First Tuesday of Easter
Before I start on Jennifer's question about my spiritual journey, here was Eston's question about Mark 13, "Maybe a comment about the significance of the fig tree?" In Mark 13:28-29, in the midst of Jesus speech about the destruction of the Temple, he gives a little parable about a fig tree, that-- just as when the fig tree starts to green, you know that summer is near, so when "you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates." The two commentaries I looked at were a bit puzzled by the vagueness of the last part of the parable. Who is "he"? What are "these things"? What are "the very gates"?
I'm going to hit this from the second of the two answers to Stuart's question in the last blog, that the Son of Man is going (my translation) in clouds was fulfilled in the Ascension. The "he" in the parable of the fig tree is the Son of Man, i.e. Jesus. "These things" refers to verses 24-25, and verses 24-25 are fulfilled in the soon coming crucifixion: "the sun being darkened"--fulfilled literally, the moon not giving light and the stars falling from heaven--fulfilled metaphorically. The "very gates" are the gates of heaven, which Jesus is very near, and will indeed enter at the Ascension, about 44 days after Jesus speech in Mark 13.
That's my explanation. I don't think it's very good, but it's the best I can come up with at this point. I'll read a few more commentaries and see if I find a better explanation.
The following from the Comments section was a question from Jennifer Reece, a good friend and very devoted church member from First United Methodist, North Wilkesboro, where I served as pastor from 2005-2010:
" One question I have wanted to ask you for a long time how you began your journey to Christianity(other than being brought up in the church) and decided that this was the path for you. I know that you have studied many religions in depth. Philosophically, what led you in your belief and service?"
As all of you know by now, I don't answer questions in a few words. This one may take well more than one blog post. Since the last couple of blogs have been a bit technical and probably not that interesting to most of you, these next couple you might find considerably more interesting. I find that Christians faith journeys tend to be quite fascinating to other Christians. One could go all the way from St. Augustine's Confessions (397 AD) to Rachel Held Evans's Searching for Sunday (2017 AD)(you gotta read it!) for great faith journey stories. I think the answer I will give to Jennifer's question will be much more than she was asking for. I hope you folks will find it worth reading. We'll get started tomorrow
Faithfully,
Christian
The following from the Comments section was a question from Jennifer Reece, a good friend and very devoted church member from First United Methodist, North Wilkesboro, where I served as pastor from 2005-2010:
" One question I have wanted to ask you for a long time how you began your journey to Christianity(other than being brought up in the church) and decided that this was the path for you. I know that you have studied many religions in depth. Philosophically, what led you in your belief and service?"
As all of you know by now, I don't answer questions in a few words. This one may take well more than one blog post. Since the last couple of blogs have been a bit technical and probably not that interesting to most of you, these next couple you might find considerably more interesting. I find that Christians faith journeys tend to be quite fascinating to other Christians. One could go all the way from St. Augustine's Confessions (397 AD) to Rachel Held Evans's Searching for Sunday (2017 AD)(you gotta read it!) for great faith journey stories. I think the answer I will give to Jennifer's question will be much more than she was asking for. I hope you folks will find it worth reading. We'll get started tomorrow
Faithfully,
Christian
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