It's the End of the World as we know it

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost – Year B

November 15, 2015

Mark 13:1-8

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!" Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?" Then Jesus began to say to them, "Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs."

Are you afraid? After the events in Paris two days ago, it's hard not to at least worry a little bit. The world seems like it's falling apart some days, doesn't it? You turn on the news and you hear about the latest shootings, the latest robberies, the latest drug arrests in the local area. The national news isn't any better. What's happening with our economy? Where are we at war? What's going on with pollution and global warming? What is the latest threat that has been made against us? Where did the latest terrorist attack? Who did it? Will they attack here? Are our children safe from kidnappers and molesters? Do we have enough money saved to retire comfortably? One thing after another, one news story after another; the bad news keeps coming. It's enough to make you not want to step out of your house. It's enough to make you really negative about the world, about our lives.

Fear has become big business for news media. If only the fear-mongering could be just on the news. But, we hear it every where. Even in many churches. One of the unfortunate things about many churches is how they often use fear and threats of danger to bring about a change in behavior or to explain why something happened. A hurricane wipes out a town, and the televangelist declares it is God's judgment against the town because of its acceptance of gay and lesbian folk. An earthquake shakes a region, and it's interpreted as being a result of people turning their backs on God's ways. A soldier is killed, and a church declares it was the fault of our country allowing women to do what they wish with their bodies.

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid. And then there is the greatest fear of all that the church likes to trot out: the fear of hell. Do the right thing, do what God wants or you will suffer the flames of damnation for all eternity. Turn away, the end is coming; can't you see the signs? I can still remember channel flipping back in the early 90's and running across the televangelist declaring that the Soviet Union was the Anti-Christ, that black army helicopters were the locusts in Revelation, that all signs pointed to Jesus' imminent return before the end of the century. And the broadcasting of fear, I'm sure, made him millions.

Preachers throughout Christian history have used human apprehension of the unknown to whip up fear, and add to the numbers of their followers. But if there was one phrase that Jesus said repeatedly, reported over and over in all four gospels it is this: Be not afraid. Fear narrows vision; it induces blindness; it causes a sense of isolation and abandonment; it leads men and women to act without thinking in an attempt to save themselves.

Jesus wasn’t speaking of wars and earthquakes to produce fear in his disciples. He wanted them to be alert. The flip side of fear is awareness. Not knowing what is coming means you have to pay attention to what is, you have to examine your situation and make your decisions as best you can. The flip side of thinking about The End is that it helps us focus on what is truly important in the present.

So, what if you knew your time was almost up? What if you had only one month left in your life? What would you do?

• Would you finish up important matters at work?

• Or would you quit your job and spend every remaining day with family or friends?

• Would you travel to a place you always wanted to go?

• Would you reconcile a fractured relationship?

• Would you pray more, go to church more, do that generous act you always wanted to do for others?

• Would you find ways to leave a mark on the world?

Here’s a harder question: What if we discovered that our congregation only had one more month to exist? Not that we as individuals would be gone but that, in one month, we would no longer be able to meet for worship or any other reason. No building, no worship, no community.

I’ll bet that the pews would be full. I’ll bet that many of our inactive members would show up to say good bye. I, for one, would want an entire worship service of just music: choir anthems, bells, children, some of our great hymns. Maybe we could have a candlelight service with communion, even if it wasn’t Christmas Eve. I doubt that we’d have many committee meetings; we could forget worrying about the budget and the roof and our next dinner.

By the end of the month we’d have to think about what to do with our assets. Let’s also say for the sake of argument, that we had the ability to decide what we were going to do with our real estate, our furnishings, our cash and our endowment.

• How would we decide what to do with the money? We wouldn’t have time to fight about it. We’d have to focus fast and get our priorities straight.

• What would we support and what would we want our final legacy to be?

• We could help start a new ministry where none currently exists.

• Or we could support an existing one.

• We could create scholarships, build a youth center, endow a program to provide shelter for the homeless.

We could do so much -- if we had only a month left! We could be really great stewards of our resources. In the intensity of last days, we would live better, be better. We would be more generous, less controlling, more focused on the most important things in life.

In the world of ecclesiological research – in other words, studies about the church – some people are seeing signs they believe point to an imminent end for the church as we know it. One out of five Americans now declares their faith belief as 'none.'. When you look at Americans under the age of 30, that number is one out of three. There are now more Nones than the largest Protestant denomination in America: the Southern Baptists!

However, those who say they have no religious identity do not necessarily have no religious beliefs. Two thirds of those who declare themselves 'nones' say they believe in God or some form of higher being. Half say they feel a deep connection with nature. 20% say they pray every day.

Which makes me ask, If so many of the 'nones' feel some religious interest or connection, what is it that’s causing them to leave the church? That’s a big question, and there is more than one right answer. Some say, “I didn't leave the church, the church left me.” A study by the Pew Forum a few years ago found that people unaffiliated with churches believe that churches are too concerned with money and power. 70% of them say that. Almost as many, 68%, say that churches are too involved with politics. The view of many from the outside looking in is that Christianity is judgmental, homophobic, hypocritical, and too political.¹

Is time up for the church? Should we shut the doors and put up a For Sale sign? I don’t think so. All those numbers and studies are important, and we should pay attention to them, but if we are followers of Jesus then we know better than to let fear narrow our vision and cause us to act without thinking. Jesus does not want us to be afraid of the future we cannot predict. He wants us to be alert.

Not knowing what is coming means you have to pay attention to what is happening right now. The disciples didn’t have people taking surveys or studying churches to give them statistics. They didn’t need statistics. They knew they were a minority religion. What gave them the determination to face the future with boldness? The knowledge of God’s compassionate love showed to them by Jesus; and the certainty of the unbreakable bond of that love made real for them by his resurrection from the dead.

If we know that God will not let us go, we can step out in faith, whether we are in the majority or the minority. In fact, being a minority gives us some freedom to claim who we really are: flawed, certainly; perfect, no. But neither are we the judgmental, homophobic, hypocritical or overly political organization that we appear to be to those who don’t know us.

Our time is up…not for our individual lives or our life together as a congregation, but for the days of relying on a superficial understanding of what the church is. No longer can we expect that church is a place you go to for an hour on Sunday mornings, plus the occasional wedding or funeral. Now is the time for us to really BE the church – to live as an outpost of God’s Kingdom, demonstrating the love of Christ by

• the way we live our lives,

• the way we use our resources,

• and the way we love the world.

Don’t let the wars and the rumors of wars alarm you. Don’t let the numbers or the research or the statistics scare you. We’re not at the end yet. In fact, this may just be the beginning of something new. It might be the birth of something we didn’t know before, something we hadn’t seen before. It might be the new advent of our God. Amen.

1The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “ ‘Nones’ on the Rise” and “Sidebar: Some Theories About Root Causes of the Rise of the Unaffiliated.” Poll of October 9, 2012. http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx and http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise-sidebar.aspx