THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B

[cappie]

As we approach the end of the Church’s year in November, the month of the Holy Souls, our biblical focus moves to the ‘end times.’

Our gospel for this Sunday is apocalyptic writing. The word apocalypse means an unveiling or uncovering of what was previously unknown or hidden, What is clear is that apocalyptic writing, including chapter 13 of Mark’s Gospel, is written to give hope to its readers. It’s written to keep our eyes focused on God and God’s actions in history and to give assurance that, despite appearances to the contrary, God is still God. God still reigns. The future belongs to God.

God’s work in history is purposeful, and events are pressing toward the realization of the divine goal for all of God’s creation.

In today’s we hear just the beginning of Jesus’ description of the events that precipitate the inauguration of the kingdom of God    which actually takes up all of Mark’s 13th chapter. In it, Jesus is reminding his disciples that our times—our past, our present, our future—are in God’s hands, that God will work God’s purposes out within human history, within time and space, on this earth, until God brings about the new heavens and a new earth.

 Jesus  tells the disciples to be faithful, not fearful, to set their minds on trusting and being aware, rather than worrying about a calendar.

The things we can know are hoping skills.

The first of these is to keep a perspective— the God’s eye view of human history.

We are talking about something we know only in part, and all our words for God and comprehensions of God fall far short of the divine reality. Nonetheless, all scripture was written to give us hope, to give us a picture, to give us the perspective in ways that even we humans can understand. God is at work, bringing everything to completion according to God’s purposes. God does not willingly cause the suffering of any of God’s creatures,  But even the worst of what we experience is redeemable. All is subject, in time, to God’s purposes and plans. One hoping skill is to focus on the really big picture.

Another is to get to know Scripture.

Scripture is our source, along with tradition and reason, for knowing who God is, what promises God has made, how God works, what faithfulness looks like, especially as we know God in Jesus Christ. Jesus is  reminding the disciples  to cling to what they know about him. We will have reason for hope if we know the scriptures if we use them as the lens through which to view the world and how we make our way in the world.

This is a  to know the whole story, its shapes, themes, and concerns. When we know how the story ends, with victory over death, and that the way to victory was through self-giving love that was willing to suffer and die, we have reason to hope, now and in the future.

A third skill is this: Expect trouble. But expect Christ more.

Jesus, in Mark 13, as mentioned before, describes a scene that many Jews experienced not long after Jesus’ time on earth, the passage was saved as important  because it also describes a reality that has been true ever since. Christians should expect difficulties. Being faithful has its consequences in the world. Being faithful has meant martyrdom and family divisions, execution, persecution, poverty, estrangement, ostracism, sacrifice. Not only is Christianity no magic charm against the harms that befall every human—accidents, sickness, and death—faithfulness means being open to more trouble still. to expect trouble. But to expect Christ more.

Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Trouble is real. But Jesus wanted his disciples to know, his disciples then, and us, disciples today, that we can be alert, open, and watchful for all the signs of God at work in the world,  expect trouble, but expect Christ more, that we are not alone in the face of any trouble. When dreams fail and disasters come and we find ourselves    at the end of our rope, we are not alone. Christ is with us. We are promised the help of the Holy Spirit. Christ is present as we reach out to one another, when we reach out to serve any who are suffering, especially when we reach out in times of trouble.

These are hoping skills for as long as we need them: Remember the really big picture. Get to know scripture. Expect trouble; expect Christ more.

We are to watch for this day, when His enemies are finally put beneath his feet, as today’s Letter to the Hebrews  envisions. We can wait in confidence knowing, as we pray in today’s Psalm, that we will one day have the fullness of joy in his presence at His right-hand happiness forever.