Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them in fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen.

Perhaps you know people who seemed consumed by the weather.  My brother is one of those people.  I will walk into the living room, the TV will be on, and he will be staring at a Doppler radar screen.  There is no telling how long he has been sitting there watching weather systems move slowly across the screen.  About every thirty seconds or so, a computer generated voice that seems to be with out a specific gender erupts with a brief weather report, “Winds moving from the South East at 15 miles per hour.  20% chance of precipitation.  High of 87 degrees.”  After countless minutes of radar gazing, undoubtedly, my brother will flip one channel up (or down, I really don’t know) to the weather channel, with live people, to get the extended forecast.  I have seen my brother sit through this process for disturbingly long periods of time. 

Personally, I have never been a big weather guy.  I have this innate distrust for meteorologists.  No offence, if any of you are studying meteorology.  I am sure it is a rewarding if not frustrating career.  It just seems that every time I turn on the weather channel or watch the late local news because I am about to participate in some outdoor adventure the weather report is always wrong.  I mean not even close.  The weather report will be partly sunny with a 10% chance of rain, and the next thing I know, as I am about to set foot outside my house, I hear the familiar rumble of thunder in the distance and sinister clouds are on the horizon, moving towards us at breakneck speed.  To be fair, I am being a bit harsh on weather experts.  I did a little research online and found that most weather services are accurate about 85% of the time, and I promise this has a point. 

Our gospel lesson today is from the 13th chapter of Mark.  This chapter of Mark’s gospel is representative of an entire genre of biblical literature that scholars call apocalyptic.  The word apocalypse simply means an unveiling of something or a revelation.  Therefore in apocalyptic literature, God, through the words of the text, is revealing to us something of his eternal purposes.  Of course, the most familiar apocalypse in the New Testament is the, appropriately named, book of Revelation and perhaps the most familiar apocalypse in the Old Testament is the book of Daniel.  Generally speaking, apocalyptic literature is characterized by an individual, in today’s gospel lesson Jesus, revealing a vision of God’s work both in the cosmos and on the earth that is bringing into reality God’s will in time and space.  Typically the vision will include a transformation of our known world, the world you and I live in, into God’s kingdom where justice, love, and peace rule supreme.    

Now what becomes difficult and, in truth, is controversial about apocalyptic literature is that the transformation of the world, from this present age into the next, is often accompanied by great violence and suffering and, in the end, divine judgment.  Certainly violence and suffering seem to underscore Jesus’ apocalyptic teaching which we just heard read, “But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not be, then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away; the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat.  Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days!  Pray that it may not be winter.  For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be.”  So how do we understand Jesus’ ominous words of warning?  Generally speaking, how do we read and apply to our daily lives the bible’s apocalyptic literature?
Well one way people use the apocalyptic teachings of Jesus, as well as the other apocalyptic writings in scripture, is as a forecast system.  Kind of like my brother watching Doppler radar to predict future weather patterns, people use apocalyptic prophesies to predict future historical events as they relate to the end of this world and the arrival of God’s kingdom.  Most every Christian in the West or certainly in America is by now familiar with the Left Behind series of fictional books.  In a recent email, John Newton, our former Program Coordinator here at the ESC, sent me a link to the latest manifestation of the Left Behind series of books.  It’s a video game named Left Behind: Eternal Forces.  In the game, you get to, “conduct physical and spiritual warfare—using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat” while wielding modern military weaponry to fight the forces of the Anti-Christ.  In addition to the Left Behind series and the video game, the authors have written a non-fiction book that is intended to help Christians read apocalyptic prophecy in a way that predicts the end of the world by aligning biblical symbolism with historic events.  Like my brother sitting and staring at the weather channel, there are Christians all over the world that are consumed with using the bible’s apocalyptic literature as an indicator to predict the end of the world. 
Now seeing into the future and predicting the end of the world as we know it, is one way to understand apocalyptic literature and use it in our daily lives.  However, I am not convinced that using scripture as a fortune telling device is the most helpful, useful, or even biblically accurate means for interpreting and understanding apocalyptic literature.  In fact, I think some Christians who see apocalyptic literature as a prediction of the time and events surrounding the end of the world often, sadly, welcome, invite and even tacitly participate in fostering situations of human distress—as if God’s work in the world is somehow dependent on the amount of warfare, famine, and disease that humans are suffering.   

So let me now offer another perspective.  You see I don’t believe that apocalyptic literature in the bible is intended to be an indicator of political and social events in human history.  I don’t believe it is possible to read apocalyptic prophecy and create an accurate forecast of the second coming of Christ.  The bible’s apocalyptic literature is not like a meteorologist giving an extended weather forecast: “On Monday their will be an earthquake and famine.  And Tuesday it looks like things are going to take a turn for the worse with the beginning of World War III.  However, don’t get overly concerned by Sunday the signs suggest that Christ will return with power and great glory.”  In every generation and in every place, false prophets have predicted that the end times are upon us.  Even now survivalist sects stockpile arms, food, and other supplies so that members of the sect will be able to fight off the forces of evil that they believe will seek domination during the turmoil of the end times.  Every one of these false prophets was and is wrong, and every one that comes after will be as well.  We need desperately to heed Jesus’ warning when he says, “And if anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look!  Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look!  There he is!’—Do not believe it.  False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens to lead astray, if possible, the elect.” 
Joseph Butler, the great 18th century Anglican preacher, once said in a sermon, “It is commonly observed, that there is a disposition in men to complain of the viciousness and corruption of the age in which they live, as greater than that of former ones.”  The apocalyptic world of the New Testament is always present just turn on CNN if you do not believe me.    Jesus’ vision is surrounding us right now.  People are running for their lives in conflicts all over the world.  Jesus’ words acknowledge the reality of suffering in our contemporary experience.  But don’t think that suffering is particular to our time.  It has been far worse in the past and will be worse again in the future.  Even those of us who are disciples of Jesus and who love God with heart, mind, and soul know real suffering. 
The fact is the New Testament never promises anyone a life of psychological wholeness or offers a guarantee of happiness at all times and in all places.  To the contrary, it offers disciples the prospect of indignities, loss, damage, disease and pain.  The faithful in Scripture were scorned, beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked and executed.  The gospel offers no promises that contemporary believers will be spared these experiences, that they will be able to settle down to the sanitized comfort of an inner life freed of stresses, pains and ambiguities.  The New Testament’s apocalyptic vision of a world of suffering—a world cloaked in darkness—is present now.  It surrounds us…all of us…Christian and non-Christian alike.

Yet…it is right here in the midst of a catastrophic and broken world that at times feels like it is at its end—right here—that we discover the meaning of Jesus’ prophecy and the bibles apocalyptic literature.  It is a simple promise.  A promise that through Jesus’ death and resurrection, God will walk with us in all the dark places of life—a promise that even the shadows are made to serve God’s glory.  A promise that death has been defeated—that the cross does not have the last word instead the empty tomb does.  A promise that in the fullness of time, whenever that may be, God will rule in light everlasting.  A promise that we will be there, on that day, basking in the light and love of God to the ages of ages.  Amen.        

Back To Sermons