Signs of the End

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Burning flax straw bales east of Rosthern
As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2.“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
3.As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4.“Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”
5.Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6.Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7.When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8.Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.
9.“You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10.And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11.Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
12. “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13. Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
 
As I was growing up, passages like Mark 13:1-13 were used as texts to alert us to the possibility that the apocalypse was at hand—evidenced, of course, by the fact that we were experiencing wars and rumours of wars, news of earthquakes was ubiquitous and famine in Africa was endemic. 

There's no doubt that the passage has apocalyptic overtones: the very fact that Jesus is quoted here as giving answer to the disciples' question about when the cataclysmic destruction of the temple would happen and what the signs would be that would alert them that the time when “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” was coming soon.

Pastor Geiser at Hively Avenue Mennonite Church put that other slant on it this morning. A more careful reading shows us that these are not so much signs of the end-time, but a caution about anticipating the end of time as imminent, practically the reverse of what the pastors of my youth interpreted it to mean. In other words, nations always rise up against nations, earthquakes have always and will always happen, there is no end to the cycle of droughts and famine. Expect these things and don't listen to those that claim the second coming is about to happen. Ours is not to put down our tools because “the end is near” or to read the inevitable calamities of this world as signs of anything. They just are. 

The clear message is that hope, commitment and endurance in the building of the peaceable kingdom are what we are about, and through which “the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” It's easy to think of “end” as the end of all time; I expect the intention here was to think of “end” as our own death, the end of our time in the world of the living, the end of our triumphs, defeats, suffering and joy. The end of our brief opportunity to build.

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