Return to Sermon Page

November 16, 2003; Proper 28, Year B
    The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector

God said to Daniel, “I’ve got some good news, and I got some bad news.  The good news is that I am sending my best angel, Michael, as your guardian angel to watch over you and protect you.  The bad news is that this world is going to come to an end.”  Daniel’s response to what God told him was, “How long will it be?”

“How long will it be?”  Ever since the first apocalyptic writings, people have wondered how long it would be – before the end of the world.  Even today when we hear the Biblical prophecies of the world coming to an end, one of the first questions that pops into our minds is – When?

Have you ever wondered why these visions of the apocalypse were given by God to Daniel and John, and why even Jesus spoke of end of the world and judgment day.  Are they meant to scare us?  Or, were they given so that they would consume our every waking moment, worrying if today was going to be our last day?   Certainly there are people who are frightened any time you mention these prophecies about the world ending.  There are others who are consumed by trying to read the events occurring in the world in order to predict exactly when it will all come to and end.

I believe that these prophecies were given for another reason.  Scripturally, this world is depicted from the very beginning as being the intentional creation of God.  It follows that from such a beginning there would also be some kind of fitting conclusion.  The prophecies make two statements.  First, this world will not last forever.  Second, God is the one who will bring it and our existence to an end.  Knowing these facts, what are we going to do?

Nine years ago I received a letter from my mother in which she said that she thought that she had had a mild stroke.  I was panic stricken and the thought that my mother was going to die started running through my mind.  I called her to find out exactly what had happened and how she was doing.  I was so afraid of losing her and wanted her to do everything medically possible to keep in her in good health.  I also went to see her, something that I had not been to good at doing at that time.

This incident helped me realize that I needed to take the opportunity then and not later, to enjoy my relationship with my mother.  Her stroke was a warning for me of what I had taken for granted, that I would always have my mother to talk to and be with.  She did die five years later from complications resulting from a fall down the stairs in her home.  It was during those last weeks as I visited her in the nursing home that I was glad that we had spent more time together. 

I have heard many people in their grief over the death of a member of their family painfully express the regret they have for not having taken more time to be with that person before they died.  “If only we had known,” is the statement that I have heard to often.  For most of us, we do not know the day and hour that we, and those we love, will die.  Even though we know that we and the people that we love will not live forever, we can easily become so busy that we do not make the time to nurture the relationships that we value or cherish.  This can even be true of our relationship with God.

In this morning’s Gospel reading Jesus is telling his disciples that even the most cherished place, the temple in Jerusalem, will not be spared from graffiti, atrocities and the occult.  The Temple, for Jews (remembering the Jesus and his disciples were Jews), represented the presence of God, and it was unthinkable that evil would take it over and destroy it.  Jesus said, that even what was thought to be permanent would be destroy.

So it is even with us.  We take for granted that the sun is going to rise tomorrow.  That we will have many tomorrows to do what we did not get around to doing today.  But what have we left unfinished?

In the reading from Daniel that we had for this morning is the only reference in the entire Old Testament to resurrection.  It talks about the chosen people being delivered and shining like the stars.  How wonderful it would be to know that we are numbered among the chosen people, that will one day shine like the stars.

We should have confidence that we are numbered among the chosen people by virtue of our baptism.  Like I said last week, we have been marked as Christ own forever and sealed by the Holy Spirit.  But do we shine?

The Letter to the Hebrews talks of endurance.  We must endure the present world before we can move on to the world which awaits us.  We must have stamina to face the hardships, tragedies, and temptations that will come our way.   We must keep the faith.  And more than just keeping it, we must exercise it so that it becomes stronger.  We must live and embody what we believe – thereby shining like a star.

The lessons that we have heard this morning say, “keep the faith.”  Keep the faith, because we live in the in-between time, the time between the first and second coming of Christ.  The predictions about the end are there to serve as a warning of what is and will take place in the world, so that we can prepare ourselves for what lies ahead.  The certainty for all of us is that our lives will end, more than likely upon our death.  As that day approaches, are their regrets for things, important things like our relationship with God that we have left undone?

The Rev. John Claypool said this about our Gospel reading for this morning.  “It all comes down to this:  Jesus did not tell us when he was going to return, but he did tell us what he wants us to be doing until he does return.  To Peter, it was the simple injunction:  “Feed my sheep, tend my lambs.”  To his disciples at the Last Supper it was this new commandment:   “Love one another as I have loved you.”  And in that memorable parable of the Last Judgment, it was to be sensitive to and helpful toward the needy people.  In one sense, Jesus has already come back, and invites us to join him (in revealing God’s love and mercy in this world).”[1]

Return to Sermon Page