Mark 13:33-37; Advent 1-B 2002
Keep Watch!
Today we begin the Advent season, the time we prepare ourselves
to celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is a time we not only remember his first
Advent as the baby in Bethlehem, but also keep an eye on his second Advent,
when he will raise to life and judge all mankind. As we prepare for Christmas,
it is this second Advent that we really need to be preparing for. That is why
the colour of Advent is purple. It is a penitential season, a time of
introspection when we examine our lives in the light of the Word of God and
seek to make them conform to it.
There are different ways in which people prepare for Christ’s
coming. Some understand it as trying to determine the date of Christ’s return.
Setting the time of Christ’s return has been a hot topic over centuries.
Hundreds of times has the return of Christ been predicted and hundreds of times
they have been wrong. This has been going on for so long that I am not
surprised that many who call themselves Christians have resigned themselves to
the notion that Christ is not coming back. What I don’t understand is that so
many believers are led astray each time a new prediction pops up. Don’t
Christians read their Bibles? In our Gospel lesson Jesus clearly states, “You
do not know when that time will come (Mark 13:33).” The day of
Christ’s return will come as a surprise to everyone.
You may have wondered why God wants to keep it a
surprise. The early church father Athanasius explained, “For who, if they knew
the day of the end, would not disregard the interval?” For example, imagine
yourself a teenager. Your parents have just informed you that they will be out
of town for a week. Now, do you think that while your parents are away you will
diligently keep the house clean? I know there are some who will. But let me
tell you what I used to do. I was quite lazy. I would use the same dishes over
again so I wouldn’t have to wash them. Only the night before my parents
returned home would I quickly vacuum the house and do the dishes.
God knows how easily we are tempted to put off doing what we
ought to be doing if we knew when he would come to judge. But God will not be
like our parents who may easily be fooled. God knows how we live each day, even
if he is not physically present as Christ was during his time on earth. The
reason God does not tell us the day is because he knows how easily we fool
ourselves into believing
that he doesn’t know what we are up to. The reason he keeps it a
surprise is so we do not disregard the life of Baptism, of dying to ourselves;
of daily taking up our cross and following him. What is important here is not
knowledge of when he is coming but whether you are ready. Only that matters.
Even if you should somehow be able to calculate the exact coming of Christ, it does
not mean that you will be ready. You may still end up in hell. Believe me, you
don’t have to know when Christ is coming. The point is that we be
ready.
Why is it so important to be ready? So we would not lose our focus, our goal.
We've come to that place in the National Football League season when some teams
are rising and some are falling. Some have lost their focus. It is not unusual
to hear a coach complain of his team, "They need to play with more
intensity." My favorite team has been sleepwalking the last few weeks!
They seem to have lost focus.
We do tend to lose focus on the
consummation of all things. We tend to forget that this world is going
to end, that our lives are also going to end, sooner or later. The
symptom of that is that we get our priorities mixed up. We spend our best time
and effort on that which has no lasting impact on our lives. We tend to play at
our work and work at our play. We have tended to "major in minors,"
forgetting the times we are in, for we are in the last days—the time of
preparation for the end. We lose focus by setting our eyes on that which is
immediately ahead of us, thinking that there will always be plenty of
"time" to refocus. We like to push to the back burner our presence at
the Divine Service because we have what we think are more important "pots
to stir." We cannot make or find the time to listen to God speaking to us
in his Word, either in church or at home because we are simply too busy
pursuing things that ultimately don't matter. We are not preparing for our
Lord's return.
I am told that many years ago when you
got the wheels of your car balanced some shops used a static balance instead of
a dynamic balance. Static balance was the old way. The wheel was placed on a
device that had a circular bubble device, like the bubble gauge on a level.
When the bubble was dead center, the wheel was supposed to be balanced. But
that didn't represent the real world of wheels spinning at very high
revolutions on the highway. So a device was invented that spun the wheel at
high speed while it measured exactly where the wheel needed the weights. Today
there are no more shops that use the old static balance because the dynamic
balance is far superior. It is "real world" balancing of your wheels.
Static versus dynamic is pretty much the
point of our Lord's warning to us about his return on the Last Day. When he
tells us to "Keep Watch!" he has in mind dynamic
watchfulness, not static inactivity.
Our Lord's warning is simple and to the
point, "Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the
owner or the house will come back." Jesus tells us to keep awake
and watching. Here the picture in the little parable he told is that of
household servants who each have their duties to perform. They are to be busy
doing what their master has assigned them to do, not goofing off because he
isn't physically present. He may return at a time when they least expect him,
and then the lazy servants will receive their master's punishment.
The owner should find "each
[doing] his assigned task," says Jesus. This does not teach that
we are saved by works at all, but that Christians do have a dynamic life.
Getting back to the contrast between static and dynamic, you can see that our
waiting is active, lively, living for Christ.
What is your assigned task? In this
parable, as in some of the others, Jesus tells us of two groups of servants.
First, there is the doorkeeper. He is put in charge. He is to watch the door
for the master's return. He is to direct the other servants so that they do what
they have been given to do. The other servants are to be busy doing their
assigned tasks. Utter chaos is not to break out in the master's house. It is a
well-ordered house. He expects to find it humming along in an orderly manner
when he returns.
Of course, this is a picture of the
Church. Pastors are like the watchmen, the doorkeepers who watch for the
master's return and who direct the other servants. The other servants are busy
doing their master's will. Specifically, they are to be productive servants.
The Scriptures describe the twofold work of the servants of Christ: They are to
1) receive the spiritual gifts which the master has left for them (1 Cor. 1:6), and
2) be engaged in works of mercy (Matthew 25:31-46).
We cannot be productive servants of Jesus Christ if we do not receive the food that he has provided for us. If we skip the Divine Service, we lose the sustenance he means for us to have, and losing this nourishment, we cannot be engaged in works of mercy. We lose our focus. We begin to slide into the sleep of death.
Advent has always been a time of
preparation for the return of Christ. It is a time to repent, as we shall hear
in the preaching of John the Baptizer. It is a time to return to the cleansing
waters of Holy Baptism, to receive our Lord's Absolution, and to put our lives
in order.
The frantic activity of the season
probably keeps many of us from preparing our hearts as we should. We do not
spend the quiet moments of the week in prayer. We are too often running from
this party to that dinner to yet another activity-all in addition to our usual
round of activities. The Advent call should remind us that we are to "Keep
watch." We need to take care of our faith by listening to our
Lord and by receiving his spiritual nourishment for our souls. That is why we
have added midweek Advent services to help us keep our focus on our goal.
Dear friends, the dark night of this
world has deepened. It is always darkest before the dawn. Our Lord's eternal
dawn is about to break in our darkened world. Now is the time to keep awake and
watch for his return by repentance and forgiveness. “Keep Watch!" Be "Ever
Watchful!"
On May 19, 1780 the sky over Hartford, Connecticut was extremely
dark. Everyone was looking up into the sky wondering if Jesus was going to
return on that day. Shops did not open because merchants wanted to be with
their loved ones when the end came. People were surprised when the Connecticut
House of representatives decided to meet. The speaker of the House was a man
named Colonel Davenport. He knew the fears of the people and some of the
Representatives. Someone made a motion for immediate adjournment. Davenport
rose and said, “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it
is not then there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, then I chose to be
found doing my duty. There I wish that candles be brought. Rather then fearing
what is to come, we are to be faithful until Christ returns.”
I hope
that is our story. Someday Christ will return. In the meantime we need to be
about our assigned task. “Keep Watch!”