Mark 13:32

“But about that day, or the hour, no one knows – not even the angels in heaven, not even the Son – but only the Father.

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hope remains
a horizon away

hope against hope
rises again yet again

hope begets hope
deeper wider higher

hope’s night
never ends

hope’s day
never arrives

hope unknowable
is all we know

we hope
hope remains

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Precision is not a gift of the future. We can talk a bit about the past, but even there one generation interprets it differently than another. Attempts to know ourself in the present brings their own difficulties.

There is a sense in which it would be comforting to know that someone knows what’s going down, has omniscience. This would keep us off the hook of being a participant in the events of our life. We might even go so far as to say we are not responsible for the consequences of unmerciful decision—it is G*D’s election of us that ordained our decisions.

To have G*D at some remove from us, becomes a trap reinforcing our alienation from G*D and Neighb*r, not to mention S*lf.

Imagine the difference if this last phrase was not a declarative sentence, but a continuation of the denial of knowing the future as separate from our present work. This would bring us closer to working out what it takes to operate holistically and responsibly to surprise our ancestors and delight our descendants. This would reveal the surprise of a growth beyond their sight and delight in a greater harvest than we can currently recognize as possible—more hundred-foldly than thirty.

Back in 13:4 there was a question of what sign will let us know we have to get serious about life. Since then Jesus has been speaking in

clichés of the period, common ways of expressing a general fear that the world is getting worse. If one is aware of this fact, one cannot read them as literal prophecy of the end of the world or as some special “apocalyptic” message of Jesus. ~ Sabin1₆₃

Here in 13:32 the response to the question is that there is no day or time or sign to look to as authorization to grow up and act mercifully—no matter the consequence. We are, simply, in this together.