Year B Advent 1 2023 Hope and Hard Times

Year B Advent 1, 3 December 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Hope and Hard Times”

Collect: Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mark 13:24-37

Jesus said, “In those days, after that suffering,

the sun will be darkened,

and the moon will not give its light,

and the stars will be falling from heaven,

and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

According to tradition, this being the first Sunday of Advent, it is the Sunday of HOPE. As a former president said there is an Audacity to Hope. There is almost no greater act of faith these days then to have hope when all of society is screaming how hopeless things are. The environment. The economy. Our political discourse. Our social fabric. Things are admittedly not looking good. But that my friends, is when I have to see with eyes of faith, and not be wooed by the winds of despair blowing through the times we are in. 

Christ’s Bride, the Church, has lived through rough times before. Rougher times than these. And God has been, is now, and always will be with us. It is a promise as sure as the rising and the setting of the sun. And it is in Hope that we jump into some hard words from Jesus.

Did you find the Gospel reading foreboding? You should have. Mark is the oldest of our four Gospels, and the most direct. Jesus here in Mark 13 is as apocalyptic as you will hear him anywhere. The cosmos itself is shaken, and the powers in the heavens are shook.

And then the Son of Man appears. This is a term referring to the Messiah. It is used in Daniel. It is used in the Gospels. We often equate it with the “Son of God,” which it is in many ways, but when the Gospel writers use this term particularly, pay attention. And when Jesus uses it, pay even more attention. He is telling us something. He has come to gather up his own in preparation for the Judgment Day. 

Yes, friends, it is Advent where we wait with baited breath for the Baby in the Manger, adorable and wrapped in swaddling clothes. But Advent is two-fold, his Coming There-and-Then, and his imminent coming perhaps in the Here-and-Now. This bi-fold nature of Advent is the tension of the season. Rush not through the Adventide, for we  cannot claim the Hope and Light of Christmas if we do not wrestle with the weight of Jesus’ Coming Again.

Yesterday morning I spoke with the imam who came to St. James the Less for the Prayer Vigil. And it came up in conversation about some of the MANY similarities that the Qu’ran has with the Bible. As he said to me, Jesus is seen as the Messiah, born of the Virgin Mary, and they, like us, await his coming again. In 2,000 years we have somehow let it go that this is a key to our beliefs. It is in our Creeds. “He will come again…” Yesterday I was reminded by an imam of such a foundational truth of our faith, and the spirit of the Season we begin today.

Jesus goes on with a metaphor that should have us smacking our forehead. We know how to read the signs and the seasons. A fig tree buds before it fruits. And then summer is right around the corner. We even have phrases for stuff like this, "Red in the morning, sailor take warning. Red at night, sailor delight." When we see the signs, it is up to us to be prepared. Like the 10 Bridesmaids recently preached on, the message may be ancient, but it is still true and we should heed it.

Then his final analogy in his apocalyptic vision. The master of the house has gone away. But we are charged to carry on as if he were with us, keeping his house in order. A place for everything and everything in its place. And even more, with the master gone we need to anticipate his knock on his door at any time. And to do that we must be ready, be mindful, be resolute, but most of all, be awake.

The simplest of commands. STAY AWAKE! But you know we are in evil days when this, even THIS, is controversial. We live in a day and time when being “WOKE” is controversial. Jesus commands us to “Keep awake.” In our modern parlance it has become political and seen as a wonderful place one might desire, or a derogatory thing that besmirches one’s character. But being ready and awake is an expectation laid on the one who claims to follow this Jesus. Jesus wants us to be prepared and tireless as we follow him. STILL.

I told this story a few years ago, but it always stuck with me. When Sojo, my youngest,  was very young, we told her that my mom, her grandmother, was coming to have Thanksgiving with us. For some reason, she fixated on this. We had a little primary-color painted toddler size chair. She moved it to about a foot from the front door of our house and sat there. She sat there for hours. We encouraged her to get up and play, but she was singular of focus and intent. We asked her to come watch the parade from New York. But no, she was going to sit there and wait, ready and actually in the way when my mother would show up for Thanksgiving in the early afternoon. Her fortitude and unflagging tenacity stayed with me. You can call Sojo a lot of things, but among them must be committed and determined. I have witnessed it more than once.

Are we ever that prepared for Jesus’ return? Am I? Advent is the yearly season for me to prepare for the “Coming.” That is what Advent means, by the way. It is simple, but all encompassing. Last year, we had the season happen as we were preparing for our new Bishop, Mark Stevenson, coming for only his second episcopal visit. We cleaned. We double-checked our books were in order. We prepared our Confirmands and those being Received. It was a wonderful and glorious day. He blessed a half a dozen wonderful new things that had come on board during the Coronatide. In our preparations we had to anticipate what he might need or want, and make ready for his coming. It was a living example of what Jesus is talking about here, just on a much less cosmic scale. (Thank goodness!)

So, if you are not ready, now is the time. Get the house in order. The Owner is showing up at any time, and we need must be ready. He told us this is the way that it is. Are you worried?

But before you get too anxious, hear this. We await Jesus’ coming, and he is working even now, within us, to get us to where we need to be.

When I taught school, I had a two-fold nature, as teacher and assessor. Yes, I taught the lesson, and I also was responsible to make sure that the information had been learned and could be applied. I was responsible for making sure each child was equipped and ready for the test I was creating. Jesus is the same for us.

In our reading from St. Paul in his first letter to the Church in Corinth, he affirms that we need not be afraid for we are loved, and perfect love drives out all fear. St. Paul starts with this…

…the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind-- just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-- so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful!

For that is what Jesus wants for us. Even in the darker Mark passage, his own are called the Elect. It was an election where there was only one who voted. Do you choose her? Yes, yes I do. Do you choose him? Most certainly, yes, I do. That is what the Elect are, those chosen by God and called according to God’s purposes. And he is refining and strengthening us, day by day and year by year. Can we be surprised that he needed 2000 years of work to get us to where we are now, and Jesus may need a few more millenia to get us blameless and ready. God help us. And thankfully, God will. Amen