Highlights from the Jonathan Merritt sermon endorsed by his father. Mark 13 isn't about the judgment of God, it's about recognizing "nothing lasts forever."
"The grass withers, the flowers fade," and then we <snip> the part about the word of the Lord remaining forever.
Jesus foretelling the destruction of the temple = "Hating change won't delay or deter it. The future is always breaking into the present, and it never calls ahead to ask permission. So we need to learn to love the worlds in which we live and, when the time comes, to let them go."
Edits Mark 13:4 to reinforce his "don't fear change" theme: "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign that things are about to change?"
No English translation says "about to change," it's "be fulfilled" or "be accomplished," i.e. God's plans completed
Quotes Will Willimon (Duke Divinity prof + former Methodist bishop who pushed for queer affirmation) to say Jesus is "not predicting the end. He's speaking of the precariousness of the present."
"God is not interested in propping up obsolete institutions/status quo"
"The cold, hard truth is that the world is always ending somewhere for someone...The end is always near, and Jesus says that the anxiety and loss that you feel at the end of *your* world is not a reliable indicator for the end of *the* world."
Waiting for the "literal second coming of Jesus" was admirable for simple-minded black slaves, but we sophisticated folk can "simply open our lives to the truth: that just as the world is always ending, Christ is always coming again."
The conclusion: "Receive the good news of today's gospel: that God, whose name is Love, is waiting for you everywhere...That the Holy Spirit is hovering over the chaotic deep of your crumbling world...And that Jesus is always coming, again and again and again."
So, this is not the actual gospel, that death has been defeated by Christ rising from the grave. This is just self-help pablum, that living through eviction is the Real Point of the eschaton. But if you'll allow me to eisegete Jonathan as he eisegetes Mark, it goes deeper...
This is the gospel of the Great Reset. You see that the (social) world around you is changing, and it seems like it's not for the better. But don't resist it! The powers affecting this change are just getting rid of what's obsolete, and you will learn to love their new world.
You could have done a variation on this theme from a Christian worldview: that no matter what happens to the world, even if you lose everything, God's plans are unshaken. Even though the temple was destroyed, the same good news to Abraham was established even more firmly.
But the "good news" of this sermon is change itself, no matter the content. If you don't want the particular change that's going on now, that's just your human frailty talking. I'd really love to hear Dad explain exactly what he liked about this.
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