Unexpected God

Isaiah 64: 1-9

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,

so that the mountains would quake at your presence—

as when fire kindles brushwood

and the fire causes water to boil—

to make your name known to your adversaries,

so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,

you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

        

From ages past no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who works for those who wait for him.

You meet those who gladly do right,

those who remember you in your ways.

But you were angry, and we sinned;

because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We have all become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf,

and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

There is no one who calls on your name,

or attempts to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and you are our potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD,

and do not remember iniquity forever.

Now consider, we are all your people.

Mark 13: 24-37

“But in those days, after that suffering,

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.

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.

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 forth 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 tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Beware, keep alert; 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 slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.

Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn,

or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.

And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

=====================

As I mentioned last week, today is the first Sunday in the New Year, according to the church calendar. It’s the First Sunday of Advent. And it’s also the first Sunday of Year B in the Revised Common Lectionary, the sequence of scriptural texts that are provided for preaching throughout the year. The texts for every Sunday are predefined, and over the course of three years – Years A, B, and C – most of the gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke are covered, along with much of the Old Testament, most of the Psalms, and a good share of the gospel of John is interspersed throughout all three years. This Sunday is the beginning of Year B, and the gospel focus of Year B is the gospel according to Mark. Mark was the first gospel written, it is the shortest gospel, and it is considered to be the easiest to read – partly because it is shortest, and partly because it is often compared to an action adventure story. You will frequently hear the words “and immediately” used in the stories written in this gospel. Things happen very quickly in the gospel according to Mark.

Having just said this, I might as well notify you that you won’t get a lot of Mark’s gospel in the coming weeks, because Mark begins his story when Jesus is an adult, beginning his public ministry. So for us to have scripture texts that relate to Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, we will need to turn to other texts, and the Year B Lectionary provides those for us. Once we move beyond Epiphany, we will begin to hear again from Mark’s gospel with more regularity.

I’m telling you all this because I want to point out that our passage from Mark today might seem a bit strange for Advent. It’s clearly not a “pre-Jesus” story.  The passage contains prophetic words from the adult Jesus, spoken to the disciples just before his arrest, crucifixion and resurrection. And he is speaking of the second coming.

But this is actually a good Sunday to hear these words, because we need to be reminded that Advent is a time of waiting and watching and reflection for when Jesus comes, not just a reminder of Jesus’ birth, God’s coming to us in flesh, but also about waiting and watching and staying faithful for when he comes again. These words from Jesus bring us around full circle, from last week’s worship of Christ the King, victorious over the world, to this week’s worship of Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of the world, who was and is and is to be, forever more, world without end.

This passage is actually the tail end of a reply by Jesus, to a question from several of his disciples, as they were leaving the temple in Jerusalem, where Jesus had been teaching. One disciple remarks at the large stones and the large buildings, and Jesus tells them that not one of those stones will remain in place, that all the buildings will come down.  Then several other disciples ask him when that will happen. It’s an interesting question for Mark to capture in his gospel, since he is writing it at the time that the temple has actually been destroyed. It’s almost as if he is reminding his readers, that they cannot expect the end of the world because of what is happening around them at that particular time. Jesus describes signs and events that will happen before the end of time, but he also lists many possible happenings that they must not conclude are indications of the end times. In fact, he says to them over and over, you will not know when the time is to come. So stay awake, stay alert. He doesn’t mean they can never go to sleep. What he means is that God comes at unexpected times, so trying to predict God’s actions would be futile. God is unexpected to humans. We cannot see the big picture in the same way that God does.

We are tempted to look at the headlines – about Ferguson, about Syria, Sudan, the Middle East, about Ebola, about so many things that seem chaotic or unjust, and to long for Jesus’ second coming, saying, “How long, O Lord, before this is all over, before your peace will be here forever?”

That is the same feeling expressed by the Israelites in our Old Testament passage.

This passage from Isaiah reflects the human longing for a way to know what God is up to, to get God to act in the way we would prefer. The Israelites are returning from exile, finding the temple destroyed.  They are crying out in utter despair, pleading with God to “tear open the heavens and come down.” We need you here and now – where are you? – how can you be so distant – why are you hiding your face from us? These are cries of despair, from people who have seen God act in the past, who trust that he can and will come to their aid, but who are desperate for him to show up now. They describe themselves as people whose righteous acts are useless, lifeless. But they still call God Father, and they acknowledge themselves as clay in the hands of the Potter. They long for him to remake them into something that will reflect God’s image in them once again. They know his works are beyond their imagination and expectation. He is an unexpected God.

So when the time is right, God does tear open the heavens. And down he comes in a completely unexpected way. As a helpless infant, born to a simple and unassuming young woman. Who grows up to be a homeless man on the outskirts of proper society, creating trouble wherever he goes. What sort of Messiah is that? They sought strength, and power, and judgment, just as we do today. But as theologian David Lose described it, “that strength was made manifest in weakness; that power was evident in vulnerability; and that judgment was rendered through grace. This was not what anyone expected. Not then, and not now.”

We prefer to set expectations, identify success measures, and then start to track performance to see how well we are doing. We do this everywhere and with everything: our career paths, our savings, our church membership growth, even the answers to our prayers. But God comes to us in unexpected ways, and God works in the world in ways that are beyond our expectation or imagination. Our attempts to define and expect what will happen are the ways in which we try to be like God, to know as only God knows, to understand as only God understands. God is unexpected. God works in mysterious ways. God’s ways are not our ways. So what are we to do – just sit on the couch, watch old movies, and wait for something to happen? We are to be faithful. And faithfulness is a daily discipline that God has called us to practice, to do as well as we possibly can. Faithfulness is reflected in how well and how persistently we try to obey God. Jesus gave us the two great commandments – to love God with everything we have, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Since we know that Jesus lived and walked among us, and that Christ died, and is risen, and will come again, then in response to the grace we have received from him, we can live as if the kingdom of God is here and now. Because, even though it is hard to see, it actually is here and now. It will be fully here in the time to come, the time we cannot know. But living “as if” will discipline us to perceive the kingdom, and to perceive ourselves and others as citizens of the kingdom.

Until he comes.

At that unexpected time, for which we wait.