• Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM said in 1943, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
• Popular Mechanics magazine in 1949 made this prediction, “Where a calculator on the ENIAC [electronic numerical integrator and computer – the world’s first electronic digital computer] is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1.5 tons.”
• There was an inventor by the name of Lee DeForest. He claimed that “While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially it’s an impossibility.”
• The Decca Recording Co. made this prediction in 1962 concerning a new band from Liverpool: “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” The new band was called (anyone want to guess?) - The Beatles.

How do you think about the predictions of the end times, the second coming of Christ? On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.” Several of the nuts dropped and rolled down along the fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed the cemetery, he thought he heard voices. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.” He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off.

Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along. “Come here quick,” said the boy “you won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery, dividing up the souls.”

The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk?” When the boy insisted, the man hobbled to the cemetery. Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.” The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ the truth. Let’s see if we can see Jesus!”

Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord. At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all that are here. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.”

They say the old man made it back to town a full five minutes ahead of the boy on the bike.

No matter how much we say we long for Jesus to come again, when we hear predictions of “the end times” like those in Mark’s gospel this morning – wars, nations rising up against one another all over the earth, famines, earthquakes – it’s not much of a comfort to us. It almost makes us hope we die before the end comes, before Jesus comes again. When we hear people scaring Christians and non-believers alike by taking John’s visions recorded in the book of Revelations literally, it makes us just not want to think about it.

Except…

Except if, just maybe, the end that is still to come is not a prediction of chaos and anarchy, of punishment and death – but of hope.

Scripture says that Jesus’ first coming ushered in the Kingdom of God in our midst. What we see in Jesus is not the horror of some kind of Armageddon. It is clearly a hopeful promise that Jesus speaks of this morning. He describes the destruction of wars, earthquakes, and famine not as the end of the world, but as the end of sin and death – as (did you catch it) the “birth pangs” – as the labor of giving birth to a new creation.

Imagine what being born must be like for the baby – how easy it would be to mistake being born for dying. Surely, as a baby is born, being pushed and pressed and pulled from the warm, effortless safety of the womb, through the constricting birth canal, and into a cold, sterile, blinding unknown “out there,” and the cord is cut – surely the child is convinced it is dying, that life is over – until, startled by the astonishing sound of its own voice crying, resounding off the walls, it entertains the not altogether unpleasant suspicion that it is undeniably, uncontrollably, inexplicably – alive! What it thought was “living” before, was; but pales in the light of this miraculous surprise. “Behold, I make all things new!”

In much the same way, Jesus doesn’t point us so much to the end, but to the new beginning, to the time when pain and grief will be no more. For those who have inconsolable grief, this isn’t bad news, but good news. You’ve known that kind of grief, the grief that comes from profound mental or emotional or physical suffering – grief so full you can’t contain it; grief that just pours out of you with sighs and moans and body-shaking tears; grief that doesn’t care how you look or what people will think of you.

The end times – the second coming of Jesus – is a source of great comfort, because at last the inconsolable grief and everything that causes it will end. Consolation will come. Like the birth or adoption of a child, this is not simply the ending of the adoption or child birth process but a whole new beginning we anticipate, pray for, look forward to and hope for.

In our Hebrews text this morning, we read that the war has already been won, and the victorious Son of God is awaiting the moment when all of his enemies will be made a mere footstool for his feet. By Jesus’ one sacrifice of his own life, by whose wounds we are healed and forgiven, Jesus has ended the “offering again and again [of] the same sacrifices that can never take away sins,” and now reigns as the royal and victorious Messiah.

There is nothing we can do to add to the saving work of Jesus. By his death on the cross, he has set right all that is wrong, all that separates us from God. Nothing, not even our feverish attempts at “religion,” can enable us to climb up to God. Because in Christ, Almighty God has humbled himself and climbed down to us, reached out to us, and set things right. Now all religion, especially the legalistic variety, has been surpassed by the gracious work of Jesus.

Although Mark’s gospel warns us not to waste time trying to predict what even Jesus said he didn’t know – exactly when he would come again – each of us lives in confident hope that when the time is right, God will establish God’s reign in full, in glory, and we with all of our loved ones will be in the glorious company of the saints in light, with Jesus himself.

This is the confidence that motivates our actions here and now, as we continue the work of Jesus. The writer of Hebrews says,

Therefore, my friends, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for God who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

The Message paraphrases it this way:

Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and in helping out, not avoiding worshipping together, as some do; but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

We tend to think of things that provoke us as annoyances or frustrations, and we feel it’s our duty to make sure other members and church leaders know just exactly how provoked we are! But the writer of Hebrews is talking about something else altogether. The writer is responding to the question, “What do Christians do while we are waiting for Jesus to come again?” Clearly, we don’t just drop out of the life of the world, sit on our hands and wait. Neither do we simply throw off all cares and “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”

Rather, as followers of Jesus, as God’s precious family and as ambassadors of Christ, “Let us consider how to provoke/encourage one another to love and good deeds…”

What, after all, is the one thing in creation that is stronger than death, that liberates us from living in fear and dread? Love – the perfect love of Christ for you, the power of his resurrection.

What, after all, is the one thing in creation that disarms sin – yours, mine, and ours? Love – the love which dwells in us that is of God, the sacred love that we are called to provoke, to stir up into expression in one another.

Fear leads to selfishness. Selfishness turns us in on ourselves and makes us crabby. In Christ, our fear is vanquished, our hope is secure, and selfishness moves aside to make room for love and encouragement. May Jesus live in us so powerfully, and bring us to such unswerving confidence in God’s faithfulness, God’s provision, and our future with Christ, that we spend all of our best energy “provoking” – stirring up in one another – love and encouragement, for the sake of the world. Amen.