Pastor's Sermon

First Sunday in Advent

Mark 13:2-37

December 2 & 3, 2017

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down… to make your name known to our adversaries.”  The prophet laments the seeming absence of God in a world that is anything but what has been expected.

The people had returned home from exile with such high hopes and great expectation.  Their many years of captivity in Babylon had finally come to an end.  God would restore his nation to glory.  The temple would be rebuilt.  The land would once again be a place flowing with milk and honey.  Instead, they found a reality of hardship and struggle, and life filled with enemies.  Very quickly the people slip into a life of sin and laziness.

The prophet calls on God to make an accounting.  He accuses God for the situation in Israel.  God has hidden his face from the people, and because of his lack of presence the people have slipped into former transgressions.  The prophet laments the current state of affairs and longs for God to tear open the heavens and come down—to vindicate his people.

Some of you may ask, “So what?” Who cares what happened to people living in Israel 2500 years ago, and what a prophet thought about it?  But you see, the scripture is a living Word.  Its message speaks to us.  The context of its message matters, as it addresses us in the situation in which we live today.

We share much with our ancestors in the faith.  Don’t we expect life to be good, and blessed, and filled with good things?  And don’t we wonder (at last a little) where God is when life does not live up to expectations?  Aren’t you just a little nervous about what is transpiring in the world around you right now?

I wonder about the hate that fills the hearts of so many people not simply out there somewhere—but the people who potentially share the same space with me as I go about my daily activities.  I am baffled by the resurgence of old issues that I had hoped were settled long ago—like racism, sexism, and all the rest—that damage lives and tear at the very fabric of our society and culture.  I am concerned by the proliferation of the machinery of war in the hands of unstable world leaders and the rhetoric that seems the bring its use closer to reality.  And I witness a decline of moral conscience and ethical standards that give me pause when I look to the future.

So, do we blame God?  Do we call God to account for the state of the world?  

Well, that at least is something.  For all the talk about God by many people these days, for the most part people fail to focus their relationship on God.  Instead, God is simply another tool used to reach a goal.  Each person is the center of his or her own universe, and God is supposed to cater to each individual’s desires and needs.  If they are not met in one way, we search for another way that better fits our hopes and desires.  If we don’t get the answers we want in one place, we seek out those who give us what we want.

And all that hate, and struggle, and conflict that fills lives in the world these days, that may simply be the result of people believing they deserve to have what they want, and lashing out if they don’t seem to be getting it.  Or simpler yet, people deciding to get what they want regardless of the expense to others.

And yet, as we enter into this Advent season we are reminded that we are not the center of the universe, and what we want is not necessarily best, or right, or necessary.  

Jesus speaks to the disciples about events that may be coming—destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, persecution, hardship.  He says that the whole world may well pass away.

Think about what that means for a minute.  All that we long for and are willing to give everything for—fight for—will pass away.  After all, it is not eternal.  It is created.  All of it is material.  It comes and it goes.  And yet, it is this stuff, the material that has everyone so up in arms most of the time.

Jesus says that all of that will pass away, but my words will not pass away.  What are his words?  They are words of love—for God and others.  God loves.  He loves us.  In love he creates us.  And we are called to love.  That is eternal.  That is what matters.

And so, Jesus tells us to keep awake—not to watch for the end of time, but to watch for opportunities to be the end time witness of God’s love now.  How do we counter the craziness in our world—the hatred and self-centered focus that runs wild among us?  We show love.  We put the focus on God—on his love—and remember our place in the universe.

Then we may sing with the Psalmist, “Restore us, O God of host; let your face upon us, and we shall be saved.”