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Sermon by: The Rev. Rebecca Tankersley Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration | Dallas, Texas November 18, 2018 Twenty Sixth Sunday After Pentecost: Proper 28 |
The Kingdom of God
Texts: Daniel 12:1-3 | Psalm 16 | Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25 | Mark 13:1-8
“Not one stone will be left here upon another.”
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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Good morning.
The lectionary this week begins beautifully with one of my favorite collects. In fact, if you’ve ever attended one of Roy Heller’s classes, you’ve heard him pray regularly. “Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.” These words enkindle anew my desire to immerse myself in God’s word. On Monday, having prayed this collect, I grabbed my pen and prepared to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest these readings.
Daniel: “There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred” from which “everyone who is found written in the book” will be delivered. Gut clenched, I wondered, “Am I written in the book?” Because some will wake to everlasting life while others – presumably those who aren’t written in the book – to shame and everlasting contempt.
“Maybe I could read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest something else” like the gospel – the good news.
The Gospel: “Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” False prophets, “wars and rumors of wars,” earthquakes, famines.
What if I just “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the collect? I prayed it again. “Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning…” And there I was, back at the troublesome readings. The problem is one of genre: they are prophetic and apocalyptic.
“Not one stone will be left here upon another.” This is prophecy, but not the sort that happens in Professor Trelawney’s Divination class at Hogwarts. Jesus isn’t looking into a cup of tea, seeing the Grim, and predicting that the fall of the temple in 70 AD to Rome or the destruction of his body (the temple) on a cross. Sure, he may have been signally these events would come. But if that’s all he’s up to here, then after he’s been crucified and the temple destroyed, we need not concern ourselves with this troublesome text. To understand prophecy, we need to remember three things:
- Prophecy isn’t just about them; it’s about us.
- Prophecy isn’t just about back then; it’s about now.
- Prophecy isn’t just about their future; it’s about our present.
So Jesus must be saying something here about us, now, and how we are to live in the present.
As my friend Roy Heller says: “So far so good?”
Apocalypse is a subset of prophecy in which God unveils God’s telos – God’s plan of salvation. Apocalyptic texts aren’t written to allow us to locate ourselves on a timeline relative to the end of the world. Rather, they show us how to live now in light of God’s plan of salvation by changing the way we see the world. These texts weren’t written to provide a schedule of future events, but to guide us to find our center in the relationship between God and the world.
There’s a tone of apocalypse throughout Mark’s Gospel. The first words Jesus utters (in 1:15) are: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” We’re meant to understand that history has been unfolding in a meaningful way toward the goal – the reign of the kingdom of God. Jesus ushers in the beginning of this reign: “the time is fulfilled.” Mark’s Gospel reveals the truth of Jesus’ statement. Because the kingdom of God is near, people are healed, demons are cast out, and God’s power is at work in the world. This calls forth from us action: repentance and belief.
Here’s the rub. If the kingdom of God has come near, then the kingdom of humankind is necessarily passing away. We see this rub in today’s reading from Mark.
Look back at the opening: “As Jesus came out of the temple.” Last week, Jesus taught inside the temple: “Beware the scribes, who … devour widows’ houses … for the sake of appearances.” The splendor inside the temple was acquired at the expense of poor widows. Having walked outside, a disciple now marvels at appearances. “What large stones … what large buildings!”
This temple is the second in Jerusalem. The first, opulent and splendorous, was built through forced servitude of God’s people by King Solomon. It was destroyed by Babylon at the time of the exile. Thereafter, returning Jews built a modest version of the former temple. By Jesus’ day, Herod the Great, wanting to perpetuate his name through spectacular buildings, had overhauled the temple. He paid for the work, his crowning masterpiece, by levying heavy taxes on his subjects.