The Opposite of Love. Mark 13:1-8

William Sloane Coffin once remarked that the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. I kept encountering that sentiment this week as I prepared to preach on Mark's "Little Apocalypse." I gained a familiarity with apocalyptic literature in college, when a professor suggested that I write a paper looking at hints of apocalypticism in the book of Zechariah. I was hooked, and the genre never scared me again. Students have often asked if we could study the Book of Revelation together. Actually, they usually ask if we can study "Revelations" and I tell them no, but we can study Revelation. Anyway, they come in hoping to encounter spooky ghosts and goblins, and leave having gained an understanding of the ways in which people who face trials and who are fearful have expressed their hopes and fears. Mark's account has Jesus' disciples expressing fears and asking when the end times will be. Jesus does not answer their question, other than to warn them that lots of folks will try to convince them that they know the details about the end times. He tells them that they ought not to worry about those folks, but should remain alert. So, what does that mean? Let's go back to that concept of love. When I was a small boy, I became lost in a department store. It was not a large store, but to me, at that age, it was a foreign land. I can still feel the sense of panic I felt when I realized that I had become separated from my mother. I recall, as well, the immense sense of relief I felt when I found her. Can that not be the sense we get when we believe in a God who is always there, including in the scary times? I seems easier for folks to believe in the doom coming with the end of the Mayan calendar in December, or the latest prediction of the end of the world, now slated for 2013. And plenty of people are just scared by uncertainty, whether economic or personal. When we become afraid we will reach for any branch when we are falling. Why are we afraid? Don't we believe in the One whom God sent to alleviate our fear and to show us how to love? When we love, and are loved, we are less fearful. And, if I understand Jesus' directive about looking for the end times correctly, we are to be aware, and we are to be taking care of one another in the meantime. The writer of the First Letter of John tells us that perfect love casts out fear. If we love more, we will fear less. So, what are we waiting for?