Episode 1490: Truth Telling

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1, 490 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

[00:00:08] Alan Thomas: I'm Alan Thomas. I challenge you to invest in yourself. invest in others, develop your influence, and impact the world by using your time, your talents, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to recognize the decisions that you make around your weight is key, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this.

[00:00:31] The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my good friend, Scott Mader.

[00:00:45] Scott Maderer: Christ is with us. God is with us. And we listen, even when we need those trumpets, because our hearing begins to fade from the strain. We listen for the message [00:01:00] of peace and love, the message of Christ. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling.

[00:01:20] In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:39] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about Mark 13, verses 1 8. I share how we often don't want to hear the truth, especially hard truth, and also share how often, even in those hard truths, there is some hope and healing. Mark 13, verses 1 8 [00:02:00] says, As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, Look, teacher, what large stones and what large buildings.

[00:02:07] And Jesus asked him, Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another. All will be thrown down. When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?

[00:02:28] The Jesus began to say to them, beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, I am he, and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is still to come. For nations will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.

[00:02:48] There will be earthquakes in various places. There will be famines. But it but this is but the beginning of the birth pain. There's a church in Edinburgh, Scotland that [00:03:00] has a architectural feature. I've seen pictures of it. I've never seen it in person, but I've seen pictures of it there in the woodwork near the church.

[00:03:10] back over the area of the altar, there's a magnificent pipe organ with these wonderful pipes that go up. And in the middle, in between the pipes, there is an angel's head carved there into the wall. And it's interesting because what it appears is that there's these trumpets on either side of the angel's head that those long, skinny, pointy trumpets, the kind that you see in animated shows and in movies that they blow to represent and say that the king is here and that kind of thing.

[00:03:47] The announcement trumpets, they blow that loud noise. And it's probably meant to represent, that kind of the beginning of the arrival of the king. You also will see these blown and talked [00:04:00] about in end of the world or end of the age kind of messages as well. But what's interesting, because of the way that they're carved and the way they're on either side of the head, it almost looks like instead that this angel has those old fashioned hearing trumpets stuck in their ears.

[00:04:18] And that image is somewhat interesting because it's an angel that appears to be needing help to hear the message right there over the place where the message is delivered. I've heard stories of this and photographs of this and have seen passages about this because it's interesting because maybe why is it here that this angel is hard of hearing?

[00:04:44] It could be there's this magnificent pipe organ with the organ on either side and the loud noise of those organ pipes is caused the angel to lose its hearing. But it also could just be the strain of trying to [00:05:00] listen for all of these messages, or maybe even sometimes it's the idea that we don't really want to hear the message, especially when the message has hard truths in it.

[00:05:11] That message that we have today is one of those messages. It's a a message that appears to be conveying information about the apocalypse. It's part of the literature that we call that. And here it is that they walk out of the temple. And remember from a context in the history that the temple has recently been sacked and destroyed and then rebuilt.

[00:05:35] So this idea of war and rumors of war, this idea of the temple being turned down. That's all pretty fresh on the minds of the people that are listening, the disciples that are hearing the words of Jesus. And it is something about tearing down the stones that would frighten them. It is a message about where do you put your trust?

[00:05:57] Do you put it on these buildings, on this [00:06:00] foundation, this physical thing that surrounds you? Is it about habits and patterns and structures? And is it about that or is it about something else, something a little less tangible, something that's a little less valuable when it comes to the way the world calls value, but is more true?

[00:06:22] in the reality of what our life should be. Whatever this is, whether this is a prediction, a prophecy, or some sort of story or allegory, Mark just moves right on from it. He doesn't dwell on it. Immediately we go to the Mount of Olives, and there's a private meeting with the disciples. And apparently the topic of this private meeting is about what to listen to and what not to listen to.

[00:06:52] And the disciples seem to, like they often do, get things a little turned around. Or maybe they've taken those [00:07:00] hearing trumpets out of their ears because they don't actually want to hear what Jesus is trying to tell them. Jesus looks at these disciples that have been fighting and arguing and that have rejected the message more than once.

[00:07:16] And maybe they were sitting there listening politely this time, nodding their head. At least there's no interruptions recorded this time. And they're saying yes, okay yep. But just like us, maybe they didn't really want to hear the message. And in fact, if you read what comes before in Mark and what comes after in Mark, it's pretty clear that they really don't want to hear the message.

[00:07:40] Jesus's message at this point. Jesus is talking about struggle and pain and sacrifice. These aren't really the message that most of us really want to hear. We want to hear that becoming a Christian, following Jesus means everything's going to work out for us. Everything's going to be perfect for us.

[00:07:57] It's all going to be a bed of roses and here [00:08:00] Jesus is saying, yeah, but it's not going to be that way. There's more to it than that. Or at least that seems to be the message that we can get from this, that there's a hard road ahead. There's a deeper message here as well from this text and from this gospel.

[00:08:20] Maybe it's a message that just like that angel, we've been straining to hear week after week, year after year, as we look at our sanctuaries and notice that sometimes there's not as many people in the pews this week, as we. deal with what's going on in the world as we face the tragedy of brokenness and the pain of sin.

[00:08:43] Unless we understand the struggle of what it means to live a Christ like life, unless we really understand sacrifice and suffering, then maybe we aren't really listening. But let's face it, who can blame you [00:09:00] for wanting to turn a deaf ear on that kind of message about suffering and pain? Who in their right mind wants to hear that?

[00:09:09] But the problem has been in understanding that this part of the text is actually a description. It is telling us what is happening and will continue to happen as long as we attempt to walk with Christ in a world that denies Christ. especially when we're in a world that denies Christ. And yet some of the loudest voicers that are denying Christ actually claim to speak of him and for him and be the authorities that tell us what he truly said.

[00:09:38] We've heard the description and some have been really good at proclaiming that description, but they've been less good on the rest of the message, the invitation and the promise that is here in this passage from Mark. Notice there's a call here to sort through what we hear. Do not be alarmed, says Jesus.

[00:09:59] Don't let the [00:10:00] news of the day get you off track. Don't let that person that is standing up there telling you how everything is horrible and our country and our world is going off track. Don't let them throw you off track. Don't let the difficulties and the challenges cause you to surrender to the ways of the world.

[00:10:18] It's not that they're not there. It's not that they're not real. They may very well be, but our response to them as followers of Christ has to be different. I've seen a story of people who are preaching on the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount. That's that long set of messages, that you should be these things that Jesus says.

[00:10:42] And yet, oftentimes I hear pushback from people who claim to be Christian, that those messages are too, they're out of date. They would have worked in Jesus's time, but not today. Or maybe they're too. much leftist sort of rhetoric. They're passive. [00:11:00] They're not really the way we should behave.

[00:11:02] Surely this isn't what's really meant by this. But the truth is, it says don't be alarmed by what you hear. Don't be led astray. Don't be inclined to give up on the faith that you have just so you can get by in a difficult world and maybe have a few less of these sacrifices and these challenges. Instead, there's also in this passage a call to hope, a message of hope.

[00:11:32] Not empty hope either, not naive optimism, not, Oh, we'll just wait until things get better. Not a belief that it won't be hard. Not that it won't be involving sacrifice and pain. Instead, it's a call to the profound, deep hope that you know what? Even in this, God is with us. There is something here that going through [00:12:00] this suffering is like going through the pains of birth.

[00:12:02] There's something that can be birthed from this that is better than something that has come before. When we look for that rising hope, when we look for the presence of God among us and beyond us, then we engage and we meet the risen Christ and we say, even though we are working in a difficult place with difficult people in a difficult situation, Christ is with us.

[00:12:27] God is with us and we listen even when we need those trumpets because our hearing begins to fade from the strain. We listen for the message of peace and love, the message of Christ. Thanks for listening.

[00:12:53] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge [00:13:00] you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor, go over to facebook. com slash inspired stewardship and like our Facebook page and market.

[00:13:22] that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there. Until next time, invest your time, your talent, and your treasures, develop your influence, and impact the world.