It Does Not Matter
Daniel 12:1-4a
Psalm 16:5-11
Hebrews 10:31-39
Mark 13:14-23
Tim Christoffersen
St. Anselm’s
November 19,
2000
Good
morning.
How many of you are
able to connect the reading from Daniel and Mark about the end of the world
to your life today?
Let me attempt to
sketch a connection.
Let’s start with what was going on in Daniel and Mark’s world when
they wrote.
The future events described in Daniel 7-12, including today’s reading
mirror closely what was happening historically at the time the second half
of the book of Daniel was written. Scholars generally date the writing at
about 170 BC. Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Syria has just conquered Jerusalem
and desecrated the Temple. There is Jewish resistance initially led by the
Hasidic Jews or the "pious ones." They wanted only religious freedom
and were the forerunners of the Pharisees of Jesus’ time.
The resistance, however, fell under the leadership of the Maccabeans. The
father and the first three of four sons were successively killed and finally
in 164 BC they liberated Jerusalem and cleansed the Temple. They established
both political and religious authority and their rule lasted until 63 BC when
the Romans came to power. It was a brutal and violent period in Jewish life
and it probably did not matter to the many Jews who lost their lives whether
or not this was the beginning of the end of the world, as they knew it.
Strikingly, we read in Daniel, Many of those who slept in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt." This is the first appearance in the Old Testament of clear
reference to resurrection from the dead. We will come back to this connection
in a few minutes.
The historical setting at the time scholars believe the gospel of Mark was
written was also a bloody and violent period of war between Jewish resistance
and the Roman Empire. Most scholars date the writing of Mark’s gospel
about 70 AD which was the year that the Romans destroyed the Temple and crushed
Jerusalem. Again, it probably did not matter to the thousands of Jews who
died during the resistance whether or not this was the beginning of the end
of the world.
So how does the historical setting of Daniel and Mark written some 2000 years
ago speak to us today? Daniel and Mark’s prophecy of future events and
the Second Coming both bear striking resemblance to the historical backdrop
of cataclysmic events that were happening all around them at the time they
wrote.
If we look back at the 20st century, there are also uncanny reminders of these
prophecies. All of us know some if not many of the horrors perpetrated and
wars fought in the last century. Let me briefly recount three events drawn
from Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century, a recent book
by an English Ethics Professor.
Most if not all of us know about the millions of Russians that perished or
were executed under Stalin’s reign in Russia. One grim sidelight was
that Stalin held the view that behavioral characteristics we acquire as children
and as adults modified our genes. As a result, they could be passed on genetically.
This meant it would be relatively easier to build a society of "Socialist
men and women." The great biologist Lysenko and the other Russian biologists
were required to adopt and adhere to this belief. Of course, they never succeeded
in creating the perfect socialist person and, as we know, millions were liquidated
or died in gulags or concentration camps. It did not matter to these Russians
who died whether or not the end of the world was near.
In Rwanda in 1994, nearly 1 million Tutsis were killed and mutilated by the
Hutus. The triggering event was the death in a plane crash of the Hutu president.
The Tutsis, probably unfairly, were blamed. Until the colonial period, there
was intermarriage and they spoke a common language. The colonial period introduced
identity cards so a Hutu, who came from the lower economic class, could no
longer buy cattle and become a Tutsi. The German and Belgian colonials certainly
are not to blame for the attempted genocide. But locking in tribal identity
through identity cards is eerily reminiscent of the mark of the Antichrist,
the number 666, that was to be placed on every person in the end times described
in the Book of Revelation. These Tutsis might well have thought this was the
beginning of the end of the world, but it did not matter to them.
On March 16, 1968, in the village of My Lai in Vietnam helicopters landed
Charlie Company, comprised of 120 American soldiers under the leadership of
Captain Ernest Medina and Lieutenant William Calley. In four hours, nearly
500 villagers, mostly women, children and older people were massacred, raped
and mutilated. The carnage stopped when another helicopter came in, flew out
several survivors. The pilot realized what was happening and he radioed out
for orders to be given to stop the carnage. Not a single shot had been fired
at any of the members of Charlie Company. The interviews with the American
participants recorded in the book are sobering. We will never know what those
Vietnamese thought as they were being raped, mutilated and killed.
Let’s return to Daniel: Many of those who slept in the dust of the
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting
contempt." Daniel clearly says at the Second Coming we will be judged
by what we do in this life.
The connection I said I would attempt to sketch is this: it does not matter
whether or not we are near or entering the final days that will lead to the
Second Coming. Evil in the heart and mind of man is alive and well today.
Events of the 20th century make it difficult to support the optimism of our
secular, humanistic culture that human beings are inherently good and we only
need better education to continue mankind’s march toward perfection.
As Christians, we are called to be a new creation in Christ in this life.
The good news of the gospel is we are baptized into the death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, and death has been overcome. In the words of the reading
from Hebrews, we are called to be the righteous who live by faith.
I believe the teaching of Scripture for us today is to pay attention in the
ordinariness of our daily lives, in our walk with the Lord. We are not given
advance notice when we will be called upon to witness and to stand up to evil.
It does not matter to us whether or not the end is near.
Jesus’ words ‘be alert…watch’ apply each and every
day. The message is simple; the challenge to us as members of Christ’s
body, living and acting in this world is not so easy.
AMEN.
