KEEP AWAKE!

1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37

1st Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023

Pastor Ritva H Williams

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of Advent, the first season of the church year which we represent as a cycle of color-coded seasons. Advent leads to Christmas and Epiphany, followed by Lent and Easter, and the long season “after Pentecost” — a.k.a. as “ordinary time.” You can tell what season we are in by the color of the decor in the church and the pastor’s stole. This cycle of seasons is repeated every year, but with a different scripture readings. Today we begin the “Year of Mark,” a gospel written for a community living just after the disastrous revolt against Roman imperial occupation that ended with the destruction of the Judean temple state in 70 CE.

Our first reading in this new year is from Mark 13. Here the gospel writer recounts Jesus’ prediction that the temple will be destroyed, warns them to beware that they are not led astray (13:5-6), to pay attention to what they say when arrested, beaten, and tried (13:9-11). Jesus tells them to flee to the mountains when the temple is desecrated (13:14), be alert to signs in the heavens (13:23), learn from the fig tree (13:28), and know this will all happen in their own lifetimes (13:30). Jesus warns, “Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time is … keep awake… keep awake” (13:33, 35, 37).

This turns out to be Jesus’ last teaching in Mark’s gospel, a final prophetic word to his disciples, uttered just two days before his betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion. Mark tells this story 30 years later as the very things Jesus predicted have in fact occurred. Mark’s goal is to hold his community together in the midst of a catastrophe of unimagined proportions. One million Judeans dead, another hundred thousand taken captive, Jerusalem in ruins, and the temple — the sacred center of their world —desecrated, burned, destroyed. Mark writes to remind his early Christian audience that it is not the end of the world even though it feels like it.

Mark reminds his early Christian audience of Jesus’ promise of what will happen after the suffering (13:24). Yes, the sun will be darkened, the moon will refuse to shine, and the powers of heaven will be shaken (13:24-25). Those words are so beautifully poetic and so powerfully metaphoric, describing how it feels when there is nothing left to count on, nothing to trust, nothing to hope for. In that very moment they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory accompanied by angels gathering up all who are scattered and lost in the darkness of despair. Again the language is brilliantly poetic and metaphoric, but the point is simply this: consolation, comfort, new strength, and new life are very close. The question is: will the disciples see it? do we see it in the midst of the chaos and suffering of our world? 

Have we learned the lesson of the fig tree? Have we learned the spiritual lessons that creation tries to teach us? When the branches become tender and put forth their leaves, are we conscious of the good news they proclaim?  That springs follows winter, just as day follows night? Can we see and hear the hope underlying the cycle of birth, growth, death, and resurrection? Jesus urges us to pay attention. Don’t miss the fact that “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in words alone, but in every leaf in springtime!”

Even more importantly, have we really paid attention to Mark’s story?  Today’s reading concludes with mini-parable about a master who went on a journey and left his slaves wondering when he would return. Will the master return at evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn? Now notice how Mark’s story of Jesus unfolds in the next chapters.

14:17 — When it was evening, Jesus came … they sat down for the Last Supper.

14:40 — Once more Jesus came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy because it was the middle of the night.

14:66-72 — Peter denies knowing Jesus three times as the cock crows twice, and remembers that Jesus said this would happen. 

15:1— As soon as it was morning, the chief priests, scribes and council turn Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified.

15:33 — When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon when Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

Isn’t it curious how Jesus’ mini-parable foreshadows how Mark tells the rest of Jesus’ story? It’s almost as if the coming of the Son of Man occurs precisely at the moment when Jesus is nailed to the cross. Could it be that Mark is inviting his audience to read the signs of the times through the the story of Jesus?

We often think of Advent as a time of preparation and waiting specifically for the birth of the baby. A time of preparation for Christmas, of baking and cooking, visitings and partying. A time of waiting for gifts and surprised under the Christmas tree. Advent is all of these things. Our first gospel reading of Advent, invites us to pay attention, to watch for signs of Christ’s coming in our own lives in the midst of all the holiday bustle. We are invited to keep our eyes open to see those who are vulnerable like the babe of Bethlehem, to see those who suffer as Jesus suffered, and to be Christ coming to them in their distress. We are invited to see Christ coming to us in those who bring healing, comfort, and hope when we need it the most. To borrow some words from one of my favorite commentators:

Advent is a time to grow in our awareness of our place in an interconnected world, of how our actions impact others, and of our neighbors and their needs. Advent is a time to become more spiritually conscious, more aware of Christ’s call to love and serve on another, to honor the ways Christ is comes to those who are different from us. Advent is a time to nurture our awareness of Christ’s grace, compassion and saving presence which are always coming to us in our world, inviting us to become active participants in Christ’s healing, peace-making, restoring work. Advent is about staying alert to the signs of Christ’s presence everywhere. 

Lord Jesus, Son of Man, Son of God

help us remember that how things are now is not how they’ve always been; 

and it’s not how they always will be.

Help us see that your kingdom has come, be alert to its growing among us now,

and filled with joyfully anticipate the time when it will fill the world with justice and love.

We pray for your coming with grace, mercy, and consolation

to those around the world whose poverty, pain, trauma, and grief 

make your kingdom feel like a pipe dream; 

to those in our community who long to see your face and justice 

expressed through your followers;

to those in your Church who seek to be faithful and to make a difference

while juggling their own and their families’ needs; 

Come to us, who long to know you more deeply,

and to live faithfully as your disciples in this place and time.

Help us stay awake and alert that we may experience 

your loving presence moment by moment. 

In your holy and precious  name, O Jesus, Son of Man, we pray.

Amen.