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BProp28 Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16; Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25; Mark 13:1-8 November 15, 2009
Listen, children, to a story that was written long ago, ‘bout a kingdom on a mountain and the valley folk below. On the mountain was a treasure buried deep beneath the stone, and the valley people swore they’d have it for their very own.
So the people of the valley sent a message up the hill, asking for the buried treasure, tons of gold for which they’d kill. Came an answer from the kingdom, “with our brothers we will share all the secrets of our mountain, all the riches buried there.”
Now the valley cried with anger, “Mount your horses! Draw your sword!” And they killed the mountain people, so they won their just reward. Now they stood beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red. Turned the stone and looked beneath it – “Peace on Earth” was all it said.
Go ahead and hate your neighbor. Go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of heaven, you can justify it in the end. There won’t be any trumpets blowing, come the judgment day, on the bloody morning after…one tin soldier rides away.
+++
Jesus said, “Turn the other cheek.” “The meek will inherit the earth.” “Love your enemy.”
Yet, innocent people who simply seek peace and mean no harm and try to do the work they need to do to feed their children, are attacked by terrorists and displaced from their home.
A man is jealous or greedy of another’s possessions. He takes what he wants. Violence begins. If this man is a leader of a nation, many lives are involved. Innocent lives are sacrificed in order for the fight over what he desires to possess.
We hear the clash between Jesus’ words and how our world operates. And so we have put constraints on our battles. If war must occur, we strive to make it as just as possible. If war must occur, we mean for it to be a defensive act, not an offensive one; to be about protecting freedom, not taking it away.
We want to be able to know in our consciences that the wars our nation fights are just wars. For the Christian, it is painful that war seems the only way when the way the world operates clashes with the way of Jesus.
[Land and goods and prosperity don’t seem to go to the meek. They are instead crushed under the greed of those who seek gain at any cost. What do we do? We fight violence with violence. If the first is unholy violence, the second must be holy violence. If the first is unsanctioned violence, the second must be sanctioned violence. And so our institutions try to contain violence, to keep it in check. Without this justifiable war on violence, how will the innocent ever be protected from the evil?]
+++ And so, in addition to war being just, many want to know that the wars they fight are holy. Holy… War
Is God on our side? How will God bring justice? What will be the signs of God’s endorsement, Or more, for God’s divine plan. How will God’s will be unveiled for all to see? +++ We call this 13th chapter of Mark – the ‘little apocalypse.’ Apocalypse simply means unveiling. For something to be revealed. For God’s will to be revealed for all to see.
Its language sounds like the apocalyptic visions in Daniel and Revelation. When we read these biblical accounts we have a sense of confusion and possibly fear. And we may feel embarrassment when we try to explain how the ‘end times’ are interpreted by various Christians, what kind of God, what kind of ‘justice’ they depict.
These writings have been used in so many ways. And most often, they are depicted as an unveiling of how God will bring about justice and peace on earth.
But if you read the whole of Mark 13 you may see that while Jesus is speaking in apocalyptic language, which would not have been out of the ordinary in his time, he is more concerned with undoing the apocalyptic worldview widely held in his day.
When he and his disciples come out of the temple, he has just shown them the poor widow who has given her two small copper coins out of her heart, out of her poverty, which Jesus teaches them is a treasure found lacking in the rich people giving large sums.
As they are leaving the temple, one of his disciples comments on the sheer size of the stones and buildings. And rather than teach about the sacredness of the temple and its sacrificial system; how central it is to the worship of God and how it’s destruction will unveil God’s holy will Jesus almost speaks of the temple as if it is incidental.
“Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what large buildings!”
“Do you see these ‘great’ buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; All will be thrown down.”
Not unlike so many of us, Peter, James, and John want Jesus to interpret the signs for them. They are caught up in the apocalyptic imagination of it all. But Jesus tells them to look with different eyes.
“Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ And they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars Do not be alarmed; This must take place, but the end is still to come. 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.”
Jesus tells them NOT to allow themselves to be lured into the apparently sacred world of apocalyptic meaning; not to allow themselves to be pulled into a world which others will try to create. These portrayals of messiah are false. Wars and rumors of wars have no sacred meaning at all, and the one who is looking at what happens through Jesus’ eyes will not be frightened of these things, and not driven by them. For they are merely the signs of the collapsing of a world maintained and enforced by violence.
The temple was destroyed and Mark’s gospel was written in the shadow of that event, which was earth-shattering, earth-ending for Jews. And it would have given followers of Jesus the impetus to write down his teachings and the events of his life and resurrection. To hold onto and pass on the way he had shown them. The way of the cross.
The cross reveals to us that the nature of God’s defeat over violence is not in turn by counter violence. The way we operate now, and there seems no other way, is of fighting uncontained violence with contained violence, unsanctioned violence with sanctioned violence. Countering evil power with destructive power that is as just as we can make it.
Ultimately, this is not the way of God. This is not the solution God offers.
God’s answer is the power of forgiveness in the face of the powers of violence. Our God acts not in violence, but in forgiveness. Not in overcoming our enemies, but in loving them. And Jesus is right, loving our enemies will not necessarily make a pretty picture. Just because we give ourselves to a kingdom founded on love does not mean that we will not bear the consequences of living in a world that will continue to be violent.
But he also sees that ultimately, the last word, the abiding word for our world will be the love of God. Nations conquering nations will eventually give way to the eternal Word of God, The kingdom which will have no end. And Jesus urges his followers not to lose hope. Every act of love speaks the ultimate word of God. And the power of love will prove more powerful than the love of power. And so he called his followers into a new kingdom – In this world, but not of it. And what does this kingdom look like that we become citizens of?
Our identities are re-formed in agape love. We call this Holy Baptism. Love which we practice without regard to what has been done to us.
Our life in community is re-formed. We call this Holy Communion. We live in peace and offer each other peace with no more demand for continuing endless violence in which innocent life is sacrificed to assuage the human demands for power.
We stand beside the treasure on the mountain, dark and red. We turn the stone and look beneath it. Peace on earth is all it says.
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