Plant Hope and Keep Awake
This homily adapted from the work of Allison Tanner (Woke Time) and Jonathan Brennenman ( Keep Awake) found at: https://www.fosna.org/keepawake Have you ever encountered a catastrophe so horrible that the sun darkened, the moon didn’t light, and the stars fell off from the night sky? Have you ever experienced feeling so terrible that your cries shook the powers in the heavens? Have you ever felt the crushing weight of the sky falling upon you? Mark 13:24-37 alludes familiarity to such a time of suffering and loss. The text at once refers to total cosmic disturbance and exhortation to stay awake, to persist in the responsibilities of keeping attunement to the present alive. Many scholars note its familiar apocalyptic overtures. According to Richard Horsley, the most “apocalyptic sounding part of the gospel of Mark is precisely in this passage which focuses on the climatic restoration of the people.” This historical background of this passage, for Horsley, is within th...