Perspective from the Mount of Olives (Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost)

Brandon Nappi and Ned Parker discuss scriptural perspective, to whom we're giving our hearts, and perfect love in Mark 13:1-8. The text is appointed for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 28, in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary.

More Yale Bible Study resources, including a transcript of this episode, at: https://YaleBibleStudy.org/podcast

Brandon Nappi is Executive Director of Leadership Programs at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Lecturer in Homiletics at Yale Divinity School. Ned Parker is Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement at Andover Newton Seminary at Yale and Lecturer in Homiletics at Yale Divinity School.

Connect with Yale Bible Study:

• Facebook: @YDSCCE
• Twitter: @BibleYale
• YouTube: youtube.com/c/YaleBibleStudy
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/yds-center-for-continuing-education

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

Voiceover Voice:

In times of intensity, what you give your heart to becomes especially an urgent question.

Helena Martin:

This is Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study. Join us each week as two Yale Divinity School professors look at an upcoming text from the Revised Common Lectionary.

This episode, we have Brandon Nappi, Executive Director of Leadership Programs at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and Ned Parker, Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement at Andover Newton Seminary at Yale. Both of them also hold the title Lecturer in Homiletics. They’re discussing Mark 13:1-8, which is appointed for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 28, in Year B. Here’s the text.

[Mark 13:1-8]

As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

Ned Parker:

Brandon, what stands out to me about this passage from Mark is the layers of the notion of perspective present in this passage. There’s Jesus telling the disciples to watch out, right? For deception, which requires its own, you know, kind of perspective, but then they’re having this conversation as they’re looking at the temple from the Mount of Olives. So, there is the physical perspective described in the location in which they’re sitting. And this is really, I’ve seen it in present day, stood on the Mount of Olives and looked out over the city. And I imagine that it is just in the first century, also just an extraordinary site, and sitting in a place where there’s an olive grove still standing that seminarians harvest every year.  The trees and olive trees are 2,000 years old. So, we can imagine that we can actually go, and on some level, have exactly the same physical perspective that Jesus did by going and sitting in this grove and looking out over the city. So, perspective really stands out to me, as I said, on multiple levels in this passage. 

Brandon Nappi:

Jesus gets rather ominous. I mean, it’s an intense passage here. I’m really grateful for it because the globe in the present day is nearly as ominous, if not more ominous. Of course, with modern communication we can be aware of cataclysms across the world, famine, war, earthquakes, various levels of destruction.  And so, what I’m sensing from this passage is that the Gospel can stand up in the midst of ominous cataclysm. And of course, in times of intensity, what you give your heart to becomes especially an urgent question. I mean, it’s an urgent question no matter the times we live in, right? But, in times of destruction, chaos, war, what you give your heart to really matters. And this comes up so often in spiritual direction with the folks that I’m blessed to work with. And I’ve been blessed to work with a lot of folks who have no religious tradition, often very little religious foundation from their childhood to draw upon. And what I’ve come to understand, and this is, I guess, classic Augustine in some ways, but hearts are restless until they rest in God, and that the human heart is made to be given away. And so the question is, what will you give your heart to? And in the absence of any kind of spiritual tradition which roots the giving of the heart and love and care for others, care for the earth, what we tend to give our hearts to in the absence of anything is supremacy culture and capitalism and materialism.  And so there’s a kind of ominous warning here that when things get really intense, don’t be deceived. Know how to give your heart away to what ultimately, the only thing that will ultimately nourish it, which is love itself. This sort of sacred mystery which we name as God. There’s a million things in our culture right now asking for our hearts, and we give it over, all of us do in, in many ways.  

Ned Parker:

There’s another scripture reference that says God is love. Which, for whatever reason, I have struggled with because there’s this opportunity to say God is love and remembering the God of destruction, the God of wrath, vengefulness, there is a part of me that wishes we could translate that passage as love, love is God. Love is that to which we should always aspire but may never achieve. We may never achieve perfect love.  And that takes away this constant sort of perpetual, no matter how hard we try, still even subconscious, anthropomorphizing God, right? Making God in a human image where essentially, we’re making God in our image instead of vice versa. So, if we think about love as God, that to which we should always aspire but may never fully achieve. I guess what I’m saying is my own personal theology, my heart resonates with exactly what you’re saying. That we strive for that, that we give it out. And, you know, regardless of who’s listening and who may or may not be helped by what we’re offering, I am helped by our conversation today.   

Brandon Nappi:

Thanks, Ned. I’m finding this a really fruitful conversation too. You know, I was struck by the reality that we will be led astray. And if any folks have ever listened to The Leaders Way podcast, my other podcast gig, that I often talk about my love of documentaries, specifically documentaries about cults. I’m fascinated by the way in which folks give their lives to people, to ideologies that offer a sense of belonging on the one hand, but often steal their autonomy, their money, their freedom. And I’m just really curious about the ways in which groups of people are led astray. And initially when I first started watching cult documentaries, I mean, there’s some great ones, Wild, Wild Country, The Vow is another classic. There’s even a wonderful documentary called Kumaré about a college graduate who didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. And he thought he’d start a cult. He just made it up to see what would happen. It’s a fascinating study and humans longing for belonging, connection, meaning, purpose. But ultimately what I realized is, you know, I had to reckon with the fact that this was also an indictment in some way of me. Of the way in which, I mean, all of us, myself included, want to give our time, our energy, our attention, our money to things that ultimately don’t last. That aren’t rooted in the kind of love that you were speaking to. I mean, during Lent this year, I had to have some honest soul searching on how much time am I spending on social media and just scrolling. Like, what’s the purpose of this? And a really wise guide said to me, why don’t you think of putting some limits around social media time and interact with folks like a ministry. Build people up, comfort those who are mourning like the scriptures invite us to do. And so I saw not only did I vastly limit my social media consumption, I saw it as an opportunity for ministry. And it was really rewarding, the kind of connections that I experienced in that. 

Ned Parker:

It really brings it back around to, for me, brings it right back around to this idea of perspective and what it is we are choosing to invest our own perspective in.

Helena Martin:

Thanks for listening; we’re so glad you’re here. We’re here very week with new episodes to help shape your preaching, teaching, and reflection.

Chapter, Verse, and Season is a production of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. It’s produced by: Creator and Managing Editor, Joel Baden; Production Manager, Kelly Morrissey; Associate Producer, Aidan Stoddart; and I’m your Host and Executive Producer, Helena Martin. And our theme music is by Calvin Linderman.

We’ll be back with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.