10 December 2017

Sermon, Advent I, Year B, Mark 13:24-37, 3 December 2017

“Keep awake!” Words for the first Sunday in Advent. We’re not sure whether Jesus is describing a fantasy or making a prediction for the future. Scholars and learners throughout the centuries have interpreted Mark’s gospel and other words of Jesus to mean we need to prepare for the end of the world. Each age has thought their age might be that time.
Yesterday I drove to Northern Kentucky for the burial service of a dear friend. There are so many words I could use to describe him and the way he was. But what best describes him is that he taught by doing. He taught a steady and creative work ethic by doing his own work steadily and creatively. He taught curiosity by being curious. He taught laughter by laughing.
Best of all, he taught love by loving. When he listened to the news he thought the end of the world was imminent, and so he lived his life as though it might end at any moment. He stayed awake and aware to God’s presence. He taught and learned God’s love by loving.
One other thing in this particular passage from Mark’s gospel, some believe Jesus is speaking about what his followers will endure in the future. Others think Mark wrote his gospel he after the Jewish temple was destroyed in the year 70. They believe Mark was re-interpreting Jesus’ words in light of that current event. Either way, these words this morning don’t seem full of good news, do they? Jesus’ words in this morning’s gospel seem just the reverse: pretty depressing for most of us trying to follow him.
Yet there is good news here. The good news is contained in the end of this particular reading in the words: “Keep awake!” Because either way, whether Jesus was speaking of what is to come, or whether the evangelist who wrote the gospel was viewing Jesus’ words in light of events in his own lifetime, the message is the same: “Keep awake!”
Keep awake sounds attractive to practical people. Even those of us who are not so practical have to be practical enough to get up each day, get dressed and eat. If we spent all our time dreaming we’d never get out of bed. So “Keep awake” is likely the message we hear each morning, whether from our alarm clocks or our body clocks.
“Keep awake,” appeals to us because keeping awake involves some kind of action, rather than just waiting for the other shoe to drop. For some people the idea of the end of the world can be frightening. It can make us a bit like one of our legislators during colonial New England. An eclipse was occurring and several of the state legislators panicked and entertained a move to adjourn the session. But one of them spoke up, “Mr. Speaker, if it is not the end of the world and we adjourn, we shall appear to be fools. If it is the end of the world, I should choose to be found doing my duty. I move you, sir, that candles be brought.”
This story illustrates for me what most of us want, to clarify these predictions of the end times. Not only do we want to know when, more importantly, we want to know what to do. What is our duty? If we are living in the end times, no matter how long the end takes, what shall we do? How shall we act?
“Keep awake!” sounds right to me because I know someone who lived his life keeping awake to need. My friend whose burial I attended yesterday woke up each morning to that command. He looked each day for how he could help someone, for how he could make his or her life better. He knew his duty as one of God’s people, was to keeping awake and aware of who needed his help each day. He knew his duty was to be awake to and respond to the person who needed a smile, or a laugh, or to be loved.
We forget that Advent is not just a time to wait for Christmas to get here. Advent is also a time to “Keep awake!” to what God is asking us to do in this time between the first Advent and the second.
“Keep awake!” calls us to remember that what we do matters, whether Jesus’ second coming comes today whether or a long time from today.
Jesus calls us to our responsibility to be awake to God’s daily Advent breaking into our lives. Without awareness and a sense of possibility, we are still asleep. Perhaps instead of asking ourselves about what to do if these are the end times, we should ask ourselves instead, where have we been awake? Where have we seen God breaking into our midst and calling to us, “Wake up!” Keep awake!”? What parts of our lives might still be sleeping and in need of that wake up call?
Jesus calls us in this “between time” between the first coming and the second to be both doers and reporters of God’s work in the world. When we tell Jesus’ story in our own lives, the story will inspire and draw others to God. When we continue to work for and tell about God’s almighty purpose, others will feel that power and form a sense of purpose with us.  And as we continue to make this place – God’s church in Bexley, Ohio – an inviting place where God’s Word and Sacrament are held in the highest esteem, then we are keeping awake. We are alert to the coming of God. And like the legislator in old New England, we will find others who will see we are doing our duty by lighting candles in the darkness to show forth the glory of God. AMEN.


©2017

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