Devotion - Monday, September 18

Mark 13 is of the same style of literature as The Revelation.  It is apocalyptic.  This style of literature speaks of cosmic battles and end-of-time events.  It is a way for a writer to lift our eyes beyond the particulars of our day to day struggle and to consider the larger issues facing us.

In Mark 13, there is a call to those who are able to see, to perceive what is going on.  The hope is that the events depicted will not come to pass; that the people of God will recognize where things are headed and make a reversal.  Repentance is the word used to describe this reaction.

While I will never take to writing in an apocalyptic style, I do find myself worried about the small steps taken in a direction which is not the way God would have us go.  "Acquiring and preserving wealth" has replaced care for the least among us as a social goal.  Healing the sick has been ignored out of fear of a "single payer" health care system.  "Heritage" is not something to celebrate when that heritage is a hateful heritage.

The small steps we take may not seen to be that significant.  Taken one at a time, they may not be.  But added together they take us to a place we should not go.

God's perch in the heavens allows God to see the great sweeps in history and to see the larger patterns.  This is surely why God motivates some of his servants to write apocalyptic stories.  Reading those stories might help us re-consider the small steps before we take them.