This Week's Sermon:

        24 Pentecost, November 19, 2006:

     A Catholic priest and a Rabbi had become good friends and were chatting one day over coffee.  The conversation turned to a discussion of job descriptions and possible promotions. 

     “What do you have to look forward to in the way of a promotion in your job?” asked the Rabbi.

     “Well, I’m next in line for the Monsignor’s job,” said the priest.

     “Yes, and then what?” asked the Rabbi.

     “Well, next I can become Bishop,” said the priest.

     “Yes, and then?” asked the Rabbi.

     “If I work real hard and do a good job as Bishop, it’s possible for me to become an Archbishop,” said the priest.

     “O.K., then what?” asked the Rabbi.

     The priest, beginning to get a bit exasperated, replied, “With some luck and real hard work, maybe I can become a Cardinal.”

     “And then?” asked the Rabbi.

     The priest was really starting to get mad and replied, “With lots and lots of luck and some real difficult work and if I’m in the right place at the right time and play my political games just right, maybe, just maybe, I can get elected Pope.”

     “Yes, and then what?” asked the Rabbi.

     “Good grief!” shouted the priest.  “What do you expect me to become, Jesus Christ?”

     “Well,” said the Rabbi, “One of our boys made it?”

      It is called in theological circles “The Scandal of Particularity.”  It is difficult for some folks to accept that the pioneer and founder of our faith was, is now, and will be in the Kingdom, a Jewish man.  As I have said before, the very best way to understand the Christian faith is to see it as a radical sect of Judaism. 

     The Gospel for today has a little bit of a call to watchfulness about it.  Jesus is teaching the disciples and those journeying with him on this path to Jerusalem about some of the terrible things that will happen to that city.  Not only is he the Messiah, but he is also a prophet.  Some forty years after the awful things that happened to him in Jerusalem took place, unimaginable things would happen to the city and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  The city would finally fall in 70 AD.  Jesus warned the people that when they saw the first signs of this beginning to happen they should flee to the mountains.  The one on the rooftop should use the outside steps to escape; don’t worry about the family heirlooms or taking a coat, just get away.  Pray that this destruction might not happen in winter.

     Of course, the people did just the opposite of what Jesus instructed them to do.  When the besieging army of Emperor Titus got to Jerusalem they found that people had crowded into the city, thinking that would mean safety.  The Emperor simply surrounded the city, cut it off from the outside world, and starved the people.  The Jewish historian, Josephus, writing just a generation after this happened and basing his account on the testimony of the few who survived, told this story in the fifth book of The War of the Jews.  He told that 97,000 were taken into captivity and over one million died by starvation and the sword.  It is a grim account of the fall of Jerusalem.  Those who took the advice that Jesus had given forty years before were saved.

     So, what is in this for us?   What lesson can we learn from this section of the Gospel of Mark?  I would want to suggest that we strive to remember we live in a time that is in-between times.  For close to two thousand years we have lived in these times between the giving of the final word of God, in the Incarnation of the Son, and the Second Coming to establish the Kingdom. 

     Because these are in-between times, or history between the beginning of the Christian era and the consummation, Jesus would have us look at three ways to be in relationship to the world, the stuff around us, and the life we can live.  The first is to be wary.  “Don’t be deceived,” he says to his followers.  Many will claim to know the proper path, the easy route to finding the Messiah.  Many will claim to be that Messiah.  Many false prophets will show up on the scene and produce signs and wonders to lead people astray.  Don’t listen to them.

     Much of Christian TV and several publications claim to know the proper path, the easy route.  So-called Christian publications, booklets, pamphlets, seminars, internet courses, and expensive CD’s make the claim of breaking the code of Biblical prophecy and claim to know the time of the Second Coming.  We get some to those in the office.  One book, sent free of charge, but with an offering envelope just in case I wanted to make a “love offering” named the date and time.  I wonder what those who are amassing great fortunes profaning the Gospel of Jesus Christ plan to do with it when he does come!

     The problem with spiritual crystal ball gazing is that it keeps us from engaging in the work the Lord has given us to do.  The danger for those who have had personal renewal experiences, those who have been on the mountaintop with the Lord, is that they often fail to take the next step in the journey that Jesus himself leads.  That is, they want to stay on the mountain-top when the call is to the valley of service to those in any kind of need in this world.  So, be wary.

     Be ready, too.  Spiritual readiness comes from accepting the fact that we are pilgrims in this life.  This physical, earthly experience is not the final one for us.  There is a wonderful reality beyond.  Yes, we are to work with everything in us to commend the faith that is in us to others.  We are to be involved in watchful activity, aware that we may be the only Bible some people may ever read.  Valley service is not to remove our focus or our perspective.  Being ready is a spiritual reality that says we are aware that the Lord is at hand.  Every moment of time is lived in the shadow of eternity and that fact is okay.

     Finally, be confident.  Confident living comes from knowing and believing that every battle that needs to be won has been won.  Hollow-cheeked, pasty, pale, washed-out people, walking around sad, forlorn, and down-cast are antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     God hovers over creation and God’s eye is on each one of us, as if there were only one of us to watch.  God’s eye is on the sparrow and I know God watches me; not as a master waiting to lash out at a wayward servant, but as a mother seeking to comfort and sooth a hurt child, as a father waiting for a prodigal son to come to his senses in the far country.  Confident living comes from the amazing fact that God sent the Son into the world to bear the scorn and abuse, to suffer and die in our place, so that we might be healed, forgiven, and made new.

     Someone once asked Martin Luther what he would do if he knew the Lord was returning tomorrow.  Luther said, “I would plant an apple tree.”  That was his way of saying he would want the Lord to see him doing what he could to help others.  I would simply want to say that it is time for the people of St. John’s to get busy planting some apple trees.  That’s just what we will do if we are wary, ready, and living confident lives.  Amen.