1 Advent Yr B November 29 2020
Isaiah 64:1-9, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37, Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
The gospel writer Mark is here to tell us that God is in control, and when God is in control, hope and grace abound. Even when it seems like things are out of control, hope remains. And this is where we find ourselves this first Sunday of Advent. The world feels dark. This year, more than any year I can remember, I crave the light and the wonder of Christmas. I wonder how we can live in the anticipation and expectation that is Advent, and the hope of incarnation, the glorious impossible, while breathing in that Christmas air. One way is to turn to the readings that we have before us this Advent; they are stories that show us that nothing will be impossible with God.
In this thirteenth chapter of Mark’s gospel, Jesus exposes and reveals the powers and principalities that are destructive. When Mark writes, which is a few decades after Jesus has died, Israel is being consumed by a war with Rome. Mark uses Jesus’ earlier prediction to speak to his people’s current circumstance. This war brings suffering and death, and desolation and destruction. Previously, in chapter 11, Jesus has said that the Temple is to be a house of prayer for all the nations, and this abominable desecration of the Temple is caused by those whose goal was to kick all the nations out. You see, Jesus’ intention it seems, was that all people, all nations, all tribes, were a part of God’s dream, God’s vision for creation. But people who were afraid not only put up barriers to keep those who were not like them out, they went and destroyed the temple too.
In the verses in front of us today, often called the little apocalypse, the focus shifts from an historical review of war and destruction to an apocalyptic vision. Let’s pause for a moment to remember what apocalyptic means. Apocalypse and revelation mean the same thing. Simply put, they mean that God shows forth. God shows up. So what we have here is a story about the God that shows up. In this story we see a picture of Jesus who returns to gather those who remain true to the course of resisting those who would divide, those who would exclude. The message is, despite fear or hostility, followers of Jesus are to continue to preach Jesus’ inclusive word, all are welcome. And doing that very thing, welcoming all as sons and daughters of God, is the very thing followers of Jesus need to be doing to be ready.
That’s why we hear, “watch out, be ready, don’t be caught off guard!”
These passages are not about fear, and they are not about hedging our bets for a future end time. This is about the now, and the not yet. This is why we read them in Advent, the season of now and not yet. The season of preparation. Being prepared is not just for boy scouts and girl scouts, being prepared is for all of us. Being watchful, being prepared, getting ready means that we proclaim Jesus’ inclusive word. It’s not so much about not knowing the hour of Jesus’ return, it’s about living awake and ready right here and right now.
Sometimes I wonder if this pandemic is revealing our baser human inclinations. I’ve read that Pope Francis has said, “a crisis reveals what’s in our hearts.” And it seems that for many what may be in their hearts is hate, rather than love, meanness rather than compassion.
We are in a time of revelation, apocalypse. And it’s time to pay attention to that man behind the curtain. Unfortunately, the curtain is being pulled aside and we are seeing a humanity acting on misguided, greedy, hateful values. Sometimes it even seems we are living in one those dystopian novels that I love so much, filled with images of destruction, violence, fear. We’ve heard about, or read, or watched, stories about being left behind. We steer clear of reading these hard stories in our bibles that seem to be about destruction because it seems hard to understand. But these stories point us to not to destruction, but to a new and better way. The way of Love, the way of hope. Friends, I want you to hear about hope. Because that is what revelation is all about. God reveals Godself to humanity and all of creation in so many ways, and in the flesh and blood of Jesus. This is the location of hope, and we can rest assured that we never hope in vain.
This hope is the good news that we hear today. The good news specifically in this passage of Mark, is that all, everyone, is included in this boundary breaking ministry of Jesus. Listen to this word spoken into the world we live in today; a society that is contentious, acerbic, and fearful. No matter where you are or who you are, you are included. Jesus dealt with all sorts and kinds of people, often they are described as sinners, outcasts, tax collectors, women. People who were on the margins of community, and because they were they had no life, no hope. You and I are called to proclaim the good news in this world, by word and action, to those who are on the margins, to those who can find no love, no hope. This is what it means to be ready.
And we hear this passage from Mark just as we begin the new year, just as we begin our preparations for Christmas, just as we begin Advent. Because Advent calls us to watchfulness, Advent calls us to being ready, not just getting ready, but being ready for this most amazing birth. The birth that is the glorious impossible. The coming of the one who loves us into life, loves us into ourselves, loves us into the image of God.
You see, revelation is the Christmas story. At the heart of the story of Christmas is the promise that God comes in the small and vulnerable form of a baby born to poor and frightened parents, and that God keeps coming in small, vulnerable, unexpected, and unlooked for ways even now. In fact, each time we reach out to another in love, God is once again invading the kingdoms and structures of this world with God’s radical and transformative presence and grace. Being ready to receive this hope transforms how we approach and experience Christmas, and how we look at our lives in the world.
What small things can we do in love through which God’s presence and redemption are revealed? Small gestures might we offer that signify our trust that God is with us and for us? What small sacrifices might we make – including, significantly, the sacrifice of not gathering with others when doing so risks spreading the coronavirus – that provide opportunities to see God still at work loving and blessing God’s people and world? Whatever our usual preparations for Christmas, fundamentally Christmas is about small things, a baby, this baby’s parents, bottom-of-the-economic ladder shepherds, wandering astrologers looking for someone to save the world, deep-held longings for presence and redemption given voice by Israel’s prophets. And this year, and particularly because our preparations and celebrations will be necessarily be a bit more muted, perhaps we’ll be able to hear that promise more clearly: that whenever and wherever we act in love, God is present. So indeed, watch, wait, look, and most especially listen, for in the Christ child who will grow up to embrace all of our longings and experience all aspects of our life, God is whispering, “Emmanuel, I am with you!”
Amen.
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