Proper 28 (33) 2006: "Work and the Fear of Judgment"

Proper 28 (33): "Work and the Fear of Judgment"
1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Hebrews 10:11-14, (15-18), 19-25; Mark 13:1-8
Preached on November 19th, 2006.

I am a person who can worry a little. I've discovered that there are particular times when I worry a whole lot more than at other times. I worry when my future is uncertain. One of those times was during my studies in California.

I really had nothing to worry about. I was in my second year of a four year program, so any change in my life was still more than two years away. But I was still very worried about that future.

I love to study, so part of me was saying, "maybe you should do a doctoral program." But I was feeling a call to parish ministry, so another part of me was saying "c'mon. Be a priest. That's what you are really called to do."

So I worried incessantly about what I was going to do in two and a half years.

This was despite the fact that the next thing I really needed to do was my homework.

I was so worried about the future, a future I could do nothing about. And I worried about that future at the expense of my work in the present.

***

When Jesus' disciples are voicing their amazement at the grandeur of the temple in Jerusalem, Jesus is not particularly impressed. Jesus tells his disciples that the temple in Jerusalem will not stand for long, and that the whole building will be torn down.

This leads the disciples to ask Jesus exactly when this sign will be accomplished. The disciples are worried about the future.

But Jesus doesn't answer the question. Instead, Jesus begins one of the most difficult discourses in the New Testament.

Some texts are difficult because what they ask of us is daunting. Most of Mark up until now has been difficult to read because it asks the people of God, as disciples of Christ, to give their whole selves to God.

But not Mark 13. Mark 13 is difficult for other reasons. Mark 13 is difficult because it is apocalyptic literature, so it is about wars, earthquakes, and famines. It describes the persecution, beatings, and the trials of Jesus' disciples, and how people will hate Jesus' disciples. Mark 13 even says that children will soon have their parents put to death. It tells of false prophets who will come in Jesus' name, of the darkening of the sun,
and that even the stars will fall from heaven. All of this will precede the return of Jesus, and the gathering of his elect from all over the world.

This is the stuff that Christian conspiracy theorists have a heyday with, and there are whole industries built around reading texts like these as ways of predicting Jesus' return, and reading Mark 13 as a guidebook to the end times.

But reading texts like these as guidebooks to the apocalypse is to misunderstand what these texts are about and to miss the whole point, actually. Reading apocalyptic passages as if they are only about the end times, is a little like worrying about whether you should be applying to doctoral programs or to parish positions, when you should be worrying about your homework.

Apocalyptic passages are not about seeing the future. Texts like this one are not part of an elaborate code that tells us when Jesus will come back.

They are not about the future so much as they describe the present. The persecutions described by Mark were very real. Mark was writing to a community that was being persecuted, a community that was being dragged before judges and being beaten. They were a community that was hated by many of the people around them.

Jesus' message to his disciples, and to the community that Mark had in mind, was a message about not forgetting who Jesus is. It was a message about the one who will carry you through hardship, and about a Holy Spirit who will inspire your words in front of the judges. And importantly, Jesus tells the disciples that he will return, and that he will come in judgment and in glory to establish his kingdom.

In short, Mark 13 is about hope for those who are being persecuted for the sake of Christ.

I'm never sure that our difficulty in reading these passages as passages of hope is because we aren't being persecuted, or because we aren't doing Christianity right. I don't know. I wish I knew, actually.

***

Just in case we get too worried about trying to figure out exactly when Jesus will return, and we get so concerned with a future we can't know anyway, and we get sidetracked enough that we don't attend to what sits right in front of us, Jesus finishes this discourse saying that no one knows when he will return. ". . .about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father . . . you do not know when the time will come."

Despite this, Jesus does have some advice for the time in-between his ascension to the right hand of the Father and his coming again in glory. Jesus asks us to be watchful, to stay awake, to be attentive to what lies right in front of us. Jesus asks us to continue working for the kingdom even while we wait for the return of the King.

The author of Hebrews describes this time between Jesus' ascension and his return, advising us to be confident, to have "a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . ", and to "hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful." Hebrews says that we should "consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together . . . but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

As we see the day approaching, as we look to Jesus coming again in glory, it shouldn't be in anxiety, nor should it keep us from the hard work that is in front of us. Rather than being distracted by future judgments let us follow the advice of Hebrews.

Let us be confident in our faith that Jesus is our hope, and that Jesus is faithful to us and will keep his promise.

Rather than worry about the future let us provoke each other into doing good deeds in his name.

Let us meet together and worship together, encouraging each other.

This is the real work that is at hand, the work of hope, of fellowship, and of worship.

If we are attentive to this there is nothing to worry about, because when the day comes we won't be found asleep. We will be found to be about the work of hope, fellowship, and worship: the work he has asked us to do.