Daniel 12:1-13
Hebrews 10:31-39
Mark 13:14-23
Our scripture readings today have caused a lot of confusion and anxiety for many people, because they are often interpreted as a prediction of future calamities and the end of the world as we know it. However, even if these scriptures are about future calamities and the end of the world, we don’t need to be worried.
The first reading from the book of Daniel is the strangest of our three readings today, but that is to be expected because Daniel is one of the strangest books in the Bible. The passage we just heard is part of a longer story describing a vision Daniel had that lasts for three chapters. The vision happens in the third year of the Persian shah Cyrus (which means that Daniel is an extremely old man when it happened), and it involves future Iranian and Greek kings, as well as someone identified as the ‘king of the south’. Other characters include angels and a shiny guy with a loud voice and a woman used as part of a plot to destroy a kingdom. The vision also includes a list of destructive wars between all these kings. When Daniel asks about the outcome of the destruction, he is told to keep silent about it, and that good people will come out of it ok, but the bad people will not, so he is advised to persevere in doing good even though times are hard, because someone is coming to the rescue of all the good people. So Daniel, after being told to keep silent about it, writes it down in a book. Maybe he feels that is not really disobedient as long as he does not read the book out loud to anyone.
Moving on to the New Testament, the author of our second reading from the letter to the Hebrews is reminding his listeners of the struggles they have had in the past, and how they kept good attitudes throughout their problems. He encourages them to remain confident until someone comes to the rescue of those who have faithfully endured. Then in our gospel story, Jesus is warning his disciples that bad times are coming. He even quotes a phrase from the book of Daniel describing how bad it will be. He says that people will be duped into following false hopes of rescue, but we do not need to be fooled by them, because he has told us everything.
And then the reading ends! What has he told us that will save us? He goes on after our reading stops and says that he will send his angels to gather his chosen, but how are we to endure until that happens? What has he told us that will save us? He gives no secret timetables of the end of the world (unlike what many tv preachers say). In fact, his description of events leading up to the end of the world sounds very ordinary and no different that what has always been happening: wars, earthquakes, people doing business and getting married. When have those things not happened? Maybe what he is saying is this: the world will continue as it always has; people will be just as cruel and petty as they always have been, and it is up to you to remain faithful to and endure in my way until the end of time. His way is the way of compassion, kindness, joy, peace, and forgiveness. We are to live this way even with all the hardships we encounter. We are to live by faith, not by sight or by emotion – abiding in the love, joy, and peace of Jesus no matter what is going on in our world, and passing that love, joy, and peace on to others around us.
It is not always easy, but we are to do it anyway, whether or not help comes to end the hardship around us. We are safe in God’s hands no matter our situation or the situation of the world around us, and we can faithfully endure all things because Jesus endures them with us. Our job is not to worry about if, how, or when we will be saved; our job is to trust in God, because by trusting in God, we are saved. So there is really no need to worry, even if these and other scriptures are frightening – nothing can take us out of God’s hands except our own decision to go it alone, thinking we can take care of things better than God can. But God knows our situation better than we ever could, so the safest place to be as the world falls apart around us is in God, trusting him with our lives. There will be wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and global warming, debates about the number of planets in the solar system and celebrity couples getting married and divorced, business mergers and bankruptcies, but God is eternal, and in God, so are we. AMEN