthinkable to the disciples. The temple represented God. The temple represented their identity as God’s people. Yet Jesus told them that one day it would lie in ruins, again. And what He predicted came true, within the lifetime of some of them. Herod’s temple, a magnificent structure of awesome proportions, four years after its completion was totally destroyed and wiped from the face of the earth. That was in 70 A.D., approximately 40 years after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension.
In our lesson for today Jesus addresses the forthcoming destruction of the temple and then uses this opportunity to talk with His disciples about the end of time. This is the content of Mark 13, one of the so-called apocalyptic chapters in the Bible, a chapter that has been used to strike fear in many hearts. The end of time is still a subject of speculation in many Christian churches, and many pastors and teachers are still using it to keep their fearful congregations in line.
My goal today isn’t to offend anyone by wading into this controversial topic, but I believe it is my responsibility to deal with some of the misinformation that’s been spread about what’s often referred to as “the end times.” What we need to keep in mind is that Jesus said three things about the end times, and these three things can be helpful as we navigate the sometimes troubling waters of Apocalyptic passages.
The first concerns false teachers. Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many…” I don’t think we can properly deal with a writing like Mark 13 without dealing with the subject of false teachers. There’s a popular misconception that has been spread in recent times about the end of life on earth known as “The Rapture.”
As Marcus Borg points out in his book Speaking Christian, most Christians throughout history never heard of the rapture . . . and with good reason. The word and the notion it embodies are a modern innovation, going back less than two centuries. No one even thought of the rapture until the 1800s. “Because millions of Christians think that the rapture is ‘biblical teaching’ and thus has the authority of the Bible behind it, it’s important to know that it’s neither biblical nor ancient,” says Borg, “but was first proclaimed by a British evangelist named John Nelson Darby” in the first half of the 19th century.
Darby concocted his vision of the rapture by his interpretation of a few passages in the Bible that speak about the second coming of Jesus and the end of the world. According to Darby’s scenario, the rapture begins a series of events that will unfold seven years before the second coming of Jesus and the final judgment. More specifically, it refers to an event when true Christians, as he would term them, will be raptured, that is, taken up to heaven, before Jesus’ coming. Those who are raptured will be spared the “tribulation”–the horrific suffering, wars, and devastation that face those who are “left behind.”
As you have probably guessed the rapture is the premise of a series of novels appropriately titled “Left Behind” by authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. These novels have sold more than sixty million copies since they began to be published in the mid-1990s. Obviously these books have made their authors quite wealthy. All twelve in the original series have been on the New York Times bestselling fiction list. And before the “Left Behind” series, there was The Late Great Planet Earth, a best-selling book by Hal Lindsey describing the same scenario.
These books and the movies that have been based on them, have had a disturbing influence on many Christians. For one thing, they have convinced as many as 40 percent of American Christians that the second coming will happen quite soon. And they have stirred up much fear among many impressionable readers. Those who espouse such concerns seem to confuse fear with faith. Arousing fear in people can be both quite easy and quite profitable–as many cable news channels have learned. That’s quite different than the faith that Jesus instills in His followers. In fact, the constant admonition of Jesus is, “Don’t be afraid.” But that’s the first thing Jesus warns us about in Mark 13–being led astray by false teachers.
The second thing Jesus warned His disciples against, was misinterpreting contemporary events such as wars and natural disasters as indicators that the end is at hand. He says, “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come . . .” There have always been natural disasters and there will always be such disasters.
Fortunately, particularly in this country, we’re better protected against such disasters than any generation that’s ever lived. We’ve never experienced disasters in the scope of those experienced by other nations and other generations. For example, on July 5, 1201 in Egypt and Syria, the deadliest earthquake in recorded history struck. This disaster rocked the eastern Mediterranean and killed over 1.1 million people. Nearly every city in the near east felt the effects of this quake.
Then there was the bubonic plague or “Black Death.” It killed almost 33 percent of the entire population of Europe when it struck between 1347 and 1350. It also affected millions in Asia and North Africa. There have even been flu epidemics through the centuries that have killed millions of persons. Each time a great tragedy has occurred, people have thrown up their hands and said, “This is it! This is the end of the world.” But each time they’ve been wrong. Jesus warned His disciples against misinterpreting contemporary events such as wars and natural disasters as indicators that the end is at hand. We can’t give into panic. This world may be around for many more centuries or even millennia. Jesus was very clear when asked about His second coming, He said only the Father knows. (Matt. 24:36) But we can’t be lazy either, Paul was very clear in I Thessalonians 5:1-2 when he wrote, “Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It might be tomorrow. It might be 10,000 years from now. Only God the Father knows!
Foolish people keep setting dates, but so far they’ve been totally wrong. If you run into somebody determined to announce how soon the end will come, ask him if he thinks he is smarter than Jesus, for Jesus said even He didn’t know when it would be. How much more definitive can you be than that? This is a subject that comes up from time to time in Bible studies and I always finish the explanation with this statement. If we are good and faithful servants working as God intends for the kingdom, who cares when the end comes. As faithful believers bearing fruit for the kingdom, our future is secure.
In a classic Peanuts cartoon Linus and Lucy are standing at a window watching it rain. Lucy says to Linus, “Look at it rain! What if the whole earth floods?” Linus answers: “It won’t! God promised Noah, in Genesis Chapter 9, He would never flood the world again; the sign of this promise is the rainbow.” Lucy smiles and replies, “Linus, you’ve taken a great load off my mind.” To which Linus responds, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”
Jesus makes it very clear: regardless of what certain popular books and movies infer, it might be thousands or even millions of years before the end comes. Nobody knows–neither scientists, theologians nor quack preachers on radio or television. Here’s what we need to remember: Life is unpredictable. Terrible things will always happen in this world. I’m not saying this to instill fear in anyone; as a matter of fact, quite the opposite. Regardless of what comes, God will never leave us nor forsake us. (Heb. 13:5) That’s God’s promise. Even if the entire world should pass away, God will always be with us.
It’s said that during the making of the classic film Ben Hur, actor Charlton Heston had to learn how to drive a chariot. It was part of a race scene that was probably the most exciting one that had ever been filmed up to that time. After many weeks of chariot lessons, Heston told the director, “I think I can drive the chariot all right but I’m not at all sure I can actually win the race.” To this the director, responded, “You just stay in the race and I’ll make sure you win.” That’s Christ message to us in every troubled time: “You just stay in the race and I’ll make sure you win.”
Of the end times Jesus tells us “don’t be afraid.” Don’t let false teachers fill your mind with needless anxiety. No one knows what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future. Bill Gather summed this up wonderfully in the chorus of the song Because He Lives: “Because he lives I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future. And life is worth the living, just because He lives. We have no need to fear the future, because God is in control. Our future is secure because we are God’s own children. Amen