Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 14, 2021 – Daniel 12:1-3; Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32

When we listen to the gospel readings on Sunday, we don't know what came before or came after them. But, if you had your Book of Mark open in front of you, you’d realize that this is the centerpiece of a much longer story. The story begins when Jesus enters Jerusalem in great triumph, and immediately things begin to turn darker when he throws the money changers out of the Court of the Gentiles, in the temple. That sets up a week of confrontation. Saint Mark has taken all the confrontation stories that were handed down to him, and put them all in one week that begins with Jesus doing something that is guaranteed to have the authorities turn against him. And, one by one, he bests them in debate, but each time he wins one of the battles, it makes it more certain that he is going to lose the war.

And this passage we just read begins by Mark telling us where Jesus is. He's sitting on the Mount of Olives, across from the city of Jerusalem. Apparently, this is a sort of public park, with a very beautiful view, and people go up there and look across the valley and see the beautiful city of Jerusalem. Now, remember that Jesus has gone to Jerusalem almost every year of his life, since he was twelve years old. It is the destination for anyone who is a faithful Jew.

He’s looking across at the city that he entered in triumph just a couple of days ago, and he is filled with melancholy. He begins to talk about his feelings. He talks about them using imagery from the Old Testament, what we call Apocalypse. Mightier than imaginable things. At the end of his story, he’s going to say to his friends, “So be watchful. Be vigilant. What I anticipate is going to happen to me, could happen to you.” That’s the story.

So, I asked you what you thought was the most important line in our part of the story. The most important line is “Nobody knows.” Nobody knows. Jesus sweeps aside all of the predictions, and says, “Nobody knows.” We don’t understand apocalypse but, to give you modern examples of the same kind of storytelling would be The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, or Star Wars, where larger-than-life forces of good and evil confront one another. Where character matters. Where love and bravery, and cowardice and treachery all matter greatly. And they’re all leading to something much better. That’s what that stuff is.

But we can’t take literally the description we just heard in the gospel. I mean, the meteorologists tell us that we have a future date with huge meteor that’s probably going to burn the earth to a crisp. The ecologists tell us we’re about to set our own world on fire because of all of our pollution. The military industrial complex tells us that we’re in danger of setting the world afire with nuclear arms. And the earth scientist people tell us that, if the caldera in Yellowstone Park blows, it’s all over.

But you know, the earth was hit with a meteor once before and it doomed the dinosaurs. But if the dinosaurs hadn’t gone extinct, we wouldn’t be here. We’re the result of the fact that life did not die when the planet seemed to die. And we have a very self-centered view of ourselves, don’t we? But the astronomers tell us that we’re just one small planet, revolving around a fairly small and insignificant star, in one galaxy. And that there are hundreds of galaxies.

God is immense in his creative love. It’s not all about you and me. So how are we to take this story?

When I was doing my research for my homily this weekend, I came across a commentary that fascinated me. The guy said, “Usually, when we hear these kinds of stories, this is how we read them: ‘When God is coming, everything changes, it gets messed up, gets destroyed.’” He said, “You should look at it the other way: ‘When change happens, then God comes.’” And change is always happening in our lives, isn’t it? We change jobs, we change schools, we change communities in which we live. We are changed by financial misfortune, by illness, by death. We are changed by good things - the opportunity to start anew, a love affair, a marriage. All of these things are major changes in our lives that disturb us, put us out of our comfort zone. But what the scripture is telling us is that’s when God comes. He comes with an invitation to allow him to walk this journey, to go through this change with you. You can accept the invitation, or not. You can allow him to help you change the uncertainty into an opportunity, or to learn to live with an altered reality. “No one knows,” says Jesus. But, when change happens, God comes.