Isaiah 64.1-9 & Mark 13.24-37
Have
you ever taken a sauna, perhaps trying to outstay someone? Then coming out you
enter a very cold shower or sometimes an ice cold plunge pool, or perhaps in Sweden
roll in the snow! Or perhaps you took up the Ice Bucket challenge that was going around in the late summer months.
This
passage from Mark has that effect – or at least it should if you are paying
enough attention!
We
have missed some of the earlier passages and jumped straight into Mark’s Gospel
part way through Jesus’ outlining the future.
This
is shocking and brings us up with a jolt, or at least ought to.
Today
is the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the new liturgical year with
Mark as the guiding principle Gospel for the year ahead.
I
would encourage you to read Mark, learn and inwardly digest.
So,
why have we jumped in here and not taken the more logical step and started at
the beginning of the Gospel?
Well
there are good reasons for that; however Mark’s Gospel is so dynamic that wherever
you jump in it is like a slap in the face.
Mark
begins and offers no birth narrative but plunges straight into Jesus’ public
ministry with a startling announcement – an announcement that has everything to
do with today’s reading and the season of Advent.
Mark
opens his Gospel speaking about John the Baptizer making a straight road, a
highway for the Lord.
Familiar
words from Isaiah chapter 40 and set to wonderful music and words by Handel in
The Messiah, ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.’
Then
Jesus’ first words set a challenge both then and now.
‘At
last the time has come!’ ‘The Kingdom
of God is near!’ ‘Repent
and believe the Good News!’
We
need to bear in mind that Jesus would have heard evangelist announcing good
news of the advancing kingdom as he grew up.
These
evangelists, tellers of good news, would have been dispatched from Rome and
called to announce some glorious military triumph or the Emperor’s birthday or
some such good news!
And
here is Jesus announcing another kingdom, another Lord and inviting people to
make a choice.
What
the Kingdom of God will look like and how its citizens
should act, Jesus will go onto teach and demonstrate over the new few years.
Back
to where we jumped into the Gospel with Jesus talking about the last things,
the end of the age, which seem to suggest that a new age was about to dawn.
This
passage must be read in the context of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in the year 70AD.
It
is way beyond our comprehension to even begin to understand what this meant to
Jews at that time. Scripture after scripture from their prophets told of this
time to come, principally Daniel and also Isaiah.
The
Jewish historian Josephus recalls the horror of the final invasion, the fall of
Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple under the hand of Titus,
Vespasian’s adopted son.
This
was indeed the end of the world as far as the Jewish nation was concerned.
No
‘ordinary’ language could begin to describe it and so Jesus turns back to the
prophets Isaiah and uses his words;
‘The
sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give out its light, the stars will
fall from the sky, and heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
Not
to be taken literally but as dramatic poetry.
And
then from Daniel 7.13 – ‘At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in
clouds with great power and glory.’
This
reading from Daniel is the Son of Man coming to God after being subjected to
suffering and now being vindicated
Following
Jesus’ suffering and death there is a resurrection bringing vindication.
God’s
new age has dawned; the Kingdom
of God has been
established up earth.
That
same clarion call goes out to the four corners of the earth, ‘The Kingdom of
God is here, repent and believe the Good News.’
However
this is a now and not yet Kingdom.
And
underlying the apocalyptic language that Jesus uses in Mark we need to hear and
heed the message of Christ’ second coming.
In
particular the final verses we heard from Mark’s Gospel.
‘Therefore
keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back –
whether in the evening or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or at dawn. If
he comes suddenly let him not find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to
everyone, ‘Watch.’
Imagine
if you will Downton Abbey, and Lord and Lady Grantham have been away and have a
long journey back home and have told Carlson to be ready at any time for their
return. As a diligent and dedicated Butler Carlson would make sure everything
would be ready for their return at what ever hour.
A
silly illustration but I hope you see the point I am trying to make.
The
keyword for Advent is ‘Watch,’ a time of waiting and reflecting.
An
earlier tradition considered what are commonly known as the ‘Four Last Things’
– heaven and hell, death and judgment.
That
would certainly knock the edge of early Christmass jollification.
Today
the four Sundays of Advent are most often focused on the Patriarchs, the Prophets, John the Baptizer and Mary.
From
the Patriarchs like Abraham and then the Prophets, culminating in John the
Baptizer as the Prophet of Prophets, God reveals His plan for the redemption of
the cosmos. And miracles of miracles that plan included God squeezing himself
into human form and sharing our life with us. He finds Mary, as a willing God
bearer, the Theotokos.
Jesus
born of Mary comes amongst us as we will hear from the Prologue to John’s
Gospel, as the light of the world.
Further on in John’s Gospel (14.46-48) we read...
"I have come as Light into the
world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. "If anyone
hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come
to judge the world, but to save the world. "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings,
has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last
day.…
This
encapsulates the two Advent themes, Jesus coming as Saviour and then coming
again as judge, when the secrets of all hearts will be opened.
And
you and I as members of the Body of Christ now upon earth are called to be
light bearers.
This
season of Advent affords us the perfect opportunity to reflect on how well we
are doing as bearers of the Christ light. Perhaps we might think back to the
parable of the wise and foolish virgins with their lamps trimmed and oil at the
ready for the coming of the bridegroom. We need to be alert and watch because
we do not know the day or the hour when the master will return.
We
have already seen and will continue to see lights decorating homes, shops and
streets. But however bright those lights
are they cannot hide the darkness that remains in the world. Were thousand still
die of hunger, were nearly one in four women across the world suffer abuse,
were nearly 80 medical staff have died trying to treat and bring comfort to
sufferers of Ebola. Where in our own country Food Banks have become normalized and we are seeing cases of rickets returning.
Sad
to say, it is more often the case as a song writer once put it;
‘The world is living in the dark because the
Church is asleep in the light.
Let
us pray…
To make our weak hearts strong and brave, send the fire!
To live a dying world to save, send the fire!
Oh, see us on Your altar lay our lives, our all, this very day:
to crown the offering now we pray, send the fire!
Oh, see us on Your altar lay our lives, our all, this very day:
to crown the offering now we pray, send the fire!
William Booth