Replacement sermon?

This past Sunday, Mosaic Seattle experienced a very bad sermon. Now think about that… sermons are bad enough as it is, but a long, disorganized one? Too much to endure. Not sure who the guy was, maybe some visiting “fill in” preacher.

Thankfully, due to technical difficulties, the egregious ramblings of the poor guy were not captured and posted as a podcast. (I think it was cast somewhere else).

So today, please consider for your reading and contemplative pleasure… the replacement sermon! We begin in the Gospel of Mark chapter 13.

Innocently enough, the whole thing begins with an observation of amazement – one of Jesus’ apprentices remarks how awesome the temple is and the phenomenal engineering required to arrange such humongous stones (jokes are totally inappropriate here).

Jesus then answers, “Yep! They’re really something but one day, this whole thing is going to be gone, not one stone on another!”  Wow! Jesus drops this bomb and then just keeps on walking to the hill where the olive orchard is outside of town, near where they are staying. As you can imagine, some of the crew are greatly disturbed by hearing this, maybe some are even intrigued by the prediction. In any event, they approach Jesus and ask how they can they know when this is going to happen.

Jesus then gives some warnings –

If you are going to watch for signs, don’t get fooled by people that will try to exploit your expectations, hopes and fears.

How relevant is that today! How many of you watch the stock market every few minutes to see what is happening? What about return rate on treasury bills? How many of you count the “for sale” sings in your neighbor hood? We all want to know what is around the bend and how it is going to affect us. We watch the talking heads on cable news, the financial news shows, we read the books, we get the newsletters of people claiming to know what is happening and what will happen next.

Did any of you see the interview of Jon Stewart and the financial guru? They kept showing clips where his predictions failed miserably. It was embarrassing!

Jesus also says delivers that classic “wars and rumors of wars” line.

As I write this, North Korea is threatening to test a nuclear missile, a Taliban terrorist says D.C. will be attacked soon and they’re telling us that pistachios can kill you right now because they have salmonella! It’s enough to think this is the end of the world!

Still, Jesus says that it is not. In fact, it might get worse. You might even become an enemy of the state. Yesterday, our president just fired the head of a car company. Ooops!

Jesus, who I theologically sometimes refer to as “God in a bod,” gives two piece of great advice about panic and perspective.

1. Concerning panic, he says, “Don’t!” Don’t make choices in a panic that you will regret later. How does this sound? “We’ve got to do something! And we’ve got to do it fast!” Now, I’m an action kind of guy. I like the Fire, Ready, Aim approach to life but we can allow circumstances and other people to force us to live life only in the right now. Urgency is a very different thing than panic. Panic just starts pushing buttons, hoping that something will start working or stop the alarm from pounding in our ears. Urgency, sees the course to take, sometimes in an instant, and then acts, without hesitation, driven by a conviction that your actions are bringing about a better reality for others.
2. Perspective is the view that even though we live in the right now, we got here through choices in the past and the decisions of today have implications in the future. Can you see the future? If you stand right where you are and look back at the path your life has taken, you can sometimes turn and see where that “trajectory” will take you. Couple of things to consider:
   1. what if you don’t like the direction you are going? No problem, change it! But know that it will not change by itself. You and I must change our choices so that they begin to lead somewhere else.
   2. The other factor may be that you don’t know where you are supposed to go. If you don’t choose, you will just float down the stream in the current of the present culture or the culture of the company you keep. If you don’t know where to go, consider that maybe, just maybe, the God that created you with such amazing uniqueness and incredible abilities has a direction in mind for you. In fact, the story of scripture is that this happens quite often. The stats are somewhere in the 100% range that each person has a purpose and a destiny that is part of an incredible plan.

Jesus tells us that even our difficult future trials and tribulations might move into a place where great things can be accomplished. He give the example that some of the people following him at that moment might get arrested and stand before people that Jesus has been wanting and hoping to have an opportunity to hear the message of love, faith and hope! How cool is that! Maybe even ironic!

Jesus goes on to describe pretty horrible circumstances. We think they will be signs of the very end. Maybe, maybe not. I read to day where a brother killed one sister and then decapitated another right in front of the police officer kicking in the door hoping to save a life. Then the brother was killed as he tried to attack a third sister. How could things like this go on? Jesus seems to be saying that this is what happens when we live life apart from hope and perspective. It gets worse and worse.

More advice: Hold on! Don’t give up!

A few weeks ago, 4 football players went out into the Gulf of Mexico to fish. Their boat was capsized by rough waters. All four went into the cold water. One of the men, swam under the over-turned boat and retrieved 4 flotation devices. They spent several hours clinging to the hull of the boat while the waves pounded them into the boat and knocked them away from it’s fragile safety, over and over. Then the cold water began to take it’s toll as their stored fat was quickly used for energy and burned up. Hypothermia was setting in. Reality began to become fuzzy. First one and then another somehow decided they could not hold on any longer and took off their life jacket and allowed themselves to be swept away under the waves. This haunts me. How could they do this? Surely they knew their best chance of survival was to hold on to the boat and stay together! What was going on in their mind?

Only one man was found holding on to the upside down prop of the motor.  His hands, chest, knees and ankles were traumatized from being pounded into the boat. Yet somehow he held on and he was saved. I wonder if there was a conversation before the others decided that it was better to let go? Did they even know what was going on? Could it have been sop bad that not only did they lose touch with reality but did death seem a relief? Could they have been tricked into thinking such a thing?

I think some of you are thinking the same thing right now. You have been pounded for a while now. Maybe it would be easier if you just slipped under the surface? Especially since it looks like that is going to be the eventual outcome anyway… why suffer longer?

Jesus tells his followers that they will witness the worst thing they could possible imagine. They will see the worship of God turned upside down so that the very worst of humanity is lifted up. How can a people continue if everything is the opposite of what it should be!

Still, Jesus says it is not the end yet. He advise them and us to look back and see where God has come from, the path He has walked, with us, leading us, chasing us, wooing us to return to Him, warning us about the things that will bring death to our lives. And if we turn and look forward we can see the trajectory of where God is going. In this chapter of the Gospel of Mark, it is noted that it is God’s plan that this message of faith, love and hope would reach al people, all nations. Yes, the ones that are committed to the destruction of others, the ones that hate, the ones that are firing up the launch pad, the ones that are dying in the streets, the ones that are running from Him, the ones that are pretending to run to Him, all of them, every single one. He is planning on reaching out to each one. That is God’s future. Are you in that future?

Do you see your life through that perspective?

Jesus then gives us a couple of metaphors to close out the moment.

1. The fig tree – just like the new leaves tell us that the fruit is coming, we can pay attention to what is happening and see God at work, we can even see how our own path is syncing up with God’s path and we can know that there is growth in our hearts and that we are moving towards the future that we dream of, the one that God dreamed when we were born.
2. He also shares that we are like servants whom God has given instructions to as He goes away for a while. When he returns, we will not want to be found asleep or not doing the thing we were supposed to. I don’t think this is a fear based motivation. The instructions God has given us is actually for our benefit and for others. They are the instructions for having a wonderful life. He has shown us the oath we were meant to walk, the one we dreamed of, our destiny. How sad would it be if I did not take that step.

Follow up – Here’s a couple of thoughts to help you on your way:

Where have you been? Can you see that God has done anything n your life?

Where are you going?

Can you see a future? What does it look like? Any details?