Sermons for the Month
Keep Awake!
DATE: November 27th, 2005
SERVICE: First Sunday In Advent
TEXT: Mark 13:24-37; I Corinthians 1:3-9“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
I wonder how many jokes have been made by pastors about the closing words of today's Gospel lesson. "Keep Awake"!
Following that command to "Keep Awake" sometimes is difficult, as is true for me on Sunday afternoons. Also, keeping awake may be necessary in rather unusual circumstances, as was true this past week when people camped from 6:30 p.m. on Sunday until midnight on Monday - 30 hours - in order to buy an Xbox 360.
Now, I must confess to you that there is no way for me to identify with the desire to wait for hours in the cold - and then in a stuffy store - to spend between $300 and $400 on a game system. I cannot even comprehend what this gadget looks like, let alone grasp why it has engendered such devotion. Obviously it is meeting some need, and, is important to some folks. Still, I'm fairly certain that waiting for hours to make a purchase at Wal-Mart is not all that Jesus had in mind when he said, "Keep Awake!"
I'm sure of that because today's Gospel lesson is about far more than this time and place with its fleeting fads. Jesus says to, "Keep Awake", with an eye toward the great and glorious day of his return, which is yet to come.
If the earliest Christians, who died long ago, have any concept of time in eternity - which I doubt - they would be surprised that thousands of years have passed and we are still waiting for the day our Lord's return.
That's especially true of those first century Christians who were experiencing persecution when the Gospel of Mark was written around 70 AD. Jerusalem and the temple had been leveled. Christians were estranged from their families because of their faith. They were overwhelmed by despair. So, for them, this chapter of Mark offered hope, a reminder that time was moving toward the coming of the Son of Man, who would make all things new.
They must have been particularly thrilled by verse 30 which states that, "…this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place," especially if they viewed "all these things" as including their Lord's return. In that case, he would be showing up any minute and they would be released from suffering.
Now that many generations have passed away and Jesus has not yet come in the clouds of glory, we are called upon to explain what Jesus meant when he said, "this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place". Most scholars say that the phrase "all these things" refers to what Jesus foretold in the verses (vs.5-23) that precede what we read today. His return is not mentioned yet, but he predicts much suffering including the destruction of the temple and the persecution of believers.
Well, it all happened - the suffering, the persecution, the destruction of the temple - before that generation passed away. So, the time was ripe for the coming of the Son of Man. The problem is, of course, that our sense of time and God's sense of time are not the same. So, the time is still ripe and we are still waiting.
Jesus says, "Keep Awake", because the wait can either make us apathetic or afraid. I often find that conversation about the return of Jesus makes Christians uncomfortable; they have heard so much negative about it that they either ignore it or are worried. That's not good, so I was glad to read another pastor's sermon on this text in which he tells about a friend who really looks forward to the return of Jesus.
This guy constantly says he hopes today will be that day, and he cannot wait for the celebration. Now, that's the right attitude! There are a couple reasons he feels that way; one is that he is a person of faith and he knows that faith - not perfection - is all that is required to be ready for the Lord's return. Second, he believes that Jesus' coming will usher in a wonderful new world, and he wants to experience things that in this limited world are beyond his imagination.
Think about it … if we had that point of view then the day of Jesus' return would not be what challenges us. Rather slogging through all the days before he returns would be the problem. Keeping awake is hard!
We know this to be true. That's why I want to remind us of what Paul wrote to those early Christians in Corinth as they struggled to remain faithful in the midst of the sinful culture that surrounded them. There are some strong words here. They are not lacking in any spiritual gift while they wait for Jesus to return, Paul says. Indeed, they will be strengthened so that they may be blameless on that day. And, besides all that, God is faithful.
Did you hear that? Is that how we live during this time of waiting? Does my life testify to the fact that I am not lacking in any spiritual gift? Do I act like I'm strengthened to face whatever life brings, and as if a constantly faithful God is on my side?
Let me share a story that makes these questions real. I don't know how many of you are listeners to National Public Radio but if you are you probably have heard essays read as part of a series titled, "This I Believe…." You can get copies of the essays off the NPR website.
Eboo Patel, who is an American Muslim, writes about the need for people of all faiths to come to know one another. I'd like to read you a portion of his essay.
"We live in a world where the forces that seek to divide us are strong. To overcome them, we must do more than simply stand next to one another in silence.
I attended high school in the western suburbs of Chicago. The group I ate lunch with included a Jew, a Mormon, a Hindu, a Catholic and a Lutheran. We were all devout to a degree, but almost never talked about religion. Somebody would announce at the table that they could not eat a certain kind of food, or any food at all, for a period of time. We all knew religions hovered behind this, but nobody offered any explanation deeper than "my Mom said", and nobody ever asked for one.
A few years after we graduated, my Jewish friend from the lunchroom reminded me of an experience we both wish had never happened. A group of thugs in our high school had taken to scrawling anti-Semitic slurs on classroom desks and shouting them in the hallways.
I did not confront them. I did not comfort my Jewish friend. Instead I averted my eyes from their bigotry, and I avoided my friend because I could not stand to face him. My friend told me he feared coming to school in those days, and he felt abandoned as he watched his close friends do nothing.
Hearing him tell me of his suffering and my complicity is the single most humiliating experience of my life."
When I heard those words on the radio, spoken by the author, I realized the truth in them for all of us. We all can wander around this world in a groggy state, overwhelmed by our own doubts, fears or, even worse, apathy. As a result our lives and those of the people around us are lacking. An old fashioned way to say describe that in the Christians faith is to say that we fall short of the glory of God.
We are not awake to the immeasurable power of God at work within us. Our lives deny the reality that we lack no spiritual gifts, and that a constantly faithful God is strengthening us. If we would just WAKE UP to that reality what a different place this world would be. What if as much energy was put into being awake to God's power at work within us as went into waiting to buy game systems this week?
We do not know when Jesus will return. When he does a wonderful new age will begin. In the meantime, though, we live in this time and place where keeping awake is really important - even in the line at Wal-Mart - but not because of what we are getting, rather it's what we have to give that makes a difference. AMEN