25 Pentecost B 28 November 18, 2012
Daniel 12: 1-3 Psalm 16
Hebrews 10:11-14 (15-18) 19-25 Mark 13:1-8
We are less than 48 hours away from the violent terrorist
attacks upon innocent people in Paris France. In our own memory, we have
the 9/11 attacked upon the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We have
in our memory the bombing of the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma
City. These experiences prove an indisputable fact: Happenings of
violence and of destruction and mass injury become what we call Events.
Events are actions which stand out from the ordinary everyday occurrences and
demand public attention. They demand public speculation. They
cry for many kinds of meaning to be projected upon them. Why
did this happen? Why did this happen now? Why did it happen to
us? Events of disaster provoke people to seek meaning.
If we understand the ability for the chaos of
destruction and violence to become events, we can understand the meaning
and function of the apocalyptic literature in the Bible. Because we
assume the normalcy of peace and safety and goodness, the chaos of danger,
destruction and violence demand that we find an explanation for why the
normalcy of safety and goodness should be deprived.
The Apocalyptic is the human impulse to try to make meaning out of the events
of violence, war, terror and destruction. As a human impulse, I would
suggest that this is a universal characteristic of being human. If
we can begin to speak meanings about the events of evil and destruction, we are
beginning to assert our response of control against the apparent forces of
chaos. The quest for the meaning of the event of chaos is a coping
response; it is an effort to assert the primacy of goodness, justice and
safety.
When people become the targets of violence, there are events of substitution
genocide. If an entire nation or group of people can't be killed then how
can a people be diminished? In place of genocide, enemies try to
dishearten a people by attacking their important symbols.
We
were told that one of the planes on 9/11 was headed toward the White
House. One plane stuck the Pentagon, the symbolic building of the
American military. The White House and the Capitol are perhaps the two
most important symbolic American buildings.
The Temple in Jerusalem was the most important symbolic building for the Jewish
people. And since it was a religious building made for the dwelling of
the Divine presence, the destruction of the Temple was a way for the Roman Armies
to say that the Jewish people and their God was powerless against the power of
the Roman armies and the divinity of the Roman Emperor.
The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in the year 70 was an event which
caused many people to speculate about the meaning of such an event.
One of the ways in which the destruction of the Temple received meaning was in
the "after the fact predictions." If the destruction of the Temple was
predicted then it could be seen as an event which did not elude divine sanction.
How does a young person save face when he trips and falls in front of his
peers? He gets up and proclaims, "I meant for that to
happen." Such a declaration gives him a face saving sense of control
in coping with his mishap.
The oracle of Jesus which was being spoken within the early church after the
Temple had been destroyed expressed a faith in God who would not be seen
as powerless in this event of destruction. Why the very God who allowed
such a permissive freedom to allow Jerusalem and the Temple to be destroyed was
the same God who also permitted God's people to go on and do new things.
Did the Jews cease to be after the Temple was destroyed? No. They
realized again that God could not be limited to a building; God was present in
their gatherings. God was present in their synagogues.
Did the followers of Jesus cease to be after the destruction of the
Temple? Certainly not. The Temple was a destroyed and the followers
of Christ came to form a new Temple, the temple of the body of Christ.
The early Christian interpreters switched the temple theology to a body of
Christ theology. First, the body of Jesus was destroyed in death for
three days but it became the body of the Risen Christ. Further, the
presence of the Risen Christ became birthed into the lives of many people who
formed themselves into the living Body of Christ.
Iin this apocalyptic event of the end of Jerusalem and the temple, there was a
new beginning for a different kind of temple and a different kind of priestly ministry.
For the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews, Jesus became the high priest of a platonic heavenly temple who shared the
priestly and intercessory role to a priesthood of all believers.
So
the apocalyptic event can become the event which requires faith to receive and
articulate a new beginning towards love and justice.
I
believe we as Christian need to take back the apocalyptic truth from those who
would make it trivial.
What do many of the popular TV preachers do immediately after a disastrous
event or event of terror? Many of them immediately say that it means
Jesus is coming soon. Many of them say it is judgment because of
the special sins of the people who they like to target and victimize, like
secular humanists, feminists or gay people. This ends up being an
evil trivialization of the apocalyptic. In non religious culture, the
apocalyptic has been moved out of religion into politics, art and
entertainment. Modern cinema and science fiction are dominated with a
blend of futurism and apocalypticism. We use literature and cinema to provide
a catharsis to deal with events which in various ways threatens to end life as
we currently know it.
We should be more insightful in
understanding biblical apocalyptic passages. During Bible Times,
politics, religion and entertainment were all unified in human
experience. They did not separate images of coping from their every day
experience of politics and religion. We need to appreciate this to
understand that the apocalyptic had a different function in societies where the
biblical literature of oppressed people was written.
So how should we receive this Gospel today? First of all, let
us continue to pray as we always pray in the Lord Prayer, "Save us from
the time of trial. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from
evil." This is another way of saying, Lord, we pray that we
will be spared from ever needing the apocalyptic answer for comfort.
Also, even as violence and terror become significant events, let us have faith
and vision to see that all of the things which are happening within
the great Freedom of God, make the events of violence and evil to be seen to be
infrequent and minimal. They only stand out because they are not
normal.
And finally, the Freedom which allows many bad things to happen is such a
great Freedom that it will provide for us a complete menu of new and gloriously
wonderful things which co-exist with evil, but not only co-exist, they have the
power to help us to overcome evil with the wonderful normalcy of goodness,
justice, hope and faith. Amen.
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