Today in the Spirit: Proper 28B
With the selections of Scripture chosen for Proper 28B, the church places us in a pre-Advent period of the church year. We are preparing to hear the prophecies of the second coming of Christ in Advent 1, the beginning of the next church year. The appointed Gospel reading for this coming Sunday is Mark 13:14-23, part of an extended prophecy of Jesus about a coming “abomination of desolation” (14), and including a warning to future saints to be “on guard” against false christs and prophets seeking to deceive the faithful. The lectionary covers the end-time discourses in the Gospels by giving us Luke’s account of the “birth pains” period in Year C and Mark’s account of the “abomination of desolation” and the “tribulation” in Year B.
The assigned OT reading from Daniel 12:1-4a[4b-13] gives us, as worshipers, the clearest background reference in the Hebrew scriptures to our Lord’s teaching of the “abomination” (11). The required section (1-4a) will focus on a period of tribulation from which the people of God, those living and dead, will be delivered. The words of the appointed Psalm 16 give us language to articulate in our worship the perseverance the other readings encourage us to take up as a people of God enduring suffering and opposition:
Sponsored
Preserve me, O God, for in you have I put my trust. O my soul, you have said unto the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
Psalm 16:1, BCP (2019) New Coverdale Psalter
The final installment in the Year B series of readings from Hebrews fittingly articulates perseverance in preparation for the end times. Ironically, however, Hebrews 9:24-28 appears to be exhorting Christians who escaped persecution in Jerusalem after having suffered themselves or watched others being persecuted to persevere in the time of calm after the calm. There may be more suffering to come, and Christ is coming soon:
“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.”
Hebrews 9:35-36
The assigned Collect makes a plea to God to “stir up…the wills of your faithful people” with a clear reference to the second coming of Christ. The reference in the prayer to Christ coming to “restore all things” sets us up as worshipers for the following Sunday, Christ the King, when our prayer will be that God “restore all things” in Christ Jesus.
The Collect
Stir up, O Lord, the wills of your faithful people, that bringing forth in abundance the fruit of good works, they may be abundantly rewarded when our Savior Jesus Christ comes to restore all things; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Go Your Way Till the End(Daniel 12:1-4a[4b-13])
1 “At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” 5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. 6 And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” 7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. 8 I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” 9 He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. 11 And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. 13 But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”
Daniel 12:1-13
While we all love the narrative in the first half of Daniel–the king’s dreams, the fiery furnace, and the lion’s den, make no mistake: much more of the NT takes its shape around the cryptic prophetic passages in the second half of Daniel, especially Daniel chapters 7 and 12. Just from our passage alone comes vivid language that makes it way into NT teaching: “a time of trouble” and the “abomination that makes desolate” (see Mk. 12:14,19, in our Gospel passage this week); deliverance for “those whose name shall be found written in the book” (see Rev. 20:11-15); “[the elect] shall shine like the brightness of the sky above…like the stars forever and ever” (see Phil. 2:15).
In our personal devotions, we gain as much out of the sense of urgency in the prophecy of Daniel as the language. We may not know what the references to “1290 days” and “1,335 days” mean exactly—something soon to happen in human history, or for the end of time, or both–but the numbers themselves tell us there is a finite period of waiting until the consummation of God’s blessings. We hear the words, along with the New Testament commentary, and it is enough for us to hear, like Daniel, “Go your way to the end,” and “you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days” (13).
In the Spirit, who is in me bringing assurance today out of the words of Scripture in worship, I receive with gladness the news that God will preserve the righteous in Christ through every tribulation and that it will not be long.
You Shall Show Me the Path of Life (Psalm 16)
1 Preserve me, O God,
Psalm 16:1-12, BCP (2019) New Coverdale Psalter
for in you have I put my trust.
2 O my soul, you have said unto the Lord,
“You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
3 All my delight is upon the saints who are on the earth,
and upon those who excel in virtue.
4 But those who run after another god
shall have great trouble.
5 Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
neither make mention of their names with my lips.
6 The Lord himself is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup;
you shall maintain my lot.
7 The boundaries have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a goodly heritage.
8 I will thank the Lord for giving me counsel;
my heart also chastens me in the night season.
9 I have set the Lord always before me;
he is at my right hand; therefore I shall not fall.
10 Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices.
My flesh also shall rest in hope.
11 For you shall not leave my soul in the grave,
neither shall you allow your Holy One to see corruption.
12 You shall show me the path of life; in your presence is the fullness of joy,
and at your right hand there is pleasure for evermore.
Or, “You make known to me the path of life” (11, ESV). The last verse of this psalm is most often translated as a triplet, even though everything that comes before is in the usual form of two phrases in parallel. There is really only one verb in the verse, and it can be rendered in the present (“make known”) or future (“will make known”). This gives us, as worshipers, liberty to rejoice in both how God has guided us and will guide us in his ways. And, of course, we Christians personify “the path of life” in the psalm to refer to Jesus who himself is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn. 14:6).
Devotionally, we take our own experiences of life, especially the most difficult ones, from which we have escaped trouble, and find they confirm what the Scriptures reveal time and time again: God is present with us, he has a purpose for us, and he shows us the path to fulfilling that purpose. Even when we resist his perfect will and go off course, he is active in pulling us back on course and strengthening our faith through the mistake. Surely, it is in the assurance of that complete coverage that we say too, “[M]y heart is glad, and my soul rejoices” (10).
This is what John Calvin calls “the testimony of the Spirit” superseding any argument of reason:
Profane men think that religion rests only on opinion, and, therefore…insist to have it proved by reason that Moses and the prophets were divinely inspired. But I answer, that the testimony of the Spirit is superior to reason. For as God alone can properly bear witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Today, in the Spirit who gives us the psalmist’s sure testimony of the sovereign love of God, we rejoice in the assurance of God’s path of life through even the greatest tribulation.
Do Not Throw Away Your Confidence (Hebrews 10:31-39)
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Hebrews 10:31-39
“Do not throw away your confidence” (34). That verb “throw away” (Gk. apoballo) is used only twice in the NT–here and, ironically, in our Gospel passage of a few weeks ago, where in Mark it says that the blind beggar Bartimaeus, “throwing aside his cloak,” ran to Jesus (see Mk. 10:50). Apparently, with the same zeal that Bartimaeus showed for approaching Jesus, the Christians to whom Hebrews was written were thrusting aside their assurance in the cross of Christ as their only salvation from sin and delivery from trouble.
Devotionally, so as not to fall into either the complacency or the apostasy envisioned in this passage, we need to hear the word “confidence” and refer back to 10:19, a central exhortation in the entire book: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus.” The “confidence” (Gk. parresia), as in our passage, is not boldness prompted by a sense of self-worth or deservedness, but quite the opposite: desperately, the evangelist would say, because of our own sense of unworthiness before a holy God, we flee to the efficacious sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, where his blood was given as the only acceptable sacrifice for our sin. As Christians, our proper “confidence” is that of a drowning man who can no longer trust in his own ability to swim but finds, hope against hope, that there is a bright red buoy nearby.
Today, in the Spirit, reading this text as if it was written to me for “throwing off” my assurance in Christ alone, I fix, again, my eyes on Jesus (see Heb. 12:2), his cross and his coming again.
Let the Reader Understand (Mark 13:14-23)
14 “But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 15 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything out, 16 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 17 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 18 Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.
Mark 13:14-23
“Let the reader understand.” What exactly are we meant to understand? The placement of the statement (whether it is Jesus speaking or Mark adding an editorial comment) suggests it has something to do with the “abomination of desolation” in particular: that there will be a desecration of the temple to come and even that there will be an antichrist appearing who, as Paul predicts, “sets himself up in the temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Th. 2:4, NIV). But could there be something to “understand” from the presentation of the passage as a whole? The implicit warning behind these dark words seems to be that there are things that frail humanity simply cannot endure. There is a time for staying, persevering, and fighting through, and there is a time to flee. Here, we come up against our creaturely powerlessness.
Devotionally, Lord, especially as I grow older, I recognize I am in control of my circumstances far less than I think. I am weak, and I am frail. It is as the psalmist has written, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10). As disconcerting as this knowledge is, I find from you here a freedom in knowing that you love me not for my strength, which is illusory, but for my weakness. You lean in harder when I know I am most in need. I will not be led to my doom by the false Christ and false prophets because, by your word, it is not possible for “the elect” to be led astray.
Today, Holy Spirit, I confirm the understanding you have given me from the Son in this passage: whether I am called to stay and persevere or even when I must flee, I am never lost. Come, Lord Jesus.
Today in the Spirit
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