24<\/sup> „But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25<\/sup> and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26<\/sup> Then they will see ‚the Son of Man coming in clouds‘ with great power and glory. 27<\/sup> 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. 28<\/sup> „From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29<\/sup> So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30<\/sup> Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a031<\/sup> Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 32<\/sup> „But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33<\/sup> Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34<\/sup> It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35<\/sup> Therefore, keep awake– for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36<\/sup> or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a037<\/sup> And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.“ (Mar 13:24-37 NRS)<\/em><\/p>\n As we begin a new liturgical year in the church today our focus shifts to Mark\u2019s account of the Gospel.\u00a0 Unlike Matthew that we have predominately heard from since last Advent, Mark has a narrower focus on Jesus\u2019 ministry.\u00a0 There is no birth narrative in Mark like in Matthew.\u00a0 Mark also ends with the women running away from the empty tomb afraid, with no post-resurrection appearances.\u00a0 As we move into this new liturgical year, we move like Mark:\u00a0 constantly towards the empty cross, for the cross is where Mark\u2019s entire account leads the reader.\u00a0 It is the climax and culmination of Jesus\u2019 earthly ministry.<\/p>\n We might think that as we begin this new year we would begin with the first verses of Mark chapter 1.\u00a0 But instead we have a lesson towards the end of Mark.\u00a0 It is a message to stay awake, to be on the lookout, for the end times are near.\u00a0 Jesus tells his disciples that only the Father knows the day and the hour, and therefore they must keep awake.\u00a0 Perhaps Mark is using a little foreshadowing here, because in the next chapter we find Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane while the disciples actually sleep.\u00a0 They couldn\u2019t even keep awake for one hour!\u00a0 As we look at this text, perhaps the unsaid part is that the disciples, and by extension today\u2019s church, shouldn\u2019t get comfortable with our surroundings.<\/p>\n Let me give you an example.\u00a0 You all know that my family consists of Clemson fans.\u00a0 A few weeks ago Clemson lost to Notre Dame in football.\u00a0 It was tough to swallow that loss.\u00a0 Why? Because we have gotten comfortable with winning.\u00a0 I am reminded though that it wasn\u2019t long ago that we celebrated when Clemson got its 6th<\/sup> win of the season, which meant going to a bowl game.\u00a0 Now we lose one game and it\u2019s a downer.\u00a0 We are simply too comfortable where we are, and we have to be brought back to reality.\u00a0 The church is the same.\u00a0 We get comfortable where we are, and we have to be brought back to reality.\u00a0 It is easy to get wrapped up in the upcoming season of Christmas.\u00a0 It is easy to stay in the drones of our weekly mundane life.\u00a0 Our lesson challenges us not to get caught up in that.\u00a0 Our lesson reminds us that things will be shaken, the normalcy of life will be turned on its head when the Son of Man comes in the clouds with power and glory.\u00a0 We can\u2019t assume the future is going to just happen as it always does.\u00a0 Like the example Jesus gives of the fig tree, we like to get caught up in the normalcy and expectations of daily life.\u00a0 Jesus gives us a reminder though that God doesn\u2019t fit into what we bind as normalcy.\u00a0 Therefore his warning should be heeded all the more.\u00a0 The warning we hear today from Jesus reminds us by using some good Advent words:\u00a0 \u201cKeep Alert.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cKeep Awake.\u201d<\/p>\n Although it is used several times, keeping awake is only a part of our lesson today.\u00a0 Yes, we are to pay attention, to \u201cListen\u201d as Jesus asks in several places throughout Mark\u2019s account of the Gospel.\u00a0 But our lesson also reminds us that the things that make us comfortable will go away.\u00a0 \u201cHeaven and Earth will pass away.\u201d\u00a0 But\u2026..His words will not.\u00a0 Our comfort, our sleepiness, our inability to see the signs\u2026.those pass away.\u00a0 But Jesus\u2019 words do not.\u00a0 In Mark 13:10 Jesus says: \u201c10<\/sup> And the good news must first be proclaimed to all nations.\u201d Jesus words are for the world.\u00a0 They must be proclaimed, and they will continue forever.\u00a0 As we go through Mark this year I hope that we can remember this theme, especially as we eventually hear the Parable of the Sower.\u00a0 Mark presents a Jesus that is hard at work sowing his word throughout the world. It is a word that brings us out of our comfort zone and reminds us to stay alert and to keep awake.\u00a0 In keeping with Mark\u2019s theme, all of this leads to the cross, the place where our Lord and Savior died so that we may be free of our sin.\u00a0 One day we will see the sower gathering the harvest.\u00a0 We believe that because we believe his word.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know when, but we have faith that it will happen because Jesus told us, and his word lives forever.\u00a0 So stay awake, keep alert, and be on the lookout for the kingdom in all its glory, because we know it is coming.\u00a0 In the name of the Father, and the +Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Sermon on Mark 13:24-37 | November 29, 2020 | by the Rev. Dr. Judson F Merrell, STS | 24 „But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,605,157,108,110,235,279,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-3765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markus","category-1-advent","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-judson-f-merrell","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\/3765","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=3765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3767,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3765\/revisions\/3767"}],"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=3765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=3765"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=3765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}