{"id":541,"date":"2012-06-17T11:00:07","date_gmt":"2012-06-17T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=541"},"modified":"2019-12-03T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:02:09","slug":"apocalypse-then-consolation-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2012\/06\/17\/apocalypse-then-consolation-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Apocalypse Then: Consolation Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the entire service.<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to hear the sermon only<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark 13:1-8<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

1. Preface:\u00a0 Andrew Young on Faith and Religion<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few years ago Boston University was graced by the voice and presence of Andrew Young\u2014activist, pastor, theologian, congressman, ambassador, mayor and close confidant of Martin Luther King.\u00a0 One pastor said:\u00a0 \u201cHe is one of our \u2018wise men\u2019\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 We were honored to be at breakfast with him, across a round table in the Howard Thurman center, guests too of the office of the Dean of Students.\u00a0 BU students, Ken Elmore, and Kathryn Kennedy provided the hospitality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For those of a certain generation\u2014those of us now with bifocals, aging joints, haphazard memory, thinning hair\u2014Andrew Young is a wise man and an icon too. We are aware, too, that for ranges of humanity in other generations, his name is slipping from its household word quality into more of a vintage mode.\u00a0 C\u2019est dommage<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mr. Young answered several questions.\u00a0 One:\u00a0 \u201cWhat should the relationship be of politics and religion?\u201d\u00a0 You might be surprised at his answer.\u00a0 It recalls Paul in the 15th chapter of Romans, extolling the virtue of those, his enemies, who nonetheless were preaching Christ.\u00a0 There is wisdom in magnanimity, and there is magnanimity in wisdom\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Every great revolution in the history of this country was supported by a religious revival or enthusiasm\u2014the Revolutionary war, the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement\u2026No, I do not agree with Pat Robertson and those folks, but I also recognize that they are doing some good in the world\u2026they are sending missionaries and feeding the hungry and other good things.\u00a0 Faith and politics invariably go together.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. American Eschatology:\u00a0 21st Century Consolation Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is a particular, peculiar, and potent intersection of the two which concerns us this morning.\u00a0 In our time, religion and politics have intersected at an unusual point, that of the doctrine of the last things, of eschatology, or the doctrine of the Christian hope.\u00a0 As we have propounded for six years from this pulpit, on a reliable hope hangs our future.\u00a0 But to approach such a globe saving, history opening hope\u2014I speak here of salvation in the little and in the large<\/em>\u2014we shall need to clear the ground of unreliable hope.\u00a0 The remaining historic churches (orthodox, catholic and protestant) have done a poor job in contesting the region of hope.\u00a0\u00a0 We have not steadily and repeatedly reminded both church and culture about what, historically, and so theologically, we may understand regarding biblical teachings about hope.\u00a0 We have not done our job, to translate tradition into insight for effective living.\u00a0 To some degree we have turned aside from the apocalyptic language and imagery of the New Testament, in turn embarrassed, frightened, offended or simply baffled by the ancient hope, like that in Mark 13, read some moments ago.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And what has become of the void of interpretation we have left behind?\u00a0 It has become filled by material about being \u2018left behind\u2019!\u00a0 Of all the dangerous literalisms which can infect the pseudo-interpretation of scripture, none has become more damaging than the literal, non-historical, rendering of apocalyptic material in the New Testament.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A summer or two ago, one of our Marsh Chapel members came by the office.\u00a0 He told me about his workmates who were reading popular apocalyptic material, from The Late Great Planet Earth to Left Behind.\u00a0 \u201cCan you do something to address this part of Christianity for the rest of us?\u201d\u00a0 His question is the basis for our national summer preaching series this year, 2012.\u00a0 Over ten weeks we shall do our best, with a little help from our friends at Boston University, to respond.\u00a0 I thank in advance the Dr Knust, Dr Walters, Dr Jacobson and Br Whitney for their support in the preaching of the gospel on the theme, \u2018Apocalypse Then\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This summer we are excited to present sermons, in June, July and August, which intend to provide reasoned, historical and theological reflection on some of the apocalyptic passages and themes in the New Testament. Our hope is to provide publicly accessible yet theologically responsible perspectives on these texts, in contrast to some other current and popular forms of interpretation. We are privileged to present preachers from the Boston University School of Theology, each of whom brings particular interest and expertise in this area.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For many people living culturally outside the range of religious reality that encourages literal apocalyptic language, the broad reading and public enjoyment of such literature can seem unbelievable.\u00a0 How did 20 million homes accommodate copies of the fictional accounts of rapture, in the Left Behind series alone?\u00a0 How did this series become the primary lens through which, for many, the Christian hope is seen?\u00a0 Kevin Phillips recent work, American Theocracy<\/em>, in his two chapters, Radicalized Religion, and Defeat and Resurrection<\/em>, put a full spot light upon this phenomenon, including its connections to political agendas.\u00a0 According to Phillips, 55% of all Americans believe the Bible is literally true and\u00a0 59% of all Christians expect the events of the Book of Revelation to occur (p 102).\u00a0 When combined with the sort of covenantal \u2018exceptionalism\u2019 and \u2018righteous remnant\u2019 perspective that often accompanies such a reading of the Scripture\u2014found in Ireland, South Africa and the American South at crucial junctures\u2014the influence of literal apocalypticism has become significant.\u00a0 \u2018Lost Cause\u2019 religion becomes the seedbed for left behind theology (p110ff).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further, these affirmations and perspectives are often tinged with a particular kind of understanding of God\u2019s will.\u00a0 A few years ago, during the outing of\u00a0 a bright, effective large church pastor who homiletically condemned but also apparently practiced homosexuality, several evangelical commentators reflected on \u2018God\u2019s timing\u2019 in bringing forth this \u2018revelation\u2019 about Pastor Haggard.\u00a0 \u2018God just decided that it was time to bring this to people\u2019s attention\u2019 is a comment typical of this position.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Timing is everything , but is everything God\u2019s timing?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On this (mistaken) view, God is free, but we are not.\u00a0 God is free to be, but humans are slaves of providence.\u00a0 God is making the choices about when outings occur, not actual humans.\u00a0 At crucial points, there is, on this worldview, a hearty willingness to let go<\/em> of human freedom, human responsibility, and human wisdom gained through hard experience, and to let God<\/em> take the blame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which, of course, is the sad heart of literal apocalyptic.\u00a0 In apocalyptic, the future is not open, not evolving, not influenced by the myriad choices of individuals and groups–and so not my responsibility<\/em>.\u00a0 I let that go.\u00a0 No, in apocalyptic, the future is assured by God, controlled by God, chosen by God and so is God\u2019s sole responsibility.\u00a0 So, in letting go, I let God be, well, God.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a temporarily consoling perspective for those who crave such fleeting consolation.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a darkly fascinating rendering of the slogan, let go and let God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But it is not true.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not to our reason, not to our experience, not to our tradition, and finally, in careful interpretation, not to our Scripture either.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Ancient Christian Apocalyptic Eschatology:\u00a0 1st Century Consolation Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the basis of sound biblical interpretation, it is time to leave behind \u2018left behind\u2019 thought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our gospel lesson, Mark 13 was probably written in or near the year 70, in the shadow of that century\u2019s judeo-christian version of 9\/11, the final destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.\u00a0 Our chapter today assumes that the reader\u2014\u2018let the reader understand\u2019 (v14) will intuit the imagery of buildings and stones.\u00a0 More, the later Gospels are written in the ever lengthening shadow of a truth hard to swallow, at least for the early church.\u00a0 The end was not in fact in sight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jesus, Paul, the earliest church and most of the New Testament carry the common expectation that within days or years, but soon, the apocalyptic end of the world will occur.\u00a0 All were mistaken.\u00a0 Even 2 Peter, who changes the math, and makes a day equal to 1000 years, has grudgingly to wrestle with the delay, the postponement, of the first Christians\u2019 fervent hope.\u00a0 Recite 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 several times and you will get a sense of what this apocalyptic hope entailed.\u00a0 It is early Christian mythology.\u00a0 As with all myth, it carries meaning, including meaning for us.\u00a0 But as a world-view, as a view of history, it is wrong.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It did not happen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What Jesus predicted, and Paul expected, and Mark awaited\u2014did not happen.\u00a0 The end did not come.\u00a0 And centuries of further sparkles of expectation, from the Montanists, to the Medieval mystics, to the Millerites of upstate New York, to the Jonestown community of 1978, to the Y2K enthusiasts of just a few years ago, did not make it so.\u00a0 December 12 2012 will also come and go with the sun rising and setting the next day. This biblical apocalyptic may be mythologically meaningful, but it is chronologically corroded.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further, the language and imagery of the New Testament are apocalyptic through and through.\u00a0 Apocalyptic is the mother tongue of Christian theology, especially of Christian hope.\u00a0 So our beloved Bible must be interpreted anew, in a non-mythological way<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fortunately, the New Testament itself begins to do so.\u00a0 Some of that reassessment is beginning in our passage this morning\u2014\u2018the end is not yet, this is but the beginning\u2019.\u00a0 Some of the ethical application and communal reinterpretation of this will come in a few verses:\u00a0 you have no idea if or when the end will come so, in scout fashion, be prepared.\u00a0 But most of the courageous imagination in this regard is found in the Gospel of John, aided somewhat by the later Paul.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The fictional, pseudo-biblical, consolation literature of our 21st century apocalyptic literalism needs to be left behind.\u00a0 It is not true:\u00a0 not to the Bible, not to the church, not to the mind, not to your experience.\u00a0 Humans may make of this earth the scenery of the new novel, The Road<\/em>.\u00a0 We pray, pray it may not be so.\u00a0 But even if it were to occur\u2014the end is not yet.\u00a0 You cannot escape your responsibility for the future of planet earth by hiding behind the skirts of an unfounded, ultimately unbiblical apocalypticism.\u00a0 It will not do, in this sense, to let go and let God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are not free to avoid our responsibility to the environment, with the excuse that the Lord may return in a generation or two anyway, and who needs gasoline in the rapture?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are not free to avoid our responsibility to seek a common global peace, cognizant of the hard won insights of pacifism and just war theory both, on the bet that time is running out for the late great planet earth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are not free to construe current events in the Middle East on the templates of colorful but unhistorical apocalyptic myths, for the consoling succor of somehow thinking that God handles the Middle East any differently than Asia or the Alaska.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are not free to project our anxieties about the dilemmas of the current age\u2014an age by the way that was supposed to have seen \u2018the end of history\u2019!\u2014out onto a far-off falsehood, like the raptures of fancy, fiction or facsimile\u2014in order to avoid what we of course have to do in every other sphere of life:\u00a0 negotiate, compromise, discuss, trade, and muddle through.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most especially\u2014places like Marsh Chapel with a rich heritage of hope must also expect of ourselves a rich offering to the future that comports with our inheritance, to whom much is given, from him much is expected\u2014we are not free to neglect a common hope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is our freedom.\u00a0 Pray daily for the hope of the world.\u00a0 Think creatively about the hope of the world.\u00a0 Act specifically, week by week, in communion with a reliable hope.\u00a0 The future is up to you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And for goodness sake, leave behind \u2018left behind\u2019.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. Coda:\u00a0 Andrew Young\u2019s Worldview<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We could see at breakfast that Andrew Young had aged.\u00a0 He walked more slowly.\u00a0 His skin is weathered.\u00a0 He carried some more weight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But he is a wise man, our wise man.\u00a0 And he lives in hope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Asked about his education, he recalled a single informal study group, led by Professor Bill Bradley of Hartford Theological Seminary.\u00a0 The students gathered for hours of conversation, encouraged by their teacher.\u00a0 \u201cThat group gave me hope.\u00a0 They gave me my worldview.\u00a0 The worldview I have to this day.\u00a0 It is a worldview centered in Christ\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Young\u2019s worldview owes something to Reinhold Niebuhr, with whom we close:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

~Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill<\/em><\/p>\n

Dean of Marsh Chapel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the entire service. Click here to hear the sermon only. Mark 13:1-8 1. Preface:\u00a0 Andrew Young on Faith and Religion   A few years ago Boston University was graced by the voice and presence of Andrew Young\u2014activist, pastor, theologian, congressman, ambassador, mayor and close confidant of Martin Luther King.\u00a0 One pastor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2544,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/2544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}