Year B

Mark 13:24-37

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Advent Molds and Shapes

Through the years, when I could, I’ve taken pleasure in buying Advent calendars for my family. Most of the time, it’s been the simple, two-dimensional type, featuring pictures that share the story of Christ’s birth behind twenty-five paper “windows” that are opened each day beginning on December 1. Occasionally, I have bought the ones that have a small piece of chocolate behind the window along with either a picture or scripture verse. The idea of an Advent calendar is to provide a tangible, educational and fun way to count down the days to Christmas. In as much as this calendar usually begins on December 1, and whatever day that falls on, technically it does not exactly begin on “Advent” which begins four Sunday’s before Christmas, although it very close this year, only two days off. But the spirit of countdown and anticipation is there nonetheless.

Advent is about a sense of anticipation, waiting, remembering, hoping and then celebrating Christ’s first coming as a babe in a Manger at Christmas, our Messiah. Yet, contrary to the manner in which this time is celebrated by many, we begin the season of Advent today not on a note of joy but to the sobering reality of our fallen humanity and the need for divine intervention for our salvation. The world has yet to be redeemed, In spite of the intervention of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of the faithful and in spite of the very best intentions of the people of God. And so the prayer and hope of Advent on this first Sunday is that Christ will soon come again to rule over God’s creation in power and in justice.

Advent celebrates the promise that that same Jesus Christ, who we celebrate at Christmas will return to complete all history under his gracious rule. This sense of anticipation for Christ’s return and for God to act runs through all of our texts today. Isaiah expresses today the longing of faithful people for God to open the heavens, to come down, to make God’s self-known, and to make all things right. The prophet implores the Lord on behalf of the community, likely during a time of great stress as they seek to rebuild from the time of exile. He begs God to put aside divine anger at the people’s sin and to act on their behalf to manifest the divine name in a powerful way.

Israel’s behavior has taken them away from God presence. They no longer experience the special relationship they once experienced as God’s people. The absence of God’s light in their lives leads Isaiah to remind God that they are broken vessels, unclean people that need to be remolded like clay into the people of God and forgiven. Once they re-remember who they are as God’s own they pray for God’s intervention. God shows mercy and breaks into the hearts of those who regret their sin as Isaiah and the psalmist today assure us that God offers mercy for those who seek God’s salvation. Advent reminds us that God tears open the heavens and comes to us in new ways. Not in anger because of our fallen-ness, but in love because of God’s grace.

We are God’s workmanship—clay in the hands of the master craftsman and God mends us cracked pots again and again. God is ready and willing to reform us, renew us, and refresh us. God can mold us and reshape us during this Advent season if we yield to God’s will. This is what Paul assures the readers today in his first letter to the Corinthians that God acts within the individual and community to enrich, strengthen, and grant peace as the church waits for the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul begins his letter with a grace-filled word of blessing and encouragement because the Corinthian congregation is in chaos.

Author Eugene Peterson writes “the people of Corinth had a reputation at that time as being an unruly, hard-drinking, a promiscuous bunch of people. Paul wasn’t overlooking this behavior. He will later in his letter have very strong words to say concerning the divided church but he also sees in them the God-given abilities and potential. He is able to discern the gifts of the Corinthian congregation not through their human work or conduct, but through the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. God is at work in them in spite of their failures and inabilities. Yet, the work is not done. Paul’s prayer and expectation is for that good work to continue, and he points to the future that is the focus of our texts today.

These verses beautifully capture not just their situation but ours also. Advent is a reminder of God’s faithfulness. God loves us enough to bless us with the hope of the world, Jesus Christ and yet, there is more fullness to come. We who live in this long Advent season between Christ first coming and his second are to be marked by gratitude for the past, rejoicing and anticipation in the present, and hope for the future. In the gospel today, Mark’s version of the general apocalypse, Jesus is telling us to live with the hope of the future in mind. Not just the end of our physical lives, but the end of the age when he will return. The parable of the fig tree and Jesus’ admonitions regarding being alert are visions of living into the “now” and the “not yet.” We are to be attentive to how we walk in the way of Christ “now” and be ready for the not yet, that which is to come.

This preparation takes watchfulness and being alert to what God is doing now in our lives as we wait. This theme of alertness, readiness is a recurring one in Jesus’ teachings. The significance of this need is because no one knows the hour at which the master, Christ will return. Therefore, we are to be ready every minute. Mark sets this parable right before his description of the plot to kill Jesus and the Passion narrative. Here, Jesus is giving us a proleptic or future vision of his death. He tells the disciples to watch, be vigilant, and stay awake because they are to experience the unexpected. He is warning them and telling them what they will need for the events to come, including after his resurrection.

This need is no different today because we are still waiting to experience the unexpected. This understanding of the future should shape the present. What we hope for in the future, we want for ourselves and for the world now. If we are certain that God will speak the last word, we need not know the details of the future. But that very certainty that Jesus will come again will lead us as we wait to heed the urgent message that Jesus gives us: “Beware, keep alert” “Keep awake”, “What I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.” The time is near when God will intervene again as God did for the people of Isaiah’s day to save them. God is faithful Paul reminds us and will act decisively. Therefore, I invite you during this Advent season to begin with the end in mind. In anticipation, watchfulness and hopefulness, let us yield ourselves to God’s new beginnings, allowing God to mold and reshape us as we wait and work for the future return of Christ.