33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) – November 17, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16:5, 8-11; Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32

Plot Twist

I’m about to spoil three movies, but the most recent is 25 years old (so if you haven’t seen them by now, not entirely my fault.) Back in 1968 a movie came out called Planet of the Apes. The premise of the movie is that astronauts are making a space voyage, but they are in hibernation and they crash land on an unknown planet. One of the astronauts calculates that they are on a planet 300 light-years away from earth. And they have been in hibernation for over two thousand years. And as the movie goes on, they discover that this planet is inhabited by apes-like creatures, but apes that have evolved into a sophisticated species. Very famous movie. But the reason I bring it up is the ending—spoiler alert! At the end of the movie, the main character stumbles across the remnants of the Statue of Liberty. And we discover: they had been on earth the entire time; the supposed “alien planet” is actually just earth two thousand years after a nuclear war had devastated the planet.

Here’s a plot twist. Here, at the end of the movie, everything is revealed—a plot twist. And because of this plot twist, because of this new information, we begin to see everything differently. 

Another classic example of this is the Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller about a child who can see and talk to the dead. The whole film he is working with a psychologist, and the movie centers on their relationship. But plot twist—spoiler alert!—at the end of the movie we discover that this psychologist he has been working with the whole time was actually dead, just another dead person he was talking to. Or the Wizard of Oz—movie ends and we discover that the entire film …? It was actually just a dream! Just one weird dream Dorothy had.

Ok. What is my point? My point is this: when these plot twists happen, they rearrange everything, completely change how we evaluate what was happening in the movie. We often want to go back and watch the movie again, right? We want to go find all of the clues we missed, all of the parts where “we should have seen it”! All of a sudden, we are forced to re-evaluate everything we thought we knew, everything we thought we were seeing.

Apocalypse Now

Ok. As we draw near to the end of the Church’s liturgical year (the new year starts on the first Sunday of Advent, December 1st), the readings begin to focus on what’s called “apocalyptic” themes. The problem is that when we hear these passages or when we think of “apocalypse”—we think of apocalypse in terms our common understanding of it: the end of the world, nuclear disaster, death and destruction. We think apocalypse means “the end of the world.” But in scripture, “apocalypse” has a very different and very specific meaning. Apocalypse means an unveiling. An apocalypse is when the veil is pulled back and we see what’s really going on. An apocalypse is like a “plot twist”: you suddenly see the true nature of something that you couldn’t see before.

Every one of us begins to develop ways of seeing things, seeing the world, that can limit and blur our vision. But an apocalypse—an apocalypse when we begin to see clearly.

This is what Jesus is getting at: “Learn a lesson from the fig tree.” What’s the lesson? “When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.” The lesson is that you can look at a fig tree (or just the trees around town) and you immediately know what? The seasons are changing. We’re in the middle of Fall, Winter is coming soon. Easy! That’s an “apocalypse” of sorts. There are all of these “normal things” going on around us, but we can pull back the veil, we can see past the signs, we can interpret the signs and see reality: Fall is here, Winter is coming.

And so in these readings, this Gospel—Jesus is not talking about the literal end of the literal world, but the end of the world-powers. And he’s asking us to interpret the signs, to look past the signs and see the deeper reality. A greater power is coming to the stage, and that power is Jesus himself. Jesus will overthrow all of these powers, the powers of Sin, Death, Satan, and Hell. By his cross and resurrection, he will set us free from these powers. This is the apocalypse, this is the “plot twist.”

Gut Check: Your Personal Apocalypse

Great. And that’s all well and good, and I could spend a lot of time talking about that—and we have: that’s what “Rerouting…” was about. But today I want to keep it much more personal. Again, we’re in this series called “Gut Check.” And the “gut check” here is to keep this much more personal. It would be very easy to analyze the world, look at world history and see all of this at play, see how these powers are at work and how Jesus Christ confronts them and defeats them. But here’s the “gut check”: have you ever taken the time to see how Jesus has confronted these powers in you? Have you pulled back the veil on your own life?

You’ve been living your life…your whole life. And you’ve been seeing your life, evaluating your life in a certain way. But what if you had an “apocalypse”? What if the “ veil” over your life was pulled back and you could see what was really going on? See what you couldn’t see before? Specifically, what if you could see how God was working in your life, even when you didn’t even realize it?

Most of us look back on our lives and think, “Well, I grew up. And A, B, and C happened to me. And then X, Y, and Z happened. And I just go to work each day, and try to be a good person, and go to church on Sundays.” But what if there was a “plot twist,” an apocalyptic moment, and all of a sudden you went back and “watched” your life again? Like watching a movie again to go back and see everything you missed. What would you discover?Simply put: you would discover God at work in your life.

Testimony

So this is the “gut check”: Do you see your story clearly? What is your story? Do you even know your story? And do you know it well enough to be able to share it with others? Every one of us could tell a sob story about our life, or tell an epic story about how awesome we are. But can you see your story in light of the “plot twist” of God’s action in your life? Can you see how God has been at work in your life? All of you know my story, but do you know yours?

We call this our testimony. And this is one of the very important things we need in our life: the ability to share our story—first and foremost with ourselves, but also with others. Think: our own patron, St. Paul. Paul shared his story constantly: how he grew up a faithful Jew, persecuted the Church, but one day on the road to Damascus he has a life-changing encounter with Jesus, and his life isn’t the same afterwards. Can we share our story? Can you share your story? Do you even know your story?

What I would encourage you to do is to take the time to discover your story, to invite God to help you to see clearly, to look back on your life and see how he has been and continues to be at work in your life. Again, we can all say, “Well, I grew up. And A, B, and C happened to me. And then X, Y, and Z happened. And now I just kind of live my life.” I’m going to challenge you: there is so much more to your life than that. You all know my story. But do you know your own?

And so here’s how to do it. Take some time in prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. And then just write your story, almost like you’re writing a biography. (For me, it was actually helpful to write it down, at least take notes of the major parts in my life.) But then, ask God to help you to see. To see where He was at work. For some of us, there may be a “big moment,” a powerful encounter, a turning point in our life and in our faith. For others, it may be much more gentle, a simple daily growth. But focus on the one thing that changed things for you.

Then, take some time and condense it into a five to seven minute story you could share with others, keeping your faith at the center of the story. First, share your experience of your faith growing up, your early experience with God and the Church. Share what happened from there. (You all know my story, how I grew up. I’ve share that.) Second, share what led you to taking your faith more seriously, a concrete moment that you encountered Jesus, or a turning point in your life. (What was mine? Yup, down at Camp WaJaTo.) Third, share how that has led you to take your faith more seriously, what that looks like for you now. (What happened with me? Yup. Ok.) And fourth, just invite others to explore their story as well, to encounter Jesus Christ anew.

And so, at the end of Mass, I’m going to invite Leslie to share her testimony. I think it is very helpful to hear from others, not just me. And not only to hear how God was at work in their life, but so that they can help us to see how God was at work in our life as well—to give us the encouragement to look at our lives anew. And so this is the “gut check”: do we know our story? The “plot twist” is that God has been at work—your whole life! But now we—we have to go back and look for his presence, to see where he was at work, to see what we missed the first time. Because when we do, that’s when our love for God and all he has done for us can be renewed.