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.
