Mood:
quizzicalSunday's gospel, Mark 13: 1-8, a few chapters before the end of Mark's account, is a paragraph about the end of the world, read a few Sundays before the end of the liturgical year. This is the first time I have looked at biblical Greek in over a decade: it is not completely undecipherable, it just takes a little more time. I am still a biblicist (a really neat word, in my opinion). That is a result of being among Baptists during my impressionable youth -- I will always want to know what scripture says about any topic under discussion.
This gospel will be read in churches where some people, having lost their jobs or even their homes, feel they have been already been hit with the worst thing that could happen, the absolutely worst possibility they could imagine. For them, in a sense, not one stone is left on another, from their former lives.
With the help of the marginal notes in the Nestle-Aland Greek NT, one discovers that Sunday's gospel draws on a number of older apocalyptic texts, both canonical (Isaiah) and the non- (or deutero-) canonical 2 Esdras 13:29-31: "Behold, the days come, when the most High will begin to deliver them that are upon the earth. And he shall come to the astonishment of them that dwell on the earth. And one shall undertake to fight against another, one city against another, one place against another, one people against another, and one realm against another." So there will come a time when things are cosmically falling apart, and the whole world will see that and tremble. In great fear and perplexity, people will begin to look for solutions, a way out.
Apocalyptic is a word of encouragement to a faith community under stress. During a late 1st century CE assault by the Roman imperial authorities on the Jews in Judea, known, misleadingly, as the "Jewish war," (which the Jews called the "Great Rebellion") Christian believers were caught in the middle, with no allies and nowhere to turn. Truly, their world was cracking up. This gospel portion was written for them. Was it also written for us, for people who face a different kind of disaster? The challenges we face are also devastating, and, at the risk of stating the obvious, the advice of the gospel writer is helpful today as well: "Do not be alarmed" at the disastrous news, that seems to appear almost weekly, for "the end is yet to come," that is, the Almighty has not yet spoken the final word, which is a word and a judgment of redemption and peace. The gospel writer also tells us, "Beware that no one leads you astray." Amidst catastrophic conditions, many will appear with their solutions, but the truth of the gospel abides; believers have permanent good news, which is unshaken by world disorder. We are citizens of a heavenly country, sojourners here below, and, as such, we are greatly blessed, for we know that our lives are in God's hands.
Posted by indactper-2009
at 9:21 PM EST
Updated: Saturday, 14 November 2009 9:17 PM EST
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Updated: Saturday, 14 November 2009 9:17 PM EST
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