Doorkeepers On Watch

Mark 13:24-37

A sermon by K. Toivanen at EMUC, 11/30/2008

Following those hard times, Sun will fade out, moon cloud over, Stars fall out of the sky, cosmic powers tremble.

Hey, wait a minute. What’s that you’re reading? And more importantly, why are you reading it? I don’t want to hear about more hard times. I don’t want to think about more earth-shattering and earth shaking events!
I came to church today to get in the mood for Christmas.
I came to sing Christmas carols and to celebrate in a festive atmosphere with Christmas tree lights and poinsettias, holly and other decorations.
I came to hear the stories about angels singing and shepherds watching their flocks. I came to experience once again that warm and comforting feeling in the retelling of the familiar Christmas story. I came for words of ‘comfort and joy’.
This stuff that you are reading from the Gospel of Mark doesn’t belong in this festive season. Get with the right program and stop ruining the Christmas mood.

There is no doubt about it. The gospel of Mark is one of the least ‘Christmassy’ of the gospels. No stories of angels and stars, no stable or shepherds, no wisemen, no pregnant Mary, no Joseph and no baby Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem! And yet among Christian denominations who follow a three year cycle of weekly Bible readings called the ‘lectionary’ we are ‘assigned’ the gospel of Mark on this First Sunday of Advent. And on this first Sunday of a new church year, we can anticipate a whole year’s worth of readings from the gospel of Mark.

Scholars believe that Mark’s gospel was written about 30 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. It was a highly charged period with war on the horizon, if not already happening with the Jewish Revolt that began in 66. It was this conflict with the Roman Empire that would bring the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem, leaving Judea in ruins. And with the destruction of the centre of Jewish religious life, the ‘Diaspora’ soon followed - the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world. Some Jews were sold as slaves or transported as captives after the fall of Judea, others fled to remnant Jewish communities in North Africa, and neighbouring nations.

Early Christians, many of whom were born Jews, were similarly at risk of persecution and dislocation and of course they too suffered the inevitable consequences of war…with its shattering of community life and safety, scarcity of food and the essentials of life.

In the midst of these tumultuous and traumatic times, the Christian community of Mark’s time was convinced that they were watching the end of their world as they knew it. In the passage we read today in Mark’s gospel, these end times are dramatically described, and yet in spite of all that seems to be crashing down around them, embedded in this reading is an invitation to take hold of a tenacious hope; a hope that will surprise them when they least expect it.

But what do we have in common with that early Christian community? We have no experience of watching the end of the world as we know it or do we?

• stock markets plummet as nations around the world face economic crises and unemployment rates rise
• terrorists kill over 170 people in Mumbai
• a crisis of leadership faces the current Canadian government
• war atrocities and tragedies continue to take their toll of human lives in Afghanistan, the Congo, and the Sudan
• the HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to devastate communities and households in Sub-Saharan Africa as 33 million continue to live with HIV world-wide
• a frenzied crowd of 2,000 bargain-hunting Thanksgiving shoppers in Long Island stampede and trample a Wal-Mart worker to death
• water shortages, drought and other environmental disasters grow with climate change and the endangerment and extinction of thousands of species continues day by day.

I think we know all too well what it means to watch the end of the world as we know it! Perhaps we have more in common with those folks who were the first to hear the gospel of Mark. Perhaps, even without Christmas stories of mangers and shepherds, there is something worth heeding in Mark’s gospel after-all.

You see I think that the challenge in this Advent Season for those of us who call ourselves Christians is to be clear about the focus of these four weeks of preparation. Are we so preoccupied in preparing for the arrival of Christmas that we neglect preparing for the arrival of Christ? You see, I think that we all too often succumb to the momentum of the Christmas machine that starts ramping up as soon as Hallowe’en is over.

It’s the machine that fills our mailboxes with Christmas flyers and our TV screens with thousands of products to buy before the ‘shopping days’ count down and come to an end. It’s the machine packs the shopping malls, selling enough ribbon to tie a bow around the earth and enough cards to fill a football field 10 stories high. It’s the machine that fills the greenhouses with trees and poinsettias and grocery stories with exotic food from around the world;
it’s the machine that can absorb us with countless hours of shopping, food preparation, decorating, and holiday traditions that can leave us exhausted, in debt and stressed out. It’s the machine that can easily fill up all of our Advent days with busy activities all the while successfully diverting us from watching and preparing for the arrival of Christ in our midst.

So, while it may be true that Mark’s gospel doesn’t us help us prepare for the arrival of Christmas, it does help prepare us for the arrival of Christ. It prepares us for the Christ who has a word of hope for our world today; a word that that will not wear out even as all that we thought that would stand ‘forever’ in this world seems to be falling away.

But in order to be ready for this word of hope, in order to be present when Christ appears with way forward into new life; we must keep a sharp look out, stay at our post, keep watch at the door because we don’t know where or when that word of hope will be spoken; we don’t know when Christ will suddenly show up.

In Greek, the original language of the gospel, the word for watching, being alert and on the look out is the word ‘gregoreite’. It is the same word that Jesus uses in the Garden of Gethsemane when he begs the disciples to stay awake and pray with him. It’s the word Jesus uses in the parable we read today…

‘Gregoreite!’ Jesus says to us. ‘Stay awake, be on the look out, as hard as may be at times, as long as it takes, don’t go to sleep on me!’

Don’t drift away or nod off so that you miss me when I arrive on your door step.

Don’t be caught looking the other way, when I stand right in front of you, with my hands stretched out to invite you to join me in the sacred work of repairing this broken world.

Don’t get complacent and lazy, and sleep through the precious gift of this hour and this day; a day I have given you for experiencing and giving my love; a day for uncovering and discovering the signs of hope and the promise of life in the rubble of these times.

Don’t shut your eyes in fear or panic to what is going on around you. Open your eyes wide and look more closely, more deeply, for even the most barren of landscapes, even where you least expect it, you’ll see a hint of green, a new shoot of possibility; a bud that promises the new life I offer.

Don’t get distracted by the din and the noise of all the hustle and bustle that pervades this season. Listen underneath the cacophony of sound for my voice, for I speak of a way peace for you to follow even in these violent times; I have a song of joy for you to sing in the world even in these sad times; I have words of love to sustain you even in these uncertain times.

Stay awake, watch and wait, keep your post at the door, for you don’t know the day or the hour when I may arrive on your doorstep.

I may arrive in this time of worship or as you light the Advent Candles in your home;
I may arrive in a quiet time of prayer and reflection;
I may arrive in a few notes of music;
I may arrive in the stranger who needs shelter or food;
I may arrive in the ‘Simply Christmas’ group discussion;
I may arrive in the conversation with a friend or in an encounter with someone in the line up at the store;
I may arrive in ordinary people who see an injustice and without fanfare take action;
I may arrive in the child who asks what the Christmas story really means;
I may arrive in someone who comes here to worship for the first time;
I may arrive at the hospital bedside or in a time of grieving for a loved one;
I may arrive in a crisis of conscience or a moment of despair;
I may arrive in the tug of someone trying to get your attention;
I may arrive in the mute suffering of those who can no longer cry out for help;
I may I may even arrive in a baby - born in a shack in a poor village in a land plagued with conflict and oppression.’

Folks, Advent is upon us. ‘Gregoreite!’ Stay awake, watch, wait and prepare. Wait for the word that will not wear out in these hard times; Watch for the life that will bud forth in these end times; Prepare for the Christ who surely comes among us, even though we do not know the day or the hour. Even so, come Lord Jesus come. Amen.