“Birth Pangs” 

1 Samuel 1:9-20

Hebrews 10:19-25

Mark 13: 1-8 

Child birth.  As the time draws near, we start to wonder where will we be when the baby decides to arrive?  Will we be close to the hospital?  Can we get there in time?  We start looking for signs, indications that the birth is about to occur.  Yet, as long as babies have been born, as long as doctors and perspective parents have studied the signs, we are seldom right.  It seems as if each new child has their own timetable, their own idea of when to arrive. 

The disciples have heard Jesus talking about the new kingdom.  During the final days in Jerusalem, Jesus talks about the temple being destroyed, not a single stone remaining on top of another.  The disciples ask directly: What are the signs that these things will be accomplished?  When will all of this occur?  There is an implied: Where should we be when this happens?  Unfortunately, the answer that Jesus gave them didn't really help them get ready.  Just like child birth, the disciples had little assurance that they would be in the right place at the right time.   

The first part of the answer is a warning: do not be led astray.  Do not listen to one who claims to be Jesus, or claims to come in the name of Jesus with all of the answers; answers that Jesus said were known only to God.  This by itself is a huge challenge for we are a generation that wants definitive answers.  Instead, we are told to acquire discernment.  We believe that the Holy Spirit is present amongst us today, guiding us, illuminating Scripture, teaching us what it means to be a Christian in a time and place so very different from Jerusalem of two thousand years ago.  How are we to tell when it is the Spirit speaking through our lips or merely us making noise?  Discernment. 

Individually, we are called to test words, thoughts, against Scripture.  As the early church leaders considered what to include in the New Testament they used three basic tests.  The first is that it had to be written by an apostle or someone closely associated with an apostle.  For they believed that the Holy Spirit had inspired those people; inspired them to respond to Christ's call upon their lives, inspired them to record the Good News.  The second is that it had to provide additional information not present in other books, additional revelation of God through Christ, that would guide us to a better, more pure, faith in God.  Even if written by a student of an apostle, if it only provided a restatement of other teachings, if it did not add to our understanding, then it was an important book to be commended to the church to read and teach, but it was not given the same authority as Scripture.  The third test is that it must not create 'wrong actions' in readers.  For example, the Holy Spirit does not add to Scripture but instead helps us to understand it.  Writings that add new and different teachings, ones that go against the teachings of Scripture, are to be avoided.  One of the popular, recently discovered texts, claims that if a woman truly believed, she would be transformed into a man.  This goes against many, so many teachings starting with Genesis.  This goes against the actions of Jesus.  This causes weird results.  Such writings are to be avoided and condemned. Discernment. 

Perhaps one of the areas that has caused the most weirdness in Christianity deals with the next section of what Jesus said:  “Wars and rumors of wars, but the end is still to come.”  In the recorded history since the time of Christ, there have been fewer than 100 years without wars somewhere in the world; fewer than 100 years of peace in the last 2000 years.  Yes, there have been wars and rumors of wars, but the end is still to come.  In a continuation of that thought, Jesus adds that: “nation will rise against nation, ... there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.  This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”   

The end is still to come; the birth pangs are beginning.  We live in the kingdom of man; someday it, along with its wars and famines, its injustice and intolerance, its sickness and death, will end.  Simultaneously the Kingdom of God has already begun.  The pivotal point of history, the cross and resurrection, marked its beginnings.  We look forward to its full realization with the return of Christ.  We look forward to new life. 

Weather forecasters look at all the signs, the high and low pressure areas, the winds aloft and on the ground, jet stream variations, satellite photos and data from hundreds of ground stations, and then they predict what the weather will be like today and tomorrow and even next week.  Sometimes they get it right; often they don't.  Yet we still turn to newspaper and TV forecasts as we make plans, wanting to know if it is a good day for a hike or if we need a heavy coat or an umbrella for sudden showers.  We seldom change our plans, we just take different precautions.   

Predictions of a new age that is coming might seem to be like weather forecasting: interesting, worth looking at, but seldom reason for a change in plans.  The weather forecaster must look at a specific time and place.  Could you imagine how useless a weather report would be if it only stated: “It will rain.  It will rain somewhere within the world within the next year.”  Duh!  How obvious! 

Yet, that is exactly the difference between a weather report and the words of Jesus.  Jesus is not telling us what will happen in Logan, tomorrow.  Christ is telling us what will happen, will happen someday, throughout the entire world.   

The end and the beginning.  Birth Pangs. 

How hard it is to await the arrival of a new child.  Nine months seem like forever.  Then the last month, the last day, also seem to be additional forevers.  The due date comes, and goes.  While waiting for a new life, how hard it is to be patient! 

We are called to be patient as Christians; we are to be patient as we wait for the birth pangs to occur.  This will not be an easy time, for there will be wars and rumors of wars.  There will be the hardships of famine and earthquake.  Yet, we are to be patient.   

What do we do while we are trying, sometimes with obvious anxiety, to be patient?  Where should we be, what should we be doing?  We should hold fast to our confession of faith, confident that the day will come, confident that as Jesus has been resurrected we shall also be resurrected.  Until then, the verses from Hebrews give us some good advice:  “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, ..., but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” 

Love and good deeds.  Meet together.  Encourage one another. 

Today is a wonderful example of this.  Not only will we meet together, in our patience, in this time before the birth pangs, we will continue and grow.  We will rebuild this meeting place, add to it.  We proclaim that we will continue to meet and expand, patiently awaiting that time when Christ returns. 

We will gather together to discern God's will for this body.  We will listen to the Holy Spirit and call a pastor.  We will encourage the new pastor even as the pastor encourages us.  Yes, while we wait patiently for the birth pangs of the full Kingdom of God on earth, we will go through some congregational birth pangs as well.  These also will require patience and love and good deeds; and lead to new congregational life. 

While we are patient, we must also be optimistic; the birth pangs will come.  Yes, birth pangs are intense pain, pain leading to new life.  So it will be with the Kingdom.  It is hard to think of such pain with optimism.   

We moved to Utah in late August.  The first day of school Abby came home and asked whether we had realized that Churchill Junior High was right on top of the biggest earthquake fault line outside of California.  We hadn't had a clue that there were major fault lines in Utah.  Yet, she still went to that school and we still live in the same house.  Yes, we know that there is an earthquake in the future of the neighborhood.  I would not call this optimism, optimism that the earthquake will not occur.  It is more like a “not me” attitude: it won't happen to me, it won't happen while I am living there, I will not have to suffer through the consequences of the earthquake and the aftermath. 

That is not the type of optimism that we are called to by this passage, a false optimism, a “not me” attitude that we will not have to suffer through the birth pangs to see the new life.  While we should not ignore this, we should also not over react.  For this is good news; good news for the believer.  As difficult as the time might be, there will be the emergence, the full realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.  Our restoration to that which we were created to be.  The opportunity to worship in the very physical presence of God.  All of creation renewed; restored.  Wars will end; famines will end; earthquakes will cease.  No more sickness and pain.  Eternal life with Christ.  Optimism! 

What do we do while we are trying, sometimes with false security, to be optimistic?  Where should we be, what should we be doing?  We should be standing firm in our faith, confident that the day will come, confident that as Jesus has been resurrected we shall also be resurrected.  Until then, the verses from Hebrews again give us some good advice:  “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, ..., but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” 

And so, with the discernment of the Holy Spirit, whether with optimism or with patience, we look forward to the new day, the birth pangs of the fullness of the Kingdom of God coming to earth.  Whether tomorrow or in future millennia, the place to be is standing, standing firm, day by day, in our faith, our faith in our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

November 19, 2006

Rev. Al Hammond

First Presbyterian Church

Logan, Utah