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Daniel 12:1-3 and Psalm 16 • Hebrews 10:11-14, 19-25 • Mark 13:1-8

Well … while I like to start my sermons with some humour, it can be dangerous, like when I told you two weeks ago about that church gossip person somewhere who confronted the man about his truck often parked in front of the bar – remember that one? Then he parks in front of her house, walks home, and leaves his truck there overnight. It seemed funny at the time until a week later when my trusty handyman who I’ve paid for many repairs over the years – asked if he could leave his van in my second parking spot for a few weeks so he could work on his boat in his driveway. This fellow started off about five years ago by building a strong and beautiful post to hold up my living room ceiling that was starting to sag. He saved the house, so how can I deny him my extra parking spot that’s hardly ever used? However, his van is very recognizable by many in our park, so I was bracing myself for assumptions and innuendos and misunderstandings, but lo and behold, he parked a different van there … so I’m safe!

Our gospel and first reading are apocalyptic stories about the end times. If you think the sky is falling, I know a guy who can build you a great support post! Lately we’ve heard so much about how climate change has brought us to the brink of earthly destruction. We’d often like to believe that this is all rather alarmist and it’s not as bad as it sounds, but when David Attenborough, the Queen and the Dean of Canterbury all agree about how urgent it is, we dare not doubt and retreat into the shadows. Between climate change becoming catastrophically irreversible and Covid 19 still thriving and mutating into stronger forms, it seems only reasonable to wonder about the end times. The poet T.S. Eliot famously wrote in 1923 that the world ends not with a bang but a whimper. This sounds better overall than hugely destructive and debilitating nuclear bombs, but the thought of our grandchildren’s generation all slowly dying from a depleted earth that can no longer produce food; and/or from air pollution that brings a range of diseases etc. … makes the idea of a big efficient asteroid, for example, sound not too bad.

I found a good commentary on this gospel at the Working Preacher website – reminding us that while there are many times when apocalyptic threats have reared their ugly heads in human history “God is always about the business of making new futures possible” (https://www.workingpreacher.org/.../commentary-on-mark... Amanda Brobst-Renaud). And sure enough Jesus’ last word in today’s gospel is ‘birthpangs’. New attitudes and processes are being born – new approaches to being a good citizen on Planet Earth. At first, they may have seemed ludicrous – like poor old Prince Charles speaking up about such matters long before it was popular. While it’s easy to proclaim that the end is near, we might also consider that the beginning is near – the beginning of a new era in which human destruction of the planet is stopped on time, and hopefully reversed. We pray about this, and we also advocate as best we can for climate change mitigation – which would likely need to include a rebalancing of the huge inequities that exist in our world … with the global poor bearing the brunt of climate catastrophic harm and fallout, while those much better off continue to cause most of it.

It’s easy to feel hopeless and helpless at times, and as we commemorate and celebrate today all those who gave their lives to defend human freedom and wellbeing, we are reminded that humanity has often been remarkably heroic and stoic. And we remember the sacrifices that were made also by people at home to make do with much less, so that a bigger cause could be supported towards the successful overcoming of horrible evil that was spreading like poison throughout our world. Human history is full of such stories of the kinds of changes and sacrifices that people can make when there are higher causes towards which such efforts can help bring about that proverbial ‘new heaven and new earth’. So let us not despair, but let us also not be too distracted from the cause – as George Monbiot points out in that Surface Tension article that I sent you last week: https://www.monbiot.com/2021/11/02/surface-tension/...

In the spirit of remembrance, I was thinking again about our dear Cecelia that we lost in October 2020 – what an amazing life journey she had – full of so many setbacks despite all her accomplishments – so many pains and struggles despite her huge compassion and generosity for the suffering people of the world. Through it all she remained not only indomitable but also so appreciative of the beauty in life and in Creation. I think of her in some lines of our Psalm 16 today: “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel … Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.” And as our epistle reminds us today, let us not neglect to meet together, and to encourage one another (v. 24-25). The world is a scary place, but our love of God and love of neighbour can strengthen us for whatever challenges lie ahead. May it be so, Amen.