Watching and Waiting

Every morning, a Hasidic rabbi would cross the square on his way to the temple to pray. His journey was interrupted one morning when a large Russian Cossack soldier in a bad mood, accosted him and said in a threatening manner, “Hey, rabbi, where are you going?”

The rabbi answered simply, saying, “I don’t know” – an answer that infuriated the soldier. “What do you mean, you don’t know? Every morning for 25 years, you have crossed the village square and gone to the temple to pray. Don’t fool with me. Why are you telling me you don’t know?” He grabbed the old rabbi by the coat and dragged him off to jail.

Just as the Cossack was about to push him into the cell, the rabbi turned to him, and softly said, “You see, I didn’t know.” His day had begun like any other day, but it had not turned out as he expected. We never know what a day is going to hold for us.

There’s a different question, but the answer is the same. When someone asks “When will Christ return, with a climax to history and a new world order straight from God be introduced?” The answer is, we don’t know. The early church thought it would be in their lifetime. It’s been 2,000 years. “Why does the Lord tarry?” many ask. We don’t know. We should not be surprised at that. There is much in life that God has not revealed to us.

We don’t even know what tomorrow might bring, much less the next few weeks or months or centuries. But as Christians, we know that day will come, and with it a reckoning,

For several weeks we’ve been studying Jesus as He talks about what the Old Testament calls “the Day of the Lord” – when Jesus comes back in all His glory and judges the people based on what they have done or not done for the “least of His children.” On the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, or the He made that clear in last week’s lesson on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, or the Sunday before Advent begins, Jesus made clear that we should be waiting and watching for the Day of the Lord. And now here it is, the First Sunday of Advent – which is supposed to about waiting and watching for the coming of the Messiah born as a tiny baby – God come to earth in human form. How can it be both?

Perhaps that’s part of the mystery of Advent -- it’s like living in the wilderness between what was and what will be. Advent is about living into this tension, remembering God’s promises, and depending on faith. Even though the Promised Land may seem far off, we hold tightly to the promises of our God, for “he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23 NIV).

FROM MATTHEW TO MARK

Over a three-year time period, the Revised Common Lectionary takes us – more or less – through the entire Bible. I follow the Revised Common Lectionary – as do many pastors in the Methodist tradition and from mand other denominations.

People are always asking me about the Lectionary and why I use it, and my basic answer is that I think it’s the best way to take in the major stories in the Bible. I almost always preach from the Gospel because, as followers of Christ, I think that’s what we need most to hear. It’s also sometimes what I least want to preach on but following the Lectionary makes me preach on the things I might rather not.

I wanted to talk about the Lectionary a bit this morning because we’re moving into a new Church Year with the beginning of Advent, and that means a new lectionary year and a new Gospel writer.

The first year of the lectionary cycle – which we just finished last week – covers Matthew. Beginning today, we begin a year-long look through Mark, and Advent season of 2021 will find us in Luke. Those three Gospels generally take us through the life of Jesus – His ministry, preaching, teaching, and healing, His final days that culminate in His crucifixion, and His resurrection. They often cover the same territory, but because Matthew and John were disciples of Jesus, they had a closer knowledge of His thinking, the workings of the inner circle and His interactions with the Twelve. Luke knew a lot about Jesus because he did a lot of personal interviews with people who had known Him, including extensive time with Jesus’ mother Mary – the only person besides Jesus who was present at the manger AND at the cross. Mark, who was younger than the others and who may or may not have actually known Jesus in person, was the first Gospel writer and also the writer of the shortest Gospel – compare his 16 chapters, to John’s 21, Luke’s 24, and Matthew’s 28.

But there are four gospels – what about John? Well, you may have noticed John is different. For one thing, he was an old man when he wrote the Gospel of John, and he had had plenty of time to think about all that had happened, and to better understand what it all had meant. John was very deep, and he perhaps saw the deeper side of Jesus than the others did. He covers some of the same ground as the other writers, but also goes off in different directions. For example, John is the only Gospel writer to give the seven “I AM” statements, such as “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the Gate,” “I am the Bread of Life.” Passages from John are interspersed throughout the three-year Revised Common Lectionary cycle.

The Lectionary gives us four readings each Sunday through the three-year cycle – as mentioned, one from the Gospels, as well as readings from the Old Testament in general, the Psalms in particular, and the letters of Paul and the other Epistle writers.

That’s a little bit about the Common Revised Lectionary for your edification, and to explain why we’re suddenly in Mark.

And we’re not starting at the beginning of Mark like we did with Matthew – that’s because Matthew (and Luke) begin with a birth story and Mark has no birth story. Mark 1 starts with the grown-up John the Baptist and moves quickly to John baptizing the grown-up Jesus and through Christ’s adult life and ministry in 12 chapters. Some of those do include some of Jesus’ confrontations with the religious leaders, but it is not until chapter 13 that we start seeing Jesus beginning to prepare the disciples for what is ahead. That is our reading today. Chapter 14 takes us quickly through the Last Supper, his arrest, a mock trial before the Sanhedrin, and Peter’s denying of Jesus three times, and Chapter 15 is about His death and burial. Most scholars agree that Mark himself wrote only eight of the 20 verses in Chapter 16, and that is apparently because Mark, in most early Greek New Testaments, ended with eight verses in which Jesus has risen from the dead and appeared to several women, who were so afraid that they told no one about His resurrection. An additional 11 or 12 verses were later added, presumably by the Early Church Fathers, to describe some other appearances, sayings of Jesus, and His ascension, and how His followers had gone out and proclaimed the message everywhere and did “signs,” which usually means “miracles.”

Although we’re beginning our study of Mark’s Gospel today, our lesson for today is actually near the end of Mark’s Gospel. We WILL begin with Mark 1next week, though. However, it’s clear that, for now, we’re on about the same time frame, chronologically, as Matthew, and that means that we’re hearing the same message from Jesus, but with different words and two final parables. Jesus is again speaking of the coming of the Son of Man, the Day of Judgment, and the importance of staying alert. He keeps saying that – those exact words are used FOUR times in this short passage, so it must be important.

Enough of this background on the Lectionary and moving from Matthew to Mark. Let’s read today’s lesson from Mark 13:24-37:

24 “In those days, after the suffering of that time, the sun will become dark, and the moon won’t give its light.

25 The stars will fall from the sky, and the planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken.

26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and splendor.

27 Then he will send the angels and gather together his chosen people from the four corners of the earth, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven.

28 “Learn this parable from the fig tree. After its branch becomes tender and it sprouts new leaves, you know that summer is near.

29 In the same way, when you see these things happening, you know that he’s near, at the door.

30 I assure you that this generation won’t pass away until all these things happen. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away.

32 “But nobody knows when that day or hour will come, not the angels in heaven and not the Son. Only the Father knows.

33 Watch out! Stay alert! You don’t know when the time is coming. 34 It is as if someone took a trip, left the household behind, and put the servants in charge, giving each one a job to do, and told the doorkeeper to stay alert.

35 Therefore, stay alert! You don’t know when the head of the household will come, whether in the evening or at midnight, or when the rooster crows in the early morning or at daybreak.

36 Don’t let him show up when you weren’t expecting and find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to all: Stay alert!”

OLD TESTAMENT CONNECTION

It is important to remember who Jesus was talking to at the time – Jews. There weren’t any Christians yet, and His disciples are all Jews. Jesus is using terms and pictures familiar to the people of His day, and most – if not all -- of those terms and pictures come straight from the Old Testament, primarily from the books of Daniel and Joel, as well as from the prophet Isaiah.

But many of the images Jesus draws here come from Daniel. In fact, John F. Walvoord, long-time president of Dallas Theological Seminary, said that Daniel 7 “provides the most comprehensive and detailed prophecy of future events to be found anywhere in the Old Testament." And most of the images Jesus used in our passage in Mark came from Daniel 7 – terms like “Son of Man” (or a figure like a human man, and a named Jesus used to call Himself). The book also describes described four beasts that would rise up – the traditional view espoused by John Calvin was that these despotic governments represented Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Our passage in Mark doesn’t refer to the beasts, but we find them mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, but especially in Revelation. Daniel says the Son of Man would come on the heavenly clouds and be presented to God, who would give him rule, glory and kingship over all peoples, nations and languages.

That was all part of Daniel’s vision, and Jesus used many parts of it in today’s Gospel lesson – but there are differences. The biggest difference is the location – many scholars have seen this as a prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus here on earth. But in Daniel’s vision, it all takes place in heaven, with God seated on His throne, sitting in judgment – and THEN Jesus appears. The difference is that in Daniel, Jesus appears in heaven before God, whereas Jesus talks about coming TO earth from heaven. Accordingly, John Calvin saw Daniel’s vision as a prophecy of Christ’s ascension to the right hand of God after his resurrection, as opposed being a prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus from heaven to earth, a time when Jesus would come to establish the reign of God on earth and gather people from all parts of the earth together.

But there’s one more aspect of Jesus talking to the Jews the way He did. William Barclay, my expert on Jewish tradition, says, “The Jews never doubted that they were the chosen people, and they never doubted that one day they would occupy the place in the world which the chosen people, as they saw it, deserved and were bound to have in the end. They had long since abandoned the idea that they could ever win that place by human means and they were confident that in the end God would directly intervene in history and win it for them.

The day of God’s intervention was the day of the Lord. Before that day of the Lord there would be a time of terror and trouble when the world would be shaken to its foundations and judgment would come. But it would be followed by the new world and the new age and the new glory.” It is in this context that we need to look more at what Jesus is saying.

WHEN’S IT GOING TO HAPPEN?

First, there’s a timetable of sorts – “In those days, after the suffering of that time, the sun will become dark, and the moon won’t give its light. The stars will fall from the sky, and the planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken.” One reason the early Christians thought Christ would return soon was because they interpreted “after the suffering of that time” to mean the Roman persecution of Christians. But the persecution eventually ended, but Christ’s Second Coming didn’t arrive. There has been suffering and persecution down through the ages – sometimes perpetrated toward Christians and sometimes by Christians – but Christ hasn’t come back yet. When there were eclipses of the sun or the moon, people thought that was a sign, or at a shooting star. I read just this week that on December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will be the closest to each other in the last 500 years, and that date corresponds with the date of the winter solstice, and some pastors are saying THAT’S when it will come.

Of course, I guess they never read Jesus saying that nobody knows when it’s going to happen.

And there have certainly been people who have set dates, sold all their possessions and went to some mountain to await that fateful day – that never came.

But Jesus does give us a hint – Look at the fig tree, a common plant of that time. When the fig tree sprouts leaves, everyone knew that summer was on the way. So look for the signs, and when you see those things happening, the day when He will return is near.

That’s not spelled out here in Mark’s shorter version, but in Matthew 24, Jesus names five specific things – He foretells first the destruction of the Temple (which happened in 70 A.D. and then Signs of the End of the Age -- wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, as well as heresies; this had to do with individuals claiming to be the Messiah leading the people astray or otherwise promoting false doctrines or heresies and leading the people astray.

Next comes Persecution of those who claim the name of Jesus (but the good news is that those who persevere will be saved and that the Gospel will be proclaimed throughout the world) and then The Destruction of the Temple (which happened in 70 A.D.) and the subsequent devastating siege of the city of Jerusalem; during that horrible time, almost 100,000 people taken captive and more than a million men, women and children died of starvation, the historian Josephus tells us

The fifth thing Matthew described is the coming of the Son of Man, as described in today’s two parables about not knowing when the day is coming and being ready for it.

TWO PARABLES ON STAYING ALERT

The first is really short, and Jesus calls it a “parable.” He reminds them of what they already know about the fig tree – watch the fig tree, and when you see tender branches and new leaves, you’ll know that summer is just around the corner and the fig tree is ready to produce figs. That’s the way you’ll know that the Day of the Lord is near, when you start seeing those things. In one way, that’s not very helpful – that is, there have been wars and rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes and pastors and/or other leaders trying to lead the people away for centuries. But that’s all the reason to stay alert, because we don’t know when it’s coming. The angels don’t know, Jesus Himself doesn’t know – only God knows when that will happen, and we need to be ready, continuing right up to the present.

And then in the next three verses, Jesus uses the phrase “Stay alert” four times – twice in one verse – and three of these are injunctions – DO THIS! Statements. This is important, folks. Jesus thinks it’s important, so we need to think it’s important, too.

This section begins with another short parable, but Jesus doesn’t call it a parable. He DOES use the familiar wording, though – “It is as if someone…” In this case, the someone is taking a trip – it’s similar to a couple of parables we’ve studied in the past few weeks. In this case, the person taking the trip puts servants in charge and give each one a job to do, Basically, “These are the things you need to do before I get back.” And isn’t that really what this is all about? Jesus is telling His disciples He is putting them in charge, He is giving them everything they need to be able to accomplish the task, and He has expectations that those things will be done when He returns. In this section, the person taking the trip tells the doorkeeper to stay alert for his return.

But the next “Stay alert!” seems to be more generally directed – not just to the doorkeeper but to everyone, because nobody knows when the head of household is coming back – it might be early evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or the sun rises. He DOESN’T say “Or in the middle of a Sunday afternoon,” but I think that’s implied. It’s coming, but we don’t know when, so we want to be ready. We don’t want to be sleeping or not prepared for His arrival when Jesus comes back. No, He is very emphatic when he says, “What I say to you, I say to all: STAY ALERT!”

OUR HEARTS RESPOND TO GOD'S WORD

“Keep awake” or “Stay alert” is found many times in Paul’s letters and in the Gospels, and it always refers to living as Christ taught us to live, and not going back into our old selfish ways. When we live as Christ taught us to live – obeying both the rules and the Spirit of the Ten Commandments, following His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere, and loving others AS He loved us -- we will be ready for His return, whenever that comes, and we’ll get a “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” When we don’t live as Christ taught us to live, we will be caught by surprise at His return, we’ll hear “Get away from me, you worthless servant. I told you and told you to Stay Alert, to Be Ready, and here you are – not ready for me at all.” Those last words aren’t in our passage in Mark, but they’re definitely in the parable of the faithful and worthless servants we read a week or so ago.