Pre:

The season of Advent is a season of preparation. The word ‘advent’ means coming. So we are preparing for the coming of someone or something. Who? Or what? The most obvious preparing going on around us, of course, is simply preparing for Christmas. The great celebration of Christ’s birth. During Advent we celebrate Christ’s coming to earth as a tiny baby. Beyond that, we look forward to the promise of Christ’s return. He gave the strong and sure promise that he would return someday, and that when he returned, he would set all things right. Evil would be judged and faith would be rewarded.

The challenge for each of us is to prepare for that day.

This passage that I’m going to read is a just a part of a larger passage about the last days and Christ’s return. In fact, it sort of jumps in right in the middle.

It comes from the Gospel of Mark. I think that it’s helpful in reading this, to understand that Mark wrote his Gospel primarily for Christians who were going through a tough time—many were discouraged and afraid.

Mark 13:24-37

When I was still in grade school, my brother went off to Wisconsin to graduate school. And when the holidays came around, he would come home on the train. That was always a special event, because travel by train was not a regular event like it is for many people on the East Coast. He always arrived in the middle of the night, and the train station (such as it was) was twenty miles away from home. So, we all piled into the old Ford and drove to meet the train. We would all peer into the darkness, trying to be the first to see just a pinpoint of light that would grow bigger and bigger as the train got closer. And when the train was late, we would worry—was everything ok? Would the train arrive? Would my brother be on the train?

Watching and waiting can be a tough assignment, can’t it? And for Christians, it’s one of our primary tasks.

"It is like a man going on a journey," Jesus says, "when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch."

Each of us has been given a job to do. And the most important job is simply to watch. The watching we are called to do is not like couch potatoes watching TV—"veging out." And not "watching" as in observing life, instead of playing the game. We are to be "on watch" like the night guard at the nuclear plant, who knows that his job could mean life and death. Or like the egrets standing like statues at the water’s edge, ready to snatch the first fish that comes into view. Or like the little children who cannot sleep on Christmas Eve because they are so eager for Christmas morning to come.

This is the kind of watching we are called to do, as we wait for Jesus to return. But as time goes by, and Jesus still hasn’t returned, it can be easy to be discouraged in the midst of life’s struggles, or to believe that he really won’t come. At least not in our life time.

This passage was written to people who are in danger of falling prey to those very things. Either discouragement or apathy.

As I mentioned in the introduction to the reading, this Gospel is written with Christians in mind. Specifically the Christians in the city of Rome sometime between 50 and 70 a.d. I think it’s helpful to understand that at this time, it was not the "in" thing to be a Christian. Christians were seen as atheists—they refused worship the emperor; they were suspected to be arsonists—Nero blamed them for a fire that raged through Rome; and they were accused of being cannibals—because they had a ritual involving eating the body and blood of Jesus. Christians who were vocal about their faith were subject to arrest, and some were killed. They were also vulnerable to mob violence as well—some of this comes across in the book of Acts. All in all, Christians faced an uphill battle, and this on top of normal life stresses of raising a family & making a living. When Mark wrote his Gospel, it had been at least 20 or 30 years since Jesus had promised to return, and most people in those early years believed that Jesus was going to come back in their lifetime. It was easy for some Christians to get discouraged.

To those who feel beaten down, and battered about by a world that doesn’t understand them…. who feel persecuted for no good reason…. to these, Mark writes these strong words that remind us that no matter what the outward circumstances of our lives are like, God is in control. And no matter how long it seems to take, Jesus will return and set things right. In fact, the battle has already been won.

It’s something like what happened in a prison camp during the Second World War. A professor from Glasgow named MacDonald and a Scottish chaplain were both captured and placed in this camp. A high wire fence separated the Americans from the British. MacDonald was put in the American barracks and the chaplain was placed with the British. Unknown to the guards, the Americans had a little homemade radio and were able to get news from the outside. Everyday, MacDonald would take a headline or two to the fence and share it with the chaplain in the ancient Gaelic language, indecipherable to the Germans. One day, news came over the little radio that the German high command had surrendered and the war was over. MacDonald took the news to his friend, then watched him disappear into the barracks. A moment later, a roar of celebration came from the barracks. Life in that camp was transformed. Men walked around singing and shouting, waving at the guards, even laughing at the dogs. When the German guards finally heard the news three nights later, they fled into the dark, leaving the gates unlocked. The next morning, both British and Americans walked out as free men. Yet they had truly been set free three days earlier by the news that the war was over." (fresh illustrations, 180)

My friends, in our battle against evil, we have inside information. Jesus has already won. So, in the midst of your own struggle, whatever it is, Jesus’ promise can be a daily encouragement: God is in control. Jesus will return and set things right. Evil will be judged, and faith will be rewarded.

Those truths are an encouragement for those who feel trapped in a tough situation, and they are also a warning for those who have become either apathetic or smug about their faith. Many times over the last two millennia, people have tried to predict when Jesus would return. In 1988, for instance, a booklet was distributed all over the Midwest, giving 88 reasons why Christ would return in ’88. And now, on the verge of the third millennium, there are people going over to Jerusalem, because they are sure that Jesus’ return and the apocalypse will occur on the dawn of the new year. It would appear that God didn’t read the book that was put out in 1988, and well, time will tell whether the current predictors will be proved right about the new millennium.

Then again, maybe we just missed it. Maybe Jesus already came back in ’88 or some other time, and we somehow got left out in the cold. There are religious groups that believe this, that he has already returned, and that just a few elite know about it.

But Jesus is very clear in this passage. When he returns, there will be signs that no one can miss. Stars will fall. There will be unexplained eclipses of the sun and the moon. The heavens will shake. And all of this will defy human explanation. We know that there are other prophecies in the Bible that talk about "natural disasters" like earthquakes and famine as predictors of the end times. But here Jesus makes an even stronger statement, and suggests that when his time has come, you won’t mistake it for something else.

We laugh sometimes at those who try to figure out the day and time of Christ’s return. But those of us who laugh need to test our own hearts. For it is just as foolish to presume that life will go on indefinitely as it is. Many people—Christians included--live as if Jesus is never coming back. But they, too, are mistaken. There will come a day of accounting—when evil will be judged and faith will be rewarded. God is in control. And Jesus will return.

So we need to get ready.

A few years ago on a summer evening in Andover, Kansas, thirteen people died when a series of tornadoes ripped through the town. The death count was due to people’s unwillingness to heed the warnings. A news account of the incident said this: "When police and fire officials, TV forecasters and the weather service began telling people to take cover Friday, some waited too long to respond. Others apparently ignored the warnings. At the golden Spur Mobile Home park, where more than 225 homes were destroyed, many people never even left their homes. Between 150 and 200 of the park’s 700 residents headed into its shelter—which could have held 100 more. All 13 victims were killed at the trailer park.

"For 40 years Andover has warned its residents of tornadoes by sending police and fire vehicles into the streets, lights flashing and sirens wailing. The vehicles were out even before the weather service told people to take cover 20 minutes before the tornado hit. Ten minutes before that warning, a local TV meteorologist had advised Andover residents to head for shelters. Despite the warnings, a dash-mounted video camera on one patrol car showed people casually walking along the street."

The news piece concluded: "This was one more example of people’s refusing to believe that tragedy can really strike them. Why don’t people leave the beaches when a hurricane is coming? Why don’t people leave when a volcano is about to erupt? I guess they just think it won’t happen to them," said Dick Elder, from the national weather service in Wichita. ". . .people don’t do a thing when they hear a warning. They don’t do anything until they perceive they are at risk." (parables, etc. 16.1.6)

Have you heard the warning? Do you understand that you are at risk if you ignore what Jesus says? If you do not take shelter in his arms?

As time goes by, and the world seems to get worse instead of better, there is always the risk of falling asleep or falling into despair. Keep watch. Keep awake. Keep alert. God is in control. Jesus will return.