Happy New Year!! Today is the first day of the New Year according to the church calendar. A fresh start, a new era. Wake up!! Last year featured the gospel according to Matthew, and now we move on to the Gospel according to Mark. Matthew was all about Kingdom and discipleship, while Mark has a different flavor. His gospel might be the Cliff Notes version, or perhaps Joe Friday’s version: just the facts, ma’am, just the facts. And his favorite word was “immediately.” Everything happens “immediately.”
Today marks the beginning of Advent. The season of Advent begins 4 Sunday’s before Christmas. And I love how countercultural Advent is. We are looking ahead to Christ’s coming, but we aren’t singing Christmas carols. In contrast to the hustle and bustle of the holidays, Advent is a time of quiet preparation. Instead of shopping, it’s waiting and watching. Instead of light, it’s darkness, just before the dawn.
We are waiting. Waiting for Christmas. Waiting for the 2nd coming of Christ. Advent means. Arrival. Dawn. Beginning. And in the middle of our quiet waiting today’s readings come crashing in like an out of tune symphony. Discord and dissonance.
From our Old Testament reading in Isaiah (from the Message bible) Oh, that you would rip open the heavens and descend, make the mountains shudder at your presence—As when a forest catches fire, as when fire makes a pot to boil—To shock your enemies into facing you, make the nations shake in their boots!You did terrible things we never expected, descended and made the mountains shudder at your presence.
And our gospel
in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then 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 heaven.
This is apocalyptic writing, looking at the end of the world, the end of the age. Here we are at a beginning, looking at the end.
We’ve heard much ado about the current economic crisis, and that it is an apocalyptic event resulting in much destruction and change. The naysayers are in every newspaper and on every television. And it’s not hard to find those who view this economic crisis as part of God’s warning to the world. They say that if God’ can’t get our attention through famines, wars, earthquakes and the like, he will hit our pocketbooks. After all, money is the real god of the age and our God is a jealous God. This too is warning and judgment. The collapse of our economy is only one sign. And then I found a guy who said that not just Wall Street, but all of New York City will be destroyed-- by nuclear attack—at the end of 2008, around Christmas.[1] I guess we will have to wait and see on that one!!
The apocalyptic literature in the bible, mostly in Daniel and in Revelation, but also in the Gospels as we read today and in Paul’s letters has invited more interpreters, timelines, and forecasts than anything in history, and perhaps more kooks and crazies! History is riddled with vain predictions about the end times, about Christ’s coming again. There are those who are fascinated by eschatology, the signs and the times, and there are those who are turned off by this whole things, thinking that it’s too strange and disturbing, just the province of fools and fanatics, like the guy who said the end of the world begins in December of this year.
But I think our readings in Mark are supposed to provide a voice of reason. While assuredly Christ will come again, there is no timetable given either in Mark or anywhere in scripture. Jesus does not intend for us to try to figure it all out. Speaking only to Peter, John, James and Andrew, his inner circle, Jesus simply says, “in those days, following that suffering.” He’s teaching his disciples to be ready for anything, anytime. But trying to figure out times and dates is fruitless, a distraction from doing God’s work in the world.
Yes, the end is certain, and the cosmic distress will make it clear that the end of the world has come. We don’t need to search here and there, to analyze the world news in light of biblical prophecy. When it happens, even the sky will tremble in fear and terror, and the sun will be dark and the moon won’t give light, and the stars will fall from the sky. These will happen because Jesus appears. There won’t be any warning, but Jesus will come in glory. And those who have faithfully responded to the gospel will be gathered by the angels, from the four corners of the earth.
But we don’t know when the end will come. It will come on a day just as ordinary as the summer bringing leaves to the trees. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of Jesus will not. And yet, no one knows when the end will come. The kooks and crazies and fanatics don’t know, we don’t know, the angels don’t know, and even Jesus himself doesn’t know. Only the Father knows when the end will come. No one knows but God the Father. The end will come without warning and no amount of calculations will enable people to predict it.
And so the disciples and servants are to beware, to keep watch, for we don’t know when the time will come. Like the doorkeeper of a man going on a journey, we are to keep watch, to be ready.
What kind of servant is it that requires a master to look constantly over his shoulder to make sure he does his job faithfully and properly? How can the doorkeeper fulfill his duties if he spends his time computing how long the day will last? Jesus’ warnings affirm that only those who are valiant under fire and vigilant during the delay will be vindicated in the end. We are to work faithfully because the Master will return, and we are created to work with assurance because it’s the Master who returns.[2]
The end will come, and it will come suddenly. Therefore Jesus challenges his disciples then and now to keep awake.
Keep awake!!. We have lost sight of the immanence of Christ’s return, and we have become complacent. We must be alert, living in hopeful expectation, with our eyes, minds and hearts focused on the task at hand. One source said that the worst “ism” in the world is not fascism or communism but somnambulism. Somnambulism is sleep walking. We don’t realize that our ideals are being wilted away, that our purposes are being pared down, that the evil forces in the world are gaining strength. We need to watch and pray against the sin that trips us up, how easily we make compromises which seem so reasonable but end up so wrong. We need to watch and pray that we don’t neglect our communion with God and with each other. We need to watch and pray, seizing opportunities to be of service to God’s kingdom.[3]
Wake up!! Be ready! We are ready when we are involved . . . when we are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting prisoners. We are awake when we have regular times of prayer and communion with God.
Do you know who Barbara Brown Taylor is? She is an Episcopal priest well known for her preaching. In fact, Baylor University called her one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English speaking world. She pastored a small church in Georgia with great success, and has written probably a dozen books, many of them collections of her homilies. Several years ago she got burned out and left parish ministry for a teaching position at Piedmont College in Georgia. She then wrote a book, a memoir about her experiences called “Leaving Church.” I read it a couple of years ago, and to me, it was about how not to do ministry. She was so busy being successful, being a priest, that she didn’t take time with God. She didn’t take time to pray. Barbara always thought that when such and such happened, she would take time. But it never happened. She eventually realized she wasn’t doing any good for her church, for her family, or for God because there wasn’t any time to be quiet and still and pray. It was a great reminder to me to take time, make time with God, to watch and to listen and to pray! And we all need time with God in order to serve him—wherever we are.
Wake up!! Be alert!! Watch and pray!!
[1] http://www.apocalypse2008-2015.com/apocalypse-chapter7.html#NewYork
[2] Garland, David E. The NIV Application Commentary: Mark. Zondervan, 503.
[3] The Interpreter’s Bible , vol 7. Abingdon Press, 1951: p.865.
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