Mark 13:24-37
Advent 1
December 3, 2023
The Beginning is Near
Imaginary Foundation
This chapter in
Mark is called a little apocalypse.
Every first Sunday in Advent, we read these little
apocalypses.
Each of the
synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke)
have these little apocalypse.
They all talk about things that we fear.
Terrible suffering, wars, hatred, persecution,
vitriol from family, natural disasters
and then, after that
things don’t get much better.
The sun will be darkened,
the moon will not give out light
the stars will fall, and the powers of the heaven will be
shaken
Pretty much our worst nightmares.
Each one of these
passages talk about signs
to watch out for to know when this is coming.
They don’t specifically enumerate the signs,
but they say you’ll know it when you see it.
And you shouldn’t miss them, so you should keep watching.
If you’re keeping alert, it should be obvious,
like every year when you see the leaves on a tree come
out,
you know summers about to come,
the signs will tell us
the end is nigh.
Just in time for Christmas I guess. I think it seems
contrary
to the spirit of Christmas that we like to evoke.
The arrival of the long awaited savoir,
is preceded by imagery of desperation, hopelessness, destruction,
the opposite of salvation.
I think the problem is that these little apocalypses
have kind of
been made into full blown, frightening theologies for
many Christians.
They seem focused on the future in fear and dread and
foreboding.
They look at Jesus second coming as a time of disaster
and hopelessness for the everyone.
I think it works to keep followers is a constant state
of alert and panic.
So focused on self-preservation to think of much else
really.
Some of them even stockpile food and weapons and a
hefty
amount of suspicion of everything.
These groups of Christians seem fixated on who is good and
who is evil,
who is for them and who is against them.
Because, of
course, they’re on the right side, and
looking for signs to tell one from another.
Now, we don’t believe
that this kind of fixation is necessary.
As Lutherans, we take more seriously the part of this lesson,
when Jesus says “about that day or the hour no one knows”
We take that as an order for us not to dwell on the things
that are only God’s business and above our paygrade so to speak.
But this kind of theology has leaked out into the
mainstream,
so that even if we’re not one of those Christians, these
apocalypse
passages and talk of the second coming of Jesus is
frightening.
But Jesus does tell us to keep
awake.
and there is a lot of scary stuff happening now isn’t there?
I mean doesn’t it feel like we’re on the brink of something awful?
Not just in this country, but around the world.
The division in our
country is huge.
Families and friends have
been divided by political
convictions and it seems
like we can’t have a civil conversation any more.
The climate is becoming
more and more erratic
leading to worse and
worse natural disasters.
People have been terrorizing
the country with guns
and all sorts of
other creative methods of
violence meant to wield
fear and power.
It seems like Artificial
Intelligence is about to do
something scary and
unpredictable, but I’m not sure what.
It seems like our leaders
are ruling almost exclusively by corruption.
And for so many people today, life is actually awful.
With
unbearable wide-spread poverty and the hopelessness that comes with it
the price of housing
everywhere is so out of control
so that just surviving is
difficult.
It’s so bad that many
have checked out or are apathetic.
There’s an epidemic of addiction
and an enormous rate of suicide.
And the war in Ukraine
is now going on for nearly a year
much longer than I
thought possible.
And the week-long cease-fire
in Gaza ended on Friday.
It seemed so hopeful,
with hostages and prisoners being
released, but then it
ended, for a reason it doesn’t seem
we’re privy to, and
already, just over the weekend,
more than 200 people have
been killed in that small area.
Things are very scary right now and there are “signs”
I’m sure many people are frightened
of what’s to come
I’m sure our doomsday preppers are in overdrive
because of these events and these apocalyptic passages.
Many of us at the moment can, of course,
just decide to turn away and ignore what we see.
I mean things are looking
pretty nice here on
Hilton Head, I can just
choose look away and remain distracted.
But Jesus has asked us to be awake
be aware and to look at
the signs.
But the signs fill me
with a dread when I do think about it.
Why does Jesus want us to keep awake?
Does Jesus want us scared and nervous all the time?
Does Jesus enjoy our anxiety?
Is this a way to scare us and to control our behavior?
No, I don’t think Jesus is telling us this to raise our
anxiety, Jesus actually wants to lower it.
Jesus tells his disciples and us about these little apocalypses
and scary signs, but all of
these little apocalypses end the same way,
there is fear, there is
suffering, and then there is Jesus.
Jesus tells us that the
suffering and fear are
just a precursor to God’s
presence with us.
The bad things that seem
to be closing in on us
are an assurance to us
that God is near us.
That’s the point of these
little apocalypse passages.
Not to fill us with new
dread about new, awful things on the horizon,
but give us the assurance
that when awful things are happening,
we are sure to experience
God’s presence.
The word
apocalypse is from the Greek
and it means “uncovering”, “revealing”, “revelation”
not the end of the world like it’s come to mean,
but the uncovering, revealing, and revelation of God’s
presence.
When the sun is darkened and the stars are falling,
and things seem to be
getting seriously worse for all involved,
that is the time that the
son of man will come in his greatest glory,
you can be assured of
that.
Just like many of us have felt the presence of God the most
during the worst times of
our lives.
Just like when disaster
strikes, the helpers come out of nowhere,
after the suffering, God
will be with us.
What if we heard the word apocalypse that way,
and instead of fear and dread,
we reacted with joy,
hope, and anticipation?
Not because everyone else
will suffer and I will be raptured,
or some other weird logic like that.
But what if Jesus return was joyous for the world?
Our expectations about Jesus second Advent
should be shaped by what
we know about Jesus first Advent.
When he came to us as a child, lived and suffered with
us,
and finally poured out his love for all creation on the
cross
when the sun was darkened and the powers in heaven were
shaken,
when God took the worst of creation and gave us the best.
The coming of Christ is a welcome presence,
the arrival of our dearest friend.
No one knows the
time or the hour,
It might be a surprise, but we should be
waiting in anticipation not in dread.
Watching all the signs and when terrible things happen in
this world,
as they always do, we mourn, we get angry, we will do our
best to help
the situation, but we can also ask and notice what God is
doing,
how God is using the situation, what new life God is
creating out of the old.
Christ was with us
then, Christ is with us now, and Christ will come again.
In our greatest hours of suffering and fear Christ will be
there.
We know that even
in the worst of times,
Even in all the awful stuff that is happening right now.
Even in times of desperation and hopelessness.
God ‘s power will prevail, somehow some way,
the end of the story will be better than the beginning
or the middle of the story even.
The season of
Advent is a time for us to wait for Christmas –
the remembrance that Jesus was born and God came to us –
but it’s also a time of hoping for the time
when our deepest prayers
for this world will be answered.
When the sun is
darkened, and the moon doesn’t give light
and the stars fall from the heavens and all seems lost,
we know that God will be nearest to us then.
When terrible things happen,
we have faith that it is not the end,
it is just the beginning of God’s presence with us.
