It’s been a crazy time lately, hasn’t it?  There’s been significant losses for some families in our church, the covid crisis dominates the newsfeed, protests over economic disruption, gender identity, and racial equality have filled our streets.  Do you ever have days when you wish Lester Holt would open his newscast by saying, “Nothing strange happened today.  It’s all been pretty calm.”

We could all use a little calm in our lives now and again.  Unfortunately, we’re not getting any in our passage this week.  We’re taking on Mark 13 (all 37 verses), more commonly known as ‘The Olivet Discourse’ (which is a fancy title for ‘this is a sermon Jesus preached on the Mount of Olives’).  But what’s unusual about it … is the subject.  This sermon is on … ‘the last days’ … what we theology snobs call “eschatology” (another fancy title which just means ‘the study of the end times’). 

Now, for those looking for calm … we have the destruction of the Temple, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and famines, persecution and tribulation, hatred and false teachers, not to mention the always exciting ‘abomination of desolation’ (which just sounds awful … because it is).  You might as well stock up on the blood pressure meds now.

But, scattered throughout all these terrible signs of the end times, is some immensely practical, common-sense advice.  And hidden in the midst of all this serious stuff, there’s a great promise.  So, we’re going to tackle questions like, “What’s going to happen?  When’s it going to happen?  What are we supposed to do about it?  And what are we looking forward to?  It may not bring us much calm (but then again, it might), but it will surely be interesting.  Should be fun, see you Sunday, Dr. Dave