You Do Not Know

Sometimes and some people think Religion has all the answers. “I know” is a favorite phrase in Christianity. I know God created the world, God sent Jesus to save us, and God raised Jesus from the dead. These statements are in all the creeds. This confidence has pushed us to assert things about the world, about ourselves, about history, and about society. God wants this, and God says that. We know, don’t we, because we have the Bible and Jesus and God. But modern realities have pushed us to rethink this know-it-all religion. The scientific approach to the world, our interface with world religions, and the diversity within our own religion makes us hesitant to pronounce with certainty on many topics. So, this statement of Jesus fits us well today. He said to his disciples, “You do not know….” Jesus said this after confessing that not even the angels know, and that in fact, Jesus himself did not know. I confess that this more humble approach to anything and everything is very appealing to me. Perhaps it is to you, also. Our attitude in many if not most assertions must be: ‘Perhaps, interesting, makes me wonder, I’d like to know, I am curious. I am open to hearing and learning. Tell me what you think.” There is so much we do not know: about ourselves, about the universe, about the past and the future, about the mind itself and the soul, about religion and faith and what is right and wrong, good and bad. The circle of my certainty has shrunk greatly over the years. Things I thought I knew I am now not so sure. I say to myself more often, “I do not know.” Often when I hear people talk, I think to myself, “You do not know.” In so doing, I am quoting the words of Jesus. Which is a good thing.  This is m y message today: Jesus says to us, “You do not know.” I. You do not know. I do not know. Nowhere is the modest disposition more needed than when it comes to the end of all things. Much preaching and teaching has pontificated about these things. Much of it is based on this chapter in Mark’s gospel I have spoken on this chapter now five times, and today is the sixth.  I began with this disclaimer: I do not know. But I have tried to lay out three things. In that first sermon, I used the words of Jesus: “these days, those days, and that day.” Do you remember that? First, “these days”—life then and now is tough. It is full of surprises and struggles. Some of us are in the midst of hard times. We must be strong, and flexible, and reliant upon our own skills, our friends and family, and the Spirit of creation which inhabits every square inch of creation. Jesus said, “The one who stands firm to the end, through all these things, will be saved.” Second, “those days”—periodically in life big trouble comes. “How dreadful it will be in those days, for pregnant women,” Jesus said. For some, this is national and cultural and involves big things like earthquakes or wars or diseases.  The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are examples. Jesus warned his contemporaries in Jerusalem about the coming fall of Jerusalem and the defeat of Jewish armies. He speaks of things to happen in “those days” meaning in a time yet to come. For him, it was 40 years later. For others, the crisis of life is personal and private. It involves things that touch us only, like failure, incarceration, illness, and abandonment. My uncle was a promising young pastor in Kentucky. On his way to work, with his young son Mike in the van, he was hit by a car driven by a drunk driver. My Uncle John died, his son was injured for life, his wife and three children were left penniless. The trauma of “those days” disrupted the family to this very day. For that family, “those days” remain the fulcrum upon which all else turned. Finally, “that day”—Jesus speaks of the coming of the son of man on “clouds of glory.” This has been the most controversial of all that Jesus said in this famous Prophetic Sermon. It seems to say that Jesus is returning to earth to put an end to the Age. Some have even gone so far as to say Jesus was describing an event when Jesus gathers his people (whoever that is) and takes them away to safety and glory. I have asserted, first, that this “coming” is not to snatch anybody away but to gather his followers for ministry and mission on this earth. When he comes to gather us, he will bring with him those who have died. On “that day” Jesus will gather all the living and dead, fill everyone with his Spirit, and empower all of us to answer the prayer we have prayed every Sunday, “your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” But second, his coming on “clouds of glory” is fulfilled in many ways before then. Some of these comings are some private and powerful and others are public and traumatic. All of these comings in “clouds of glory” are to inspire, equip, and mobilize his people for kingdom work. We have experienced a coming of God among us in the last few years. Our church has been renewed. We have been gathered from the four corners of our culture and country. The Risen Lord is among us, calling us to a wonderful future. “We are a small congregation,” Mary Patillo wrote on Facebook, “but we are also a powerful congregation.” We are powerful because of the power of the Holy Spirit: changing us, calling us, equipping us, and leading us into the future that only God knows. I have experienced a fresh coming of God on clouds of glory. I pray with you that God will continue to come to us, gathering us for fellowship and service and worship. “Crucified Jesus, gather us from the corners of our fears,” we sang again today. “Risen Savior, come to us, with grace and peace appear.” We do not know when and how God will appear. “Watch!” Jesus said to those first disciples, and he says to us, Watch! We do not know how God will intervene in our lives. “Be alert!” Jesus said to his disciples, including us. “You do not know when that time will come” are the words he spoke to those first disciples, and they are the words the Risen Jesus speaks to us today: Pay Attention! II. Are you paying attention? God comes to us through another person, in the unexpected episode, or by the voice that speaks within. We look for the spectacular but often it is the very ordinary.  Last week, I read the poem by Mary Oliver, about the experience of God she had watching a grasshopper. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day.   Are we paying attention? Are we paying attention to what God is doing? Are we paying attention to what God is doing around us, and in us, and through us, and even in spite of us?   Are you paying attention? Has God come to you this week? Have you heard a Word? Were you surprised by a Presence? Have you received a Gift? Are you paying attention? I listened to a commencement ceremony address by late, great neighbor Mr. Rogers, Mr. Fred Rogers. He asked the graduating seniors to pause for ten seconds and remember the names of people who helped them get to this important place in their lives. It is a good practice: to remember those sent our way by the Maker of the universe, to name the people whose lives intersected with ours, and to be grateful for those who inspired us, encouraged us, or financed us along the way. Sometimes it is easier to look back and notice the trail than it is to look around and see the path. How did you get here, in Hendersonville, at Providence, in this sanctuary this Sunday? I was looking for a halfway house between our home on St. Simons Island and our family in Kentucky. I pulled out the map. Hendersonville is exactly half way. I put my finger on the map. I knew nothing about this place, had never been here. I found a condo, then I looked for a church. I found this one, online, with an interim pastor. Two months later, this man resigned, and Gail called me: Can you preach for us for two Sundays? That is how I got here. How did you get here? III. Do you know why you are here? Do you know what you are to learn? Do you know what you are to contribute? Do you know what lies ahead? Do you know why our witness is powerful and important? Do you know when trouble—real trouble—will come? Jesus said, “You do not know.” We do know some things: that life has its trials and tribulations, and we are called to be strong, to be steady, and to trust in the goodness of God. We also know that special sessions of stress and struggle will come. For his generation, Jesus said it was the destruction of Jerusalem. “Flee to the mountains” Jesus said. There are many such sessions of stress and struggle. Some are coming our way. In sermon number one, I warned you of the trouble coming: not the ordinary, expected trouble of life, the ups and downs, the good news and bad news that we all must navigate. I warned you of the real trouble coming to our country. It is tsunami of social and cultural turbulence. Tsunamis are caused by underground earthquakes. These earthquakes create ocean waves, mighty ocean waves, waves that overpower ordinary waves and transform them into extraordinarily dangerous forces of nature.  They hit land and sweep away everything in its path. This is what is sweeping over the United States. A wave of social disturbance. Millions of people are angry about the freedoms unleashed during our lifetimes. The freedom to live where you want to live, love who you want to love, vote how you want to vote, and say what you want to say.  Against this brave new world of equality and freedom and opportunity, millions of people are demanding that we go back to way things used to be, to the days before black and white lived and worked together, to the days before contraception and choice, to the days before the freedom to write and the freedom to read, to the days before the freedom to marry and the freedom to divorce. This tsunami of social disruption comes with the rhetoric of religion, just as it did in the days of Jesus. It was Jewish nationalism that led to the disaster of 66-70 AD. It is Christian nationalism that is leading to our own social disaster. Today and tomorrow, we need the son of man to come on clouds of glory. We need Jesus the crucified One to gather us from our fears and our failures and give us courage and strength. We need the Risen Lord to come with peace and grace so that we will endure to the end and be saved from cultural catastrophe. There is much we do not know. But we know this: we need the Crucified Jesus to help us. We need the Risen Lord to protect us. We need to gather together, brothers and sisters in Christ, and sing for joy and live with hope. We know this: this neighborhood needs Providence Baptist Church.  We know this: our town needs Providence Baptist Church. We know this: the nation needs the witness and the work of Providence Baptist Church. That is why you are here. That is why we are together. That is why Jesus the crucified and risen Lord is among us. Make it happen, O God. Make it happen.