|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Isaiah 64:1–9 |
Psalm 80:1–7 |
1 Corinthians 1:3–9 |
Mark 13:24–37 |
All the Gospels contain what serves as a farewell address of Jesus to his closest disciples before his arrest and passion. In John, the emphasis is on the disciples continuing to love one another as Jesus has loved them. In Matthew and Luke, the emphasis is on going forth and sharing the Gospel with all nations. In Mark, Jesus stresses watching for his living presence among them and waiting for the dawn of a totally new age upon earth.
Today's Gospel contains explicit descriptions of universal turmoil and collapse and is a magnet for doomsayers and angry people. Yet if we read the passage carefully, it is clear that Jesus is saying "Whoa, don't be so fast in predicting the end of the world on the basis of cataclysmic events. In and of themselves they will never foretell the end of time. Charlatans and con artists use the shaking of foundations and catastrophe as their prime tool of deception. Remember we are all vulnerable under strained circumstances, but even in dire straights when your faith is stretched to the breaking point, watch, for God's grace will be operating too."
There is an old story of a student who insisted that a renowned rabbi fill his mind with enlightenment. The rabbi calmly received the student and invited him to sit down for a cup of tea. The rabbi began deliberately pouring the hot water into the student's cup and when the water reached the rim of the cup, kept slowly pouring until it was splashing down the sides of the cup, onto the saucer underneath, and then across the table and running down on the floor. "Stop! Stop," said the student. "Look, the cup is full, too full and nothing more will go in." Exactly," the rabbi replied." If your heart is full up to the top, no enlightenment will be able to enter and it will be wasted as the hot water that has dripped down on the floor."
The season of Advent if nothing else, slows us down. It doesn't urge us to rush out and get busy doing great things. Advent understands that we may be tired, depressed, and maybe even fearful. It offers to pour us a cup of tea and invites us to sit down in a comfortable chair in a quiet corner of our heart.
In Mark the parting words of Jesus before the turmoil of his arrest, trial, and conviction, contrast strikingly with last week's theme. Last week, images of the end of this world and the inauguration of God's new world were loaded with analogies to human institutions of power. The vocabulary was filled with images of kings and kingdoms, victorious battles and triumphal reigns and the dividing of spoils. Indeed it has been contended that when some branches of the church began calling this last Sunday of the church year The Feast of Christ the King, its purpose was to help shore up European monarchies.
However, today on the first Sunday of Advent there are no references to human institutions in the coming age. Jesus isn't referred to by the politically charged term of messiah or anointed one, or by the church's own exalted title of Christ the Lord. Jesus simply refers to himself by the ambiguous expression son of man. Jesus affirms, "Yes, the foundations of the world will be shaken and the temple, the traditional focus of worship for the faithful through the ages will be destroyed. Human authority will be upset and chaos may break out, but don't think this is an indication of God's time or as the death of the mission God has offered you. You are still called to do the work of my disciples. Beware of those who count on the vitality of human institutions as the sign of God's direction. Neither the destruction nor maintenance of the status quo, nor survival of human institutions will thwart the manifestation of God's presence among you or frustrate God's intended purposes. Acts of the living God will still spring forth. God's grace will never desert the world."
That is why Advent is built on the foundation of hope. The messengers of Advent begin announcing almost in a whisper that portents that are confusing and unsettling may also be the birth pangs of God's new creation. Advent announces to those who have been beaten down for so long as to expect nothing at all, that hope is often born in the waiting. Mark in sharing his message with us would have surely known the words of the prophet Habakkuk, written in another dismal, cataclysmic time when Jerusalem and all its institutions were in ruins. "The Lord answered me: 'write the vision, make it plain upon tablets....for while the vision awaits its time....it will not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come. Behold the righteous will live by their faith." (Habakkuk 2:2-4)
Across the centuries of worldly time and the rise and fall of many worldly kingdoms, the messengers of Advent assure us whether we are struggling with cancer or personal heartbreak or whether we are dismayed by the continued outbreak of war, famine, and global injustice, that everything in creation has its time and end. Mark's great gift to us continues to be some of the last words of Jesus to his disciples before the time of great trial. "Watch for me! Be alert! Never lose hope! Wait for me and you will find me!"
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
