by Andrew Payne

Scriptures: Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19; I Corinthians 1: 3-9; Mark 13:24-37

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!" Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."
Mark 13:1-2

As I am writing this, I am watching a news broadcast about the failing economy. Worries about banks failing, war, and environmental collapse seem to bubble up in many of my conversations. With such chaos around me, I have found it difficult to know how to hope, and in what to place my hope. Yet in Advent we are once again to hope and wait for the coming Messiah.

For guidance, I look back in my own life for lessons learned in times when I felt utterly lost and had my assumptions about myself, the world, and the future irrevocably changed. For me that came when I became a missionary for Global Ministries. As a Mission Intern, right out of college, I was seeking a transformational experience. I thought I would become a deeper, more spiritual and driven person. In some ways I was transformed but in many ways I was wrong.

When I moved to Zambia, the poverty and hunger affected me in ways I did not expect. The social systems behind the poverty and hunger were extremely complex and hard for me to understand; I could not even begin to fathom a solution. I realized it would take what seemed impossible decisions on so many fronts by so many people to make any change in the situation there. It forced me to question the very assumptions that brought me half-way around the world in the first place. I did not understand why I had come, what I was trying to do, where I could begin, or how I would do anything.

Jesus confronts exactly such hopeless thoughts in Mark's Gospel. Mark 13 is filled with predictions of coming tribulation and the ultimate return of the Messiah. Over the long history of the church, it has been interpreted a thousand ways by those scouring the Scriptures to determine when Jesus would return. But today I found this task less important as I became aware of its message of hope in the face of hopelessness.

It is important to remember that when Mark wrote the first Gospel, the Romans had just waged a brutal war in Palestine suppressing a revolution. War in the ancient world was unbelievably brutal and violent. Terms like genocide come close to lived experience at that time. Towns were burned, and people were slaughtered as a matter of course.

The capstone of this terrible period was the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. This devastated the people of Judea and ended the religion as it was practiced in Palestine. It set the whole nation adrift. It would have been an event that was only dimly approximated in our time by September 11th.

To Mark's community, Jesus' words would not have sounded like a simple prophecy of the far future, but rather a reflection of the terror and the events surrounding them. The temple had been destroyed, many were killed or had fled the cities, and the Romans had erected sacrilegious symbols on holy ground.

Jesus uses the prediction of the destruction of the temple to teach us how to hope. After he has outlined events to come, Christ gives an analogy of the servants and the master. He instructs his disciples to remain awake as servants would for their master, ending with the powerful words, "And what I say to you, I say to all: Keep awake." (Mark 13:37)

In Zambia, the situation was beyond my abilities to fix or even totally understand. It seemed beyond redemption in any meaningful way for those living there. But then I realized, suddenly and powerfully, that there was another story. In Zambia, in the students, and missionaries, I saw a thousand hands and feet seeking to be the body of Christ--the hope of the world for others.

I became awake to a different reality. A reality marked by love. To me this is the Advent hope, the hope of Christ found in one another and the Spirit. It is a story that has been repeated since the beginning of the church. As desperate as the times were, Mark's community set down in words the first Good News of Jesus Christ. It is a story that remains powerful today.

Believing that we can live without consequences, or that against all odds everything will just work out, is not hope. Jesus has called us to something more responsible and far deeper. True hope lies in understanding the real narrative and the deep truths of salvation lying at the heart of reality. Such hope is as much about the future and about understanding what really matters in the world.

This hope makes more sense to me in times of chaos and confusion and shows me how powerful the hope of Advent in Christ really is. Advent is a time to come together and be awake to God in the world, to hear God's story, and to remember where our hope truly lies.

Andrew Payne was a Mission Intern from 2000 to 2003. He served in Zambia and in Atlanta, Georgia. He lives in Germany with his wife, Sonja.

Resources for Advent and Christmas
Advent, the beginning of the church year, starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. It is a time of preparation, anticipation, and hope.

	See Also... Topic: Advent |  Bible |  Christmas |  Jesus Christ |  United Methodist Church |  Geographic Region: Africa |  World |  Zambia |  Source: Mission Personnel
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Date posted: Nov 28, 2008