This began as a brief introduction to a sermon on events in Ferguson, Missouri. The more I worked with it the more I saw in it and decided to let it stand alone and be shared as is. It offers a different take on a difficult apocalyptic passage for Advent 1. Year B, Advent 1 November 30th, 2014 By Thomas L. Truby Mark 13:24-37 Stay Awake! On the first Sunday of Advent we are plunged into more apocalyptic language; language about huge events with cosmic importance, the revealing of things hidden, and choices coming that are inescapable. I want to read the gospel passage with some commentary imbedded that I hope will open it up and show us a fresh interpretation. Then I want to address the national debate on events in Ferguson, Missouri. First, in the passage I am about to read Jesus is speaking to his disciples and nearing the time of the passion though he does not know how it will unfold. He just knows it is near and incredibly important. In chapter 11, just before this passage, he told the disciples that the temple, the very center of their culture, would soon be utterly destroyed unless they listened to his message of non-violence and changed their ways. They didn’t listen, continued to violently oppose Rome, and in 70 A.D. Rome totally destroyed both Jerusalem and the Temple, killing thousands. That event totally changed Judaism forever. Never again would a Temple be central. The passage today continues the conversation begun with the prediction of the Temple’s destruction. Jesus is using apocalyptic language, scary language of sheep and goats being separated, the language of fearful times, hoping to awaken people before it is too late. I am reading from the Common English Bible. I do this to get us away from familiar language so that we will be able to hear the new message that Jesus is actually articulating. 24 “In those days, after the suffering of that time, the sun will become dark, and the moon won’t give its light. 25 The stars will fall from the sky, and the planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken. (Jesus is using apocalyptic language to say coming events are of enormous importance. The very structures of reality will be stunned and changed forever.) 26 Then they will see the Human One coming in the clouds with great power and splendor. (I think the Human One refers to the coming risen Lord who operates outside the categories of revenge and retribution. This One will know how to love as God intended and as God loves and he will teach us all how to love. He will embody forgiveness and demonstrate compassion. For me he comes at the resurrection and then again at the end of history as we know it.) 27 Then he will send the angels and gather together his chosen people from the four corners of the earth, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven. (This love will be radically inclusive stretching from one end of the earth to the other. Nothing will be excluded.) (Now he moves to a dramatic and fresh image. How many of you have fig trees? Right now here in Oregon the hard freeze has killed all the fig tree leaves and they have fallen. But imagine the barren branches in April and May when the buds swell and the new green leaves burst forth.) 28 “Learn this parable from the fig tree. After its branch becomes tender and it sprouts new leaves, you know that summer is near. (Suddenly it hit me. The life of Jesus is the sprouting of new leaves. This is what the disciples have been witnessing as they watched Jesus live in front of them. In Jesus we can see the character of God in a fresh way. But his life on earth is only the beginning; summer is coming when we see the fullness of the leaf and its fruit. Could it be his death and resurrection shows us the fullness of summer? Could it be that here we see the full expression of the Father’s love and perhaps, just perhaps, we are the fruit? This not scary language, this is language full of love and profound depth. Jesus has subverted “scary” but we are so full of fear that we haven’t seen it before and have interpreted this violently.) 29 In the same way, when you see these things happening, you know that he’s near, at the door. (Yes, he is very near. He is at the very door of Passion Week. In Mark, chapter 13 we are very near the end. Or on another level, he is soon to be born on this first Sunday of Advent. That’s why these texts are used now.) 30 I assure you that this generation won’t pass away until all these things happen. (And they didn’t. Peter was there and the disciples and all the players to the drama were there. Jesus is saying “this is about to happen and it is very important.) 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away. (This is an event more important than time and outside its boundaries. Do you see power of this?) 32 “But nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the angels in heaven and not the Son. Only the Father knows. (Jesus and his disciples didn’t know how it was all going to unfold. As they moved toward Passion Week they were as vulnerable and out of control as we are in living our lives. They were living real lives. Therefore,) 33Watch out! Stay alert! You don’t know when the time is coming. 34 It is as if someone took a trip, left the household behind, and put the servants in charge, giving each one a job to do, and told the doorkeeper to stay alert. (It’s like the usual owner of the household, violence and fear, took a trip leaving the servants in charge. Could Jesus and his disciples be the servants left in charge and they spread mercy and forgiveness to such an extent that it undermined the householder? This would fit with the themes of Advent as we prepare for his birth. Maybe this is why the householder named a doorkeeper to warn them of his return. He ruled through fear and the doorkeeper stood as a reminder of his fearfulness –like the National Guard in Ferguson—reminding us all to be afraid. And on another level, the disciples did go into hiding after the crucifixion and before they knew of the resurrection. They were afraid the violent authorities would burst in on them. Now Jesus again subverts apocalyptic thinking. Usually in apocalyptic thinking God returns with revenge and violence. This is the basis for the Left Behind series now playing in the theaters and so popular among many Christian in recent years. But in Jesus’ usage the returning head of the household turns out to be human purveyors of violence; the people we know in the passion story—Herod, Pilate, and the crowd. Does it surprise us that the violent ways of the world heads this household? Michael Hardin has recently written, “There is only one god in this world and its name is Violence and Death.” When we apply apocalyptic thinking to this text we miss the subversion Jesus intends. The way we have always interpreted this says more about us than about Jesus. Jesus’ stories turn on us and show us our own violence. Why do I say this? Listen to the next part.) 35 Therefore, stay alert! You don’t know when the head of the household will come, whether in the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster crows in the early morning or at daybreak. (Notice the four times mentioned and put this with the events of the night of Jesus’ arrest. It was in the evening when the soldiers came to the Garden of Gethsemane, at midnight he was taken to Herod, at cock’s crow Peter denied him and at sunrise he was brought before Pilate who finally condemned him. Was this written that way by accident? In each of the four times the head of the household comes in the form of lethal human authority. This is not God’s doing. It is ours. ) 36 Don’t let him show up (this violent intruder) when you weren’t expecting and find you sleeping. (Don’t let yourself doze in the complacency of cultural illusion. See violence for what it is and wake up before it destroys you. The disciples were sleeping when the armed posse arrived? They slept even though Jesus asked them to stay awake and pray.) 37 What I say to you, I say to all: Stay alert!”
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:21:09 +0000
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