Queen Anne 

We are leaving Mark on a difficult passage.  Decades after the death of Christ, we have Mark writing to a community living under the oppression of the Roman Empire, and, he is telling the people about a time when Jesus predicted the destruction and fall of the temple at Jerusalem.  Not really good times.  In fact, some people read this story as being about the end of times.

Mark is believed to be the oldest of the written gospel stories.  In some ways, Mark’s gospel can be a bit scary.  Mark ends his gospel with an absent Jesus.  There is an empty tomb and the angel's words of promise to the women, but the women tell no one.  There are no resurrection appearances recorded in Mark. There is no promise from Jesus that he would be with the disciples until the end of the age.  There is no promise of a Holy Spirit that will come upon the disciples.  

Mark was writing to a community under the social, political and economic oppression of the Roman authorities.  He was dealing with despair and feelings of abandonment, but always a sense of hope.  Mark is encouraging his community NOT to follow the rebels and participate in their rebel’s revolt.  Perhaps these are the false prophets that the people are warned against.  For "Mark, the war, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, is not a sign of the end, but rather signs of the beginning; signs of a new creation, signs of hope.

Sometimes we feel that we, here in the 21^st century are living the story of Mark’s gospel.  Like Mark’s audience, we are also living in an age of the end as well as living in the new creation.  While it does not diminish our hope, it does startle our sensibilities.

We tend to get nervous and uncomfortable about the idea of the end.  Certainly there are some cults and groups that look forward to it.  I think our fear and concern about the end of times is related to a misreading of this text.

What Jesus counsels his fellow disciples about is that seekers and believers are living NOT in the end times, but rather, living In the beginnings of the birth pangs, the beginnings of new creation.

I have to be very frank here, I believe in God.  I believe in Jesus the Christ.  I believe that good will triumph over evil, I believe that the light will overcome the darkness, especially the darkness that resides in us.  I believe in peace and justice; equity and reconciliation for all of God’s creation.  These are not just interesting words or pleasant homilies I say to make me feel better.

I believe that God wants us to be the best that we can be, and we can only do that by giving up ourselves and by getting out of ourselves.  The theme that we see played over and over in our lives as Christians is that of death and resurrection.  It is modeled in Jesus, and we see this same theme in the death and destruction of the Temple and the people resurrected as a community of faith even in exile.  The call to each of us is for our own death to Christ and the promised resurrection. 

What are the temples that we are holding on to?  Do we see the fall and destruction of our temples as the end of times? I recognize that the future can be scary.  But as Christians, the promise of the good news, the promise of resurrection allows us and even propels us to move forward with confidence.

For the past few weeks, I have been reading a book by Fareed Zakaria, he writes for Newsweek.  Initially, I thought that this book was going to be about the decline of America, kind of the death of a temple, but I have found that this book is about the rise of everyone else.  This book is pushing me to look at our country in a different way, and even to recognize the birth pangs of new creation. 

I suspect that like many of you, I grew up with the idea that the US is the center of the world.  In his book, Zakaria describes a world in which the US no longer dominates the global economy, or orchestrates world politics, or sets the tone for cultural development around the world.  He sees the rise of the rest—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as birth pangs reshaping a new beginning.

The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, the biggest theme parks and the most advanced cell phones, cars and electronics all exist or are all being built outside the United States. The rise of the rest outside the US is producing political confidence and national pride that can seem quite frightening. These are the birthpangs that are shaping a new beginning.

Birthpangs by nature  are accompanied by pain.  It is the nature of new creation.  So how do we deal with these birth pangs?

I think that rather than living our lives today guided by the present and  the past; we need to shift our thinking and our focus to the future that Jesus has promised us.  A future in which we are pulled ahead by a vision of unity.  A future where our new homeland  transcends the borders and barriers of land, nation, ethnicity, religion, oil, and profit. 

We know in this new homeland is a place where peace and justice prevail, and where we know the love of God and neighbor as God knows us.

So a question for us is, what does it mean to live in the new creation of a truly global era; not just from a political and economic standpoint, but also a religious one. 

Scripture reminds us that God’s first covenant with humankind was universal.  It included all creation and all humanity, for all time.

What this means to us is that if  we are willing to speak and to listen; to give and to receive; to be transformed by the truth of God in ourselves and in others; then we are up to the task of rising loss for the greater gain that God has in store for us.

Temples like nations will rise and fall, but we can take comfort that God has a future of abundance for us, and the future is a good place, the desire of our hope.  May we boldly live into that hope and the promise of a reconciled humanity through the grace and in the providence of God.  Amen.