ADVENT 1B - Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37 -

30 November 2008 - A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

Being Awake and Looking for God to Show Up

INTRODUCTION - Advent and the Culture

It’s probably the most crazy-making, counter-cultural time of the year to be a Christian, and it begins today - the first day of Advent.

We hear about the day after Thanksgiving being “Black Friday”, a day for crazy shopping discounts and stores opening at 5 a.m. to the sometimes-frenzied masses, and the first words we hear read for our lessons today are “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence...”

We have barely finished uttering our prayers of thanks to God and we are suddenly talking about what is at the top of everyone’s Christmas list.

Economic experts are wondering if Americans will do enough shopping over the next several weeks to rescue us from a recession, and the refrain in the Psalm today - not once, but three times - is: “Restore us, O God of hosts; show us the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.”

We are beginning to negotiate a planned pullout of our armies with the leaders of Iraq, and talking about increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, and we hear (again), “Restore us, O God of hosts...” Do we even remember that “hosts” in that phrase can be a reference to the army of God? “Restore us, O God, with your army of angels and saints...”

Many of us think to ourselves, “Oh good, we can turn our thoughts once again to the story of the birth of Jesus”, but our Gospel today is entirely about Jesus talking about his coming again - the Second Coming, not the First Coming of Christ.

You and I get invited to many festivities and try to squeeze in too many other things during this season, and at some point we get overly tired and say we need to catch up on sleep, and what we hear Jesus say today to us is first - “beware, keep alert”, second - “keep awake”, and third - just to make sure we’re really listening, “Keep awake!” In other words, the time for slacking off and falling asleep is not now.

Is your head spinning yet? Mine is. It feels like I walk out my front door this time of year and I am in one culture, and I come into church today and for the next five Sundays (counting the Christmas season), and I am in a totally different culture. And I am led to ask myself: Which one has become the foreign culture?

THE GOSPEL

It’s worth listening again for a moment, because you are not going to hear anything remotely like this over the next week or the next several weeks, when you walk out the doors of this place.

Jesus said, “In those days, after that suffering [he has just finished talking about the time “when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be” - probably a reference to when the Temple would be destroyed, followed by a time of great suffering, with the appearance of false prophets and fall messiahs... 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 in the heavens will be shaken.” (Mark 13:24-25)

Have you heard anyone talking about this on CNN, or writing about it in The Economist?

He continues: “Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. [a quote from Daniel 7:13] Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect [the faithful people of God] from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.” (Mark 13:26-27)

And just in case we think we can read the signs perfectly, of when this whole Second Coming of Jesus will occur, he adds: “But about that day or hour no none knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son [not even Jesus knows when it will be!], but only the Father.” And we come to the first “be alert”: “Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.” (verses 32-33)

And finally, he compares his disciples to slaves in the household of the Lord.

“It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work [each with responsibility!], and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake [there it is again!] - 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, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all [that is, all those who will believe in me]: Keep awake.” (Mark 13:34-37)

FALLING ASLEEP

It would be so easy for us to fall asleep again during this Advent season.

An estimated 2,000 fell asleep outside a Wal-Mart store in Valley Stream, New York, about twenty miles east of Manhattan, on Friday. Did you hear about that? They were so eager to get the best shopping deal possible that the Wal-Mart worker who opened the doors for them early in the morning couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, and was trampled to death. The report said that a metal portion of the door frame was crumpled like an accordion. A police spokesman was quoted as saying, “This crowd was out of control.” They fell asleep. They forgot what the season is all about.

We can fall asleep by taking things for granted. And by that, I mean the really big things, like God, love, family, friends, freedom, peace, education, health, our jobs. If we’re not careful, we can get so caught up in the culture that we take the really important things for granted. They are left scattered in our wake, and by the time Christmas comes, we’re not sure what hit us, either. We’re just glad it’s over.

That is not being alert. That is not being on the lookout for the Master of the house.

Another way we can fall asleep is to act as if what we do is not important to God. Although God is good - all the time - that doesn’t mean that God isn’t outraged by some of the things that His people do. In fact, it’s because God is good that God gets outraged at times.

You and I can sit in our living rooms and think to ourselves, “The stock market will always go up. Executives of the largest financial companies will always do the right thing. My children will always eat what is best for them. No one will do evil things in the world.” But us thinking these things does not necessarily make them true.

As I was reminded the other day when I went to see the movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, it was only a little over 60 years ago that millions of Jews were being burned alive in crematoriums. A lot of Christians, even some prominent German theologians, looked on this and said nothing. Some of them even endorsed Hitler’s policies. Some of them even compared Hitler to Christ.

Sometimes being asleep has very grave consequences.

Saying “God is good - all the time” certainly does not translate into “people are good all the time.” We are not God. As people of faith, we aspire to be like God. That is a significant distinction.

BEING AWAKE

Jesus says to us, in essence, “Even though you don’t know when I’m coming back, I want you to be awake, alert, and vigilant. I could show up at any time, and you don’t want to be asleep.”

This is a quite a challenge he puts before us. I don’t really know how we can comply, other than to try to be on the lookout for God each day, and try to listen for God’s voice, and take another step of faith - each day.

So....

As you get up early or stay up late to shop, and as you wrap gifts for those you love...

As you travel and have family gatherings and what could be very important conversations...

As you participate in various Christmas parties, which you and I know should probably be called “Advent parties”...

As you decorate your homes or this church... and as you bake cookies...

As you continue to go to work, or look for work...

As you volunteer and do things this season that you believe fit in with being a Christian...

... can you try to stand back for a moment, in any of these situations, and be alert enough to see where God is - in the very midst of where you are, and what you are doing? That is what Jesus is asking us to do, it seems to me. Can we be on the lookout for God this Advent, so that whether we are looking forward to hearing the story again of his First Coming, whether we are anticipating his Second Coming, or whether we are looking for what the Prayer Book refers to as his “daily visitation”, we don’t miss the Master when he shows up?

It’s about being accountable to the One who is greater than ourselves - the Lord of all that is, and all that will be. We must, ultimately, give an answer to the One who will return. You probably won’t be hearing much about that over the next few weeks. But you did hear it here - today - and Jesus was the one who said it.

There is another option, of course. We can get caught up in another December that feels like crazy-making, and wish that the month would just hurry up and be over with.

I say keeping awake has it all over that latter option. May we all keep awake this Advent. And may you discover the Lord showing up to you in all sorts of new and unpredictable and challenging and delightful ways.