Mark 13:1-13 (Pentecost 26B)

Mark 13:1-13 (Pentecost 26B)

St. John, Galveston 11/17/24

Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

I got out of my car and walked toward the building. I was about half way to the door when I stopped and mumbled under my breath, “oh, man, I did it again.” This was during the Covid years, and it occurred to me, in my haste,  I had left my mask in the car. I’m sure you all had that experience a time or two during those years. This time though, as I was heading back to the car to get my mask, I smiled a bit as I thought about the situation as it was unfolding. I mean, what was I thinking? I was actually about to enter a bank without a mask on my face!

They are signs of the times. They’re those ever changing cultural requirements and norms that are sometimes written and sometimes not. For good or ill, they give us a bit of insight into what’s going on in society at a given point in time. And so, seventy years ago or so, the sign on a public drinking fountain would have said, “whites only.” A few years ago, at a restaurant in Colorado, I walked up to the restroom and the sign on the door said, “All Genders.” Sometimes we welcome the signs of the times, as when those “whites only” signs were removed from public drinking fountains. Other times though we bemoan them, and we long for yesteryear and the signs of a different time. 

In this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus referred to some events, signs of the times, if you will, that were still yet to come. Some were events that His disciples and every future generation would see and should interpret as signs of creation’s unrest, and ultimately as signs of Jesus’ imminent return in glory. One though, namely the first sign He mentioned, the collapse of the stones of the Temple, many of His disciples would see firsthand, as the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 70AD, just 40 years, or so, after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The other signs He mentioned wouldn’t all occur in the disciples lifetime. In fact, they would be spread out over many, many years, centuries even, over the period known as the age of the church, or the age of grace, which includes, of course, the age in which we now live. The signs that Jesus said are to come are unlike the typical signs of the times, which we might either embrace or reject. The signs of which Jesus referred to are fearful signs, they are signs that awaken us to the groaning of this fallen creation, signs that call us to repentance, that we might be every mindful of and prepared for His coming on the Last Day.

“See that no one leads you astray (Jesus said). Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains... But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

We hear from time to time about wars and earthquakes and famines and hurricanes and the like. Sometimes we’re even caught up in the middle of them. Whether they effect us directly or not, their devastation doesn’t go unnoticed. In fact, as Christians, it’s sometimes difficult for us to reconcile the death and destruction caused by these sorts of events with the goodness and mercy of God. After all, people of all faiths and of no faith, for that matter, die in them. We also sometimes find ourselves trying to “answer” for God, when people cite such events as “proof” that God must be lacking either in power or goodness. “There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.” 

They’re birth pains, Jesus said. Wars and famines and earthquakes and hurricanes and the like are birth pains. Just as a woman’s travail and difficulty in giving birth to a child was brought about by the Fall of mankind into sin, so all of the rest of creation groans as with the pains of childbirth. A broken creation cannot but do so. It is, after all, broken, bent even, toward collapse and death. Sins effect on the creation is described eloquently by St. Paul in his letter to the church in Rome. He says, “The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.”

Few things, I should think, cry out louder for a day of redemption, a day of resurrection and renewal, than a world groaning under the weight and the destructive power of sin. That which was to be, namely life and peace, are seen now only dimly as in a mirror. More often, there is turmoil and unrest, not because God causes such things to happen or because He orchestrates them, but because the world itself has been subjected to corruption and decay. What happens in this world, God allows, and what He allows is for a purpose.

As to the various signs of the times, we might embrace them or we might reject them. The signs of a groaning creation, however, we ignore at our own peril. They are forceful signs, signs that demonstrate our absolute need for the mercy and the grace of God in the world and in our lives. They are, above all, calls to repentance, situations wherein we are compelled to look heavenward and to cry out, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” 

These signs point us to the Day of Jesus’ return and they are going to be with us throughout our days, as we live in the age of the Church, the age of grace. In such a time as this, only one thing remains firm, only one thing endures, only one thing never changes, only one thing can be trusted fully and relied upon. “Heaven and earth will pass away (Jesus says), but My words will not pass away.” The Word of God stands forever. It shines as a beacon of hope, piercing the darkness of sin, death and destruction, giving order and purpose in an otherwise chaotic, dying world. It does so because it sets before us Jesus, the One through whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together. 

It is Jesus who says, “In this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, for I have overcome the world.” It is by this and other promises of God that we endure to the end and we are saved, saved from our own sin and death, saved too from the temptation to question either the power of God to rule His creation, or, the grace and mercy of God to redeem it and to restore it.  

In the end, the One who comes again in glory and judgment, is the very same One who has bought you with a price, who has given you another SIGN, the SIGN of the cross, that He placed both on your forehead and on your heart, to mark you as one redeemed by Christ, the crucified. To endure to the end, is to remember the grace of God given to you in your baptism. It is to live in the grace of God in which you now stand, to face wars and famines and earthquakes and hurricanes and the like, knowing that God has already won the victory for you in Christ Jesus and that, no matter how perplexing and disheartening these signs of His coming may be, they have hidden beneath them His sure and certain promise that He will be “with you to the very end of the age.” 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +