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Stay Awake! by Dr. Tina Blair, Associate Pastor 1 December 2002-- Advent 1 TEXT: Isaiah 64:1-9, Mark 13:23-37 © 2002 C.E.Blair

 Not long ago there was a bumper sticker popular in fundamentalist Christian groups in the United States that said: "In case of rapture this vehicle will be suddenly driverless," implying that the driver was a "true" Christians who will be swept up by Christ, or "raptured" while everyone else is left to suffer as the end of the world approaches. I found it annoying and misguided. The doctrine of the rapture, by the way, is a modern Christian version of the end of the world; an interpretation of Scripture accepted by only a small part of Christianity (it in fact has been rejected by many historically mainline Christian denominations).

As a result of these kinds of strange end-of-the-world things, I find end of the world stuff embarrassing -- don't you? I lived in Texas in the 1990's, and the closer we got to the Millennium, the more so-called Christian cults popped up predicting doom, disaster, and the END in the year 2000 (and these cropped up not just in Texas, but all over the world!). End of the world predictions have been popping up since the beginning of the world, I guess. So what to do with this passage in Mark?

This is what is called "apocalyptic" writing – it's from the same family as passages in the Old Testament from Daniel, Ezekiel, Malachi, and so on. The word "apocalyptic" comes from the Greek, meaning to "reveal," "uncover," or "disclose." Apocalyptic writings have a formula: they are about a final judgment on the earth that brings an end to this world: this judgment always includes not only people and nations, but also the earth and the whole created cosmos; this end-time is terrifying; this end-time brings judgment to the wicked nations.

Jesus picks up and uses the same images as these prophets: the shaking of the heavens that puts out the lights, so to speak, as the sun, moon and stars darken and fall. What is he saying? What does he mean?

We could, and should, spend hours on this 13th chapter of Mark, so please recognize that we cannot deal with all the issues it raises in this brief time today. However, I will point out a few things to notice:

• This passage begins in the earlier verses with a series of predictions: these predictions, which include persecutions and destruction, fairly accurately described what happened to Jerusalem and to Christians in the following decades. Many of these verses are not about the end of the whole world. They are about the end of Jesus' and his followers' world as they knew it.

• This is the language used by the prophets: full of images, graphic, and terrifying, but not necessarily literal – yet at the heart of their messages comes the certainty that wickedness and evil will be judged (especially the evil caused by nations, groups of people) and those hurt by this evil will be vindicated and restored.

• Those Christians who in the last 2000 years have taken these words extremely literally -- equating one nation, such as the Soviet Union, with a certain verse, for example -- have missed this point that the prophets, and Jesus, were making.

• Furthermore, when Jesus talks about the real end of the world and his return, he is always very clear: "But about that day and that hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." (v.32)

Yet we are told by the church that we must read and reflect on this passage now, the first Sunday in Advent. What truth does it hold for us? What does it mean for me and you and our preparation for Christmas, for the birth of the Christ? For with the season of Advent -- which begins today -- we are preparing for the birth of Christ, yet again, in our hearts and our lives.

The key, I believe, lies in the command that Jesus repeats so often: be watchful! be alert! Stay awake! Stay awake? To what? you may ask. To eternity: for we live in the shadow of eternity (Barclay). And the prophets can guide us, as in Isaiah:

• Stay awake! Stay awake to yourself, to your own behavior, your own "iniquities" to use Isaiah's word. Have you noticed the domino effect of behavior? When I am tired I get annoyed, and I "grump" at my daughter who then stomps off and slams a door which causes my husband to come rushing out to yell at my daughter, who talks back to him, and so I then yell at them both.... (and so on)! Does this happen to you?

In this passage in Isaiah, the people are suffering, not because God has punished them, but as a direct result of their own faults, as the consequences of their own action. So it often is with us: we get stuck in our faults; we forget to examine ourselves, and instead blame others.

Therefore I tell you, stay awake : awake to your treatment of others, to your personal integrity and ethics, to your values and actions in every arena of life: are you preparing yourself to receive the Christ once again this ? Stay awake!

• And stay awake to injustice in this world, the injustice of nations, groups, guilds, businesses and other such powers. This central theme in Isaiah and the other prophets is also picked up by Jesus throughout his ministry. Stay awake, for example, to how wealth is concentrated in the hands of just a few people (under 50 persons, I believe) in the United States. Stay awake to the injustices we are allowing to happen to our planet: have you noticed that it is the children and the poor that experience the effects of pollution first? The rate of asthma for children has increased dramatically in the United States, especially in poor inner cities or in neighborhoods next to utility plants, all due to air pollution – children are dying – and they should not be! Stay awake!

• And stay awake to God's work in this world. Notice where God is working – for there the light is shining in the darkness. I had a recent example: on the coldest wettest day in Paris this winter, a homeless refugee sought refuge in the building. The only one who noticed this wet, shivering foreigner was the security guard (who may not be a Christian) – while the busy pastor (that's me) rushed around doing important things like answering e-mail and coercing volunteers to work on Thanksgiving dinner. The guard bought the shivering person a hot coffee from the machine downstairs and parked her in front of the heater, and then alerted me. I was very moved: where is God's light shining? In the places and people you don't always expect!

Stay awake and notice and tell others: here, there, see God's light shining? "The light is shining in the darkness and cannot be put out," says the Gospel of John. Indeed it is. So open your eyes, point to God's work in the world, notice God's work in your lives, and give thanks! Stay awake!

As we prepare for Christmas, we are preparing to welcome Christ again into our lives and our hearts. As a favorite writer of mine said, we are like Mary, "pregnant with the Christ child." So stay awake, and prepare a place for him in the inn of your heart.

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