Advent 1B 2023

First Sunday in Advent, Year B

In the name of the Father, and the +Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today marks the beginning of the new year in the church calendar. It is the first day of the season of Advent. There are 4 Sundays in the season, and they are always the 4 which lead up to Christmas. The season itself takes its name from the Latin word “adventus” which means “arrival” or “coming”, especially the arrival of something or someone of great importance. For the Church, we look to the anniversary of our Savior’s birth, but we also look forward to His glorious return - the day when “he will come again to judge the living and the dead.”

In the days before Jesus’ birth, God’s people were not enjoying life. After being conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., God’s chosen people were forced to accept Greek culture. Some of Alexander’s successors even made it so that owning a copy of Hebrew Scriptures was illegal, and the Hebrew practice of circumcision was punishable by death. God’s people eventually (167 B.C.) rose up in rebellion, and then later (63 B.C.) were brought under the control of the Roman Empire. In all, this period led the people of Israel to wonder if God had indeed forgotten them. And so they were desperate for a savior—their Messiah, promised by the prophets, awaited for centuries. Hope was frail for them.

So when the young baby was born to Joseph and Mary sometime between 6 B.C. and 4 B.C., the people were nearly desperate. The news of the birth of Messiah would certainly have rekindled their hope in God’s promises. It is with that same hope that we look forward to Messiah’s return at the end of the ages, when all will be made right, and all of God’s promises fulfilled. [adapted from Pfaetticher, Manual on the Liturgy] The color blue we use reflects the hope that we have in the Resurrection of the dead, and of Christ’s return.

But preparing for Christ’s arrival involves more than simply hope. Advent is a period of spiritual preparation. Many Christians use this time to make themselves ready for the coming of the Messiah. This preparation typically involves prayer, fasting, and repentance - all the practices of a people who are actively seeking God’s grace and mercy, demonstrating their love for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by repenting of their sins and turning from their own way to God’s way. This is the pattern repeated through the Old Testament. Those who were considered the faithful remnant of God’s people would repent, fast, and pray for God’s mercy…and they would receive it.

In the Gospel lesson for today, you’ll notice that we have moved from Matthew to Mark. Mark is the primary Gospel for Year B in our 3-year cycle. While Matthew’s theme is to show that Jesus is the Messiah foretold by the Old Testament, Mark’s theme is simply to demonstrate the Jesus is the Son of God…that he is as much divine as he is human. So this year, we will see that message repeatedly as we move through Mark’s account of the Good News.

So to kick off the season of Advent, we turn to Jesus telling his disciples what the “Day of the Lord” (a.k.a. Judgment Day) will look like. This whole chapter so far has been all about what the end times will look like. Just a few verses ago, Peter, James, John, and Andrew had taken Jesus aside privately to ask him when the day of judgment would come, and what would be the sign or signs they should look for. Jesus warned them about false signs, false teachers claiming to be the Messiah, and the hostility of the world toward the followers of the true Son of God. Jesus describes a really dark period of conflict and difficulty (“tribulation”) prior to the end. But before the end can take place, Mark 13:10 “... the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.” Clearly Jesus’ followers are to carry out that task, and as they do, they will face the opposition and hostility of the world. And that’s where today’s reading picks up.

The sky above and the ground below will both be completely changed. When we see the skies and the earth go through these drastic upheavals, we will know that all the trials and tribulations leading up to that will be concluded. It will transition quickly into what Jesus is now describing. And it will be quite a sight to see. One scholar warns us that we shouldn’t even dare to try to imagine how bad it will be. It will be “utterly beyond human conception.” [Lenski, 584] And then we’ll see the Son of Man coming back as he left - in clouds. The sun won’t be shining, nor the moon, and the stars will have fallen or gone dark. But we won’t need that because the only light we will see is the only light we need - the light of the glory of our Messiah - the Christ. Psalm 104:3 and Isaiah 19:1 both tell us that “the clouds are God’s chariot, the symbol of his heavenly majesty for men.” [ibid] Whoever arrives on God’s chariot is certainly sent by God Himself. This, too, is testament to Jesus as the Son of God.

The angels he sends out to gather "his elect” - this is a reference to the resurrection of the dead. These angels will cover the entire planet to do this: all “four corners” of the world.

Now Jesus gives a short parable: the fig tree. Fig trees are not evergreen. They lose their leaves and go through changes. So the disciples would have known that as the tree recovers from the winter and moves into spring, it would show new signs of life, new leaves would begin to appear, which would tell them that summer was coming soon. They could COUNT on the arrival of summer when they saw these signs from the tree. In the same way, even though no one knows when Christ will return, there WILL be signs, and they WILL tell us that He is coming.

The picture that Jesus paints about these signs is nothing fun. Most likely, it will be some of the scariest things that most of us have ever seen. But for those of us who believe - we have nothing to fear. Instead of fear, we have hope. We know that the awful stuff is coming to an end. We know that there is something for us on the other side of God’s Judgment. We know that we have an eternity of peace and communion with God to look forward to after the tribulations and the cataclysms and the scariness of the end. We have a Savior … a Messiah … who has come to bring us through it.

I’d encourage you to read the first part of Mark 13 to understand the other things that Jesus describes to his closest followers. Mark 13:7 “And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet.” is a good summary of what he’s explaining. There will be worldwide conflict. There will be natural disasters. There will be famine.

There have always been people who have claimed “the End is Near!” since Jesus walked the earth. There have been quite a few just in my lifetime. How many of you have heard that COVID was a sign of the end? That something awful that last US president did, or our current president has done is a sign of the end times? The Russia-Ukraine war is a sign of the End Times - Russia has nukes, you know!

We’ve seen some crazy things in the last few years…no doubt. And world conflict is pretty high. There are things going on in the world that I could NOT have seen coming 20 years ago…10 years ago…even 5 years ago really. Lots has changed. But nothing has been “end-times” bad. Jesus said himself Mark 13:8 “...These are but the beginning of the birth pains.”

There have always been wars and famine and natural disasters. The disciples had seen all of these themselves more than once. And they would see them again within their lifetimes. And yet, the Son of Man did not return. No, these sorts of signs themselves are not enough to herald the Day of the Lord.

“Just when the end will arrive no man knows. We are always to be ready for its coming since all the signs have already occurred again and again.” [Lenski, 587] It is the first 2 verses of today’s reading that give us the best signs to look for. When the Day of the Lord - Judgment Day - actually does come, it will be UNMISTAKABLE. No one will have to ask “are these the end times?”

When Jesus is explaining this to his disciples, he has spent much time surrounded by people who denied who he is. They were passionate in their belief that this Nazarene carpenter could not possibly be the Messiah, nor the Son of God. No way. Jesus is telling his followers what they can expect for themselves when those who reject him are subjected to God’s judgment, but without the hope the Messiah brings.

Many things will face destruction before Judgment Day finally comes. Jesus tells them that Mark 13:31 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” And that means all of Jesus words - everything he has foretold must take place before Judgment Day comes. His words must be fulfilled…they must come true…and they will not be changed. But still…no one knows when it will happen. Even Jesus admits that he doesn’t know. “Many have tried to know more concerning the end and its exact date than Jesus knew in his humiliation. That date has been often set, and yet when it arrived, the world went on, and no end came.” [Lenski, 591]

So if there’s no way to know, how are we to wait? I think we have 2 choices: we can not wait and just get on with our lives, believing that it won’t happen in our lifetimes anyway. It’s been 2,000 years already; it could be 2,000 more…which is way longer than any of us are going to live. We’ve got stuff to do. Judgment Day is so far in the future I don’t need to worry about it. Is that the right approach? The biblical approach to it?

The other choice is to wait as though Jesus could come back at any time. As though a trumpet might sound in the next few moments and cut my sermon short and Judgment Day would come RIGHT NOW. Is there anything you’d want to do before Judgment Day? If Jesus walked through the door right now, would you do anything different? Mark 13:33 “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.” What does that look like for us now, 2000 years after Jesus’ crucifixion?

“The disciples are to keep their eyes open constantly to observe what is happening and how it agrees with what Jesus foretold. Constant praying is to be combined with this alertness. The contents of these prayers will naturally be appeals to God to keep the disciples true in faith and ready for Christ’s coming. The reason for this conduct of the disciples is the fact that they do not know ‘when the season is,’ ὁ καιρός, that special, fitting period selected for Christ’s coming. Καιρός is more than just ‘time,’ it is a smaller section of time that is marked by what is to occur in it, hence this word is generally translated ‘season.’ The uncertainty of the time of the Lord’s coming is to keep us wide awake, to call on God, and thus to be ever ready.” [Lenski, 591–592.]

For the rest of this reading, Jesus uses figurative language…calling himself “lord of the house”. We then are like the doorkeeper who might be tempted to fall asleep in the night…and we might be caught sleeping if the master returns “suddenly”. This would be a “sleeping doorkeeper [who] is not ready to receive his master. [If this is us, it is as though] we cease watching for Jesus, grow dull and unresponsive spiritually, and thus call forth the wrath of the Lord instead of his good pleasure. Woe to those who sleep thus when the Lord of glory suddenly appears! [Lenski, 594–595]

Brothers and sisters - as we begin a new church year, and we embrace this Advent season, let’s follow our tradition and think about the return of our Savior. How can we prepare for his arrival? Who doesn’t yet know about Christ…that one of us could share the Good News with them? What can we do to ensure that we don’t grow spiritually dull and unresponsive?

Let us all watch for opportunities and neighbors this season in which we can share the blessings we have received, so that when He does return, we have not kept our hope to ourselves, but shared it far and wide.

In the name of the Father, and the +Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.