Sermon for SMHP, Year B, Advent I, Dec. 3, 2023

Mark 13:24-37

²⁴“But in those days, after that suffering,

the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

               ²⁶Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.²⁷Then the Son of Man will send out the angels, and gather the elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

               ²⁸“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.²⁹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.³⁰Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.³¹Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

               ³²“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.³³Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when

the time will come.

³⁴It 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.³⁵Therefore, 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,³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

So I’m driving around this week—like you do—and I pull up next to another car. I look over, and realize that she and I have on the same radio station. 94.9 KCMO.   

And there we are, sittin’ in a line of cars on Southwest Trafficway, both of us singin’ away: “Chri-ist the savior is born!”

Me, that lady, and Beyonce—all singing about Jesus!

Welcome to Advent, people of Hope and Peace!  This is our season!  The only season of the year when you can flip on your radio and hear a song straight outa the cranberry hymnal!

All around us, for the next few weeks, people will be driving around singing about Jesus.  Cooking their dinner singing about Jesus. 

And I don’t know if it was Advent in that lady’s car or not.  For a whole lot of people, this is Christmas season, not Advent.  A season that comes to an abrupt halt on December 26, before the wrapping paper is even bagged up at the curb.

But it’s Advent in here, ain’t it?  We are a vision in blue and green and twinkling lights!  For us, Christmas starts on December 25^th, and extends for twelve days, until January 6^th.  We’re not utter purists like some churches.  I know you’re singing Christmas hymns in your car.  So am I.  If you’re not, 94.9 and 102.1.

We might even sneak in a Christmas hymn or two during Advent.  Don’t tell the Liturgy Police.

Seriously, I love this.  All of it.  I love the season of Advent with all of its crazy apocalyptic imagery.  Advent in Year B—the year of Mark, which began today—launches right in with about the least Christmas-y text imaginable, drawn from the second half of Mark’s Little Apocalypse.  People are singing “Frosty the Snowman” in their cars and we’re hearing “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 of the heavens will be shaken.”

I don’t think that’s exactly what Andy Williams had in mind when he was singing “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”

But honestly, I think we need Advent more now than we ever have.  This season reminds us that God became incarnate, and Christ our Lord will return to a world embroiled in turmoil and even persecution.  If you read the first half of the Little Apocalypse, you will see that “those days” to which Jesus refers are days of war, destruction, and false prophecy.  Mark is written during one of the many periods of unrest in the Holy Land.  As Mark was writing, Roman soldiers were marching upon Jerusalem to sack the city and devastate the Second Temple.  By the time their siege had ended, only the Western Wall was intact, and it remains so today.

Jesus speaks in a time of desolation, Mark writes forty years later in a time of desolation, and my friends, and as we hear these verses today, the Holy Land is once again the site of hostility and desolation.  Even closer to home, our Christian faith is awash with the false prophecy of those who would turn Jesus into either Rambo or Santa Clause.

“Those days” are today.  And we come to this place perhaps a little weary of current events and crisis calculations.

We have come to the right place.

We are hearing the right word.  It doesn’t always seem that way, this apocalyptic fury in the midst of “the most wonderful time of the year.”  Some years I cheat on Mark with Isaiah just to avoid all the falling stars of Mark here in our pretty sanctuary.

But we come to Advent this year with a growing sense that things are not right. Don’t we?  I could give you examples, but you could also give them to me.  Our world is much more like Jerusalem in 30 and 70 CE than we would like, isn’t it?  Right down to the reality that those who follow Jesus into compassion, inclusion, and a hunger for justice are…maybe not “persecuted” but definitely ridiculed by those who would call themselves our siblings.

Okay, they wouldn’t say “siblings,” because that’s too “woke…” but I hope you take my point.

In the midst of these things--“those days,” if you will--this “advent” of Jesus Christ is exactly what we need.  The promise that he has been born and is being born anew in us and will come again in glory, in hope and peace and joy and love—this is the promise that we need in these days.

We need Mark’s prophetic call, to watch out for the one who sows hope, who wages peace, who provokes joy, and who multiplies love. 

We need to be reminded that “woke” is exactly what Jesus has called us to be.

          Every year on the first Sunday of Advent, we hear these words, directly from the mouth of Jesus, our Christ:  “³⁵Therefore, 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,³⁶or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.³⁷And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

          I guess the people who hurl “woke” as an insult haven’t read Mark 13.  Or Luke 21, or Matthew 24.  Where we are commanded to be people who keep awake to the movement of our Lord, which is always rooted in hope, peace, joy, and love.

          We are commanded to be woke people who are ever aware, ever watchful to Christ in our midst.      Because Jesus Christ, God-with-us, Immanuel, is in our midst, even as we await his coming.  Don’t be too confused by that, as it is just one in a whole string of paradoxes to which Lutheran theology in particular clings.  We sometimes call them “both-ands.” 

          Jesus is the one who was born, humble and all powerful at once, in a stable in Bethlehem. 

He is born in each of us who claim his name and follow his Way. 

And he will come again as the righteous judge who will put the nations back in order.

And right now in particular, the world needs people who are able to hold all of that tension at once—Our world, our nation, our community--they need Advent people.  Are you Advent people?

Advent people are seekers and vessels at once.  Which is more of a Minor Paradox.

We go into the world with our senses piqued, alert to the ways that Immanuel manifests, the ways that Christ is breaking into our world anew,

In hope.  In peace.  In joy.  In love.

We keep awake!

We are woke to hope and peace and joy and love.  We seek them out and gather them in—hold them in our hearts as we were taught to hold Jesus, those of us who grew up going to Sunday School.

We fill ourselves with hope, peace, joy, love, and then we go out into the world and let it spill out of us.  And Oh My Goodness do we live in a world that needs more of all of those things!  People may be driving around singing about Jesus right now, but our world could use so much more Jesus!

          So, my siblings in Christ, fill yourselves with Jesus this Advent.  Keep awake to the ways he is sowing hope, waging peace, provoking joy, and multiplying love all around us. And take them into your body, into your heart.

          Then, as you go about your day, let hope and peace and joy and love just spill out of you.  If anybody calls you “woke,” because hope is just spilling out of you, just say “thank you.”

          They called you a disciple.

          And that is just what you are.

 

          Amen  #266