As Jesus sat across from the Temple with Peter, James, John, and Andrew, he instructed them: “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.”
Chapter 13 of Mark is often called, “The Little Apocalypse”, after the apocalyptic passages in Isaiah and Daniel, and later in Revelation. Albert Schweitzer popularized the Little Apocalypse, however inaccurately, about a century ago. He believed that, when Jesus said “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place,” that Jesus meant his second coming would take place. So, disappointed that Jesus’ prediction had not come true, Schweitzer left the church, though he continued to cling to the mission of Jesus, going to fulfill a life of good works overseas in Africa.
Today we know that the Little Apocalypse was actually not just a disembodied prophecy about an other-worldly second coming, but a specific map of history happening in and around Jesus and the early church. As in all Apocalyptic writing, it arises in times of great distress, like war and displacement. Daniel, of course, was written amidst Israel’s hopelessness, exiled to Babylon, and it helped strengthen their faith when they were tempted to give up. Mark’s Little Apocalypse was written during, or immediately after, the Jewish War from A.D. 66-70, in which the Brigands of Israel were finally defeated by the Romans, and the Temple was destroyed and burned to the ground. So apocalyptic – first and foremost – addresses the community in which it arises.
In the first verses of Chapter 13, the disciples marvel at the beauty of the Temple. And Jesus responds: ‘Go ahead, take a good look at it’ –and it was a magnificent, with its meticulously milled, massive stones, the gold inlay, towering above the city of Jerusalem. But Jesus predicts, “not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” Then, sitting down on the Mount of Olives across the valley, the disciples ask him, “when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” The whole rest of the chapter then, the Little Apocalypse, is Jesus’ answer to Peter, James, John and Andrew. The wars he describes were the Jewish Wars of their generation. Two of the worst earthquakes, we now know, happened in those years, of which Jesus makes mention. The images of a ‘Son of Man’ coming in the clouds is almost a verbatim quote from Daniel. And so today we know that Jesus’ prediction, that the Temple would fall, and he, the Son of Man would arise, did happen within a generation, or 40 years time. And Jesus’ final word to the disciples as they look at the Temple from the Mount of Olives is, “Keep awake,” a message to them for the Passover festival about to take place, as much as it speaks to us today.
And do the disciples keep awake? Certainly not when they return to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives less than 48 hours later. Jesus asks them to wait for him while he goes to pray and simply stay awake, stay on watch. But three times they fall asleep, and then the Temple guard walk right up and arrest Jesus. Not until the cross and resurrection, will they truly wake up!
The “Little Apocalypse,” like earlier forms of it, are prophecies delivered in the midst of national crisis, which map a way out for a hopeless people. As we too get more and more cautious and fearful in these times, lean more and more on simple and seemingly secure answers, Jesus, in the tradition of the prophets imagines a whole new world that God is going to bring even as we see the sky falling. Something new is about to break in! The old is giving way, and we must give our undivided attention to it. Endings are opportunities for new beginnings, and God will not be satisfied with former traditions that have lost there traction as the former things are passing away.
I remember the first Faith-based Community Organizing Training I went to. In a workshop, an eager but perplexed student, asked Stephen Bowman, one of the leaders, “it seems like we are being trained to be some rather radical change agents in our parishes, and yet most of our people are traditional in their faith. How will we convince them?” Without hesitation Stephen answered: “you don’t have to convince them. The people of your parish are people with families that care about the communities they live in, and no matter how traditional people are, they will stand up for what is best for their family life and neighborhood. Justice and fairness is in their interest.”
The darkened sky’s and falling stars of apocalyptic times are sometimes misused by false prophets to fill us with fear, and take away the power we have as change agents in the world. But Jesus gives us a real map to follow through times of crisis and testing. Jesus empowers us, during days where hope is in short supply and we are unsure if we even have a future, in days such as these when we face tough economic times, both in our society and in our congregational budget, and even the powers of heaven look shaken up.
We know this is true because Jesus, the Son of Man, assures us that he is also the Son of God. When in times of great peril, the Temple, the place where God had traditionally resided for centuries, was falling down, Jesus gave up his body, his life, to be raised as a new temple, a much more universal and available temple, where all could see and meet God wherever they live, and worship. And miraculously, we, the Gentiles, were invited in!
We too, Keep Awake, knowing that the Son of God is alive, and will lead us through all uncertainty, offering us courage and a way through every fearful day and hour. On this first Sunday of Advent, we have hope. The world is so full of excess and false leaders, but it is also pregnant with a new Savior, about to be born into our world, born as one of us. “Keep Awake!”