Pentecost +26 – The Wound that Heals

Rev. Dr. Les Martin

Pentecost +26 2024
Rev. Dr. Les Martin
Daniel 12, Psalm 16, Hebrews 10:31-39, Mark 13:14-23

We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and apart from your grace, there is no health in us.

+ In the Name of the Living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Regarding this time in the church year, Episcopal priest and theologian Fleming Rutledge writes the following “If you know your Christian calendar, you’re getting goosebumps. Advent is close; the lectionary readings from scripture start getting apocalyptic in November.” This should be no surprise to us, having heard both from Daniel and from the little apocalypse of Mark in this very service. Both refer to a coming “abomination of desolation” that will bring to an end the sacrificial system, the Temple, and- if not the world- the world as the Jews had known it since they settled in the Promised Land. On August 30th, in the year 70 A.D. Roman forces who were combating a short-lived, rebel government in the province of Judea overwhelmed the defenders of the city, breached the final wall, and set fire to the temple. The Jewish historian Josephus describes the event this way:

“As the legions charged in, neither persuasion nor threat could check their impetuosity: passion alone was in command. Crowded together around the entrances many were trampled by their friends, many fell among the still hot and smoking ruins of the colonnades and died as miserably as the defeated. As they neared the Sanctuary, the partisans were no longer in a position to help; everywhere was slaughter and flight. Most of the victims were peaceful citizens, weak and unarmed, butchered wherever they were caught. Round the Altar the heaps of corpses grew higher and higher, while down the Sanctuary steps poured a river of blood and the bodies of those killed at the top slithered to the bottom.”

What was prophesied, had come to pass. I can’t imagine how it painful and devastating it must have felt to the people of God at that time. Nonetheless, what was a future event in the time of Jesus, is now for us ancient history. As tragic as it was, as monumental an historic event as it was both for Jews and the early church, we can nonetheless ask “Why spend a whole Sunday on it? What’s the point for us today?”

To answer this question, we need to refresh our minds about what exactly an apocalypse is. It is not primarily a prophetic description of the end of the world. In fact, although apocalypse may refer to future events, as is the case in today’s readings, to view it as talking exclusively about the future is to not get the concept quite right. The Greek word apokálypsis, from which it is derived, means a revelation, an unveiling of truth. Apocalypse tells the truth of the way things are. That is what is revealed.

This is why something else Josephus says about the destruction of the temple is perhaps more powerful than the graphic description I’ve already shared. Reflecting not so much on the event, but on the meaning of the event, he remembers an ancient saying, that “Jerusalem would be taken, and the temple be destroyed, when it had been defiled by the hands of Jews themselves.” When it had been defiled by the hands of Jews themselves. When viewed this way, what happened in AD 70 was not simply a calamity. The truth of the way things are is that it was a judgment. An external intervention by God resulting from the Jews defiling their own sacred space. Being a hospital chaplain, that got me thinking about sepsis.

When we commonly think about sepsis, what comes to mind is a systemic infection. That’s true, as far as it goes, but it’s not really the whole story. Sepsis is much more than that. It’s s a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body’s response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs, followed by suppression of the immune system. An initial infection, untreated, gets out of control, and the body becomes part of the problem. It literally works against itself. Without outside intervention, death will result. Unlike a simple infection, the treatment can be quite complex: IV fluids, strong, medicines, and commonly time in the intensive care unit. The treatments can actually be quite harsh, because sepsis is harsh. A harsh sickness, a harsh response.

Now, what does this have to do with the destruction of the temple? What does it have to do with the abomination of desolation? What does it have to do with us? I think one way of looking at how the truth of the way things are is revealed in our apocalypse today is through the lens of sepsis. Simply put, we’re really sick. Humanity, left to its own devices, is septic.

This is not to say that humanity is not good. The original design for all of creation was proclaimed by the Father to be good. Human beings, t...