Left Stones
Mark 13:1-8

November 19, 2006


I am going to go out on a limb, but a pretty sturdy one, to say that the one topic that consistently grabs people’s attention is “the end of the world.” It is so popular, that a popular rock group, R.E.M, sang one of those breakneck speed rants, with the title as the refrain, “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.”

That sounds like the end of the world is not such a bad thing after all, and could even be fun! More likely, the tone is that there always seems to be somebody declaring that the apocalypse is now, and you know that somebody always benefits when the world is ending. Human history can be described as the brief breaks between the Endings of the World.

Oh, we’ve had some good excuses: the Black Plague in the 14th century did wipe out a significant portion of humanity. Wars have never been civilization-friendly events. Hurricanes like Katrina, tsunamis in southeast Asia, volcanoes like Krakatoa, earthquakes in San Francisco have fueled the most sordid of imaginations. Somehow, the End never seems to cooperate and follow our blueprints and our calendars. Bad things happen, tragic things, thousands of innocent people are killed, yet the world does not stop as neatly as the prophets insist it will.

And it is obvious that we earnestly desire the End of the World as a way to bring about political and other changes. I grew up during the 1950’s and 1960’s when the Cold War was at its peak, spreading its apocalyptic warnings of imminent nuclear holocaust triggered casually by some Dr. Strangelove out of control. In the last five years, September 11th, 2001, instantly became the sign and event that changed the world forever. We know that certain governments made certain that the world did change. Global warming may be becoming a reality, but it is surely accompanied by dire prophecies intended to frighten populations and governments into action. Even this past week, the now perennial specter of an influenza outbreak is labeled as the inevitable “pandemic” in which memories of the 1918 Spanish Influenza are conveniently conjured up. I’m not sure whose cause is helped by an errant asteroid heading straight for Earth, but throw that one in for good measure. When we want to influence people towards a certain course of action, we turn up the apocalyptic knob as loud as we can get away with. Time and again, most people enjoy it loud.

The 13th chapter of Mark is often called “the Little Apocalypse” in which Jesus’ words mirror the ideas and sentiments of the Book of Revelation, Daniel and Ezekiel. The Jesus company has arrived in the big city and they are true hicks, gawking at the magnificent and opulent Temple. Seeing escalators for the first time and believing they are amusement rides. Where do you think the Crystal Cathedral got its inspiration? This is Big Religion.

Jesus is an excellent killjoy, saying bluntly that it’s all coming down sooner than later. The Temple had been rebuilt by Herod just before Jesus’ birth and wouldn’t be actually finished until after the crucifixion, so it was awesomely brand new. Huge stones, high walls, the perimeter was more than a kilometer; this wasn’t coming down any time soon. However, in about 30-40 years, right when Mark and the other Evangelists were writing the Gospels, it would be torn down and burned with a vengeance by an enraged and efficient Roman army. That’s all it takes. Not one stone left upon another, except for the Wailing Wall, a wall without a house.

They head up to the Mount of Olives and with the Temple still in grand view, four of the disciples ask nervously, “When?” Personally, I would be a bit concerned about the How and the What, and probably the Why. But seldom do people bother to figure those things out. We want the date and time in order to figure out where our place will be in all of this. Is it going to affect us? How can we avoid it, and is there a way we can get some advantage out of it?

Jesus answers, “Watch,” and then gets into his rant, just like R.E.M., of all the dire events that will be appearing on the horizon. Most people hear the object of that “Watch” to be for the signs of all these apocalyptic disasters, but Jesus is telling you and me precisely the opposite. Watch out for all those people who try to sell you these end of the world goods, leading you astray for their own profit and power. When you hear about wars and rumours of wars - do not be alarmed. Oh, wars are going to happen, alright, earthquakes do happen, famines are happening, but don’t get caught up in all this future prognostications that will wear you out and inhibit you from hearing and then doing the Good News. If all it takes is the collapse of civilization; if all it takes is famines and earthquakes; if all it takes is an astronomical amount of human misery, then Christ was due back a long, long time ago.

Rumours of wars? I was in Grade 9 at a new school only a month when the Cuban Missile Crisis reared up its brinkmanship head in early October of 1962. There were the spy flight photos of the missiles being unloaded and erected and targeted. There was the naval quarantine of the island of Cuba by US battleships, and the inflammatory rhetoric from Moscow and Washington. The nuclear bombs were definitely coming our way and there were advice on TV and radio about setting up bomb shelters in your home. Apocalypse was now, except that it was all rumours of war, and pretty nightmarish rumours at that.

Watch out for those guys who want to manipulate your fear and march to their tunes and agendas. There are more than a few Christian and other religious groups that build their entire theology around the end of the world as we know it, and more than a few marketing and political geniuses count on the end of the world loosening up certain sections of your wallet and relinquishing certain sides of your freedom and dignity. Watch out for them, Jesus warns, because they will dissuade and distract you from what is really important. God alone controls the time, and many of us never learn that. Believing that we can, we end up believing we can control God, keep God’s schedule right on our time. If you can control God, well, you can control anybody, and then it might as well be everybody.

Watch out lest some one distracts you and leads you astray. You know where the “When” of the four disciples comes in? When you hear about war breaking out, do everything you can to break it down, to bring about reconciliation and peace. When you hear about an earthquake, send money and food and water, building materials, medical supplies and medical personnel. When there is a hurricane like Katrina, don’t sit around working out the bureaucracy, send people and engineers and all sorts of physical help, take the washed out and homeless into your homes. When there is a famine, send food and irrigation experts and well-diggers, so that there won’t be a next famine. Don’t be paralyzed because someone or some church aggressively tells you this is a sign of the end of the world as we know it, because they don’t know the time and they don’t know God, and they are only out to serve their own self-interests.

Watch out for those guys, and they are legion among us. The Gospel can’t wait for their manipulations and anxiety. We don’t have enough time as it is to get the Good News out, to go out into the world to serve God with gladness, to be of good courage, to hold fast to which is good, to render to no one evil for evil, to strengthen the fainthearted and support the weak and help the afflicted, to honour all people, loving and serving God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan