This is a sermon that was preached on Sunday, December 3, 2017, the first Sunday in Advent, at United Presbyterian Church in Sterling, KS.
Listen to the audio here.
The End of
the Beginning
Did you know that we recently survived the apocalypse? According to Christian author David Meade the world was supposed to
end on Saturday, September 23, 2017.
Meade had figured out, using the Bible and numerology, that the Planet Niburu
was going to crash into Earth on that day.[1] I don’t have to tell you that it didn’t
happen. We’re still here. We
survived. Yay!
In other news, on a road through a desert in Arizona, a preacher
named Nathaniel Evans walked every
day, preaching to the many people who roared past in their cars, yelling, “Repent, the End of the World is Near!”
One day, as he was walking, he came to a big lever in the middle
of nowhere, just by the side of the road. It had a sign next to it that read, “Pull this to end the world”
Nathaniel saw this as the perfect spot for him to preach, and soon
many automobiles were parked nearby. All was well, until there were so many
people, and so many cars, that the road was nearly blocked. Then a big 18-wheel
rig came down the highway, and couldn’t stop in time. The driver had a choice: run over Nathaniel, or run over the lever.
As the driver later explained to the Highway Patrol, he had no
choice. Pointing to the red smear on the road that used to be Nathaniel Evans,
he said, “Better Nate than
Lever.”[2]
People have been making predictions about the end of the
world throughout the course of history.[3] One that got lots of attention back in 2011 was Harold Camping. He was so
certain that he knew when the world was going to end that he spent $5 million
on billboard advertising to warn the world.[4] As you might imagine, Camping’s prediction
got lots of media attention, and became a common topic of conversation. One morning in the car, my kids were talking
about it, and they reminded each other of our scripture reading for today from
Mark, because in it Jesus tells us two very important things about the
apocalypse:
Verse 32: But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
No
one knows except God when it will happen, not even Jesus knows, so there’s no
point in trying to figure it out.
Verse 26: Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.
They
= everyone. We’ll all know when it’s
happening. My kids were wondering, since Jesus told us this, why anyone
would pay attention to the predictions?
It’s an interesting question, but I’ll admit I was too busy being proud
of my kids for knowing these verses to answer it.
The verses we read from Mark 13 are part of a longer speech
that Jesus makes to his disciples about the future. At the beginning of the chapter, they are
admiring the temple in Jerusalem and Jesus tells them that it will be
destroyed. This did happen in the year
70 CE, but even before that people were wondering why Jesus hadn’t returned
yet. Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians
both address this and encourage the people to keep on being faithful.
Now, more than 2000 years later, Jesus still has not
returned. Some of us may be wondering
whether he really will, and if so when?
Do we really believe that Jesus will come
again?
The Bible says that he will.
- The 24th chapter of Matthew has this same speech (v36).
- Luke refers to it in his gospel (Ch.21) and in the first chapter of Acts (v7).
- The book of Hebrews talks about it (9:28).
- John writes about it in his letters (1 John 2:28) and gives us great visions of it in Revelation.
So we don’t need to worry about whether it will happen,
and there’s no point in worrying about when it will happen, so what, then,
are we supposed to do?
There was a Bible study group that was discussing the mystery of
Jesus’ second coming and the end of the world. The leader of the discussion
asked the group, ”What would you do if you knew for certain that the end was
happening in four weeks?”
One man said, ”I would go
out into my community and minister the Gospel to those that have not yet
accepted the Lord into their lives.”
“Very good!” said the group leader, and all the group members
agreed.
One lady said enthusiastically, “I would dedicate all of my remaining time to serving God, my family,
my church, and my fellow man with greater conviction.”
“That’s wonderful!” the group leader commented, and all the group
members agreed.
One gentleman in the back who’d been fairly quiet said, “I would go to my mother-in-law’s house for
the 4 weeks.”
Everyone was puzzled by this answer, so the leader asked, “Why your mother-in-law’s home?”
“Because that will make it absolutely the longest 4 weeks of my
entire life!”[5]
In the passage that we read from Mark, Jesus tells us quite
clearly what we are to do. Four times he
says, Be alert, keep watch, stay awake
(vs. 33, 35, 37).
Hold on to hope. Radical,
expectant hope.
When
Jesus came the first time, that night more than 2000 years ago, Israel had been
waiting and watching, hoping and longing for the messiah to come for hundreds
of years. Isaiah expresses that longing
in the verses our advent candle-lighters read for us this morning: Lord,
tear open the heavens and come down! (Is. 64:1) Jesus’
explanation of the second advent in our reading from Mark describes just
that: “Then they will see ‘the Son
of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.” (Mk 13:26)
We sometimes pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!” In fact, every week when we pray the Lord’s
Prayer, we say, “thy kingdom come.”
“Lord, tear open the heavens and come down!”
Do we really expect that to happen? Do we really want that to happen?
I think we do….and we don’t.
We have the 20/20 vision that comes with looking
backward through history. We know what
happened when Jesus came the first time. People were waiting for the messiah, and
watching for the messiah, but they didn’t know when it would happen, and they
didn’t know where or how it would happen.
But it did happen. And it changed
everything.
Are we ready for Jesus to come again and change
everything?
It’s already happening. Jesus is already coming again. Not
the big dramatic, clouds parting, trumpets blaring, world ending kind of way
yet, but the daily, ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in new places and new ways kind
of way.
- Jesus comes again whenever someone newly puts their trust in him and their heart is changed.
- Jesus comes again whenever we take a step in faith and reach out to help someone or take a stand for someone or tell someone about God’s great love for them.
- Jesus comes again whenever we break out of sleepy patterns and try something new.
- Jesus comes again whenever we overcome the safety of apathy and ignorance and wake up to the hurts and challenges people are facing in their lives.
- Jesus comes again whenever we lay aside our worldly priorities and focus instead on God’s priorities.
Keep alert. Be on the
lookout. Watch for these things. These things do happen and are happening and
will keep on happening. This is our
radical, expectant, Advent hope.
Isaiah’s prayer, “Lord, tear open the heavens and come down”
is my prayer, too.
Lord, come again today into our hearts and lives and do the
radical, wonderful things that only you can do to change our hearts and our
lives, so that we might be not only reflections of your glory, but beacons of
it shining in the darkness, bringing your amazing, undying, radical hope to our
world.
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