Acceptance and Patience

Friends, it is so important during times of uncertainty and struggle to remember that this is not the first time faithful people have felt overwhelmed by what feels like imminent danger and decline in their country. People of faith have been here before.

And rather than asking, “When will we know when to run for the hills?” I think the question Jesus asks us to ponder in November’s mini-parable (from a part of the writing in Mark often called the “Little Apocalypse”) is instead, “How will God help me to lean into the fear instead of running from it?” For this, friends, is the only way we know resurrection can happen. And Christ Jesus wants us to keep an eye out for ways to support Community Resurrection, not personal resurrection (which is especially hard for us in the West, who love our individualism).

Regardless of which vision for the United States is formally elected and begins to change policies toward a new agenda in January, there is much work to do in the name of Christ because of one significant feature of our society:

People increasingly do not see other people as human if the others are not people whom they feel are operating from the same perception of reality (which has been reduced to who you are voting for).

The uncertainty factor (“how could you possibly vote for _______?!”) makes us fear people voting differently than us…which paralyzes us from leaning toward Love.

Mark’s gospel was written during or just after the first Jewish-Roman war when the 2nd Jewish temple was destroyed (about 40-50 years after Jesus died). This crushing of the Temple in Jerusalem was much worse for the people of God than just a big fancy church in Rome or California being decimated. This meant that their whole understanding of God had been upended and would be requiring an overhaul. Mark uses apocalyptic literature to gird up the people of God—which includes Jesus’ words about a simple tree at the start of summer, to encourage them (and us) to keep on keepin’ on, trusting that God is still in control, even when it looks far from possible in our limited sight.

Jesus says in Mark 13: 28-31: “Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. So with you when you see these things happening ( the destruction of the temple, persecution, and the desolating sacrilege); know that he (the Son of Man, who will bring in the new era) is near, right at the gates. In truth I tell you, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place. Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Like those early disciples, when our eyes move to what looks and feels nighmarish, we start asking the same questions:

Will we really have ______ happen if the candidate I don’t want wins?

How bad will things really get? What will happen to the things I cherish?

How could this be? It’s the fault of ______ that this happened!

Jesus uses a simple fruit tree, which is getting ready to blossom and fruit and bring life, as a symbol for his “give-us-a-sign” seeking friends, who are all anxiously wanting to know how to tell when the bad stuff is really gonna start happening for them. (And let’s face it: no matter who wins we are gonna have our work cut out for us in not wanting to run for the hills when in the company of those whose candidate lost).

In Chelsea during November we don’t have blossoming trees around us, but we do have lots of gorgeously colored trees which fill us with a sense of awe and often remind us of God through stunningly beautiful vistas when we least expect. Perhaps pick up a fall leaf today and carry it with you as a reminder of “in Whom you are grounded,” like a tree. Indeed, Christ is coming in a new way. And things might look messy beforehand. But they’ve looked messy before and they will again.

In a paraphrase of Mark’s cryptic apocalyptic language, Jesus says: Keep your eyes on me whenever “bad stuff” starts happening. When it feels like the world as you know it begins crumbling, don’t focus on the things that make you anxious and fearing outcomes. I get it. I’ve been there. But to pull off Community Resurrection (which is what the Bible calls the Kingdom of Heaven or the New Jerusalem), remember that just as I was resurrected into a new body of a much greater and subtle energy that no one recognized at first, so, too, will this New Age begin in alarmingly different ways than anything you can imagine.

May God grant all of us surprising peace in the days and weeks after this November’s election. Keep awake for the new thing that God is doing in our midst, regardless of who wins. Consider asking, “How will God help me to lean into the fear instead of running from it?”

With love from the Parables community at Chelsea First United Methodist Church,

LeAnn