March 13 -- Fifth Sunday in Lent

We are in the final days before Jesus death in this text.  It’s important to see these apocalyptic statements of Jesus in that context: he’s in Jerusalem, he’s in the final week before his crucifixion.  He’s actually in Holy Week here.  (We’re going to backtrack and remember his celebratory entry into Jerusalem next Sunday, Palm Sunday.  This is just before he goes to the Last Supper.)

This is important to see this, because the most significant world-altering event is not the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.  Mark and the other Gospels are often read with that significant and very real event being seen as as a clear and present “end of the age”, the apocalypse, the September 11, the Pearl Harbor, the death of your loved one, the loss of your house, the end of your job -- the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  These are all world-altering, shaken-at-the-foundations events…  

But this text calls us back to the fact that none of these are THE world-altering, shaken-at-the-foundations event.  Jesus passion, death and resurrection is.  And we can often miss that.  The building that comes crashing to the ground...is Jesus’ body.  We can often miss that, just like the disciples do (once again) in this text.    

It’s important to read these predictions of the future with Jesus immanent and very immediate suffering and death in mind.  Jesus is not just speaking about something that’s going to happen...eventually.  “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, nations rising against each other…”  This isn’t some prediction of some day, far out there.  This is his prediction for the end of the week!

It’s beautifully composed.  The darkening of the sky, not knowing what time, the evening, at cock crow, in the morning.  All these clues.  The ripping of the curtain in the temple.  The Roman centurion at the foot of the cross, saying, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”  This is the apocalypse.

Apocalypse is a great word, by the way, it literally means a revealing, an unmasking.  Apo = from; calypse = covering.  It’s a pulling (or ripping) the cover back or off.  It’s a disclosure, a revelation:  “Truly this man was God’s Son.”  In January we call it an Epiphany, in February it’s a Transfiguration, and in March we drive it home: it’s the full apocalypse of Jesus Christ.  That’s the end of the age...and the beginning of a new age.  That’s the world-altering, shaken-at-the-foundations event that truly changes everything.  That’s the moment at which we are both doomed and saved.

Jesus is not predicting the Romans are coming to destroy their city, he’s predicting his death.  Wars and rumors of wars, nations rising against nation, building crashing to the ground, famines, floods, fires -- all of this “has got nothin’” on the world altering, cosmic, apocalyptic dimensions of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.  

So be ready.  Keep awake.  Stay alert.  Recognize the significance in the highest Holy Days that are before us.  The holiest days are not Christmas, good Christian friends.  The holiest days are the Great Three Days.  Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Saturday.  Don’t miss it.  

And it’s easy to miss.  It’s easy to be asleep to the significance of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.  Most of the world is.  I mean, I’m saying that Jesus’ P, D & R is more significant than September 11!  It’s more significant that World Wars, it’s more significant than Star Wars!  How can that be?  

I mean how many people are in line to attend to those events vs. the maybe 30 people, sometimes less than that, who show up for Maundy Thursday worship.  A few more on Good Friday…  That’s not a guilt trip, that’s an image I’m presenting,  contrast.  It reminds me of all the people who showed up to celebrate Cesar’s triumphal entry into Rome -- on a white steed, with elephants and chariots, and mass bands, and perfumes in the air.  Contrast that to Jesus on an ass.  But that’s what we Christians celebrate.  It’s offensive, it’s an affront to the empire.

It’s easy to miss Jesus, when Star Wars just came out, right?

It’s easy to miss Jesus, when the Super Bowl is on at 4, right?  It’s easy to miss Jesus, when the Presidential primaries have got this nation in a fury, when my job is on the line, when my child is terribly sick, when airplanes are flying into buildings, when earthquakes and fires and floods.  Those are always heralded as the real apocalypses?  It’s easy to miss Jesus when Hillary Clinton is elected president.  It’s easy to miss Jesus when Donald Trump is elected president...

But all that’s “got nothin’” on the world-altering, cosmic, apocalyptic dimensions of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.

Don’t miss it.  Keep alert.  Keep awake to the immediacy Christ’s love.  It’s not just something out there some day.  This is the day that the Lord has made. 

The classic question, I think, that rockets us into the immediacy and urgency and apocalyptic dimensions of Jesus’ discourse here is the question “If you know the world was going to end this week, what would you do?”

Suddenly the things, the people that really mattered to you, would rise immediately to the surface.  Reflect on that question this week, as a way of living into the apocalyptic sayings of Jesus.  

Image in closing:  Haven’t used a baseball image for some time (at least 2 weeks) -- Spring Training  with Micah, yesterday and today.  And I recently heard an announcer joking about the insignificance of the 8^th inning a Spring Training game.  I mean who cares, right?  Most of us look at baseball in the big picture -- got a whole season in front of us.  But the Minor leaguers -- this is it.  Everything is on the line for this moment, even while others are packing up and not paying attention and walking out.  

Christians pay attention, they play like it’s all on the line.  Today is the day...even while others are missing it, packing up.  

Christ’s love for us is the main event, and our eyes are alert, our hearts are awake, our hands are open.  Today we receive God’s world-altering grace.  AMEN.