The Rev. Brian Gruhn

November 15, 2015
 

Scripture Lessons
Daniel 12: 1-3
Mark 13: 1-8

 Final Things First

We don’t spend a lot of time with Apocalyptic Literature in our tradition.  That simultaneously makes complete sense, while also being a reason for concern about our spiritual health.  Apocalyptic Literature—such as the book of Daniel, and Jesus’ teachings in our reading from Mark—is how we refer to the ancient texts that have to do with the “end of all things.”  In our popular culture, you hear a lot of people referring to “The Apocalypse,” referring to a particular way the world will end.  We tend to dismiss such conversations because…no one who ever claimed to predict THE apocalypse has ever actually been right.  What we need to understand about this tradition, however, is that apocalyptic language and writing is not actually about predicting a catastrophe…it’s always in response to a catastrophe.  In the wake of a huge disaster—truly, the end of someone’s world—particular artists and religious geniuses like the ancient Jewish Prophets, Jesus, and 1st Century Christians have attempted to make sense of their situation by imagining how God must be thinking and acting in the midst of the chaos.  Apocalyptic—as we will explore today—is a form of prophecy, and as Rev. Greg Mobley taught me, “Prophecy is not about seeing forward, but seeing through.”  Prophecy and the artful way in which Apocalyptic is expressed is all about gaining clarity of faith from crisis, and then articulating that clear faith in a way that inspires hope in others.  I think the reason why we don’t talk much about Apocalyptic in our culture is because…by and large…catastrophe is not something we come across a lot.  We are largely protected from catastrophe, thanks be to God.   

But then…every once in awhile…there is a week like the one we have just had…and we should give great thanks that Apocalyptic Literature is part of our tradition…to hold and guide us in times such as these.   

This week has been too much. It began with me announcing the end of my ministry here at Second Church.  As excited as I am about my next step in ministry, I don’t mind telling you that this event has brought me to tears nearly every day since last Sunday.  It’s a difficult thing.  And then, last Sunday night, to add to my sadness…my Dallas Cowboys lost to the Philidelphia Eagles in overtime.  And that was only the beginning of the week…a week filled with endings.  As many of you heard, Andover Newton Theological School—the seminary that has shaped my life and the life of this church in countless ways—announced that it will most likely be selling its campus, and struggle to remain true to its mission to train spiritual leaders for the future by becoming embedded in another school. Then, the reports of vicious and terrifying violence in Beirut, then in Paris.  Yesterday some of us attending a workshop on The Conversation Project, which is a program intended to help all of us talk with one another about our own desires and wishes for our end of life care.  I don’t share all this with you to complain—I know all of you have carried your fair share of grief and loss and struggle this last week, probably even more than myself—I tell you all this so that you know where I’m coming from when I say…this week has just been…too much.   

And perhaps you can understand how completely unhelpful it was to be stuck on the T yesterday looking at a particular advertisement for a church.  I’m not going to say the name of the church, but it’s a non-denominational congregation in the area, and its advertisement on the T is just 3 words: Love. Jesus. Simple.  At first I thought it was some kind of innovative, viral marketing campaign, and if I looked around the car I would see more signs for this church, clarifying this initial poster.  But no, that’s the entire advertisement. What this church wants to let me and the rest of the world know about it is:  Love.  Jesus.  Simple.  At first, all I could hear was a song from my childhood, “Which of these things is not like the other…” I had to read it three or four times: Love. OK, the sociological phenomenon that binds a human being to another through a combination of cultural identity and biological chemistry, celebrated in poetry and prose for centuries due to its mysterious and elusive nature…the very force that causes people to jump in front of bullets for the sake of others, but can also encourage the person firing the bullets in the first place…ok.  I’m with you.  Love.  Then…Jesus.  A first century Jewish rabbi killed by the Roman Empire for challenging established social norms and religious cults…and for 2,000 years has been celebrated as a political subversive, a teacher, a mystic healer, God in human form…the liberator of slaves and the Divine King whose name was invoked to defend the institution of slavery…known as the Alpha and the Omega, the “always has been, since before creation,” and also, somehow, “the not yet;” devotion to whom has spawned no fewer than 33,000 different communities throughout the world.  OK.  Jesus.  I’ve heard of that guy.  I’m with you.  So..what was the last thing on this list?  Simple?  Nonsense.   

What complete nonsense.  They could have put any other third word on that sign and it would have made more sense:  Love.  Jesus.  Jell-o.  I mean that could be a solid sermon title.

 Love. Jesus. Netflix.  That’s a billion dollar industry right there. 

But to sum up Love and Jesus as…simple?  It may be the only thing I’ve read in my life that I would describe as heretical.   

Simplicity has no place in the realm of our faith.  Our lives are lived in a vastly complex network of historical influences and modern events, beginning with the combination of genetic codes that have existed since the dawn of time combining into these particular bodies…to claim that there is anything “simple” about this existence is to deny the facts and our own experiences of that existence.  I will not for a moment, even on this delightful Sunday morning on which all of us could really use a break, I will not allow anyone within the sound of my voice to even pretend for a minute that there is anything simple about these lives of ours.  Simple is good for little things like instructions for assembling a book shelf, or cooking a good pasta dish.  That’s where you want Simple.  I think it’s why so many of us like sports.  They’re simple.  There are established rules that everyone can agree on, and then we get to root for our team to win.  And that’s all that matters, really.  We just get to pour all we are into wanting our team to WIN.  And it’s important that we see the distinction between simplistic areas of life (i.e. sports, games, fun) and complex areas of life (i.e. most everything else) because how we respond to simple catastrophe is very different than how we respond to actual, life changing catastrophe.   

Going back to last week’s tragic Eagles and Cowboys game: They were tied at the end of the 4th quarter, and as they went into overtime, they flipped a coin to see who would start with the ball.  The Eagles called tails, the coin came up tails, the Eagles took the ball and scored almost immediately, the Cowboys lost.  Simple.  But much to my dismay…that was not the end of it…it was made not so simple by a bunch of Cowboy fans who used the internet and an obscene amount of time to attempt to spread the word that the Refs botched the coin toss.  “The Eagles called HEADS not TAILS!”  They reposted footage of the coin toss on the internet and they insisted that the Refs misheard and misinterpreted the Eagles’ call, and when the coin came up tails, they awarded the ball to the wrong team.  “The Cowboys should have won,” they insisted!  And you have to wonder…why?  Why did this happen?  Coin tosses are commonplace in football, and rarely if ever do you hear this kind of absurd outcry about the Refs deliberately, on live national television, rigging it.  Why such a heated debate?  Well…this was the Cowboys’ 6h loss in a row, which gives them a losing streak that Cowboys fans haven’t experienced since 1989.  It’s a catastrophe.  In a simple game of losers and winners…the losing side can quickly come up with all manner of conspiracy theories and emotional reactions that attempt to explain why things have gone so horribly wrong.  No one likes being part of the losing team…and the human mind is really good at inventing and imagining conspiracies, villains, foes of all kinds that have corrupted the simple and pure world that once was. 

The book of Daniel tells the story of a young Jewish elite and his three friends.  When Belshazar’s Babylonian Kingdom conquers Israel, destroys the temple, and kills, enslaves or exiles all the Jewish citizens, Daniel is taken to the king’s court.  Throughout the ancient world, if another kingdom declared war on your village, or city, or nation…the losing side would always end up worshipping the gods of the conquering nation.  Why wouldn’t you?  If you were defeated in battle, it must mean that the other side worships a better god than yours, so you better get on board with the winners.  Daniel and his friends are brought to court to be tortured and humiliated and put to service for the King.  But then, something new happens.  Rather than humiliated and worked to death until he converts to the Babylonian gods, Daniel reveals to the King that God is going to destroy the Babylonians the same way the Babylonians destroyed Israel.  “There shall be a time of anguish, such that has never occurred since the birth of all nations,” he tells the king.  It’s a story that reflects the phenomenon of the entire Jewish people in exile…for the first time in history, a people who were humiliated and decimated by another empire insisted that their God was still with them, and still the only one ultimately in charge of the world.  In the passage from Mark, we hear Jesus saying the same thing.  Several hundred years after Daniel and the first exile, Israel has been restored, though under Roman occupancy, and the Temple rebuilt.  The disciples stand in awe of the Temple and Jesus says to them, “This will all go away.”  The Temple was already destroyed once…Jesus knows it can just as easily happen again.  The disciples ask, “When?  When will this take place?”  Jesus’ response is not cryptic, so much as it is honest, “I don’t know,” Jesus says, “only God knows.  But when—not if, but WHEN that happens, know that God is already doing a new thing.”   

There are people who would have us read Apocalyptic literature as if it’s a prediction about the future.  A playbook that simplifies complex faith into a story of Christian “winners” and what will happen at the end of time to the “losers.”  There are people who fear and dread the terror and violence in the world, and they simplify complex realities into a story of “winners” who are able to deal out the most violence and “losers” who are unable or unwilling to stoop to violence to achieve peace.  Make no mistake, the words of Daniel, and the teaching and example of Jesus are not SIMPLE…if you asked them detailed questions about HOW everything they said would come to pass, I’m sure they would have no answer for you.  Christian Apocalypse is not about predicting Simple truths…it is about Preaching Clear Truth.  Everything that is born in this world will, at some point, pass away.  But what we dedicate our lives to…the work that we take up while we are here…that can leave a legacy that changes the face of the earth forever, long after we are gone. 

Friends, we all mourn and weep for the loss of life, the persistence of evil in the world, and for the fear that we all live with in our hearts.  But as much as I have ever been sure about anything, I am sure about this:  If our Hope lies in God, then we cannot be defeated.  Our God calls us to serve those in need, to love one another, to make justice and family and welcome tangible things on the earth in our relationships to one another and through our actions in the world.  If we live our lives openly and vulnerably, giving our valuable time and energy to those most in need of it, then one day we will die, but we will never be defeated.  But if our reaction to the suffering and evil of the world is to shut down, or turn off our hearts, or to hope in some final solution that once and for all rids the world of violence and hatred…then we may live a little longer, but we will have been truly defeated.  Every year we give thousands of dollars to charities, we spend countless hours in worship and nurturing the faith of our young ones, we maintain historic traditions and commitments through acts of service and organization…but friends, it’s possible that the hardest work for us as a people—in this time and place—is to preserve Hope.  It’s the one thing that can’t be bought or tended to with money.  It is the essential thing that defines us and is so easy to lose.  It is the aspect of our faith that each of us must practice over and over and over again, or else none of us will have it.  It is the FINAL thing that has an effect on EVERYTHING.  Where we place our Hope is the destination we will come to.  When our Hope is in the God of Creation and Resurrection and Ever Lasting Life, we walk a path of love and service that always leads us to abundance and grace.  When our Hope is in things that we can control, things that we’ve grown to count on, things that are just as finite and temporary as everything else throughout history, then we walk a path of despair and shadow that ends in misery and disappointment.  Our world and our faith lives are not simple…but when we are able to embrace complexity and celebrate the God who created an interrelated universe of awe and wonder…in all its joy AND sorrow…then anything we can clearly imagine becomes possible.  Thanks be to God.