Mark 13:24-37
“But in those days, after [the destruction of the Temple], the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
“Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels and gather the elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight or at cockcrow or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
Sermon Text
Prophecy is weird. I have no hesitation in saying that. When you look at the ancient words uttered to criticize the powerful or project what will happen in the future, you will inevitably run into some strange details. The ability to look ahead, to sometimes discern the signs that were present in the world around you, and to cast a vision for what was going to happen was not something unique to one or two persons in an era, but it was something that only a few really succeeded in. The prophets that we still discuss are the ones that said something that did actually come to pass. Moses, after all, gave his clearest instruction regarding prophets when he said, “If it comes true, that’s a good sign they’re the real deal.”
The prophet is not just a person who can predict the future though, they are someone who has to be acutely aware of the present. Abraham Joshua Heschel, philosopher of religion and general genius, wrote a huge two volume book on what it means to be a prophet. He captures, I think, something that we can see as the heart of religion itself and especially the work of the prophet. A prophet, he says, is a person who loses the concept of God as someone who interacts with the world, but the world as something that orbits, interacts with, and depends upon God.[1] The difference sounds small when we say it like that, but it is pretty revolutionary.
The prophet has to understand the event of God as much as the person of God. They understand that meeting God is always around, always active, and that we choose to cloud our vision of that reality. The Prophet does not think about God, but hears God’s thoughts, they do not “know,” except in attaining knowledge of God. Someone who fully becomes a prophetic voice is someone who is completely turned over into God’s reality that surpasses our own.
That is a bit complex of an idea though. I think that our usual language fails to capture what it means to be a prophet. Many people I know have reduced the role of prophet to someone who offers social critique and points toward an alternative possibility for their society. A prophet does this, absolutely, but they cannot be a mere political analyst. There must be a divine spark, something that hears God’s anger at injustice and captures God’s joy in goodness and righteousness. The work of a prophet is in transforming the world, through the speaking of the Spirit into it.
Christ, our Lord and Savior, is very intentionally called God’s “Word,” or in the Greek “Λογος” (Logos.) Christ was the ultimate prophet because he was God. He was the most real a person could be because he was fully invested with God’s divinity. On Earth, Christ only displayed the fullness of divinity after his resurrection, but it was always latent within him. Every action, every word, every thought of Christ was a thought of the eternal God of creation, injected into the human experience in his incarnation. The prophecy of Christ was not just in words, but in action and deed. Every movement of Jesus was a movement of the Spirit and of the Father, a perfectly coordinated dance between the person of the Trinity.
Christ came to the Mount of Olives, having come to Jerusalem to face his crucifixion and death, and he stood there as Zechariah said he would. He looked at the Temple, standing tall on a raised platform in the city, and he spoke against it. He said that it would be destroyed, that in the aftermath of its destruction his followers would be persecuted, and that when the stones of the Temple fell it meant that the countdown had really begun to the end of all things and the start of a creation made into what it was always meant to be. Christ went into that city, he died and rose again, and he ascended into Heaven. His disciples waited for the day his prophecy was fulfilled, and saw it come to pass… And then they waited.
We recently talked about the way that we all get excited at times at the prospect of Christ’s return. We eagerly await the restitution of our broken world. We look forward to the incredible signs Christ forecast, of sun and moon disappearing into sackcloth and blood, and the extinguishing of the great cosmic lanterns above us. We await this because we believe in prophecy, we believe in what Christ gave us to hope in. We know what it means to be saved, to feel Christ within us and proclaim that truth out loud. We know the Spirit’s movement deep in our hearts, the opening of a door into something new. We know so much, but we always have more to learn.
We proclaim a faith that necessitates that, someday, time will meet its end. Our proclamation is not that the world is building up toward an entropic destruction – where energy grows tired and settles into a cold cosmic soup. Instead, we proclaim a revivification of this broken world, a birth into something new. We are not like those without hope, who see the world only as the inert matter it is made of. We see beyond the dark materials of creation into the brilliant light of God’s work, of God’s beauty. We stay alive, awake, and alert as people who know our Master will be home any minute, and we do so in the joyful knowledge that what is to come is much better than what presently is.
As we enter into Advent, as we drink from the cup and eat of the bread of remembrance we call Holy Communion, let the grace of God take hold of you. Surrender completely to a world in which we do not have to be the focal point, but where we are just one thing in orbit of something far greater and more wonderful. Remember that the infinite God of all time and space, in order to bring all of time and space into harmony once again, came to live among us. As we prepare for Christ’s advent in the world today, we prepare to celebrate the time long ago he was born as a human that lived around us. Drink deep the grace of God, and find your voice. – Amen.
[1] Abraham Joshua Heschel. “Conclusions.” in The Prophets: Two Volumes in One (Peabody: Mass. : Hendrickson Publishers.) 2021
Teach us to Number our Days 