Preparing for Christmas: Revelation

First Sunday of Advent

Scripture Lesson: Mark 13:24-37

Sermon Transcript for November 30, 2008

By Pastor Andy Kinsey

“And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake!”

- Mark 13: 37

Prayer of Preparation

O Lord, help to stay awake to and watch for the moving of your Spirit as we listen to your Word and as we prepare our hearts for the coming of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen.

The Message

It is difficult to understand Christ’s delay in coming back. God’s time clock is certainly out of sync with our time clock. When will Christ return? When will Christ come again? God’s time clock is certainly out of sync with our time clock.

This is what little boy by the name of Jimmie learned one day as he was laying on a hill in the middle of a meadow on a warm spring day. Puffy white clouds rolled by as he pondered their shape. Soon, little Jimmie began to think about God.

“God,” Jimmie said in a loud voice, “Are you really there?”

And to this astonishment a voice came from the clouds. “Yes, Jimmy? What can I do for you?”

Seizing the opportunity, Jimmy asked, “God? What is a million years like to you?”

And knowing little Jimmie couldn’t understand the concept of infinity, God responded in a manner to which Jimmie could relate: “A million years to me, Jimmie, is like a minute to you.”

“Oh,” Jimmie said, “Well, then, what’s a million dollars like to you?”

And God said, “A million dollars to me, Jimmie, is like a penny.”

“Wow!” Jimmie remarked, getting an idea. “You’re so generous…can I have one of your pennies?”

And God replied, “Sure thing, Jimmie, just a minute!”

Little Jimmie wasn’t ready for God’s response, was he?

Introduction

It is very similar to the unlikely – untimely? – Scripture we read a moment ago from the Gospel of Mark – a passage that little to nothing to do with Mary and Joseph, the manger in Bethlehem, the Wise Men from the East, the Shepherds in the fields, or the star in the heavens.

No, what we hear on this First Sunday of Advent is a story about a wealthy landowner who goes on a trip. The servants left behind were given charge of the estate and when the master returned he would check on their stewardship – to see what they did or didn’t do. It is a story about being prepared, about getting ready, about staying awake, about watching for the coming of the Son of Man.

In a nutshell, it’s what Advent is all about: Advent is about being alert to what God is doing, staying open to God’s future and to the coming of God’s only Son.

It speaks to a very basic Christian affirmation: the affirmation that that Christ will return.

We celebrate it every time we come to the Table when we say “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”

We affirm it when we share the Apostles’ Creed together: “He will come to judge the living and the dead.”

And we hear it when we read and study the Scripture on this first Sunday of the Christian year: “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” (13:32-33).

In short, there is no getting away from the coming of Christ. It’s what we as Christians believe: Christ will come again! How? We don’t know for sure. When? Only God knows.

In fact, it seems Christ has been coming back for so long that many folks have either given up on him on the one hand or become so consumed with predicting when he returns that they fall prey to a kind of algebra of the last times, with charts and formulas to boot! How? We don’t know. When? Only God knows.

Mark’s Gospel and the New Testament

Now, read carefully, our passage from Mark’s Gospel leads us to believe that Jesus would be right back. Before Jesus died, he told his followers to get ready, to be awake, and to watch. And believing him, the disciples were not to make long range plans. Instead, they were to put all their energy into preparing for the end.

We need to keep that point in mind when we read the New Testament. All of Paul’s letters, for example, were written with the second coming in mind. Peter also has this in plain view in his letters. And John, in the book known as the Revelation, clearly expected Christ to return any moment.

But there was a problem, and we really cannot understand the New Testament unless we understand this problem: A decade passed, then another, and Christ did not return. Pretty soon the stories about Jesus were being told by people who had known people who had known Jesus.

In fact, the only reason we have the four Gospels at all is that someone finally worked up the nerve to say, “You know, there aren’t that many eyewitnesses left. We really ought to get this stuff down on paper.”

All of which is to say that Mark’s Gospel was probably the first Gospel written, followed by Matthew and Luke and then John.

(Mark’s Gospel was probably written 40 years after Jesus’ death, Matthew 50 and Luke 60. John, the last of the four, was probably written
some 70 years after Jesus’ death, and it really doesn’t deal with the second coming; that’s another story!)

The point is that Mark, along with the other Gospel writers, had to tell people who were frightened and tired of waiting how to live and keep on going: Was he coming back, or wasn’t he? Was Jesus’ delay a part of a larger master plan, or was he missing in action? How long was it going to be? And if he wasn’t coming back, what do we do?

That’s how we are to read this passage known as “the little apocalypse,” or “the little revelation.” It’s a passage describing the end of the age. In fact, before we came on the scene, Jesus set up a matter this way:

First, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” (13:30).

And then he said, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (13:32).

That’s the best Mark, and the other Gospel writers, could do – to put those two contradictory statements side by side where they have continued to rub up against each other for almost two thousand years. The trick has been to live with the tension.

“I’m coming soon, but only God knows when.”

Certainly, this doesn’t mean that people have not stopped guessing when Christ would return! Goodness knows, over the years, there have been thousands of wrong guesses about when the Lord would come again.

There have been thousands of guesses about when God, acting like a Heavenly Hoover, would come and suck us up into that great vacuum bag in the sky!

I don’t know what’s worst – getting so caught up in and preoccupied with the Second Coming that we don’t want to deal with the First Coming, or becoming so jaded about the First Coming that we fail to remain open to what God is really saying to us about the Second Coming.

To be sure, Jesus is coming soon, but only God knows when! That’s what God has revealed! That’s what God has disclosed! That’s what God has communicated! Not to take us away, but to take over, to take back what has been lost!

This is what Jesus is saying! What Jesus is saying has nothing to do with pulling the earthly ejection handles to get us out of here! He is not saying like Captain Kirk, “Beam me up, God!”

No! What Jesus says is, “Watch, stay alert, keep awake, beware, be prepared, and don’t be deceived by false prophets and preachers and false messiahs.”

In other words, rather than staring up into the heavens all the time, or figuring out tea leaves, or trying to mathematically solve Christ’s return, we need to start looking at the world around us – the world you and I are supposed to be working to change! Right?!

Rather than focusing on one book of the Bible, or one aspect of the Bible, we need to start reading the whole Bible, especially those parts that speak to loving our enemies, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, being stewards of the environment, visiting the imprisoned, or taking up our crosses./2/.

Rather than focus solely on the future we need to start paying attention to what is happening in the present, in our own lives and in our own families, even in our own world, to see what God is doing! That’s the mystery of Advent.

Making Ourselves Present to God

In fact, what we really need to realize is that, in this season of Advent, we don’t need to make God present (How do we make God present? God is already present) as much as we simply need to make ourselves present to God./3/

Amidst all the busyness, all the parties, all the family demands and expectations, all the uncertainties, all the consumption, all the fear – what we need to do is to we need to stay awake to God!

Because the question, as Jesus is sharing, is not whether God is present, the question is whether we are present! That’s the question:

Are we present to what God is doing?

A friend of mine shared with me the other day that God is forever communicating to us, and speaking to us, and revealing himself to us all the time during the day, and we are blessed if we hear or see God in one of those moments, to catch a glimpse of God in the ordinary!

On Thursday, for example, it was a blessing to share with family. It was a blessing to realize God’s presence as we shared and prayed together.
It was also a blessing the other day to help a stranger and to give a word of encouragement to a friend who had lost a loved-one.

It was a blessing to hold a new born and to wipe a runny nose.

Dear friends, Advent is about realizing the many ways the Spirit is moving to get our attention!

Because, sadly, so many of us think of our lives as impoverished, as dull, as boring, as small-time – and what we fail to see is how rich and complex and full of God they really are!

For instance, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have already heard people, especially young people, say “Franklin is boring!” You know something? I heard the same thing in Vincennes! “Vincennes is boring!” And do you know something? I heard the same thing in Brownsburg! “Brownsburg is boring!” And before that, I heard it in Terre Haute! “Terre Haute is boring!” Boring is as boring does!

As long as we are awake to God, there is no such thing as an uninteresting or boring place! When a person is truly awake to what God has revealed, that person is not boring! That person is dangerous! That person is in touch with God!

Moses and David! Yes! The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah and Jonah!
Paul and Peter! Hardly boring! And we haven’t mentioned our Lord!

When a person begins to live his or her life according to God’s way
and God’s will, there is anything but boredom!

Because, you see, as C. S. Lewis noted in an earlier time, nothing pleases that ole Devil more than people who don’t see the fullness of God’s blessings in the moment, who don’t pay attention to God’s great gift of life in the present! What a great way to wreak havoc in the world when you can get God’s people to fall asleep!

Who’s watching the store, right? Who’s paying attention to the gap between rich and poor? Who’s staying alert to the plight of the unborn?

Hey, if the ole Devil can get us to focus on trivial matters we can deflect us from not paying attention to what is really happening around us! We may not pay attention to the child who is hungry, or to the family who is grieving.

If that ole Devil can distract from what really matters, we may focus our energies on other things.

What a wonderful way evil and greed can flourish when no one is awake, when we are all sleeping!

What’s the saying? Mom and Dad left the house all to me, and what did I do but party?! Think about it!

Closing Thoughts

Or, what’s the bumper sticker I read the other day? “Jesus is coming soon. Look busy!”

Well, Jesus is coming soon. This is true. But the question isn’t, When?, and the question is not so much, How? Rather, the question is, “Who’s paying attention?!”

For Jesus will be coming to us in the words of Scripture (v. 31) –

And he will be coming to us to gather his people into a community
that proclaims salvation (v. 27) –

And he will be coming to us in song and in music and in the face of
the stranger...