Waiting for the Light
Mark 13:24-37
“But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
25 and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. 27 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.
28 “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. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34 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. 35 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, 36 or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
As of this weekend, 270,000 people in the United States have died of the Corona virus. That’s two hundred seventy thousand empty seats at the Thanksgiving table this year, enough people to fill every seat in Angels’ Stadium in Anaheim six times.
Because of the Corona virus, job losses and general economic disparity, only 44% of American households with children feel confident that they will be able to afford the food they need for the coming week.[1] Put another way, 56% of American households with children are food insecure. Twelve percent of those households reported that they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat.
One in 5 renters in America are behind on rent and worried about eviction. Persons of color were likelier to report difficulty affording rent because they have been harder hit by pandemic job losses.
In so many ways and for so many of us, this is a grim and precarious time. The words of Isaiah ring in us like a bell:
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.[2]
O God, why won’t you do for us the kinds of things you did in the past? Where’s our parting of the sea? Where is our manna falling from the sky?
It was a grim and precarious time for the people of Judah when Isaiah wrote those words. They were suffering under the harsh oppression of Babylon. They wanted divine intervention. And isn’t that what we want now?
It was a grim and precarious time when Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives and shared his apocalyptic vision with his disciples. As we read the story in chapter 13 of Mark, Jesus is telling his disciples about the end of the world not long before Judas betrays him, not long before he is crucified. And it’s a very perilous time when the writer of the gospel records all this. If biblical scholar Ched Myers is correct, Mark is writing this gospel some time during the Jewish revolt against Rome, the rebellion that will end with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.
“But 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.
Those words take on new weight on the first Sunday of Advent when you think of them being spoken during a time of violent political oppression, a time when any hint of opposition is quickly and decisively squashed. These words have a sharper edge when you think of them being written down and preserved while the streets of the city are filled with the noise and bloodshed of battle between Roman soldiers and Jewish partisans.
Beware. Stay alert. Stay awake. The advice Jesus gives is practical. Keep your eyes open. Don’t fall for false messiahs and conmen. Don’t make yourself crazy trying to figure out God’s timetable because only God knows. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. There will be trying times. Stay awake.
Advent is a time for pragmatism and preparation.
Advent is a time to walk into the turmoil and the pain of life with your eyes wide open. In an age and a season when it is all too easy to live in denial, when we would love to jump straight to Christmas, Advent calls us to take a hard look at the world around us. Advent calls us to see the world as it really is, to see ourselves as we really are, to open our eyes to things that we maybe don’t want to see, to listen to things we might prefer not to hear. Advent calls us to be realistic…about the world and about ourselves.
In 1952, as the Korean War was dragging on and the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was becoming more intense, William and Annabeth Gay wrote a haunting and profound hymn that, to my mind, perfectly captures the spirit of Advent for our age. The title that Annabeth gave it is Carol of Hope, but you might know it by its first line which is how it’s titled in most hymnals, a line that sounds anything but hopeful: Each Winter As the Year Grows Older.
Each winter as the year grows older, we each grow older, too.
The chill sets in a little colder; the verities we knew
seem shaken and untrue.[3]
When race and class cry out for treason, when sirens call for war,
they overshout the voice of reason and scream till we ignore
all we held dear before.
Yet I believe beyond believing that life can spring from death,
that growth can flower from our grieving, that we can catch our breath
and turn transfixed by faith.
So even as the sun is turning to journey to the north,
the living flame, in secret burning, can kindle on the earth
and bring God’s love to birth.
O Child of ecstasy and sorrows, O Prince of peace and pain,
brighten today’s world by tomorrow’s, renew our lives again;
Lord Jesus, come and reign!
Advent calls us to be realistic about the shadow side of life, to mark where we’ve not only grown older but colder, where the verities we knew seem shaken and untrue. Advent calls us to identify those voices that overshout the voice of reason so we can be more attentive to reason and to the Prince of Peace and pain.
But Advent doesn’t simply ask us to dwell in gloom and shadows. Advent also calls us to bring light—four lights to restore brightness and health to a self, a nation, a world stumbling in murky obscurity—four lights to prepare the way for the true light of Christ.
And the first light is Hope.
“Genuine hope is not blind optimism,” said Jürgen Moltmann. “It is hope with open eyes, which sees the suffering and yet believes in the future.”
And perhaps Barack Obama was thinking of Moltmann when he said, ““Hope is not blind optimism. It’s not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It’s not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be.”
Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us.
“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for,” wrote Barbara Kingsolver. “And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.”[4]
So on this first Sunday of Advent we light the candle of Hope.
On this first Sunday of Advent as we begin a new year in the calendar of the Church, we light the candle of Hope. If the sun is darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars seem to be falling, light the candle of hope.
If we are suffering now because of the pandemic, Saint Paul reminds us that, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”[5]
“If we hope for what we do not see,” he said, “we wait for it with patience.”[6]
So if it looks like the sun has been darkened and the moon won’t shine and the stars are falling and the world is more or less metaphorically ending, in the spirit of Advent, let’s be realistic and honest about it. Let’s stay awake and aware. And then let’s light a candle of Hope. Because Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.[7]
[1] https://www.cbpp.org/blog/as-thanksgiving-approaches-fewer-than-half-of-households-with-kids-very-confident-about; also https://www.marketplace.org/2020/05/07/44-of-americans-fear-they-wont-be-able-to-afford-food-poll-finds/ (Marketplace/Edison Research)
[2] Isaiah 64:1-2
[3] Each Winter As the Year Grows Older, William Gay, 1920-2008;
Tune: Carol of Hope, Annabeth Gay, 1925-2020; Evangelical Lutheran Worship, #252
[4] Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
[5] Romans 5:4-5
[6] Romans 8:25
[7] Romans 15.13
Thoughts Along the Way 