25 Pentecost B/Lectionary 33 November 18, 2012
Luther Memorial Lutheran Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
Daniel 12: 1-3 Psalm 16
(Hebrews 10: 11-14, 19-25) Mark 13: 1-8
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In its resources for worship planning, the ELCA offers a suggested Hymn of the Day for each Sunday. Sometimes we sing that suggested hymn and sometimes we do not. When I was preparing for today’s sermon and for our worship together I was very aware that this is the Sunday that we will offer our pledges to the Church budget for 2013 as a part of our Stewardship Campaign called “Gifts of Gratitude.” So, I looked to see what the suggested hymn of the day was and it was “Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow”. Oh, great.
Of course, a look at the assigned readings for today explains why this hymn is suggested. Both the reading from Daniel and the Gospel from Mark speak of what is commonly called the end times or the end of days. In church-speak we call this apocalyptic literature.
Apocalyptic literature most often generates fear. Oh, we can sing about it….Soon and Very Soon, we are Going to See the King and Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow, even….but most often when we read passages like these we are at best confused and at worst afraid.
We have other things to be afraid of, the culture tells us….other messages of doom and gloom. After all, the news tells us that we are headed for a Fiscal Cliff. That’s a fearful image. What will happen? What will happen? The media pounds us over the head with the question.
And there are other real scenarios in our world that should cause us fear…If the Hostess company goes bankrupt we may never again get the chance to eat a Twinkie! And then there’s the Mayan calendar telling us that the world is going to end next month.
In the Gospel reading Jesus is with his disciples and as the reading from today begins he predicts the destruction of the Temple. But as he continues his discourse with his followers the language he uses must have produced fear among them. Or confusion. Or both. And the disciples must have thought that they were headed for just these things, if Jesus was talking about them. Wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, nations rising against nation. These are things that would rightly produce fear and they are realities in our time.
Of course, apocalyptic literature is used by many to try to predict the end of life on this earth, the end times. When will this be is not just a question that the disciples have asked. And elsewhere in Scripture Jesus is very clear that no one knows when the end of time will be, but that the point is not to know, but to live in a way that imagines that it could come at any time, like a thief in the night, Paul told the Thessalonians.
There’s a new TV series on the National Geographic channel about people who are preparing for the end times. It’s called “Doomsday Preppers”. I’m not kidding. Here’s a synopsis of the second episode: “David Sarti, a Youtube “firearms instructor” and self-taught survivalist, is prepared for an electrical grid failure; Kellene Bishop of Utah has stocked only the finest gourmet survival foods in preparation for financial collapse; Kathy Harrison, “the Doris Day of Doom”, has prepared her local community for a New Madrid earthquake; Dennis Evers brings the family together to survive global chaos caused by hyperinflation.” These people are acting out of fear. They are afraid of what will happen in the end times.
But what Jesus is looking for from the disciples and from us, is not a fear based response to the question of the end times, but a response in a life lived in love and gratitude. If our lives are lived from a place of fear, we are blinded to the needs of others around us because we are so preoccupied with protecting ourselves. If our lives are lived from a place of fear, we cannot hear the voices that disagree with ours because they threaten our need to be right. If our lives are lived from a place of fear, we often miss the moments of grace and light that bless our days. And we miss the people who carry that grace and light into our days. We are too busy imagining the worst and watching out for our own needs. If our lives are lived from a place of fear then challenges become threats to our existence rather than opportunities for growth and creativity.
Jesus’ invitation is to be like those who await the arrival of the bridegroom. I love this image. Who among us doesn’t know what it’s like to wait for someone we cannot wait to see. We check our watches and look out the window. We watch expectantly down the jetway. We pace at the train station. And we watch at the aisle for our beloved to come and join us there. This is the sort of eager expectation Jesus calls us into as we wait. A joyous expectation. A certain expectation. A loving expectation.
So how does a preacher tie together the end times and stewardship? It’s not that hard, actually. Both topics can produce an anxiety based response. Because we are all going to respond to an effort that asks us to consider our financial giving in a way that is somehow tied up in our own relationship to money. And if you are anything like me, you might have a conflicted relationship with money. Or a fearful one. Or a complicated one. But the good news…the Gospel news….is that our relationship with money and with the end of days finds its way out of that fear based response through a God based promise. That is the point of the reading from the apocalyptic book of Daniel this morning…protection for God’s people in the midst of a time of great anguish. And the Psalmist reminds us that God does not abandon us. “You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Fullness of joy…not emptiness of fear.
Sisters and brothers, we gather this day uncertain of the length of our days or all days. But we gather in the certainty of God. Let us respond with gratitude and let us offer our gifts to God from that very gratitude.
So we chose NOT to sing of doubt and sorrow, but of a world that is turning around. As we sang as we gathered this morning: “Though the nations rage from age to age, we remember who holds us fast: God’s mercy must deliver us from the conqueror’s crushing grasp. This saving word that our forebears heard is the promise which holds us bound, till the spear and rod can be crushed by God who is turning the world around.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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