Isaiah 64: 1-9
NPMC
Psalm 80
1 Advent
1 Corinthians 1: 3-9
November 30, 2008
Mark 13: 24-37
Anita Retzlaff
God, we are waiting!
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus the
Christ.
Hotels, business folk and tourists are targeted in Mumbai. 175 people die. Panic
and fear grip the hearts of the many who live in close proximity to these acts
of violence. Ships are being pirated on the high seas their crews held for
ransom. Stock markets implode around the world. We are aware that on our own
doorstep, in this city, the poor do not get the same quality health care as
those who have money and other forms of security. God, where are you? Do you not
see all of this? O that you would tear open the heavens and come down! Bring
justice; make things right. Show the world who is really in charge! It is advent
Lord and we are waiting; waiting for you to make your presence known. Stop the
violence, heal the sick and for goodness sake take away our anxieties and fear.
God, we are waiting!
We await the birth of Christ; it is advent. We also wait for Jesus to come again
for that is the resurrection hope. The church has a two thousand year history of
waiting for Christ to come. Someday God will come - in the end time - to restore
everything to the way it should be. There will be peace on earth. Justice will
roll down like waters. All tears will be dried when the Son of Man comes in the
clouds with great power and glory. I don’t know for sure how you all feel when
you hear these words, but I for one, have struggled with what this means: “the
end times.” Is it Christ stealing back to earth to catch us unaware? All will be
well some time in the future but there is going to be terrible stuff first. I
think we have misunderstood some things along the way.
The words from this morning’s First Advent gospel reading from Mark throw a lot
of images at us. Often referred to as the Little Apocalypse (apocalypse means
revelation or appearing), our text for today strikes fear into our hearts or if
not fear, at least some discomfort or puzzlement. Visions of the end times are
conjured by this passage. A vague sense of foreboding and helplessness grips us
when we read of the darkening of the heavenly lights, the presence of the divine
at the very gates and the warning to “keep awake.” It sounds like something is
going to be sprung on us and we will have no recourse; that somehow we are
victims of great cosmic retribution.
Take some time to read the passage again sometime and I challenge you to find
within it anything that speaks of condemnation, judgment or a predication of the
end of the world because of our sin. Let us instead imagine these words as
consolation in difficult times and let us take from God’s word from scripture,
on this Advent Sunday, a word of hope, not terror.
Destruction is central to Mark’s story this morning but it is not God’s
destruction of human equilibrium or the breaking of the human spirit that is at
issue here. Rather, it is the temple in Jerusalem that has been destroyed in
Mark’s time. This is the huge disruption that has taken place. And in the midst
of that travail, the loss of the central place of worship and because of this
abomination, the sky blacks out. The cosmos responds to the deadly event. The
sun is dark, the moon has nothing to reflect and the stars fall because the
powers are stirred up, powers for good and for evil. All has been shaken because
of this terrible loss. The world has tilted and the skies dimmed because of the
suffering of God’s own heart. The people who worshipped in the temple now have
no place to call home. They are exiled again. But in the face of such tragedy
God approaches with power gathering the chosen ones, the faithful, scooping them
up from the four corners of the earth to the ends of heaven to bring comfort, to
bring them close to the centre, temple or no temple. Such is the nature of the
darkening heavens and the power of God showing forth.
It signals the end of an age. The temple is gone. Huge pillars of the religious
establishment have collapsed. The people wait in fear. They need help, they need
a home again. God, do something! We are waiting. Our world too has come to the
end of an age. History will someday put a name to the times we are living
through and will comment on that which has come to an end and the new structures
and realities that are emerging. We are too close to the heart beat of this
present age to see with much clarity or perspective the seismic shifts that are
toppling some of our pillar establishments. Many of us would say that it feels
like the times are out of joint. Change zips along so quickly that we cannot
keep up to everything as it shifts. Volatility is the name of today’s game.
Remember when gas prices and the cost of stamps remained the same for months on
end; when the stock market made small gains and losses with a few notable
exceptions? Remember when you could almost keep up with the speed of technology,
when typewriters came out with correctable ribbon and that seemed like quite an
innovation? We knew of wars and rumors of wars but now we see many horrible
details in our living rooms. Our children see them. There is no escaping the
many atrocities that occur close to home and far away. Do you remember a time
when children were free to greet people on the street, take the bus by
themselves, run out the door to just go and play? We live in a different world
today than when we were young. All ages now live with this volatility. Nothing
stays the same for long. Maybe it never did and maybe we were no safer back then
than we are today but it feels different.
We have come to expect a cataclysm at any moment. With the fears that reach our
awareness on a daily basis and the violence that has become commonplace it is
easy to imagine that God will one day have had enough of it all and put an end
to the whole human experiment. But that is not God’s way. That is not the
message of Mark’s gospel or of Isaiah’s hope. God we are waiting! God hears! Our
expectation of Jesus’ return does not mean that God is absent now. The approach
of Christ to humanity is and will be something we can’t explain but however it
will be does not take away from God’s presence with us right here and right now.
We remind God that we are waiting! It is at the very same time our call of hope
for the coming of the God who is already present. We need help O God, open the
heavens and make yourself known so that we aren’t prone to doubt you or to be
anxious about our lives! God, we are waiting.
Well then, take a lesson from the fig tree. “As soon as its branch becomes
tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when
you see these things taking place, you know that God is near, at the very
gates.” (13: 29) Too often we have heard these words and assumed them to mean
that God is waiting behind the gate to jump out and pounce on us when we least
expect it. So, we come to know the signs of the change of the seasons and in the
same way we should somehow learn the signals of God so that we can predict when
God will pounce? We do God a great injustice if we think of God’s acting in this
way. Consider this. The fig tree grows, leafs out, bears fruit and goes into
dormancy for awhile and then the cycle begins again. From fruitful growth to
barrenness and waiting, the tree participates in the joy of God’s creation. So
too we are born and will pass away, we will see terror and know joy, we will
feel God’s absence and presence; throughout a lifetime we will experience the
breadth and depth of these things. But through it all when the daily life of
heaven and earth passes, whether we live or die, the word of God will never die.
Life begins. Life ends. Ages come to an end but God’s love does not; it remains
constant. God does not wait behind the gate to frighten, threaten and catch us
off guard. Quite the opposite! God anticipates our waiting, and comes. The
temple is gone, worldly institutions come and go, we are born and we die, yet in
the midst of all of this arriving and leave-taking God remains attentive to our
need and approaches when we call.
God, we are waiting! We are watching for you! We are awake! One writer, Lamar
Williamson, commenting on the gospel of Mark suggests that just as the gospel of
Matthew has a commission to the disciples to go out into all the world and
preach the gospel, Mark has its commission too. Watching for the son of Man is
the Markan commission. In other words, our work as faithful Christians is to
wait on God, to expect that God is at the very gates, prepared to act on our
behalf. Our commission is to believe that with God all things are possible. The
same commentator makes a remarkable and sobering observation: “Mark 13 speaks to
those who expect too much and to those who expect too little. It is especially
pertinent for those who have forgotten to expect anything at all.” (p. 243) I
suspect that many of us fit into the last category here. We are often at risk of
forgetting to expect anything at all. We can become careless, indifferent to the
world around us. There are good reasons for that on our swiftly tilting planet.
However, the message of the gospel is one that counters indifference; Christians
dare to defy the trends of society and pronounce hope in seemingly hopeless
situations. We pray for peace even when it seems that all that is likely is
further bloodshed and violence. Indifference is not possible when we believe
that God is at the very gates, that God will come and fill a desperate situation
with hope. When we are hopeful, we are awake. God will not find us despondent
and helpless. Whenever the love of God and the hope of Christ is needed, we will
be awake to the truth and to the need.
In the mysteries of divine wisdom we expect Christ to come again, to usher in a
new age of awareness and unity, peace and justice, however, God remains present
and active now! Christ isn’t gone but is already here, at the door. In a sense,
Jesus’ coming again is taking place all the time. In small things and in large,
the kingdom comes to us in quiet and amazing ways; through the birth of a baby
once in Bethlehem but also in our community this past week, one particular baby,
Alexandra Marie. Christ comes to us in relationships mended and lives mentored,
in the care of our earth and in our love for each other. The time is now. Be
awake. Fear not! God, we are waiting. AMEN