Who is Going to Make the Potato Salad?

 

Text:  Mark 13:1-9

Theme:  "Who is Going to Make the Potato Salad?"

25th Sunday after Pentecost

November 18, 2012

First Presbyterian Church

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

13 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

² “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

⁵ Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶ Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. ⁷ When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁸ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

In the last year or so, I've added about twenty pounds to my bench press.  I like the progress, but I wonder about the cost.  I've been waking up in the middle of the night by sharp pains in my shoulder which essentially are saying:  "You're not 18 anymore."  Still, I can bench press a ton!  Did you know that?  Yes, I am so strong I can lift a ton.  You say, "That's impossible." I say, "No, it's not; I'd just have to be in outer space to do it!"  It's a whole different sphere out there.  I'd have the power there that I don't have here.

It's hard to break out of one's sphere.  One way is death, and we don't want that.  Another way would including taking off for outer space, but NASA is no longer and a private flight is cost-prohibitive.  There are times -- more times than we'd probably care to admit --  when we are uncomfortable right smack dab in the middle of the sphere where we are created to be.  There is so much going on here in the sphere of our existence that we find it difficult to manage.  Then, it feels as though we've lost control, and we don't care much for that either. 

In the organization called Alcoholics Anonymous, there is only one requirement for membership:  a desire to stop drinking.  Once you have that desire and choose to act on it -- what recovering alcoholics call "working the steps", you meet with another requirement, and that is this (and I'm here reading from the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous: 

 

            The first requirement is that we be convinced that any life run on self-will can         hardly be a success.  On that basis we are almost always in collision with        something or somebody, even though our motives are good.  Most people try to       live by self-propulsion.  Each person is like an actor who wants to run the whole      show; is forever trying to arrange the lights, the ballet, the scenery and the rest of       the players in his own way.  If his arrangements would only stay put, if only     people would do as he wished, the show would be great...

            What usually happens?  The show doesn't come off very well...

            Our actor is self-centered -- ego-centric, as people like to call it nowadays.  He is      like the retired businessman who lolls in the Florida sunshine in the winter complaining of the sad state of the nation; the minister who sighs over the sins of        the twentieth century; politicians and reformers who are sure all would be Utopia    if the rest of the world would only behave; the outlaw safe cracker who thinks society has wronged him; and the alcoholic who has lost all and is locked up.      Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our       resentments, or our self-pity?

It was quite possibly a lovely day in Jerusalem -- not the new Jerusalem which shall come down from another sphere.  I'm talking about the Jerusalem in our sphere right here on terra firma.  Our Lord Jesus was leaving the temple area along with His disciples.  One of them offers up  a comment.  It wasn't provocative, mean, or manipulative; it was just a simple observation.  The disciple exclaims:  "Look, Teacher!  What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!" 

Yesterday morning, I drove up to Austin College in Sherman, Texas for a church meeting.  I tuned to XM radio, channel #4, and enjoyed my first go-around with holiday music this year.  I've never been to Sherman and Austin College, and the town and school, together, look like a nice place to live and study. It was like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.  One of my motives for going to these meetings is to support, as best I can, the new inquirers and candidates that are studying for the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). So many of you and so many others supported me. Thus, I feel an on-going debt to support those who are now where I once was.

After a few conversations with friends over coffee, I headed back to Denton in the early afternoon.  The GPS, surprisingly, told me to take a different route.  I swung west over to Gainesville and then headed south on I-35.  Still lost in all the Christmas music on channel 4, I did manage to scan the horizon.  I knew I was getting closer to home and hearth when there, to the southeast, I started to make out the two towers at Texas Women's University.  If you're away for three years or just three hours, you can't help but smile.  That sight gives you a sense of peace and of stability. 

Perhaps that is all the disciple was seeing as he gazed at the magnificent temple in Jerusalem! "What massive stones," he exclaimed.  "What magnificent buildings," he said.  Take your peace and stability where you can get it.  I like this disciple.

So this disciple offers up this high fastball of words! Jesus, in turn, knocks it out of the park.  He says:  "Do you see all these great buildings?  Not one stone here will be left on another.  Every one will be thrown down."

In stunned silence, the disciples and Jesus left the temple area.  If you could have followed them on GPS, you would note that they headed east across the Kidron Valley.  Then, with valley traversed, they took a short hike up to the Mount of Olives.  Most definitely, there was an even better view of the massive and magnificent temple from there.  I've seen pictures of the temple area, taken from the Mount of Olives, on Google.  It's a photographer's paradise. 

There, taking a bit of a break, four of the disciples -- Peter and Andrew, James and John -- approach Jesus.  They'd been thinking about the provocative statement our  Lord had made earlier.  They ask:  "Tell us when these things will happen?  And what is the sign that they are about to be fulfilled?"

Hats off to them! Those are great questions to ask.  If all our peace and stability is going to come tumbling down in a mass of rubble, if our hopes and dreams for the future are about to be shattered to bits, forgive us for wanting a little bit of a heads up. We've got to start making preparations; we've got to get to Home Depot and get our duct tape and bottled water. 

As a side note, even after Jesus was crucified and rose again from the dead, His disciples were still, as they say, "future trippin'".  In the book of Acts, right at the beginning of the book and just as Jesus was about to ascend into heaven, the disciples want to know what's going to happen and when.  They say:  "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"  Jesus replies:  "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority."

Here in 2012, we all are so much like these disciples that it's scary.  We love our images and institutions of peace and stability. We smile when we catch glimpses of them.  They become more precious to us as we hear, all but on a daily basis, how bad it is out there.  Hurricanes hit; non-union helpers are told to take a hike;  stock markets and credit ratings drop; a fiscal cliff looms; currency is devalued; cancer kills; peoples'  lives and homes are robbed, burglarized, and bashed; violent uprisings start; hellfire missles are fired from drones; faithfulness wanes; secularism rises; alcohol, grade-A narcotic, xanax, aderol, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, you name it, fills the void; we're closer to collapse than ever before; the end is near!  "Hear a funky noise?  It's the tightenin' of the screws," sings one aging rock star. 

With all of this doom and gloom around us, the end must surely be near.  Martin Luther, the great reformer, was once asked what he would do if the end of the world would come tomorrow.  Without hesitation, he replied:  "I'd plant a tree today."  What Luther was very vividly saying was that we do not know when the end is coming.  That is not ours to know.  In the Apostles' Creed, we confess that Jesus Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead.  We don't confess when He will come; we just proclaim that He will.  With all due respect, the world has had its share of wingnuts and cracked pots who have tried to predict, with certainty, when the world will end.  Then, when the world doesn't end, they go back and revise their math.  Talk about bad arithmetic!

I remember one time being part of a discussion on the end of the world, or the "end times," or "eschatology" (as it is called in academic, theological circles).  Picking up on what Luther had said, one individual said:  "If I knew the end were coming tomorrow, I'd want to know who is going to make the potato salad." 

That's faith talking, my friends.  By the way, I prefer my potato salad with dill; others prefer it with pickle relish.  I'll make you a deal:  I'll make the potato salad with the relish and you make it with the dill. Then we'll sit back, together, and watch the end of the world unfold.

You know, this bit about planting a tree and the potato salad, there's a smidge of humor in there. With all that is going on around us and within us, be of good cheer!  Jesus says:  "Have no fear, little flock!  For it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."  That's a stronger fact and promise than the end of the world.

Finally, in today's text Jesus described to His disciples what we've talked about today as the beginning of the birth pangs.  He spoke of wars and rumors of wars and nation rising against nation.  He mentioned earthquakes and famines.  All of these things are happening today.  Jesus called them birth pangs.

My question is:  are these birth pangs like Braxton-Hicks contractions or the real thing?  The answer is:  it's not mine to know.  And guess what?  That's okay.  The Lord Jesus, who died and rose for you and me, is in charge of the timetable.  I'm perfectly content to let the God who loved me all the way to a cross to run the calendar. 

In the meantime, I'm looking forward -- with you! -- to that kingdom about to be fully born, that kingdom which the Bible says cannot be shaken.  So, in this confidence, we dedicate our pledge; we move to Thanksgiving with thanksgiving;  we head into Advent and Christmas in the happy confidence that, in Jesus, God has our back.  We plant a tree; we enjoy the potato salad; we glorify God and enjoy God forever. 

Amen.