Year B

Isaiah 64:1-9 & Mark 13:24-37

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Advent Watch

I remember after the winds of Hurricane Charlie had died down and my mother and I ventured out of her house that had lost most of its roof and had water pouring in, as I looked around I felt as if the world had ended and I then knew what it felt to feel devastated, a victim of a disaster. As I ventured out into the neighborhood and the town I grew up in, the disaster became more evident and it did feel as if the old and normal were gone and things could never get back to normal. But from that time of endings, that time of despair many good things happened. My mother got a new roof and the town was rebuilt. What may sound or feel like a disaster can actually be a good thing, a wake up call maybe, as in our gospel today on this first Sunday of Advent.

This is the time of year when our thoughts are turning to preparing for the babe in a manger and the joy of Christmas, yet the new church year begins not on a note of joy and celebration but of despair, as we find our attention is thrust into the end of time. We hear Jesus tell us in the gospel today to live our lives with the end in mind. Not just the end of our physical lives, but the end of the age. Leaving us no doubt that there is much at stake in this new season as we are given a glimpse of its ending when heaven will literally quake and stairs will fall out of the sky. Advent begins by reflecting on its endings and what sounds like a disaster, and it ends with a babe in a manger at Christmas.

This new season in the church year, invites us to keep things in perspective and to experience Gods presence in new ways. On the one hand, it is the culmination of the longs weeks of Pentecost. For almost half of the church year since last June, we have celebrated the work of the Spirit in its own life in the church and in the life of the world. The church was reminded of its responsibility, our responsibility, to do God’s work in God’s kingdom, the world. But now comes the realization that, in spite of the work of the Spirit, and in spite of the very best intentions of the people of God, the world is a disaster and there is still a great deal of work left to be done.

Then, on the other hand, Advent takes us back to the beginning of things. Back to that time so long ago, when men and women of faith yearned for the first coming of the Savior and this season attempts to capture that spirit of hope in the midst of hopelessness; yearning for some new and unique intervention by God to save a world gone wrong. This season both anticipates God’s new beginnings with creation in the birth and person of Jesus Christ and, at the same time, celebrates the promise that that same Jesus Christ will return to fulfill all history under his gracious rule. So the hope and prayer of Advent is that Christ will soon come again to rule over God’s creation in power and in justice.

Capturing the understanding of Advent with his prayer of lament and plea is Isaiah, in the Old Testament passage today, which expresses the longing of faithful people for God to break their isolation and to shatter human sin. Isaiah portrays a God in history who does awesome deeds that often surprise God’s people. Yet, God’s people have forgotten to call upon God, who in return has hidden from the people. In this prayer, Isaiah reminds God that the people are like clay that needs to be molded into the people God wants them to be. Isaiah affirms, “You made us, you own us, you are responsible for us, we belong to you.” Israel’s deep trust in God is matched by God’s deep obligation to Israel, to God’s people.  Isaiah reminds God that the people should be forgiven of their sins because they are God’s people.

We are no different today then the people of Isaiah’s day. The Advent season opens to us the need for God to break into our lives for we are a people who have forgotten to call upon God, and today through these words of Isaiah we are given the opportunity to remember again how God interacts with God’s people from ages past until today. Isaiah pleads with God to please not be terribly angry, do not hold it against God’s people for ever, we are your people and we have no other source of help. As we wait and anticipate God’s new beginnings, mold us and shape us Lord God, because we are the work of your hand. These words remind us that God is and has been faithful. Yet, we have to recognize that faithfulness daily, especially given the world in which we live.

Therefore, the significance of the passage today from Mark’s Gospel can hardly be overstated. It is located just before the beginning of the Passion of Christ. Jesus had earlier warned his disciples of his impending death. He tells them to watch, be vigilant, and stay awake. They are about to experience the unexpected. To help them, He tells them what they need to do to stay alert and awake to the events that are to come. The crucifixion of Jesus is a call to watchfulness, a call the disciples in Mark’s story fail to heed; even the women who find the empty tomb fail to understand the meaning of watchfulness, as they flee in fear. Mark reminds us in this 13 chapter of the need to remain ever vigilant because our hope is Christ will return at some point.

Therefore, we are to keep alert, as we wait for Christ to come which requires a different kind of waiting. An expectant watchfulness, full of anticipation but active because the world needs to hear that Christ will return at some point in time and that there is still time to encounter the presence of Christ. Things may look hopeless, we may be in despair at times but this is a good thing, a wake up call for God’s people that we are to continue to be active in this world because we don’t know when the second Advent will occur only God knows. Therefore, I invite you during this Advent season to begin with the end in mind. Be alert by slowing down and watching for the signs of new beginnings in your life.

We tend to be so busy with the activity of the season, so distracted by the social-political climate, so distracted with the technological “advancements” of smartphones, iPads, and multiple digital devices, that we miss the sign of Christ’s presence now among us. Amid the holiday parties and the late-night shopping, the gospel reminds us in this in-between time that we are to be awake to God in the world and we are to live in accord with the one who has already come among us as our Lord and Savior. As Paul reminds today, God is faithful and our Lord Jesus Christ will strengthen us to the end, so that we may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we move through this season, ever closer to the coming of the Christ child our cry can only be “come, Lord Jesus.”