Just the beginning
One day, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the great teacher and philosopher, and his Dominican brothers were gathered for their hour of recreation. They were all talking, laughing, and enjoying one another's company before going back to their work, prayer, and study… Someone asked
Given that question I wonder what our answers would be – would it be to spend time here in Church with our Christian brothers and sisters, worshipping, praying, celebrating God’s love, or would it be rushing off to sort out some problem with someone or to try and resolve some long argument, or perhaps just to go off and be with family… I guess we all wonder whether we would greet a moment like that with joy, with sadness, with fear or whatever kind of emotion.
Whatever our answers might be for those last fifteen minutes, our gospel reading this morning (Mark 13:1-8), and even the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (10:11-14,19-25), are encouraging us to look beyond this moment, or even this earthly life, with hope for the future.
In the gospel Jesus is coming out of the Temple and one of his disciples makes a comment about the buildings and Jesus responds by talking of the time when the buildings will come crashing down, of the time when there will be wars and rumours of wars, when nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes and famines.
It’s not a great picture that Jesus is painting, and it isn’t one that’s very likely to lead to any sort of hope at all.., except if we look a little more closely – the point that Jesus is actually making is that whilst these things may happen he remains in control, and we must never lose sight of that fact.
I don’t know whether Jesus meant these things literally as he spoke, but the one certainty is that he meant the bit about not being distracted from the task of following him and his commandments. Winston Churchill once said, ‘men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.’
That is what Jesus is warning us about – being so distracted away from him that we seek a totally different path altogether.
And there are many distractions for those of us within the Church today – perhaps the political correctness or politeness that leads us to think we should never talk about our faith even though Jesus commands us to do this, or perhaps it is the fear of getting something wrong, even though all that Jesus wants of us is to say why he makes a difference in our lives, or perhaps the worry of being too busy to really learn more about our faith, even though we talk about Jesus being a priority in our lives… And these are just a few of the many distractions we need to avoid.
As Jesus talks of the destruction of the buildings and so on he is making reference once again to the temporary nature of this world and its problems – over and over again we can remind ourselves of that wonderful picture painted in the Book of Revelation of a place of no more suffering, no mourning, no pain, no tears… that is the hope that Jesus has given us through his victory over death.
And the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews offers some guidance in how we keep this hope alive. It’s easy to talk about being positive and hopeful even through the darkest times, but talking about it is sometimes all we can do – it’s not actually the reality. That will more likely be nails bitten and sleepless nights, and that is why the writer of this letter suggests meeting together, and not ignoring the importance of that fellowship, and he (or she) talks about provoking one another to love and good deeds, and encouraging one another.
Our time together in Church is important, as is our time before and after Church as we meet each other and have a chat. And that’s why it’s important to meet together at social events in order to get to know one another better, so that through times of trouble and difficulty as well as times of joy and happiness, we are sharing things with our Christian family.
That is what Church must be about – yes there are all kinds of different things we do when we come here, but primarily it is a family meeting together to do these things together. A little while ago we thought of Jesus’ command to love one another – we thought of how difficult it can be to follow sometimes, but that didn’t mean that we could ignore it, and this idea of supporting one another, and living as a family, trusting in God and encouraging one another through doubts and worries is a big part of this.
Church was never intended to be a Sunday club, but rather a community of people enjoying the benefits of God’s wonderful creation and his love, sharing those things with one another and with other people, and serving God in the world. And as we look at our Churches we must ask ourselves how well we match up to that description.
Jesus is saying to us, ‘don’t worry about the past, but keep awake now’ and he is saying ‘don’t fret about the future, I am in control’. In other words we must be active in service, and in love and in telling people about God’s love, we must be positive and filed with hope, because we have a God who has already won for us all of the really important battles that need to be fought. Our job now is to tell others about that victory and about that hope.
The gospel reading ends after that rather painful talk of what is to come, with the words of Jesus ‘This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.’
Again it was Winston Churchill who said back in November 1942, ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.’
As we look around at the world it’s easy to think of the bad things, it’s easy to think that things are always worse than they were in previous generations, but Jesus steps into our thoughts, just as he does into any situation, and reminds us that this world is just a brief and imperfect preparation for the joys that are to follow. This world is not an end in itself, nor even is it the beginning of the end, but when this world is done we will have reached the end of the beginning – and we can be confident in that message, and filled with hope to share it with the whole world. AMEN
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