Proper 28b -- Monroe
Proper 28b
Notes 1
The Jesus Movement
The Jesus movement emerged from the much larger Judaism of the first century. It was a time when people had a keen sense that it was the end of everything that they knew. They saw signs for it everywhere. Probably one of the most visible signs of that era was the bloodbath and destruction that the Romans inflicted on Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D.
I sometimes think that the Jesus movement will end at a time when people have a keen sense that the end of everything that we know is fast approaching. I have been aware I'm seeing and feeling that myself. When I was a younger man I couldn't have imagined that I would see the Northwest Passage. The Arctic north was a fabled mythic place and I dreamed of going there one day. In the meantime what has happened is that Mary Pat and I had the opportunity to take an Alaska cruise some years ago and we got to see some of the last glaciers of that part of the world in the process of falling into the ocean. The arctic has become a place where Russia and the US are racing to exploit the newly exposed and valuable mineral deposits.
Having read George Orwell's dystopian novel in junior high, I never imagined that the year 1984 would come and go. But it did.
When I was young I thought of the leaders of our nation as fitting descendants of the legendary heroes who created the country. The capital building was one of the centers of the experiment that we called the United States. It was a sacred building -- not Christian sacred but civil religion sacred. Up until the time on January 6 this year when Mary Pat said, "Quick, Dale, you've got to come see this," I could not have imagined the ransacking of the Capital that we saw this year.
We have become witnesses of these things. I thought I would never see them. They came. And here we are. We wonder, "Are these the signs of the end?"
The passage we've heard from the Gospel of Mark bears evidence of the kind of religious writing that was common to the 1st century. It's called apocalyptic. Some of the elements of apocalyptic writing are:
- a concern for the end times,
- hyperbole,
- the battle between good and evil,
- dramatic imagery and symbols.
Mark 13, together with its parallel in Matthew 24, bears the markings of apocalyptic writing. The most dramatic example in the New Testament of this style of writing is the last book, the book of the Revelation to John.
I first had a desire to learn about apocalyptic writing when I was still in my 20's. I had read the Bible cover to cover. It left me more perplexed than before. I began to study with more focus. I came to realize that there was a major time gap reflected in the books of the Old Testament versus those in the New Testament. I took a graduate course at Marquette University from a leading scholar of the period. There I came to appreciate that the Catholic Bible, with the pseud-epigrapha (what we call "Apocrypha") did a better job of reflecting the time period of the couple hundred years before Jesus. This was the time of the flowering of apocalyptic literature and expectation.2
“This is but the birthpangs”
Jesus response to his disciples in today's reading immediately reflects a person who was unfazed by the dramatic events going on around him. A perfect image of a holy person. We might well suppose that that had something to do with the charismatic attraction that he held for some people. Jesus said don't worry about the dramatic signs that you may see going on around you. The struggles that you see are but the struggles of a new world emerging from the old. It is new life being birthed from the old
This holy man can see what others around him cannot see. Though destruction may surround him, he is the living epitome of hope. The actual goal you see of apocalyptic writing is to bring hope to the people. It is to encourage them to persevere and to endure when the times are a struggle. Recognizing the reality of suffering the word of hope that it presents is one of Resurrection and new life. It is a promise that is not yet fulfilled but is waiting in the wings to give birth.
In every generation
For every generation the “signs” are real and imminent — but they distract us from what is eternally important. Every generation focuses on what is passing away and not the eternal. It focuses on what is immediately before us and not what is lasting and of eternal significance.
What seems "urgent" has been different through the centuries of Christian life and experience.
- In the first century, a time when followers of Christ were just one group within Judaism and all were members of the same culture, the debate was about what kind of food one was allowed to eat, or what Sabbath actions were prohibited. Jesus pointed in the direction of the eternal.
- In the next several centuries, a time of persecution — what is urgent looked different. Christians were the outcasts in many cases. It was important not to be identified with the ruling culture. The eternally significant may have looked something like dying with integrity and honesty, true faith and trust in God.
- Later, for many centuries Christianity was the dominant cultural power. What was urgent looked different. Conformity and unity could be seen as urgent. On the other hand, suffering to share in Christ's own suffering might be seeing as eternally significant and important. Living life set apart in a monastic setting might be seen as urgent and important.
- In the 20th century, Christians were persecuted and killed in parts of the world: Soviet Union, China, Africa, just for being Christians. Not unlike those Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
- But also in the 20th century, there were Christians who were complicit in the genocide of European Jews that is popularly known as the “Holocaust.” For such Christians there was an utter failure to see what was of eternal significance. They were able to assist with murder and torture as their most urgent need while being completely numb, to the loss of any semblance of what was suitable for citizens of the Kingdom of God.
Focus on the majors
True Christian faith focuses on the lasting, not the ephemeral.
In the last century, a tool became popular to help us discover what was genuinely eternal and lasting. 3 It had us discern the urgency and importance of a given action. Urgency was something that was immediately pressing and of concern. Important was something that might only emerge in the long run but not be immediately visible.
quadrants
With this tool one imagines a large square with 4 smaller squares within it. A cross, if you will, with a boundary around it.
In the top of the larger square is where everything that is important is placed. In the bottom half is everything that is not important.
The left and right side of the square is divided between what is urgent and what is not urgent.
Thus in quadrant 1 we place things that are crises and emergencies. They present themselves with urgency. Maybe in our present circumstances it is a leaky roof. It's important and it has to be dealt with.
In quadrant 2 we would place things that are important but not urgent. These are all the things that we can persuade ourselves that we can put them off to a later date. They are important however. Things like maintenance. Prevention training. Upgrades.
In quadrant 3 we place things that are urgent but not important. A phone call from a salesman. For some, a Facebook notification. Things that are clamoring for our attention. It was back in the 90's that I became aware that that was a goal of software companies who made their money off of our "facetime." Things that are urgent but not important.
Finally, we have a 4th quadrant where too many of us spend too much of our time. Things that are not urgent and not important.
Jesus's disciples came to him with signs of the end times all around them. We hear that same kind of noise around us in our own day. They are clearly urgent, but in the light of eternity they are of little significance.
Jesus responded to them, "That's not where you need to be focused. You need to be focused on the needs of the Kingdom -- which lasts forever."
Eternal Significance
How then do we discern what is of eternal importance? In my own life I have often found that what is most important has been there all along. I just needed to see it. Perhaps it was so old it had become invisible to me. It required “rediscovery.” This woman Hannah, whom we meet in today's first lesson from the book of Samuel is a case in point.
I first really began to meet her in my first Hebrew class. 1st Samuel, chapter 1, is where we began reading. Word by word. Looking up in the dictionary every other one. Happily the language is at an elementary school level of reading difficulty.
Meet Hannah
And prominent in these 1st two chapters is a woman. She is a woman who cannot bear a child. She is in a marriage that is fraught with conflict and mixed emotions. She takes herself away from the situation and pours herself out before God. She lays herself bare. The priest is of little help -- he is too focused on the urgent matter of "good order" in his temple and around his altar. It may seem important to him but it's not important, only urgent.
What is important is that God is making a grand beginning in this woman. It is the beginning of a new era in the life of Israel. And she has been chosen as an important instrument in beginning it.
In time her focus on the eternal and not just the urgent resulted in the birth of a son, Samuel. Samuel was the pivotal and vital ruler and prophet as the ancient nation of Israel emerged -- remember Jesus referring to "birthpangs" -- from the wandering tribes that Moses had led out of Egypt.
Hannah knew in her heart that she had been touched by eternity and something far bigger than herself was at work. She sang a song: Hannah’s song which was our "psalm for today."
Centuries later Mary same a similar song in similar circumstances. She would be giving birth to the Messiah, and she sang a song. We call it the Magnificat.
The circumstances are not unlike what we saw a couple of weeks ago in the conclusion of the book of Job. The pressing catastrophes of Job's life were put alongside the eternal importance of the creator of all things.
The only thing left was to stop and to give thanks. And that is what Hannah does in her song.
- There is no one like the Lord
- God raises up the humble, the poor, the vulnerable
- God's work is a reversal of what seems urgent and turns it into what is of ultimate concern
- God is at the beginning and at the end. That is the eternal.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
and on them he has set the world.
Hannah's song can help us to train for the race that needs to be run for the sake of eternity. The principles articulated there are in fact principles of the kingdom:
- a heart for the poor and outcast
- care for the widowed and orphans
- devotion and trust in the creator of all
Tell me, father, what is important? It is, my child, to "Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, your soul, and your strength. And at the same time to love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophet." Everything else is ultimately unimportant.
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Lectionary Page source: The text this week↩
www.britannica.com/art/apocalyptic-literature & www.pulpitfiction.com/narrative-notes/2-30↩
Eisenhower, quoting Dr. J. Roscoe Miller using a quadrant “Urgent vs. Important” (Eisenhower, quoting Dr. J. Roscoe Miller). Also Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of highly effective people.↩
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