Sermon - Pentecost 24 

November 15, 2009 - The Year of Mark

How do you spend time? How will you live this day? Each of our lessons appointed for this Sunday has something to do with the end of time, with a glimpse into the question of when. When will time as we know it end? What will that time look like? However we think of it, whether as the culmination, the fulfillment, the end -- we cannot think about the time when things end without thinking about what we are to do in the meantime.

Readings about the future call us to look at how we spend our time now while we are engulfed in a world that keeps reminding us how short our time is, how fast time goes; a world where time management is an issue, where we look around and see that the schedules of everyone seem filled beyond capacity. Go here! Do this! Do not forget that!

However, today, the readings ask us to pause. Take a breath, and think for a moment. How do you spend time? How will you live this day? As fall deepens into winter and days grow shorter, and as the church year comes to an end, our readings today ask us to look at time.

The readings are about time, because, after all, dealing with time one of our greatest struggles. We begin this life as children, with their incomprehension of time. Maybe you remember yourself, or some child you know, waiting and waiting for Christmas day. “Is it time to open presents yet? When will it be time? How many more nights will I have to sleep until it arrives?” Or the countdown to a birthday: “Is today my birthday? Is it today? How many more days?” We will grow old, and many of us will wonder where the time went. It does not feel as if that much time has passed, but it has.

For many of us, time is a problem because for us, it is a limited commodity. One of our great human questions is about time. The question is “When?” We want to know how much time we have, how long we have, and what the deadlines are: when.

Thankfully, we are not alone in asking questions that begin with “When.”

“When?” was the disciples’ question on the day captured in today’s Gospel lesson. They were in the holy city Jerusalem, looking at one of the most beautiful sights they could ever hope to see – the Temple, adorned with beautiful stones and precious metals, brilliant, dazzling in the sunlight. As they admire what truly was a wonder of the world, Jesus says, “All this will be rubble, ruins, not a stone left on stone.”

“When, teacher, when will this be? Give us some warning, some sign so we can know when.”

However, Jesus responds, not with a countdown or a calendar -- not even with some good clues for calculation. He does not say when. As for the clues, the signs, we may be surprised by how un-clue-like they really are. They are so general: wars, and rumors of wars, earthquakes, and famines. Certainly these are not specific enough by which to set a watch.

In fact, they are unfortunately predictable and familiar to every age. Yes, there will be wars, and earthquakes, and famines, and plagues. There were then. One of the wars brought down that beautiful temple. As we know all too well, there still are wars, earthquakes, famines, and plagues today. No age has been without these calamities; and sadly, the time does not seem to be near when they will cease.

Jesus does not call his disciples to forecasting. He call us to faithfulness. He does not tell us when. However, he tells us how to live, how to use our time.

It is significant that rather than signs of an immanent end, Jesus tells about things around us in the world, things that demand a Christian response. Not forecasting, but faithfulness.

The disciples are called to serve in a suffering world, bearing witness to the God who will not let suffering have the last word. Jesus gives us signs, things to watch out for, not because they help us predict how long we have, but to tell us there is no more important day than the day in which we now live.

The wars, rumors, earthquakes, famines, and persecutions remind us that there is a need for a witness to God’s love.

Jesus gives us signs, but they are not useful for predicting the end. They are useful for showing us where God needs us to be, where God is: among the lost, the least, the lonely, the weak. Jesus' clues tell us not so much what will be, but where we are to be. Jesus tells us not so much about what the future holds, and more about who holds the future. 　　

What does the future hold? Besides war and earthquakes and famine? Are these endless? Will time march on and on and on, bringing only so much sorrow? No. God holds the future, and for now we get glimpses.

For us, the author of the Book of Daniel wrote: “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” The author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

It is a generous and gracious God who holds all life, all time, all our days.

So we are freed to be faithful -- to live every day as if it matters. We can live as if this is the most important day of our lives, because it is a gift of God, an opportunity to show love, not fear; to be aware, not alarmed.

How do you spend time? How will you live this day?

Live this day, and every day knowing that God holds them all. Amen