Thomas J Parlette
“A Peek at the Ending”
Mark 13: 1-8
11/14/21
Most of you are familiar with the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical “Joseph and the Amazing, Technicolor Dreamcoat.” It has had multiple successful runs on Broadway and has become a staple of community and school theater groups all over the country.
Joseph tells the story of the biblical character Joseph and his brothers – how he is sold into slavery in Egypt and yet finds favor with the Pharaoh because of his ability to interpret dreams.
There is a song in the musical, a big cast number, that comes when Joseph is seemingly at his rock bottom. He is in a prison cell after being abandoned by his jealous brothers and then sold into slavery. It’s a rousing number called “Go, Go, Go Joseph.” The lyrics go like this:
“Go, Go, Go Joseph,
Hang on now Joseph, you’ll make it someday.
Don’t give up Joseph, fight till you drop,
We’ve read the book and you come out on top.”
I love that little wink and a nod to the audience that assures us that even though Joseph is in a bad way, things will work out in the end. Sometimes it helps to have a peek at the ending.
Our passage from Mark for today is part of the apocalyptic literature of the Bible. In very vivid terms it describes the last days of humanity. Each time predictions are made using this passage as guidance, there are people who sell their homes, cash in their life insurance, and turn toward the heavens for signs that the end is near. Of course, this is nothing new.
Historians believe that the first apocalyptic cult in the United States was established in 1694, just 74 years after the pilgrims immigrated here. A mystic from Transylvania named Johannes Kelpius was the leader, and he and his followers settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in what is now Fairmount Park. There were 40 so-called “monks” in Kelpius’ cult because they believed that the number 40 had a spiritual meaning. They believed that the End was coming soon. So they lived in a small settlement in the wilderness where they studied astronomy, and made art and music.
Kelpius predicted that the End would come on the last day of 1694. That day came and went. Nothing happened. A new day dawned on January 1st.
However, his followers didn’t abandon him, as you might expect. Instead, they continued to live in the woods and study the stars. After Kelpius’ death, his followers disbanded and went on with their lives. As a side note, Kelpius was the subject of the first known oil painting done in the United States. It was painted by one of Kelpius’ followers, Christopher Witt.(1) If you’re ever in Philadelphia, you can visit Fairmount Park and see a cave purported used by Kelpius.
And of course, there are still groups around that believe the end times are near.
But there is nothing in the Bible that gives us a specific date or timeline. There are many passages like this one that give us an idea of what things might be like. There are certainly passages that talk about the need to prepare for the end of time. But no clear date or timeline exists. However, there are a few things that Jesus says to us about the end of time and his return.
The first thing to say about any of these apocalyptic texts is – we cannot know the future. Only God has that information. Jesus’ disciples fully expected his return in their lifetimes, they expected to see all this happen. But it didn’t. A new day dawned every time. Only God knows the future.
There was once a woman named Leta Davis who tells of sitting in church one day with her family listening to her pastor preach on the end of time. She didn’t know that her three-year- old son, Christopher, was paying attention to the sermon until the pastor asked the congregation a rhetorical question – “What preparation do we need for the final days?”
And Christopher whispered, perhaps a little too loudly, “Preparation H.” Apparently Christopher watches a lot of TV.(2)
Anytime society faces a major change or crisis – such as a pandemic, rising unemployment, natural disasters – people search for some sense of control. We either seek someone to blame or someone to guide us. Just look at the myths, lies and conspiracy theories that circulate on social media. We gain a sense of control when we find someone to blame for our problems.
A mother once asked her son what he would like for his birthday.
“I’d like a little brother,” he said.
Mom was a little taken aback. “Oh my, that’s a big wish. Why do you want a little brother?
“Well, said the boy, “there’s only so much I can blame on the dog.”(3)
When we fear the future, we look for someone or something to blame.
Another way of dealing with an uncertain future is by looking for someone or something to guide us, to provide us with a sense of direction, a sense of comfort or certainty. We turn to anyone who offers us answers – politicians, religious leaders, internet influencers, celebrities, and even psychics.
There is a woman in New York city, a psychic named Hae Jun Jeon, who makes a good living as an advisor to major financial and technology firms in New York. She uses tarot cards to guide her clients in their decisions about investing and money matters. There are many who swear by her abilities.(4) I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I want my financial adviser turning to tarot cards.
There was once a New York City detective who was interviewed about the psychics practicing in the city. She said, “You know, I’ve gone into hundreds of fortune-teller’s parlors, and been told thousands of things about myself and what’s going happen in the future. But not once has any psychic said to me, ‘You are a police officer getting ready to arrest me.’ ”(5) Some things not even psychics can foresee.
Jesus does not promise us any answers about the future, at least not when it comes to specific dates and times. In fact, he says to watch out for those people who claim to know the future, because they are deceiving us. We can’t know the future, only God knows.
So since we can’t know the future, our task is to make the most of the present, the here and now.
Writer Myrko Thum notes that, “The present moment is the only thing where there is no time. It is the point between past and future. It is always there and it is the only point we can access in time. Everything that happens, happens in the present moment. Everything that ever happened can only happen in the present moment. It is impossible for any to exist outside of the present.”(6)
Wayne Dyer advises us: “Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”(7)
Eckart Tolle traces how we manage the present moment to almost ill that affects us. He writes:
“Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry – all forms of fear- are caused by too much future and not enough present. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough present.”(8)
We can’t know the future, much less control it – but we can control how we use the present moment.
God does not give us all the answers about the future, but God does give us incredible opportunities to live and be followers in this present moment.
Another important thing we can say when we read these apocalyptic texts is that God does know the future. We don’t, but God does. That is our chief source of comfort and strength.
Professor and author Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1986. He is best known for his book Night, a memoir of his family’s suffering in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Elie was just fifteen years old when his family was deported from Romania to Auschwitz. His mother, father and younger sister were murdered in the camps.
You would think that suffering a tragedy this great would make him deeply pessimistic about the future. Instead, Elie Wiesel encouraged people to live with courage and hope, to choose their attitude toward the future. In one of his works, he writes, “One must wager on the future. To save the life of a single child, no effort is superfluous. To make a tired old man smile is to perform an essential task. To defeat injustice and misfortune, if only for an instant, for a single victim, is to invent a new reason to hope.”(9)
Realizing that God knows the future gives us a new reason to hope. If we know God’s character, then we trust God’s purposes. In spite of uncertainty, in spite of suffering, in spite of circumstance, we can trust the future to God and give our best to the present moment. Rather than wallowing in speculation our fear, we can focus on doing good works and sharing God’s love right now in our present circumstances. And in this way, we can discover new reasons to hope.
The biblical testimony is that there is a basic pattern to all of life. You and I can’t discern it any more than a fish can analyze the water in which it swims. If we could step out of space and time with God, we could see the pattern, and we could see that all things do work to the good for those who love God, but right now, we can’t make that out. All we know is that God knows and therefore things are all right.
In 1941, while confined as a prisoner of war in Germany, a young Frenchman and devout Christian named Olivier Messiaen composed an instrumental piece called, “The Quartet for the End of Time.” It’s inspired by a passage from Revelation 10- especially the phrase, “there shall be time no longer,” which Messiaen took quite literally as he followed a very complicated time signature throughout the piece. As Messiaen liked to say, “A steady beat has no life in it.” And he meant it.
Even though he was in prison, the guards were supportive of Messiaen’s music, providing him with pencils, erasers, music paper and even instruments – although his piano was missing some keys, which Messiaen simply worked around it.
“The Quartet for the End of Time” is notoriously difficult to play, but it is a beautiful piece of music, written to remind his fellow prisoners that no matter how horrible their circumstance, at the end of time God would triumph over the forces of evil and redeem humanity’s brokenness and suffering.
In most musical scores, there are notations to play a certain section slowly or quickly. Messiaen cared more that his musicians play with great emotion. Instead of using notations to drive the pace of the music, his notations read, “Play tenderly, play with ecstasy, play with love.”(10)
Even if we don’t know the future, we don’t have to live in fear. Like the beautiful quartet written in a prisoner-of-war camp, we can live tenderly, live with ecstasy, live with love. We only have to trust that God knows the future, and our time is safe in God’s hands.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, p46.
2. Ibid… p47
3. Ibid… p47.
4. Ibid… p47.
5. Ibid… p47.
6. www.myrkothum.com, retrieved 11/2/21.
7. www.themindfool.com, retrieved 11/2/21
8. Ibid…
9. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, p48.
10. Ibid… p48-49.
