Mark 13 is a mini-apocalypse, a mini "end times" proclamation. For me, the most important counsel is from Jesus, that we'll hear all kinds of threats, promises and proclamations, throughout the years. We simply ought to trust God. To care for us. To give us words to speak if we should ever find ourselves in a situation of religious persecution-the Holy Spirit will be faithful. Stay with it...to the end. We shouldn't be alarmed at wars and rumors of war. There is another reality that lies beyond history: a new heaven and a new earth. The goal of history is God. Society will be redeemed and re-created by God. If we believe in God's promises, we trust that there will be a time when, as Isaiah prophesied, man will "Turn their swords into plowshares, their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won't play war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4). Peace on earth won't come through war or diplomacy, but through the Prince of Peace, whether in the course of human history or in our individual hearts.
No one knows the day or hour, and the signs won't be the signs you expect, nor the ones that false preachers and prophets tout. Only God knows when. Read the signs you can, but only God knows.
EP: "We're here to be trained in watchful waiting, no anxious worrying. When we're born, we're plunged into a sea of troubles--a world of noise and blasphemy and corruption. That's one side of it. When we become Christians, we're introduced into a world of salvation. With every sunrise, grace spills across the horizon in acts of healing and words of truth. That's the other side.
"Jesus opens our eyes to this world of grace and commands us to pay attention. That means we don't go into the world each day desperately trying to hold on to things or people, panicked at everything that might weaken our grasp on those things or those people. We open our lives in praise for the Christ who is with us, anticipating the time when we'll see him coming in the clouds in all his power and glory.
"In the meantime, Jesus says, 'Watch. Watch for what God is doing. Watch for what God will do.'"
Authorities looking for way to kill Jesus. Jesus at the home of Simon the Leper. Lavish anointing. "She did what she could when she could--she pre-anointed my body for burial. And you can be sure that wherever in the world the Message is preached, what she just did is going to be talked about and admiringly." The last shall be first... But this is what sent Judas over the edge.
"I have something hard but important to say to you." Someone will betray me. "Not me."
"Take, this is my body. This is my blood. God's new covenant. Poured out for many people."
"You're going to feel like your world is falling apart and that it's all my fault. But after I'm raised up, I'll go ahead of you, leading the way to Galilee." We sing that "Christ is alive and goes before us, to show and share what love can do. This is a day of new beginnings. Our God is making all things new." Well, maybe we don't sing it in Warehouse, but it's a great song and one of my internal anthems.
Peter, James and John went with him. "He plunged into a sinkhole of agony." "Take this cup from me...but not my will, yours."
Betrayed by a kiss. All the disciples cut and ran. High Priests conspiring with the Jewish Council. Had no evidence. Claiming to be the Messiah was the undoing of Jesus--it gave them cause. Peter and the rooster, and his own denial and deep lament.
1 Corinthians 11-13
Some of us have knowledge of these chapters before we open. The love chapter.The body chapter and spiritual gifts. The last supper chapter. Very well-known Paul stuff.
Marriage authority. God-Christ-husband-wife. But don't read too much into the differences between men and women. Neither can go it alone or claim priority. Stop doing the "who's first" routines.
Church fights. "Getting the picture that when you meet together it brings out your worst side, not your best." Divisiveness. Competitiveness. Critical spirits. You bring your divisions to worship, too (worship wars?!). Don't live by Acts 2 or 4--wealthy get their fill first, then the hired help come in and get leftovers. Sometimes you're even drunk!
Every time you receive the Lord's Supper, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master. Don't let familiarity breed contempt. Examine your motives. Test your heart. Come to this meal in holy awe. Early church: full feast and atmosphere of intense joy, jubilation and gladness. In Corinth, food and wine obscured the purpose. Began to treat it as their own supper instead of the Lord's. The purpose of examining ourselves isn't to root out our physical needs and our expressions of joy but to discover what role they play in our motivations. When you come, be reverent and courteous with one another. It's a spiritual meal-a love feast.
Ways God's spirit gets worked into our lives. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. All God's gifts that are handed out originate in God's Spirit. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is--everyone. Wise counsel. Clear understanding. Simple trust. Healing the sick. Miraculous acts. Proclamation. Distinguishing between spirits. Tongues. Interpretation of tongues. God decides who gets what. Body. Through the spirit we can all say goodbye to our partial and piecemeal lives; now we're in a large and integrated life. Each has a part. Labels are no longer useful. This makes you more significant, not less. And it also tempers your significance because you need others to survive. You are part of something much larger. "Every part is dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance." Christ's body: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, organizers, tongue prayers.
EP: "The church, Paul argued, is the place where we find ourselves accepted for who we are, free to be what God has created us to be. We're not competitors; we're a community. All the distinctions we're used to making are dissolved here. Each of us is accepted in terms of our own unique contribution to the glory of God. There's nothing in the body that is trivial or unimportant."
Liturgy from my sorority ritual. One of my God-sightings and God holding onto me when I wasn't holding onto God. I had to memorize most of chapter 13, putting God's word deep down inside of me, even when I wasn't interested. That's how God is...planting seeds anyway...loving anyway...faithful anyway...waiting as long as it takes. Hallelujah!
Gotta love or you've got nothing. Nothing else matters. No outward expression nor inward expression, must have love. Love the way the Message puts this. What if we could live this in every relationship?!
Storge(affection)-philia(friendship)-eros(romantic)-agape(charity). First three are human loves. Agape is divine, this uniquely Christian love Paul speaks about when he describes how love acts. Love never dies. Divine love, Holy Spirit infused resurrection power love never dies. "We have three things to do to lead us to that day of consummation: Trust steadily in God. Hope unswervingly. Love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love."
Help me love, Lord. Help me love.
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