Yea … just read the thing, then the title might actually make a tiny bit of sense outside my brain.
Mark 13:1-8; Hebrews 10:11-25; Psalm 16; Daniel 12:1-3
Once upon a time there was a dear little chicken named Chicken Little. One morning as she was scratching in her garden, a pebble fell off the roof and hit her on the head. “Oh, dear me!” she cried, “the sky is falling. I must go and tell the King,” and away she ran down the road.
By and by she met Henny Penny going to the store. “Where are you going?” asked Henny Penny. “I’m going to tell the King the sky is falling,” answered Chicken Little. “How do you know the sky is falling?” asked Henny Penny. “Because a piece of it fell on my head,” she replied. “May I go with you?” begged Henny Penny. “Certainly,” answered Chicken Little, and she hastened on, followed by Henny Penny.
Turning up a shady lane they met Cocky Locky. “Where are you two going?” asked Cocky Locky. “Oh, we are going to tell the King the sky is falling,” answered Henny Penny. “How do you know?” “Chicken Little told me,” said Henny Penny. “A piece of it fell on my head,” cried Chicken Little. “May I go with you?” asked Cocky Locky. “Certainly,” answered Chicken Little. Then away went the three, Chicken Little, Henny Penny and Cocky Locky. This continued four more times as our feathered adventures met Gander Pander, Turkey Lurkey, Goosey Loosey, and Ducky Lucky.
After a while, they became tired, and sat down to rest, when out from behind the rocks jumped Foxy Loxy. “Where are you all going?” he asked, with a sly grin. “The sky is falling and we are going to tell the King,” they all replied together. (You can guess where it went from there.) “You are not going the right way. Shall I show it to you?” said Foxy Loxy. “Oh, certainly,” they all answered at once and followed Foxy Loxy, until they came to the door of his cave among the rocks.
“This is a short way to the King’s Palace; you’ll soon get there if you follow me. I will go in first,” said Foxy Loxy. Just as the little feathered folks crowded around the dark narrow hole, eager to follow the sly fox, a little gray squirrel, with very bright eyes, jumped out from behind the bushes and whispered to them: “Don’t go in, don’t go in, all your little necks he’ll wring, and you’ll never see the King.” Happy to escape from the wicked old fox, away ran Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey and Gander Pander.
By and by they came to the beautiful palace in which lived the wise King, and upon being brought before him, they all shouted at once; “Good and wise King, we have come to warn you that the sky is falling!” “How do you know the sky is falling?” asked the King. “Because a piece of it fell on my head,” said Chicken Little. “Come nearer, Chicken Little,” said the King and leaning from his velvet throne, he picked the pebble from the feathers of Chicken Little’s head. “You see it was only a little pebble and not part of the sky at all,” said the King. “Go home in peace and do not fear because the sky cannot fall; only rain falls from the sky.”
This little fable is essentially talking about what our Gospel lesson is for today. Jesus is warning his disciples to watch for signs of things to come, but not to be so swept up in fear of them that we are led away from God. How often lately have we heard that the world is going to end? I remember hearing all kinds of things: 1988, 1999, 2000, 2004, and 2012. These are all years people have said the world is going to end. They’ve also said 70, 1000, 1300, and countless other times. People tend to latch on to this fear that the world is going to end, or in the case of Chicken Little, that the sky is falling.
Look at some of the movies that have come out lately. It seems like in the past 20 years or so global disaster movies have become incredibly popular. Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Armageddon, 2012. Before these it was the nuclear war movies in the cold war era. Hollywood realizes people’s fear of the world ending and capitalizes on it, dragging people along with them just like Chicken Little.
The latest in this series of global destruction dates is December 21, 2012. Someone, somewhere misinterpreted traditional Mayan beliefs about their calendaring system and decided the world was going to end that day – and they’ve convinced sufficient people of this fact that there is a good deal of fear about what will happen that day. Obviously I don’t buy into this theory, mostly because I know Jesus told not to be alarmed by any of it.
Getting caught up in the fear of the end of the world is exactly what Jesus is warning us against. For Christians, the end of the world is just the beginning of a new Creation, one in which Christ is King and there is neither sin, nor death, nor pain, nor sadness. We have nothing to be afraid of. A little later in this same teaching, Jesus basically says things will go a little wonky as we get close to the end, but its like when leaves come back to trees in the spring. When stuff starts turning green you know the spring is coming, and when things start going wonky you know that God is readying us for something new.
But he’s always quick to remind us that God’s new thing isn’t something to worry about. Next week we celebrate Christ the King Sunday – and that is the new thing God is doing. So if you want to know about it you’ll have to come back. But this week is getting us ready for that. So don’t be afraid of what we can’t know or expect, because Jesus says only the Father knows the day or the hour. But hope in what we know – that “at that time your people … will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake… Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”