First Sunday in Advent, 11/30/2014

Sermon on Mark 13:24-37, by Andrew Smith

²⁴"But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, ²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. ²⁶And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷And 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"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. ²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁰Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³²"But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴It 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. ³⁵Therefore stay awake-for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning- ³⁶lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. ³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake."

Grace and peace to your from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for the sermon today is the Gospel for today, the First Sunday in Advent.

We may have begun a new season in the Church Year, but it sounds a whole lot like the season that just ended. Last Sunday's Gospel was Matthew's account of Jesus' coming to judge the sheep the goats. This Sunday's is Mark's account of Jesus' coming in great glory on the Last Day. The Church Year is funny that way. It sometimes places a familiar text in front of us but with an unfamiliar backdrop. The account of Jesus' return in great glory should be a strong remedy for those of us still worked up from the shopping riots of Black Friday. In the Gospel reading this morning, Jesus is very clearly exhorting us to vigilance until the He comes again in great glory and encourages us to use the time until He comes, proclaiming the kingdom of heaven come by the birth of Christ Jesus, that we might all be a part of the people of God.

I'm always intrigued a little when I watch movies or television shows set in New York City. The world just seems very different from the world I live in. There people walk up to their apartment buildings and are greeted by doormen who seem to be half guard and half greeter. It seems, exotic, in a way, to me. It's certainly of more interest and prone to human error than setting the alarm for the house and going to bed. On the screen, a writer can tell a story of great apathy and laziness by showing just a second or two of a doorkeeper caught snoozing on the job. It's iconic. Feet kicked up on the desk, the game on quietly on a little television below the counter. No one is safe when the doorman is asleep. Anything can happen, and it's usually bad.

Apparently, in Jesus' day, people of means used to have a servant watching the door of the house as well. If the master of the house was gone away on a journey, he would set several servants in charge of his affairs, for all the day to day matters to be handled in his absence. The most important thing for both doormen in New York apartment buildings and first century houses in Palestine is that they must stay away while on duty. And Jesus uses the same warning to His followers as He prepares them for the long, dark night that He will be away.

Isn't that the world we live in today, a long dark night awaiting the Son of Man to return in great glory?

Phillip Yancey tells a story in one of his books¹ about a young man who went swimming in a lake like he had many times before. But while he was not very far away from the shore, a freak fog rolled in and obscured his ability to make out any sort of landmark he had previously relied on to make it back to the shore. Frantically, he swam in a direction, stopped and then swam in another hoping that the mist would lift just enough that he might be able to make out the ledge of the lake and safely swim back to shore. It wasn't until he heard the voice of his mother calling to him through the fog that he could get a sense of which direction to swim and then he was safe.

This is the world in which we live. A world in which the darkness of sin has set in, threatening to swallow up whatever light that shines in it. Think of those we know and love who suffer from illness, who haven't been able to find decent work, or who suffer the loneliness and isolation of loss. Think of others we don't know well but we know are hungry and homeless and are without hope for a better life any time soon. Think of those we know still less but we know they suffer for the sake of believing in Jesus, our Christian sisters and brothers across the globe in towns and countries antagonistic to the message of Christ's forgiveness, hostile to peace itself. If this is not the world in which you live, be very thankful. It is simply the fortune of birthplace, or personal interests, or the right business connections, or even genetics that have combined to make you one of the very fortunate in this world.

And what have we made of it; our little corner of this world? Don't listen to the hype; no one is locking Christians in prison in American for saying "Merry Christmas." No crèche at the courthouse is barely discrimination much less oppression, and further still away from persecution. In a land where we were free to preach the Gospel and live as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, the great season of celebrating the God's entry into this world in human flesh has become a season that at its best is now unmoored from its truth and turned over to the vagaries of "family" and "giving" and "goodwill." And at its worst, it's a season of excess, gluttony, and greed. Even amongst Christian people the darkness of the world's sin has overcome the light of the Christ come into the world. The master has gone away and left his servants in charge and no one knows the day or hour he will return. But return he will, that is for certain. He has too much invested not to return and so we wait. Be on guard. Keep awake. Stay awake. Stay awake!

Just as the fig tree heralds the approaching seasons, so the extraordinary signs in the heavens will announce the coming of the Son of Man in great glory. There is some more recent scholarship, based on solid biblical reasoning, that would suggest that these celestial sights may not be the things that we actually see before the second coming of Christ. Like Ezekiel and Daniel before Him, and John after Him, Jesus is using apocalyptic language, really "cosmic" or "otherworldly" language to describe the realities Jesus' followers experience, or will experience in this world as a result of the full plan of God's salvation coming to its completion. Just as first century Jews reading the prophet Daniel would not think they were being oppressed by mythical monsters but by very real Roman soldiers, tax collectors and governors, so we should probably hear Jesus speaking these words from within the same worldview. What then do they mean? Jesus had just lines before our reading this morning described the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. So he then follows up such a prophecy with a description of cosmic proportions. While our brains are locked into what the television preachers tell us these lines mean, any first century Jew hearing them would recognize them for the earth-shattering revelation they are. Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed, again, and the prophecy of the Son of Man is vindicated. The Roman peace now ended, His followers, His messengers, would spread to the four corners of the earth calling all people to come and share the peace that has come in the kingdom of heaven. It's certainly a reading that remains consistent with everything happening within a generation, a key component in the prophecy here.

And isn't that the world we live in now as well? The people of God have spread to the four corners of the earth proclaiming Gospel of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the kingdom of God comes on earth, even as it is in heaven. It is not a perfect coming, no. We take turns frantically paddling in the lakes and standing on the shore calling to one another so that we are not lost. But that day will yet come when Jesus brings all things to completion and the new heaven and the new earth are joined once again as they were in Eden and the Son of Man will have come and we will see God face to face and God will be our God and we will be His people.

It's the coming of that kingdom that is secured by the coming of the babe in Bethlehem. For us, Christmas is so much more than birthday for Jesus; it's the assurance that God has indeed rent the heavens and come down. It's the assurance that God has not forgotten His promises to our mothers and fathers in the faith who came before us, to Daniel and Jeremiah and Isaiah, to David, to Abraham, and even to Adam and Eve. It's the assurance that He will come again to bring it all to its fulfillment because He has invested His very self to rescue it. It is the assurance that He has made us to be the people of God. Amen.

Pr. Andrew Smith
Cookeville, Tennessee
E-Mail: smithad19@gmail.com

Zusätzliche Medien:
1 Disappointment with God, p.

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