Advent 1

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Advent 1
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 28, 1999

TEXT: Mark 13:24-37 - The Little Apocalypse
"Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It 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. Therefore, keep awake - "

ISSUE: The passage from Mark is referred to as "The Little Apocalypse." It addresses a time of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty about the future in a time of great oppression. But the message is to stay alert, be watchful, for Christ Jesus comes again, at a time we do not know. We all know times when it seems as if the world, our world, is ending. The message is to carry on faithfully as servants of God making the ready for his renewed coming into our lives. The fig tree begins to sprout when the spring is coming, when new hope is just around the corner.
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Today marks the new millennium so far as the church is concerned. This is the First Sunday of Advent, and the beginning of the church's new year. Admittedly it comes with not quite all the excitement of anticipated new millennial beginning of January 1st. In fact Advent as we celebrate it in the church is a bit somber and sober. Already the malls and shopping centers are playing the carols and encourage spending and jubilation in anticipation of the coming Holidays or Winter Festival. But the church approaches the Christmas season in a more deliberate and spiritually preparatory way. We look forward to and anticipate a deepening of the renewed and renewing presence of God in our lives.
The reading today is from the Gospel account of St. Mark, which will be the Gospel that is emphasized and studied in our Lectionary over the next year. The particular section read today is from what is called in Mark, "The Little Apocalypse." Similar to the Book of Revelation, and some of the writings in the Hebrew Scriptures, like Daniel, it refers to a period of great tribulation. The early disciples are urged to be prepared, alert, and awake, ready for the renewed coming of God in some unique way.
The world's approach to the Apocalyptic writings in the Scriptures seem to go from one extreme to another. Some people, churches, and denominations take them very seriously and very literally. There has been over the years many attempts to predict when the end of time will come. Every earthquake, fire, flood, and plane crash is seen as signs of the end of time. The time of great tribulation is looked forward with some pleasure when all evil and evil people, that is, people we don't like or get along with will all be swept away. The rest of us, the good guys will just get caught-up in the rapture. With this year being the millennium, there has been an outbreak for some folk of a kind of millennial madness, and anticipation that this is it! I might point out here that according to the Scripture, "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heave, nor the Son, but only the Father."
On the otherside, there are those who just say that the Apocalypse is just irrelevant. It has little or no meaning for the modern world. Enough prophets of doom who have predicted the end have all proved to be quite wrong. We're still here, and are expected to be here for a long time to come.
What is important is that we try to appreciate these scriptural passages within the context that they were written. Apocalyptic literature, like the Book of Daniel, some of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Revelations, and parts of the Gospel writings like the one we heard today are written in and address times of great tribulation. Incidentally, a significant part of what Mark has written in this reading today is copied from Isaiah and Daniel. These were written at a time when God's people, the Judeans, were conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile. Their lands, the temple, their culture was nearly completely devastated. Often they interpreted the cause to be the fact that they had abandoned God. They had become unfaithful. Notice in the writing from the Isaiah lesson, the impassioned plea and call of the prophet to God, "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, . . . to make your name known to your adversaries., so that the nations might tremble at your presence." It is a cry for help and redemption at a time of great desolation. It is an appeal that God is the Father, and "we are the clay, andyou are our potter" to reshape, remake, and renew us.
Mark's Gospel was written either just before or just after there had been a Jewish revolt against the Romans. It was either anticipated by Jesus and the early church, or they were just coming through and were witnessing once again the destruction of the Temple and the whole city of Jerusalem. Many of the people were starved to death. It was a time so dreadful that it was "as if" the sun was darkend, the moon gave no light, and the very stars had fallen from heaven, and the powers of heaven itself had been shaken. It was clear that many people did and would see this terrible ordeal. These were the signs of an extraordinarily difficult time. But the Gospel message is that all should hold on. Be alert, stay awake. God will come to the help and aid of his faithful people.
Jesus uses the parable of the fig tree. When the branches begin to turn tender, you know the spring is coming. Though there are very difficult times, there is hope beyond the hard and difficult winter of our lives.
Jesus uses still another parable. It is like the Master going away for a time and he leaves his slaves in charge of things. They are to carry on, and keep the home fires burning, and be ready for the Master's return. Slaves in Jesus' time were like family members. The Jewish people saw themselves as God's slaves. The early Christians saw themselves as the slaves of Christ. They were to be faithful, committed, serving and honoring their Master. They were to be alert, awake, and ready. The message of passage was that beyond the difficult times, God will not abandon his people inspite of themselves, he will come and be among them. He will be their renewal and their hope. Because this had always been their experience. They lived beyond the difficult times.
What does the apcalytic writings mean for us in our age? At very times in our lives both as individuals and as a country we have endured times of tribulation. Some will look back at WWII and remember the terrible disruption to human life. Families were broken up, many men died. In the Jewish community it was a terrible holocaust. It was a time of great tribulation, a time of darkness when meany families who lost loved ones thought and felt they would never see the light of day again. The same is true of some of the other terrible conflicts, especially during the Vietnam War era. It was a very difficult period for this country in so many ways. Peoples lives were lost, and there was great dissention over the morality of the conflict. Yet by the grace of God, in time, healing and hope came again.
In our personal lives there are often very difficult times when we lose someone we love, when go through the pain of a divorce, when we face difficult problems that so disrupt our lives that there seems to be little hope. Today many people battle cancer and deal with all the feelings that come with being a victim of the disease, or a friend or lover to the afflicted. We recognize that we need help, hope, and strength, a savior. No one ever escapes the feeling of having the foundations of their lives shaken and rattled as if they were in the middle of an horrendous spiritual earthquake. What do you grasp for, what do you hold on to? We need God. We need that spiritual presence that gives sustenance and hope to lives that otherwise feel drained and empty.
Presently for many in our country it seems like good times. It is. Fact of the matter is that there has never been in the history of the world a time of such affluence and overall well-being, especially in this country. We must be careful that we are not lulled into complacency and an empty satisfaction. Times and circumstances change, sometimes abruptly. The Gospel calls us to readiness, preparedness, alertness, faithful awareness of our need to be open to the presence of God.
What we prepare for this season is being aware of our need for the savior. We look for Christ's renewed coming into our lives as the savior, the helper, the hope that sees us through the difficult moments of our lives. It can be a very busy season. We can be so distracted by all the excitement of the season. Thomas Merton, a monk and theologian expressed it so well when he wrote that we are often busy climbing the ladders of our lives, but they are sometimes against the wrong wall. We can become so caught up in the materialism of the season that we forget the spiritual meaning of the season. We live in a world that needs God, redemption, and that needs a savior. We live in a world that needs to know the real meaning of sacrificial love, of forgiveness, of being and becoming servants with Christ. Keep awake; alert, aware of what we are about, and to what God is calling us. Be open to receiving the grace of God revealed and given in Jesus Christ. Be alert to his renewed coming.