The Passage<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in those days, after that tribulation, 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.\u00a0 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.\u00a0 And 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.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cFrom the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.\u00a0 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.\u00a0 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.\u00a0 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.\u00a0 Be on guard, keep awake.\u00a0 For you do not know when the time will come.\u00a0 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.<\/em><\/p>\n Therefore, stay awake \u2013 for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight or when the cock crows, or in the morning \u2013 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.\u00a0 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [English Standard Version]<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lord God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0[1 Corinthians 1.9]<\/p>\n In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord<\/p>\n Within the space of eight hectic days, the Lord\u2019s people have seen one Church Year shutting down and a new one starting up.\u00a0 We have been quickly turned from exulting in Jesus Christ as THE King of the universe to initiating the preparations for his Incarnation.<\/p>\n Our culture, though, has had other things on its mind during these eight rushed days: there was the good news about the vaccines coming on line to blunt the impact of the coronavirus; there was the Thanksgiving holiday, there are the political tensions refusing to lessen; there are the parish communities still trying to work around the restrictions placed on them by their local and state governments.\u00a0 Because of these other things, the culture has not really noticed and honestly does not care what the Lord\u2019s baptized people are setting out to do in the new Church Year.<\/p>\n Still, the preparations of the Lord\u2019s marked people will go on so that the Church and this culture may be reminded of the salvation that tumbles out of the Son\u2019s Incarnation.<\/p>\n While the culture hustles to make the December weeks suit what it needs, desires or does, the baptized people of the Lord God are running underneath all that hustle.\u00a0 We recognize that in these four powerful weeks we are preparing for the Incarnation of our crucified and resurrected Rescuer.\u00a0 During these weeks we let the Lord do an honest check of our lives.\u00a0 In that review he exposes how absorbed we are with ourselves and he floods us with his Forgiveness so our lives can be re-set in his.<\/p>\n These preparations thunder in on us when we look closely at today\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 This reading jerks our lives from what the culture would have us be doing and it takes our breath away as we see what our Lord would have us do.<\/p>\n The passage comes from the latter half of Mark\u2019s thirteenth chapter.\u00a0 In the first half Jesus has been describing the destruction that is going to surround Jerusalem in the next thirty-five years or so.\u00a0 He has also been describing the situations and circumstances that reflect the end of the world\u2019s life.<\/p>\n Basically, there are three sections to this passage.\u00a0 In the first section (verses 24-27), on the heels of all the suffering Jesus\u2019 followers are enduring, the powers in heaven will be shaken \u2013 a darkened sun, no moonlight and falling stars.\u00a0 Then the world\u2019s people will see the Son of Man coming with great power and glory.\u00a0 The Son will send out his angels and gather his people from all over the earth.<\/p>\n In the second section (verses 28-31), Jesus relates how a fig tree tells us if summer is near.\u00a0 He notes how all this shaking indicates the nearness of his approach.\u00a0 He makes a shadowy reference to his dying and rising when he comments that something momentous will take place while the current generation is still alive.<\/p>\n In the third section (verses 32-37), Jesus states that only the Father knows when the Son will appear.\u00a0 Because of that, he calls on his followers to be alert.\u00a0 He relates a story about the man who puts his employees in charge while he is on a journey to encourage them in such alertness.\u00a0 Jesus closes the passage with the order to keep awake.<\/p>\n What do we make of this passage today?\u00a0 At the beginning of this reading, it appears that all hell is breaking loose, but it is really the Life of heaven muscling its way into the world! \u00a0\u00a0As the Lord\u2019s Life enters this world, it is not just a matter of him coming alongside this culture, affirming its attitudes and actions.\u00a0 It is matter, though, of him slipping into the culture, penetrating to its center and then sweeping it all to destruction and death through his Cross so his risen and ascended Life can emerge fully and eternally<\/p>\n It is revealing to note that the word, \u201cawake,\u201d comes from a family of words that point to Jesus\u2019 resurrection.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 call to \u201cstay awake\u201d pushes us in a similar direction.\u00a0 It is revealing to note that the word, \u201ctime,\u201d points to \u201clast times,\u201d to \u201ccrises.\u201d\u00a0 This time is beyond our grasp because it is the Lord\u2019; it is his time that is moving in on us.\u00a0 It is revealing to note the word, \u201cnight,\u201d and how Jesus cites it \u2013 evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn \u2013 all this is from different times of the night.\u00a0 What is about to happen is occurring under the cover of night.\u00a0 Finally, it is revealing to note the coming of the \u201ctime,\u201d it will be sudden and unexpected!<\/p>\n It shows us again that the mysterious activity of the Father and the Spirit in Jesus\u2019 Incarnation is beyond our grasp and control.\u00a0 All these revealings unpack Jesus\u2019 call to stay awake; they also reflect the alertness that shoots through our preparations in these Advent weeks.\u00a0 Jesus is alerting us to watch for what his Father is about to do.\u00a0 After centuries of promise and historical action, the Father is preparing to push his Life into this world through the Birth of his Son!<\/p>\n As we are drawn into the preparations of these four weeks, we understand that push on three levels.\u00a0 First, there is the Lord\u2019s Incarnation at his Birth in Bethlehem.\u00a0 Second, there is the Lord\u2019s Return at the end of this world\u2019s time.\u00a0 Third, there are the Lord\u2019s Scriptures and Sacraments boring in on this world through the Church on a weekly and daily basis.<\/p>\n The Lord is ordering us to be alert to those holy pushes.\u00a0 They accomplish two things \u2013 they make the people of this world the Father\u2019s daughters and sons; they re-make those who are already his baptized people.<\/p>\n It is pathetic to see the culture living for itself.\u00a0 It is even more pathetic to see baptized people turning back to such a life.\u00a0 The obsession that people have with themselves and their gods creates all kinds of confusion and turmoil in this world.\u00a0 It drags the Lord God down to our level so that we dangerously conclude he understands us living for ourselves.<\/p>\n It creates baptized people who forget that the Lord\u2019s Cross was marked over their bodies. \u00a0It gives us parish communities where pastors struggle to be obedient to the Lord God and yet the members of those communities want nothing of that struggle.<\/p>\n But that is why the Lord God is pushing his Life into this world; that\u2019s why we are taking four weeks to prepare for those pushes.\u00a0 The Lord God has to be fierce, relentless and strong to rescue us from the life given us by the world.<\/p>\n Can we imagine the uneasiness if a month or two would go by and there would be no light from moon?\u00a0 Can we imagine the deep fear if the earth quaked for minutes rather than seconds?\u00a0 Can we imagine the dread if the sun disappeared for weeks under skies that had no clouds in them?<\/p>\n We might think all hell would be breaking loose, but in reality it would be the Life of heaven pushing into this world!\u00a0 This reality demands that the baptized people of the Lord let him work their lives over as they prepare for his Incarnation.\u00a0 He aims to immerse our lives deeply in the realities of his crucified and resurrected Life, realities that he hurls at us from his Scriptures and Sacraments.<\/p>\n There is a sharp pain, like that of a wickedly dislocated elbow, when people dry off the waters of their Holy Baptisms, when people separate themselves from the Holy Writings, when people wave off Holy Forgiveness, when people skip the Holy Meal.\u00a0 The Lord God has to be fierce, relentless and strong to rescue us from such pain.\u00a0 He intends to use these four weeks of preparation so our lives, like that of a painfully dislocated elbow, can be snapped back into his Life!<\/p>\n These preparations will pull us away from the economics, sports, terrors, politics and entertainments of this culture.\u00a0 These preparations will free us from the grip of the world\u2019s gods, the ones we have grown to love and maintain.\u00a0 These preparations will take our breath away as we see what the Lord God baptized us to be and do!\u00a0 Remember, though, these preparations are readying us for the Incarnation of our Lord!<\/p>\n Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our<\/p>\n hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord<\/p>\n Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Advent One (Revised Common Lectionary) | 11.29.20\u00a0 |\u00a0 Mark 13.24-37 | by Carl A. Voges | The Passage \u201cBut in those days, after that tribulation, 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.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,605,157,173,108,110,279,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-3755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markus","category-1-advent","category-beitragende","category-carl-a-voges","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-13-chapter-13-markus","category-kasus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3756,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3755\/revisions\/3756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3755"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=3755"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=3755"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=3755"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=3755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}