Christ Episcopal Church
November 18, 2012
28 Proper B
One August afternoon a year ago, I was working in my office when I received a text message from my husband. The text message said "Was that an earthquake?" I had no idea. The Christ Church offices are in Hollenbeck House, a brick house build probably in the 1860's. Our offices shake every time a fire truck rolls down High Street. But, I went online and indeed, Don had felt his office shake. An earthquake centered in Virginia had run along the east coast, was felt in Ohio, and did considerable damage to the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Add to that earthquake, the far more severe earthquake in Haiti, the current devastation along the east coast from Hurricane Sandy, the current intensification of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and the countless other disasters, both natural and human-caused, and no wonder there is speculation about the end of the world. Interest has surged in the Mayan calendar which seems to predict the end of the world on December 21 of this year. Just last year, radio host Harold Camping predicted the end of the world on May 21, then when that did not come to pass, adjusted the date to October 21, and yet we are still here. Human nature is to want to flee from harm, so we evacuate areas that are in the path of a deadly storm, or work to predict earthquakes and tornados so people can take shelter. Perhaps the hysteria that often surrounds concern about the end of the world is precisely because there will be no place to flee.
We hear the disciples express a similar concern in the gospel lesson this morning and in the verses that follow. Jesus tells the worried disciples that the temple will be destroyed, which has actually happened by the time Mark’s gospel was written. Of course the disciples want to know when this will happen and what the signs will be so they can prepare. The signs will be false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines, and, we are told, this is only the beginning. If we read the verses that follow, Jesus tells the disciples that they will be handed over to councils, beaten in synagogues, families will be torn apart, all because of their faith in Jesus, and then, finally, when things could not get worse, Jesus will return.
What are we to do with this cheery news as we enter the week of Thanksgiving? Would not a gospel lesson that moves us to gratitude have been a better choice for the writers of the lectionary than one which seems to want to scare us to death?
Given that we have no choice in the matter of the lectionary, what are we, as faithful people, to do with a gospel lesson like this? One option is to write it off and cast it aside as something that comes from an antiquated world view. Certainly there is plenty of incentive to do this. After all, Christians have predicted the return of Jesus and the end of the world as we know it for some 2000 years now. Through out history, there have been plenty of wars, earthquakes, and other disasters, and we are still waiting for Jesus. For most of us, a 2000 year wait gets old and we move on to other things. Or we could take a wait and see approach- waiting to deal with the end times if and when they come.
And yet, at the core of the Biblical faith is the belief that all time moves forward to a point of ultimate fulfillment; the time when all creation will be made new again. In the Nicene Creed, which we say each week, we state the belief of the church that Jesus "will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." Our Eucharistic Prayers proclaim the belief that Christ will return. Simply writing off the passages that describe the end time is not a faithful response to the gospel.
The one favor the lectionary does for us this morning is to pair Jesus’ words about the end of time with the story of Hannah from 1 Samuel. Hannah is in the midst of her own personal tragedy. She is childless, which, in that ancient culture, meant that she, herself, was as good as dead. Her husband, who has at least one other wife, loves her dearly despite her barrenness, and asks "Am I not worth more to you than 10 sons." Hannah pours out her heartbreak to God in the words we hear this morning. We are told that God hears her cry, and she conceives and bears a son, who she names Samuel, and Hannah dedicates her son to God.
What we do not hear this morning are the words of gratitude that Hannah sings after Samuel is born. These are familiar words because they are much like the words Mary sings after the angel tells her that she will conceive and bear a son and name him Jesus. Hannah sings, in part, "There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God....Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life, the Lord makes poor and makes rich, for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and on them he has set the world."
Hannah is not waiting for some future time to see God at work. She sees God at work in the poor and the rich, the full and the hungry, the barren and the blessed, the dead and the living. She gives thanks to God for God’s work and God’s presence in all of life. The danger with passages like our gospel reading this morning is that, taken alone, the passage makes it seem that God will only act in the end time; that Jesus will only be near once Jesus arrives in all his glory and the world as we know it is brought to an end. But together, passages like our gospel reading and the witness of Hannah, remind us of God’s activity in the world now. When Jesus finishes telling the disciples all that will come to pass before he returns, he then says "But be alert. I have already told you everything." What has Jesus told them? That the Kingdom of God has drawn near. Jesus has told parables that point the disciples to the Kingdom emerging in their midst. Yes, we are called to wait for something beyond our imaginations when the Kingdom of God arrives in all its glory. But equally we are called to look and be alert and see where God is at work now. Where is God at work in the earthquake and the flood? Where is God at work in the metaphorical earthquakes and floods of our own lives? In the words of Hannah, where has God drawn near in the lives of the hungry and the full, the rich and the poor, the sick and the healthy? We learn to trust the God whose Kingdom will someday arrive in all its fullness by trusting the God whose kingdom draws near to us day in and day out, earthquake after earthquake, heart break after heart break.. The good news is that God is present, and will be present, in the midst of all of life-including whatever the future may hold. With that, we can move into Thanksgiving week singing Hannah’s song of gratitude.
Amen.
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