Advent One

Advent One (Revised Common Lectionary) | 11.29.20  |  Mark 13.24-37 | by Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

“But 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.  And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.  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.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.  So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.  Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Be on guard, keep awake.  For you do not know when the time will come.  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.

Therefore, stay awake – 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 – lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.  And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” 

[English Standard Version]

“The Lord God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”                                                                                     [1 Corinthians 1.9]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

Within the space of eight hectic days, the Lord’s people have seen one Church Year shutting down and a new one starting up.  We have been quickly turned from exulting in Jesus Christ as THE King of the universe to initiating the preparations for his Incarnation.

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.  Because of these other things, the culture has not really noticed and honestly does not care what the Lord’s baptized people are setting out to do in the new Church Year.

Still, the preparations of the Lord’s marked people will go on so that the Church and this culture may be reminded of the salvation that tumbles out of the Son’s Incarnation.

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.  We recognize that in these four powerful weeks we are preparing for the Incarnation of our crucified and resurrected Rescuer.  During these weeks we let the Lord do an honest check of our lives.  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.

These preparations thunder in on us when we look closely at today’s Gospel.  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.

The passage comes from the latter half of Mark’s thirteenth chapter.  In the first half Jesus has been describing the destruction that is going to surround Jerusalem in the next thirty-five years or so.  He has also been describing the situations and circumstances that reflect the end of the world’s life.

Basically, there are three sections to this passage.  In the first section (verses 24-27), on the heels of all the suffering Jesus’ followers are enduring, the powers in heaven will be shaken – a darkened sun, no moonlight and falling stars.  Then the world’s people will see the Son of Man coming with great power and glory.  The Son will send out his angels and gather his people from all over the earth.

In the second section (verses 28-31), Jesus relates how a fig tree tells us if summer is near.  He notes how all this shaking indicates the nearness of his approach.  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.

In the third section (verses 32-37), Jesus states that only the Father knows when the Son will appear.  Because of that, he calls on his followers to be alert.  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.  Jesus closes the passage with the order to keep awake.

What do we make of this passage today?  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!   As the Lord’s Life enters this world, it is not just a matter of him coming alongside this culture, affirming its attitudes and actions.  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

It is revealing to note that the word, “awake,” comes from a family of words that point to Jesus’ resurrection.  Jesus’ call to “stay awake” pushes us in a similar direction.  It is revealing to note that the word, “time,” points to “last times,” to “crises.”  This time is beyond our grasp because it is the Lord’; it is his time that is moving in on us.  It is revealing to note the word, “night,” and how Jesus cites it – evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn – all this is from different times of the night.  What is about to happen is occurring under the cover of night.  Finally, it is revealing to note the coming of the “time,” it will be sudden and unexpected!

It shows us again that the mysterious activity of the Father and the Spirit in Jesus’ Incarnation is beyond our grasp and control.  All these revealings unpack Jesus’ call to stay awake; they also reflect the alertness that shoots through our preparations in these Advent weeks.  Jesus is alerting us to watch for what his Father is about to do.  After centuries of promise and historical action, the Father is preparing to push his Life into this world through the Birth of his Son!

As we are drawn into the preparations of these four weeks, we understand that push on three levels.  First, there is the Lord’s Incarnation at his Birth in Bethlehem.  Second, there is the Lord’s Return at the end of this world’s time.  Third, there are the Lord’s Scriptures and Sacraments boring in on this world through the Church on a weekly and daily basis.

The Lord is ordering us to be alert to those holy pushes.  They accomplish two things – they make the people of this world the Father’s daughters and sons; they re-make those who are already his baptized people.

It is pathetic to see the culture living for itself.  It is even more pathetic to see baptized people turning back to such a life.  The obsession that people have with themselves and their gods creates all kinds of confusion and turmoil in this world.  It drags the Lord God down to our level so that we dangerously conclude he understands us living for ourselves.

It creates baptized people who forget that the Lord’s Cross was marked over their bodies.  It 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.

But that is why the Lord God is pushing his Life into this world; that’s why we are taking four weeks to prepare for those pushes.  The Lord God has to be fierce, relentless and strong to rescue us from the life given us by the world.

Can we imagine the uneasiness if a month or two would go by and there would be no light from moon?  Can we imagine the deep fear if the earth quaked for minutes rather than seconds?  Can we imagine the dread if the sun disappeared for weeks under skies that had no clouds in them?

We might think all hell would be breaking loose, but in reality it would be the Life of heaven pushing into this world!  This reality demands that the baptized people of the Lord let him work their lives over as they prepare for his Incarnation.  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.

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.  The Lord God has to be fierce, relentless and strong to rescue us from such pain.  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!

These preparations will pull us away from the economics, sports, terrors, politics and entertainments of this culture.  These preparations will free us from the grip of the world’s gods, the ones we have grown to love and maintain.  These preparations will take our breath away as we see what the Lord God baptized us to be and do!  Remember, though, these preparations are readying us for the Incarnation of our Lord!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord

Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com