Externals

 Mark 13:1-8 is the lectionary text for Sunday, November 14.

I had one - an edifice complex.  I was all caught up in the beauty and grandeur of church buildings, and am still most at home in a city skyline.  There is something amazing about them.  But they are not eternal, nor are they that about which the eternal is concerned.

"The end is near" has been written about and talked about since Jesus.  People look to the environmental disasters, horrible state of affairs in politics and economics, seeming moral decay and violence on our streets and across the world as a sign of the end.  This is not that about which the eternal wishes us to be concerned.

Here and Now.  What is going on within, between and among us.  How we are living with one another in Agape Love and Grace, Loving-Mercy.  THAT is the thing.  THAT is eternal and what is valued within the eternal.

The end will come.  Temples tumble, as do empires.  I pray for the end of empire everyday.  It cannot come too soon.  And some days I pray for Jesus' return more earnestly than others, as well.  The end will come.  Whether it is because of our own arrogant ignorance and hatefulness or by some cosmic act of God, it will come.

It should not effect how we live and on what we focus here and now.  To be faithful to God as followers of Jesus is to focus on living the Agape Love and Grace that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us.  If we do that, then we will not destroy the planet ourselves and we will welcome the coming back of our Lord.  Temples fall, as do empires.  Natural and human-created disasters will happen around the world.  Corruption, exploitation, oppression, abuse and their consequences will take place.  There is also much GOOD going on.  There are also those who have not lost sight of continuing the mission of the Good News of Jesus in the midst of all these things.  There is also still faith in God's love and grace for us.  There is also the mission of Jesus - that we transform the world by living His Agape Love and Grace in it.  THAT is the thing.  

Getting caught up in the externals keeps us from focusing on what is within, between and among us - Agape Love and Grace, and it keeps us from working to put those things out in the world around us so that it might be transformed to be in alignment with Jesus' Kingdom values, which is faithfulness to God.  It is ALL about living that Agape Love and Grace, Loving Mercy until Jesus returns.

Don't get caught up in the signs, the prophecies and dystopian (or utopian) visions.  Don't be heaven-minded so that you ignore the plight of sisters and brothers in front of you.  Don't be fearful about or bitter about the end coming.  See the Good in here and now.  Be faithful to Jesus' Way here and now.  BE the good in here and now.   It IS enough.  That IS faithfulness.

Pastor Jamie