Advent 2020: Hope

A True Hope

Today marks the beginning of Advent. And it really serves us to remember today what this time is all about. Advent is all about waiting. It represents this time between captivity in or around an occupied Jerusalem, to a time when the Jews were in Diaspora. Wandering the earth looking for a home. Wondering why God, who had promised them a land, had seemingly taken it away. Waiting for God to return and bring them justice and peace.

Waiting, but this is not just waiting without a purpose, this time for them as for us is intended as being a time of expectant waiting. And that implies something more active than simply just waiting for a bus or waiting for paint to dry! It implies a mentality that understands there is not only something to be waited on, but that there is something to be done while we are waiting!

And hopefully we can all appreciate that, especially right now. I don’t at all want to overreach here, or to over spiritualize the situation in which we find ourselves, but one could easily interpret the present situation on our planet as one in which we are being offered an opportunity to see the value in waiting. But in our on-demand world, waiting is the last thing it seems we want to do. But this season, and this reminder of a time when God was not speaking to His people, calls us to remember that there is value in waiting – but not in an actionless waiting of a hopeless people, but in a waiting that calls for us to make ourselves ready. If only ready to hope.

Mark 13:24–37 ESV

“But in those days, after that tribulation, 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. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

Mark 13:24-37

Pray

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The lectionary brings us, this year, to an unexpected place to begin our expectant waiting. That is to the Gospel of Mark. And while unexpected in the sense that Mark contains no infancy narrative, perhaps we should expect it given the scholarly consensus surrounding this Gospel. You see, if there is a “first” Gospel – at least among those that are canonized – it is Mark. This, or some source that is remarkably similar to it, is the very first written explanation of God’s presence on earth.

It is the first written account of the other side of waiting. The other side of expectation. The other side of Hope! So, to begin there, I think, is exactly where we need to be!

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Think about it, what better place to start a journey then from the point of view of understanding the end results? I mean, if how we live, eat and exercise – or not – informed a constant picture in our minds of the result of our lives, surely, we would change how we operate! I think it would. At the very least, it should!

In the same way, as we are all wrestling through this Pandemic time, I wonder how we would change our actions if we were shown the results of our decisions. If we could clearly interpret the signs and evidence of our actions all around us. Take a lesson from the fig tree, Jesus would tell us. Look around you. While you are waiting for a cure, waiting for the government to do something, waiting for life to get back to normal, or even ignoring the problems of life altogether, are you still growing? Are you showing signs of life – and life in Christ?

Are you using this time to grow deeper roots? Roots that will offer you and those around you the spiritual nourishment you need to sustain life – even when life doesn’t look like you want it to.

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Consider the fig tree. Jesus is setting up this new idea of what waiting is all about. It isn’t just sitting at the window hoping that time starts passing faster! It isn’t just doing nothing until God returns! It isn’t, in our weakest moments, seeing everything around us as futile or hopeless and then waiting for death! It is an expectant and hopeful waiting – like waiting for family to come over to visit. Or waiting for a chance for a promotion. Or waiting for a child to be born. It is a time when you are making changes to your life, or your schedule, or putting together cribs and painting rooms. It is a waiting that is characterized with growth and not complacency.

This image would have been all too real for those listening. They would have, in some small part, lived through a time when God wasn’t speaking to them. They would have heard all those older than them speaking about how for 400 years God seemed to not be there! How they had been waiting for a Messiah – a King. Waiting. Just looking out the window and hoping.

They groaned – both inwardly and outwardly no doubt – about a God who couldn’t be seen in their eyes. And in that despair, as understandable as it is, they no doubt just sat and waited. Like any of us would. Maybe next year, in Jerusalem. A phrase still echoed to this day.

But the picture offered here by Jesus isn’t one that doesn’t know the ending! It is one that sees how all things pan out, and then offers to us exactly what one needs to do what must be done while we are waiting! And that is made perfectly clear to us in the final portion of our text today. I want us to read that again to better see what Jesus is getting at here.

Mark 13:32–37 ESV

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

Verse 32-37

Waiting. Watching. Working. That is what I see here. We don’t know the day or the hour our hope returns – just as Mary didn’t know the day or hour her hope and ours would come into the world! So, we wait. We look forward to the conclusion of the difficulties in our lives, in our world, and even in our faith! We wait expectantly on the God who said He would come to take us to be where He is!

But as we wait, we watch. “Keep alert!” Jesus says. You don’t know when the time will come. So, you can’t hope blindly while you wait, church, you have to be alert! Be ready! Do the work needed to stay on task. Stay focused on God’s expectations here! The Master has left us all in charge of His home and has left for us all work that must be done!

So yes, we watch. Yes, we wait. But we also must work. Now to be clear, I don’t mean that we do things for people trying to get in God’s good graces, but rather that we work out our faith. Far too often, we look at hope as a hail Mary and nothing more. The play at the end of the game that will win it all if we just believe hard enough. And when we think that way, we don’t make the adjustments needed in the game of life to even be in the game by the last play! But Grace offers us something different. Grace isn’t the hail mary that gets us the win, it is the justification of all our hope! Grace is the tool used to stand in the very presence of God and in that presence to be given new life! Grace is the voice of the coach who is calling for us to adjust our lives so that we can pull through all of this! Grace is the very fuel for our life.

And that life is intended to be lived both here and now, and eternally with Him.

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And that here and now involves effort on our part. And this little moment that Christ offers us here, is the spark that should light a fire in our lives – understanding that in this season of hope Jesus offers us the end game. You won’t know when, you won’t see it coming, but if you can just wait, watch, and work, you will be where I want you to be!

Including other stories in a sermon is always a challenge, and that is doubly true when I actually like the movie! So, my apologies to anyone who might not appreciate this one. But what I am talking about here isn’t unlike Avenger’s Infinity War. In the movie version, there is a moment when the heroes are getting ready to confront the Ultimate bad guy – one who has almost infinite power. While they are planning their attack – quite literally waiting for their opportunity – one of them who possesses the very thing the bad guy is after, a stone that allows the altering of time, does more than just wait.

He uses that power to travel through time and experience millions of different outcomes. He watches how the story unfolds every time it happens. And after he does that, he reports to the others that he has seen 14,000,605 possible outcomes. Another hero then asks him how many they win. To which he replies, “one.”

It is those same two characters, at the end of the next movie, that connect again in the final battle. This time, having waited, and watched, and worked through this time, a signal is offered, and the needed sacrifice is made. The one chance was being realized. But they could only get to that chance through the hope that they would be on the right path.

And church, the possibility of a positive outcome offered that hope. It didn’t offer a solid path, or a bunch of rules to be followed, it only offered hope. It didn’t dictate what must be done, only that the solution had to be worked out by those in whom that hope was placed with great care and personal sacrifice. So too it is for us all. Our faith is grounded in this great hope! The hope of the child to be born – but not just of that child, but of the man who would sacrifice it all! Of a life reborn in Him! Of hope that can never put us to shame!

Church, like this movie, there is one outcome to all our lives! One hope toward which we are all called! One life. One chance. One Spirit that binds us all together! And we must place our hope in that Spirit – that God – so much that our one chance through this life affects the world for the One who rules it all!

We know the end! We know that out of all the different possible outcomes that this world can offer there is one outcome in which we are victorious! And knowing that should fill us all with hope! Hope that every time we take time to pray, we are getting closer. Hope that every time we sacrifice our time, our energy, even our opinion, we are getting closer. Hope that whenever we find time to make our way closer to God that we are finding the path toward eternity! Hope that whether we think we are there or not, or whether life looks like we want it to or not, the God of all things has made a way! Not only that, HE is the way!

Psalm 16:5 NIV

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.

It is a hope that cries out:

1 Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.” 3 I say of the holy people who are in the land, “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.” 4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.

5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. 7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. 11 You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

All we must do, then, is to wait, watch, and work out our faith through our hope in Christ alone!

He is the hope in which we are saved! The hope that, even if we can’t see it, is always surrounding us! The hope of sacrifice! The hope of love! The hope of eternity with the Creator of everything!

The hope that we can make a difference, even if just for one life. A difference that leads another to God. After all, we aren’t in this alone. Our hope must be in God. But that hope should drive us to offer hope to the world around us. Just as Christ offers it to us, we must offer it to others.

Just as movies can be difficult, so too are challenging thoughts. Believe me, I want to offer inspiration and light, and to that end, I encourage you all to hear this in the spirit it is offered. A spirit of hope and love.

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But imagine, church, a world in which we spread light and hope above ourselves. A world where we don’t need the church to be open to offer hope. A world that doesn’t rely on others to dispense hope, but that does it ourselves! A world that doesn’t try to spread the gospel of our ideas but the truth of Christ! Of love! Of forgiveness from sin! Of a closeness to the Creator! Of a relationship that binds us to one another and to God!

Church, I say this again with all love, we have spent the past 9 months praying for God to end something that we then do little to nothing to prevent ourselves. We wonder where God is, and we complain about the tools that God has offered, equipped, and prepared for this very moment! If only we were willing to offer hope to others and to our world as fervently as we offer arguments for lifestyles that offer those around us this virus. Now imagine if we hoped in Christ. If we lived a changed life that was waiting, watching, and working. A live in which we would spread the love and hope of Christ over the world as quickly as we have watched Covid spread among us!

CHURCH THERE COULD STILL BE HARD TIMES, THERE COULD STILL BE DIFFICULTIES, BUT THROUGH ALL OF IT THERE WOULD BE CHRIST! THERE WOULD BE LOVE! THERE WOULD BE PEACE! THERE WOULD BE HOPE! THERE WILL BE LIGHT! And that would happen, church, if only we place our hope and trust in Him and then allow our love for God and neighbor to inform and rule all we do.

It’s not too late though. The world is still waiting in hope! Waiting for the Savior that we anticipate this season. But as it has always been in scripture, and in life, the bearers of hope are human. You and me. Everyone who lays hold of the hope of Christ is called to watch for opportunities to serve and to work out their faith in their life and our world!

That is the hope to which we are called. And “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.”

Communion