Sunday: The 24th Sunday after Pentecost
Reading: Mark 13:1-8
Preacher: Peter C. Lane

If the director of the new apocalyptic movie 2012 was our deacon, I am sure he would have read the last sentence of our gospel ominously, "This is but the beginning of the birthpangs." But as a Bradley natural childbirth trained father with two boys born in the last four years, I hear it a little differently. When Erin woke me up in the middle of the night on January 6th, I thought, "Birthpangs? Birthpangs!" Birthpangs mean baby. That is good news. And I think we ought to read this thirteenth Chapter of the Gospel of Mark in that light. Wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes and famines-just like the New York Times today has stories about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, about the rampage at Fort Hood, about the terrible harvest in New York State. Is our world going to hell in a hand basket? No. There might be birthpangs, but that means there is a birth coming, so let us live in an expectant present.

This 13th chapter of Mark's gospel is called the "little apocalypse." It quotes directly from the book of Daniel three times and looks a lot like the book of Revelation. [1] These apocalyptic texts are often very deterministic; they often view the end of the world as some great looming crisis, and they can be very dualistic. They can give hope to the oppressed; it might be terrible now, but in the end you will be vindicated, so hold on. The 13th chapter of Mark does share some of those characteristics, but in the end it seems much more worried about the effect on the community of believers than in some end times bizarreness. The little parable that ends the chapter is about slaves who are in charge of the household, not oppressed and whose major temptation is falling asleep, not being destroyed by the kingdoms of this world. Mark, even in this chapter where he borrows apocalyptic language, continues his interest in how people should follow Jesus.

Those of you who, like me, love the Gospel of Mark will be sad to hear that today is our last day with this earliest and shortest gospel. Next week is Christ the King Sunday and then we start a new church year. We have to wait until Advent 2011 to get more Mark. But the 13th chapter is a good place to stop for it is the turn from Jesus' teaching to Jesus' passion. The story immediately before is ethical teaching on the widow's mite. Immediately after, the scribes are conspiring to kill Jesus. It ties the whole book together. If you had gotten to our passage this morning after reading through the book in one sitting, then the way the gospel began would still be fresh in your mind, "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ." And this 13th chapter, which tells about birthpangs and counsels the reader to "stay awake" would be fresh in your mind when you read the passion. The Gospel of Mark is a book of good news. Birthpangs precede birth. But it is the kind of good news that can see the cross not only as a torture device but also as a point of renewal and new life. The good news that Mark is telling us about this morning is to live in an expectant present.
We live in the now and the not yet. This way that Mark describes time is really different then how we typically experience time. Birth pangs are usually exciting because they don't last forever. Please, God, don't let history be unending labor. How could a husband stay awake and attentive that long? Some want to read Revelation and Daniel and the 13th chapter of Mark as telling us secrets about the future. Others wonder what it has to do with the man Jesus who lived in a particular time in the past. The birthpangs we read about and the command to stay awake that ends the chapter are about the past and the future impacting how we experience the present. Mark tells us about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and he claims that the Kingdom of God is coming. And Mark thinks that should impact how followers of Jesus live in the present. We should form radically new community characterized by inclusion of the least and leadership for the sake of the other. We should know that honoring God is a matter of the heart and not the digestive system. We should know that feeding the hungry is a good thing. Why do those things? The Kingdom of God is bursting in. Mark is all about the expectant present. Remember how the book ends? The women run to the tomb and the angel tells them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here.'" That is the good news we have. Jesus is risen but he is not here, he has gone up ahead. We live in the now, but not yet.

The Kingdom of God is now. I glimpsed it yesterday when we and our handicapped guests from project renewal sang out Amazing Grace after having shared the Eucharist. I see glimpses of it in how this community is rallying around Sally Wolcott. I see glimpses when everyone, whoever they are and wherever they find themselves on the journey of faith, gay/straight, black/white, adopted/biological, skeptic/believer, poor/rich gather around this table. We are, sometimes, the beloved community. But the Kingdom of God is also not yet. As Mark 13 says, we "do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn." The resurrection of Jesus is the first fruits of the Kingdom, but only the first fruits. There is more story to be told.

Reading apocalyptic literature shouldn't send us scurrying out to look for Jesus in the clouds. But it also means that life isn't just one foot in front of the other until we die. God is active. And that means that what we are about in the church is important stuff. We're not just building a nice little sentimental community. For Mark, "Discipleship is lived out in the interim, prior to the end." That is what we are trying to do. And a little suffering isn't going to stop us. If we know there is a good ending suffering can even produce hope. To quote Donald Juel one last time for the year, we are to live with "burning confidence in the nearness of the end and with uncertainty about the precise time." [2] So stay awake. The reality of wars and rumors of wars, of earthquakes and famines prevent a quick turn to over-romanticizing Jesus' role in this world. Even the great institutions will not last. "Though with care and toil we build them, tower and temple fall to dust." The good news of the Gospel of Mark is that the end is still to come. That all of the nastiness we see around us is not the final word. The Kingdom of God, the beloved community is coming. "God's great goodness ever endureth. Evermore from his store newborn worlds rise and adore." Birthpangs means a baby. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus means that however many earthquakes, famines, or wars, the Kingdom of God is both here and coming. And so, with all our hope on God founded, let us live in the now and the not yet.

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[1] Lamar Williamson, Mark, (Louisville, John Knox Press, 1983).
[2] Donald Juel, Mark (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999).