With the apocalyptic movie “2012″ hitting theaters this past week, once again the American public is freshly-confronted with images of a global cataclysm ushering in the end of the world, and scaring the living daylights out of those with just enough knowledge of biblical apocalyptic literature (or Mayan culture and eschatology) to make it seem like “the end” is really just around the corner two years from now. With the terror-striking three-word banner advertising the film, “We were warned,” the apocalyptic fever of the country — and possibly the world — just went up a degree or two.

Wanting to help shed some light on what “apocalyptic” means for my confirmation students who I know are listening so very intently right now, I Googled the word and first of all found Merriam-Webster online dictionary’s definition, which sums up word as meaning “forecasting the ultimate destiny of the world, with foreboding imminent disaster and final doom.” Not to be deterred by such doom and gloom, I then clicked on an interesting link in the margin which read “2008: God’s Last Warning” only to find that, sure enough, the author of the book “2008: God’s Final Witness” who believes himself to be sent by God as God’s end-time prophet to the world, has also calculated that we are presently in the midst of a 3½ year countdown which began on December 14, 2008 when the “collapse” of the U.S. economy was announced (and which, according to the author, is the “first trumpet of the seventh seal of the book of Revelation”) and ends on May 27, 2012. Yes folks, you heard it from the pulpit of St Paul’s on Nov. 15, 2009: the end of the world as we know it is scheduled for May 27, 2012. So stay tuned. Hang on. It could be a bumpy ride.

Signs of the times. People have been watching for signs of the end times since –well—at least since Peter, James, John, and Andrew, who asked Jesus their question in today’s Gospel text. Of Jesus’ prediction of the temple’s destruction, they asked him “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”

Signs of the times. Indeed, with Halloween just two weeks behind us and Thanksgiving less than two weeks ahead of us, a sign of the times? Santa and the reindeer… Christmas decorations everywhere….

Christopher & I heard piped-in Christmas music at Souplantation last week!  It’s a sign of the times. And to quote Jesus, “This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

The disciples wanted Jesus to tell them what the signs of the times would be, that would usher in the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. As they were coming out of the temple they were awed at the large stones and the large buildings which Jesus predicted would be thrown down. It was difficult for them to imagine such a grandiose, breathtakingly-huge building being destroyed and dismantled so violently.

And yet this is what Jesus was foretelling and indeed what happened in September of the year 70 Common Era under the imperial rule of Roman Emporer Titus in which Jerusalem was destroyed along with the temple. But Jesus also was speaking in double entendre, for even as he often cryptically spoke of his own body as the Temple, he also was speaking in apocalyptic language (that is, symbolic language of widespread destruction and ultimate doom) of a time when the end of all things would come.

As the verses continue to unfold beyond this morning’s Gospel text, Jesus continues to unfold the signs of the end of all time: “suffering such as has not been from the beginning of the creation until now,” false prophets and messiahs to lead the elect astray, the sun and moon darkened, stars falling from the heavens, and the powers in the heavens shaken.

Then, Jesus says in verse 26 of Mark 13, after these things, “they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth.”

But just as our hearts begin to race with wonderment and awe at these cataclysmic words of Jesus and just as we begin to wonder what the signs of these times in which we live are pointing to and just as we begin to perhaps wonder if these days in which we live are the end of all time, Jesus’ words at the close of Mark ch 13 remind us, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only Father. Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come… therefore… what I say to you I say to all: keep awake.”

We will spend the rest of the Sundays of this year thinking about the signs of Jesus’ coming, both his first arrival on earth as a human infant as well as the second arrival on earth that his first one foreshadows.

We will not, however, spend much time second-guessing scripture or prophecy and wondering about when his second coming might be. For as the Gospel of Mark records, not even Christ himself knows when that day or hour will come.

Wondering about when is sort of beside the point, Rather, reminding ourselves that Christ is coming “soon enough” is what we are to be about. It’s what the writer to the Hebrews in our second reading today means when he writes in verses 24-25, “And let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

That approaching “Day” we continue to confess as we express the fundamentals of our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, in which we state with the whole church past present and future, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ… He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” These words are not fearful words, but rather words of hope to which the church has clung for two millennia, for as the writer to the Hebrews assures us, “since we have a great priest over the house of God,” we can approach God “with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.”

For as certain as the washing waters of your Baptism into Jesus were sprinkled over your brow and cleansed you from sin for all eternity, so also you can be certain that when Christ comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead, he will find you (in the words of that great hymn of the church) “faultless to stand before the Throne” for “on Christ the solid Rock” you shall stand — all other ground is sinking sand.

Meanwhile the “signs of the times” are all around us.

There is the bread and wine of the Lord’s table. Signs that he will come to you again in the supper, promising you forgiveness and strength for your journey to that last day. “O Lord,” the psalm prays, “you are my portion and my cup; it is you who uphold my lot.”

There are the oils of Christ’s healing presence, promising you that you are not alone in your pain and sorrow, and that nothing can ever separate you from the love of God which is yours, your very birthright, in Christ Jesus. “My heart, therefore is glad, and my spirit rejoices;” sings the psalm, “my body also shall rest in hope.”

There is the Word, God’s Word sung, prayed, read, and preached, promising you the path of life which leads you to salvation. “You will show me the path of life,” declares the psalm confidently, “in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

And finally, perhaps the most comforting “sign of the times” we have: we as the Body of Christ have one another, to “provoke one another to love and good deeds,” as the 2nd lesson exhorts us, “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

When Martin Luther was asked what he would do if somehow he knew “the Day” was imminent, if Christ was returning tomorrow, he replied “I would plant an apple tree.”

Urgent commitment to the here and now.

Urgent commitment to the care of the earth.

And urgent commitment to the neighbor, who might someday need an apple, or the shade of a tree.

On this Commitment Sunday, may we be less concerned about the ifs, whens, and hows of the second coming of Christ, and — like our brother Martin — commit ourselves to the here and now, to the urgent care of our neighbor in need: the earth and all its creatures.

And may we live in urgent faithfulness as witnesses of the grace of God, that our lives, like this bread and wine and these oils, would be signs of the times — signs of God’s gracious and healing love in Jesus Christ — to all the world.

Amen.