25th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 33)
November 18, 2007
This morning’s reading from Luke started out as a Jewish document which was taken over by early Christians in order to understand some of the circumstances they experienced. Later it was used by Mark in his so-called Little Apocalypse and then borrowed by Luke with only a few minor editorial changes. It is highly unlikely that it contains any genuine words of Jesus. But, it is probably true that Jesus shared some of the pessimism of prophets such as Micah and Jeremiah that led them to envisage a destruction of the first Temple as a consequence of the people’s refusal to repent. In fact, this prophecy of doom is included in the Gospels because it seemed to foresee the destruction of the Temple in 70CE, a cataclysmic event which was totally determinative for the future shaping of both what was to become Christianity and Judaism. It was this moment of religious destiny that undoubtedly had a major influence on how both groups developed in detail their understanding of Jesus’ death and resurrection. (I am aware the debate about whether Mark’s Gospel was pre or post 70CE but nonetheless this event produced a rethinking that is evident throughout the rest of the NT.) For one thing it assured the continued role of apocalyptic thinking in the future life of both Church and Synagogue. And to this point I will return. Another result of the loss of the Temple was seen in the way in which ritual sacrifice disappeared permanently from Jewish practice. It was maintained in Christian thought by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This sacrificial motif was developed in the theology and ritual which appears in the NT and thought of the early Church Fathers. As a result, much Christian theology has remained drowned in the blood of the lamb and locked into a materialist focus on sin. Other possible ways of theologically expressing Jesus work have been largely ignored. Meanwhile, atonement in Jewish thought becomes a part of a developing personal piety and moral development which reaches its climax in the yearly rites of Yum Kippur.
If we now turn to the reading from Isaiah, much of the pessimism found in Luke is repeated in the sections prior to our reading, which offers a promise of restoration and renewal. Our understanding of the text is greatly enhanced if we make use of developments in Old Testament scholarship. It is generally agreed that the material found in Isaiah is the work of more than one writer and covers a period from the 8th to the 6th centuries BCE. Chapters 1-39 are from the earlier time and the remainder of the book - 40-66 are the work of more than one person with 56-66 now generally attributed to a Third Isaiah(s). Our reading belongs in the latter section - dates from the decades around 538 BCE and reflects the situation at the time of the return from Exile and the struggle to rebuild the Temple. The writer sets out a kind of paradigm for the piety which should be the basis for the physical reconstruction of the building. His interest is not so much in the reestablishment of Judah but in the nature of the community upon which this structure might be built. Crucially, however, while his language may be seen as belonging to that genre which has come to be known as apocalyptic - the reference point is not to another world or time but to the potential which exists for rebuilding in the here and now. With the benefit of the centuries it is possible for us to see a remarkable similarity between the two events separated as they were by 600 years. In both instances the new heaven and the new earth were a gift of God for the continuation of life on earth. Each time the end of life as it was then known marked the opportunity for new life if those who were thus confronted did not give up hope. We can perhaps now appreciate why the destruction of the Temple occurring as it did at the time of the formulating period for what we might call Christian-Jews plays such an important role in the themes and language of the New Testament. A very significant dilemma was created for the Christian community as it tried to understand the threats it faced to its very existence and it is not surprising that it resorted to a reworking of the writings which already existed as well as the faith that God’s role in the here and now was documented by historical events of which they were aware
With these readings as the background, let me return to the matter of the continued interest in apocalyptic as part of the content of Christian theology and literature. It is a logical outcome of regarding revelation as happenings in time which sees God’s involvement in specific events. It therefore becomes possible to use terms such as, punishment, anger, healing, to account for what has transpired in these circumstances. The difficulty arises because there is a tendency to transform what has been seen through the eyes of faith as events which continue to happen in ordinary time. If we think about the ways in which apocalyptic has become part of Christian religious history it is possible to see it at work in three ways.
The first has to do with situations in which the community or a part of it feels threatened by forces that are beyond its immediate control. Frequently specific issues are used to frame the problem. In the fledgling church this was the power of the Roman Empire which regarded Christianity as a threat to political stability and the emperor cult which gave it legitimacy. The threat was real and the martyrdoms that resulted were terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. The promise that previous apocalyptic literature had offered and the events to which it referred gave rise to the belief that God was capable of acting to save his people - only somehow on the way to delivery, the promise of “a new heaven and a new earth” became transformed into something which was to be in another place and time. It required death - not the Pauline death of self - but physical death for its realization. For those not privileged to be martyrs at the hands of the Empire, the earth itself became transformed into a place which must be left if the new life would be possible. Ultimately the church itself would become the transportation system by which this transfer would be facilitated through the power of the sacraments. In societies in which political chaos, disease, famine, poverty were everyday events, the language and form of the apocalyptic writers could easily be attached to what was seen to be a situation that could not be changed in this world.
The second impetus for the popularity of an apocalyptic view of life was the fear of personal extinction. Often and quite rightly this is described as the fear of death, but this is perhaps too simple, since our understanding of the interaction between the mind and body makes it clear that for many people there are many conditions worse than death itself. Torture takes advantage of this fact as it obliterates all of the controls that make it possible for persons to maintain their identity, including the ability to relate to others. Terrorism in its theistic form is action dependent upon a disdain of this world in which our fear of extinction, itself a form by which we place limits on acceptable human behaviour, is overcome by a belief that another world offers a more pure form of existence. Atheistic apocalyptic as put forward by Karl Marx was in fact a defensible reading of what the prophets had in mind. The more traditional response is that each person at some point in his entrance into the natural world acquires a soul which is somehow able to survive in distinction to the self, which is dependent upon the interchange between mind and body. This immortal soul can be seen as another expression of the forms and language which strive to create a world which is distinct from what are the known limits of time and space.
The final contribution of the apocalyptic world is that it can produce a vision of what is possible in this world but has yet to be realized. We associate this stance with the work of the Great Prophets, with Jesus the Christ, with the Apostle Paul. It was the Third Isaiah who invites the eunuch and alien into the Temple because it must be a place for all peoples. Our Lord recognized that the transformed sinner was the true person of God. Paul proclaimed that the love of God was able to survive the power of death itself. The truth is as these and countless others have understood is that the only hope for this world is to change it and that this is what life is all about.
The Rev. Roger A. Balk, Ph.d.
