Watch, Weep, Witness, November 30, 2014

Isaiah 24 Mark 13:1-37 Last Week was Christ the King Sunday, the Ultimate Climax of the Christian Year, when we declare Jesus born in a manger in a stable who suffered and died on the Cross and rose again, to be the Christ, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, Very God of Very God! “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” On Thursday we watched the parade and gathered at the Table, not Christ's Table, but our Family Feast, because at Midnight began the biggest shopping celebration of the year. Even before we turn the calendar from November to December, we have already entered into the Advent of Christmas. But Advent is more than counting down the number of days until Christmas Eve, more than the singing of Carols and eating of Cookies, we have entered The Season of Shadows. “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” Like so many Christmases of recent years, this is not like our childhood, cutting out snowflakes/making snow-angels. We hear of bombings and war, a gunman shooting indiscriminately; thousands of people killed by Ebola; instead of our leaders offering hope, they trade threats; in order to end the year with lower costs companies experience lay-offs. So we pull on our layers, pull down our caps, cover our ears with earbuds and earmuffs, to go out into the world of shadows and fear. The isolating part, which makes us the more afraid, is everyone seems by themselves. We push passed one another, we cut each other off, we try to get there first, so we can also be first to leave. In the shadows, we never see those crossing in the cross-walk. In the shadows with their caps pulled over their eyes, we cannot see the other's face, their fears, their tears. Rushing faster, trying to make a quota, the truck-driver does not see the black ice and their semi jack-knifes. These fears, these shadows, the darkness that pervades our thoughts, these have become part of our human condition. Nostalgically we fool ourselves that long ago there were White Christmases, and Wonderful Lives in Bedford Falls, but even those stories began with tragedy and fear. “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” In the Bible Study, we were reading Isaiah, when it occurred to me, I have never heard a sermon on Isaiah 24. More than a passage of devastation and destruction, this is affirmation of faith, that from the Old Testament time through the birth of Jesus right through today, there has been tragedy, there have been tears wept, but the words of the prophet are that we have never ever been alone. Everything that has effected us, has effected the world around us, and touched God. One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard about a congregation, was this church, that following years of conflict, tore up the last five years of their Minutes and Actions inscribing the next page, “We recognize that in our hurting each other, we have done harm to God and God's Creation! We have crucified our Lord, by hating one another. Acting in hate we have killed our faith. SO we repent and begin again anew.” “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” It occurs to me that there are many different ways of watching and waiting. There is the watching and waiting from bed, for the night to be over to begin the day. There is watching and waiting for the College acceptance packet or rejection letter. There is watching and waiting for the airline to land, and be cleared for our safe travel. There is watching and waiting for your parents to get home, when punishment will take place. There is the watching and waiting on a street corner, when you hear footsteps, when you feel afraid. There is watching and waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to arrive. There is watching and waiting in the Hospital, during surgery, when the baby is coming, or on hospice. All the while we repeat “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” We have created for ourselves the expectation that like Homeland Security, if we are on watch, we can keep fear from coming, we can lock the door and raise the threat level. But the more security we put in place, the more insecure we feel. What if our watching is not for shadows, for clouds, for destruction, but is for God to enter into the world? There is an ancient mantra that has been repeated since the days of the early church “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” It seems odd to begin Advent with Mark's Apocalypse. Jesus and the disciples were in the Temple at Jerusalem, and as they left, one commented “How beautiful the workmanship!” to which Jesus named that all of this would one day be destroyed. More than being pessimistic, the disciples ask “When?” Somehow we think we can wait more easily when we know how long. The difficulty is that in the early church, there were two different ideas. One was that “Just as Creation was a long long time ago, so the end will be a long long time from now, as there was a beginning there must be an end, and we who have faith must keep the faith alive.” The other is that “Christ could come at any minute, when we least expect, so live as if this moment may be when Christ enters in.” Mark 13 would read much more smoothly, if we read verses 1-2, 8, 14-22, 24-30 and again verses 3-7, 9-13, 21-23, 32-37. But we have received the text as it is, so know and believe that Christ has come. Christ is coming. Christ will come again. Jesus' description to the disciples was not to scare them into believing. But just the opposite, that when clouds form, know that The Christ will come riding on a cloud! Just as there are earthquakes, know that all creation suffers birth-pangs. This may be of a time to come. But the sky turning dark, the sun being eclipsed, earthquakes and a tearing of the curtain, are exactly what happened at the Crucifixion, so when Christ had come and died on the Cross, the whole creation and God suffered. There are times of fear in all our lives. Gunmen are real. Accidents on the highway do happen. Wars and Earthquakes all of this make our shadows and long winters seem pretty bleak. But know for certain that Christ has already Come! Week after week we recite his teachings, his actions, his parables, watching and waiting to see similar events in our lives. There will be times for weeping, for sadness and fear and loss. But Christ is coming! Our loss and our fears help us to recognize the need for a savior, the need for hope. Our role and purpose is to name the needs of the world and to direct care and concern to making a difference. Possibly Christ is Coming through you! Christ would not be seen or recognized by another, they might miss recognizing the hope the love the joy, if not for you. Advent takes time, more than four weeks of waiting and watching, because God is becoming Tangible. The Invisible, Immortal is becoming One with us. How many of our stories, how much of our desire is for humans to become like God? But the miracle, according to Holy Scripture is that God actually became human, mortal, one with us in Jesus Christ. Another way to envision Advent is that in the Beginning, and over and over throughout the text, we returned from our cultivated fears, our wars and domination, our Empires and Creations, to Wilderness. Adam and Eve, The Tower of Babel, Abram, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob all wandered in the wilderness. Moses, and eventually the Exiles, even John the Baptist, all were asked to become one with Creation. This Advent is not for us to acquire all the stuff to give to others, but for us to work through all the layers of fear and doubt, the layers we have bundled ourselves in, to get down to who we really are and what matters in a primal sense for each of us. December 25th is going to come, whether we are prepared or not. I believe in the ultimate and absolute power of God to accomplish whatever God desires whether we choose to recognize God or not. But how much more full life will be, how much more Christmas will mean if we prepare ourselves to the reality to recognize “Christ has come. Christ is Coming. Christ will come again!” We end this week, with a story from our church. That decades ago there was a fight between two siblings, each shaming the other. For years they did not speak. Through their partners, eventually they began to hear about one another receiving that ubiquitous Christmas letter now become an Email. Finally, the one decided too many years had passed, who was at fault what was said really did not matter, only that they needed to forgive and be forgiven. But that very day a card came in the mail. Opening it, the card named that their sibling had died, and their greatest regret had been that they had never tried to get back to being family, to forgiving and being forgiven. The apocalypse may be the end of the world, it may only be the end of the world as we know it, as Jesus is quoted “No one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, only God. – WATCH”