Alfred Nobel was a famed scientist who had dedicated much of his life to the study chemistry and language. He helped to develop dynamite, nitroglserine and other chemicals that helped in various chemical reactions. His brother Ludwig Nobel had died and the news papers were said to have printed the obituary early not verifying all the information. They printed it think it was Alfred who had died. The headline read: “The Merchant of Death is Dead!” and contained such lines as “the man who found a way to make a fortune by killing people fast, has finally died”. He was struck by this remembrance and was said to have pushed all his efforts into supporting causes of peace and promoting the good of mankind. We now remember him for having donated his fortune to found the Nobel Peace prize.
What do you want to be remember for? What will be your lasting memory?
Today we celebrate the last Sunday in Ordinary time before the end of the Liturgical Year. It is at this time that we turn our attention to the end times, the end of the world. Our first reading and our Gospel both speak about the End. It can be frightening and since the beginning of time until now there have been so many various predictions of the end of the world and the apocalypse. We focus on the end, how all seeds planted with have a time of harvest, a time to see.
We see these stories within the gospels that are given to the living church, no single operator’s manual. First question that always comes up is when. Simple answer is we don’t know. Mark’s gospel account speaks of “in those days, which was anb editorial uniting of inherited texts, welded together from various gospel traditions. We do have the reference in the gospel of specific events that did happen that seem to give us a temporal time line or signal. The tribulation they speak of is the fall of Jerusalem. The speaking of the sun and moon and stars speaks about the reality of Pagan heavenly forces falling and failing, being darkened out really by a brighter more true light. The gospels seem to relate the fall of Jerusalem with the coming of Jesus. Basically people want to put the ultimate end within temporal qualifications. They want to put the word of God within our timeline, rather than our timeline within the word of God. The truth is the gospel is given and related wide enough to embrace all times and events, but clear enough to manage and give a message.
It is only as history plays our do we see the full dimension, it can’t be confined to just old image, the word of God does not fit in the historic time line, rather, the historic time line fits into time. The images of sun and moon, these show in todays times: the rise and fall of political entities and nations and celebrities. What legacy do we want to be apart of? What story do we want to be remembered for?
The Lord gives us now a time to remember the end and that at the end we all have our ends. We have a death. When we die that is what our story will be. His word will not pass away. We are to be united with his story. Just as it is within his church that the true key to interpret his story takes place, so too it is in the church that we find the hope. Confession. We will speak a lot about confession this advent. It is us placing our hope in Jesus and his mercy. We do not know the time or anything other than that it will be. Do we want to be remembered for being a part of the failing things or more with Jesus? Missing mass for hunting or travel? We are not staying plugged in with the everday coming, with the nearness of the End and of Jesus.