November 30, 2008
The First Sunday of Advent (Year B)
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; I Corinthians 1:3-9;
Mark 13:24-37
I considered – briefly, very briefly – coming in this morning wearing a funny hat and blowing on a noise-maker. It is the Church’s New Year after all, and isn’t that how we celebrate the coming of the New Year in the secular world – and, of course, with champagne and chocolate? But, as I said, it was just a brief thought! And how could one really respond to these readings we have just heard in such a frivolous fashion? I’m sure you’re all wondering,”Aren’t we now into a new season, a season of looking forward in anticipation of the coming of Jesus into this world, of seeing the babe in the manger? Haven’t we had enough of doom and gloom and casting into eternal punishment or outer darkness?”
The readings for the first Sunday in Advent are, we might say, a transition from those of the past several weeks to the stories of John the Baptist and of Mary and the angel Gabriel. Although it’s a different gospel each year of the three year cycle, each Advent begins with this same theme, the second coming, the coming of Jesus in all his power and glory at the end of the ages. And when you stop and think about it, it really does set the tone because we are between that first Advent of two thousand years ago and the second of which we have no idea as to when it will happen, much less how.
To prepare for the coming of Jesus as a baby is quite different from what we need to do to prepare for his second coming. It is the known past versus the unknown future. We prepare for the birth of the child Jesus, the coming into the world of the God child, for a new beginning, with our decorations and shopping, with our baking and our gift-giving, with our cards and hopefully with reading daily of our Advent Meditation Books, and with our Advent wreaths and candles and special prayers, and especially with our carols and our creches and our pageants where we reenact that first Christmas.
I’m sure my youngest grandchildren will be at the house sometime this week to check out my creche set-up. They are very intrigued by my tradition of starting with an almost empty stable, a couple of cows and a lone donkey. The sheep and the shepherds are up on the “hillside”, the bookcase behind, but more importantly to them is that Mary and Joseph, and their donkey, are way across the living room starting a trek along window sills and intervening pieces of furniture until they arrive Christmas Eve at the stable. The wise men are even further away in the dining room! And Baby Jesus is nowhere to be seen!
Now what about the preparations for the second coming at the end of the ages? The verses leading up to today’s reading tell us that as Jesus and his disciples left the temple, one of the disciples remarked on the impressive size of the stones and the buildings. Jesus responded with, “. . . Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” (13:1-2) And now having walked across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives, he is seated opposite the city, opposite the temple, with his inner circle of disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew, and one of them asks, “Tell us when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” (13:4) Good questions! Very good questions! And Jesus then began what some commentators of Mark call his farewell discourse – yes, this is all happening just two days before his arrest.
And he talks of betrayals and wars and trials and destructions, sound familiar? Look at
Now, Jesus says himself that no one knows when this will happen, no one, “neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (13:32) So what were they to do two thousand years ago, what are we to do today to prepare for this unknown, unpredictable, unprecedented event?
“Beware; keep alert,” he said, and he told this parable. A man went on a journey leaving his slaves in charge, each with his own work, and a doorkeeper to keep watch. There was no way of knowing when he would come back. He didn’t say when it might be, and there was no phone, cell or land line, no email, no text messaging; there were no planes or trains with schedules, maybe on time, maybe not! The only clue that the master was returning would probably be dust on the horizon as his caravan approached. And if the doorkeeper and slaves were not awake and watching, they would not be there, ready to open the gate, to welcome him in, to have the homecoming feast. So it is for us, we must be prepared at all times, awake, alert, watching.
In a little while (at the later service) we will be joining in the baptism of Zachary Jacob Harland and Pierce Marcum Rafter. What do we tell them about being awake and alert and being prepared, watching for Jesus? Actually we don’t tell them. At their ages it’s too theological. Instead – actions speak louder than words, always – we teach them by being and doing what Jesus has told us over and over, love God and love your neighbor, or more explicitly as we heard once again last week, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison, and on a more personal level, seek the common ground, accentuate the positive, forgive freely, live into the Baptismal Covenant.
In the special prayers for the candidates for baptism, we ask God to teach them to love others in the power of the Spirit and to send them into the world in witness of God’s love. We ask God to teach them, those new little Christians, what to do, to love, to be an example of God’s love. And how best will they learn? By the word and example of those around them, their families, their friends, this community! And as I think about that, I think we should each and every day be asking God to keep teaching, KEEP teaching us how to love others in that power of the Spirit and how to go out into the world in witness of God’s love – call it a refresher course because times change and we change with the times – so that we may truly be examples and not just to Zachary and Pierce but to the whole world, examples of what it means to be a Christian, what it is to be an awake and alert Christian. Prayers like these are not like a one-time shot which does you for the rest of your life; we need boosters. And what better time than now, on this first Sunday in Advent when Jesus is calling us to watch for his coming?
So as we greet this new year and greet these new little Christians, may we take to heart and put into practice what Jesus is telling us, “Be alert! Keep awake!” As the Collect says, let us “cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light,” and go forth from this place prepared to meet Jesus whether he arrives as the babe in the manger or as “the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.”
Amen.
Sonia F. G. Stevenson, M. Div.
Church of the Good Shepherd