Sermon from 25th Sunday after Pentecost, Nov. 18, 2012

The apocalyptic beginnings of Jesus' discourse, where he talks about the end of the world, can drive us to fear the world around us. But at the heart of Jesus' words is the promise of God's enduring faithfulness to his promise of redemption.

An excerpt from my sermon:

In the midst of all of what Jesus says in Mark 13, we are faced with many terrible things... wars, famines, earthquakes... typical visions of end of the world prophecies but as one biblical scholar has said these events are also “persistent ingredients of history’s pageant of suffering.” For Jesus, the issue is not to get worked up about any of this. The earthquakes, famines, wars and such all continue to show the brokenness of the world and the end will be no different from the beginning. What is important for Jesus is that we know the end... not necessarily when the end will come or what historical sign will happen to let us know it is coming about... but the end. That in the midst of the the brokenness of these relationships, God will not overlook the people he has chosen... and knowing that God will continue to watch over and keep us even in the midst of terrible things (not that we will be spared from such things) we are free to live.

Read the whole sermon, or listen to it here.