The Rev. Robert Lundquist           Advent IB    11/27/05   St Paul’s, Ft Collins

Mark 13:24-37  - Online Text -

Keep awake!  Keep awake, or you’ll miss something.  And what would that be?  What are you waiting for, what are you looking for?

A stroller one evening came upon a man searching for something under a streetlamp.  “What did you lose?” asked the passer-by.  “My keys!  Would you help me look?” said the luckless searcher.  So down on hands and knees both looked for several minutes.  “I’m not finding anything – where did you lose them?”  The reply – “Over near the bushes there.”  “Well, why in the world are you looking 20 feet away?”  “Because,” said the man, “the light is better over here.”  Isn’t that often the way of the world?  Not knowing what to look for and where to look seems to afflict an amazing number of people.

Our Gospel lesson from Mark today is part of what scholars term “the Little Apocalypse.”  It was most likely recorded during the Roman persecution of Christians after the Resurrection, perhaps around 70 AD.  You may notice that the passage evokes an echo of Jesus’ Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he implores his followers to “watch with me.”  “Can you not stay awake for one hour with me?”

In this little apocalypse we hear of the stars falling, the elect being gathered up, the fig tree blossoming instead of withering, and the servants being placed in charge of things.  When will the master come?  Will it be in the evening (the time of the Last Supper with the disciples)?  Or will it be at midnight (when Peter denied Jesus three times)?  Perhaps he will come at cockcrow (the point at which Peter realized he had betrayed Jesus just as foretold), or at dawn (when Jesus was handed over to the Roman authorities).  Keep awake! Because there is hope.

Theologian John MacQuarrie wrote that “Jesus is a hope-creating reality.”  It’s a reality that we desperately need, whether we know it or not.  You may remember the movie Camelot from years back.  It’s the story of King Arthur and his knights of the round table, the story of a time when peace, joy, love and prosperity ruled.  All this is destroyed by the unfaithfulness of Arthur’s queen Guinevere with Sir Lancelot, Arthur’s most trusted knight.  It all comes down to a final battle, that showdown between the forces of Arthur and Lancelot.  In the midst of his despair on the eve of battle, old Arthur meets a 13-year old boy named Tom in the encampment.  He asks the lad what he is doing there.  “I’ve come to fight for the round table, and to become a knight,” he replied.  Why? asked Arthur, are your father and brothers knights?  “No,” said Tom, “I’ve heard the stories – of might for right, and right for right, justice for all, and knights united for the good.”  Arthur’s world is crumbling around him, but he hears these words of young hope, and says,

            “Each evening from December to December,

            Before you drift to sleep upon your cot,   

            Think back on all the tales that you remember – of Camelot.” 

Hope.

We live in a time, like all other times, of signs and portents.  Thanks to the immediacy of news reporting in our age we have had an up-close window on a tsunami, on hurricanes and earthquakes, epidemics both real and potential, of war and terror.  A year ago I had no idea what a “Cat 5” was.  It’s just since August, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Central Gulf Coast of our country, that we’ve learned such terms.  Some are convinced that The End is near.  But Jesus tells us that we know not the time, so we must keep awake in hope and expectation.

The Rt Rev William Frey, the IIX Bishop of Colorado, once said, “Hope is the melody of the future; faith is the courage to dance to it today.”  This season of Advent is, after all, the time to look ahead with hope.  We pray for the coming of Emmanuel, the Jewish name for “God-with-us.”  We pray for God to be with us – NOW.  “Keep awake!”

There’s a beautiful medieval carol called “Tomorrow shall be my dancing day.”  It calls the singer to look to the future with hope, to look ahead with expectation, and to dance in faith to that yet-to-come tune.  Tomorrow will be a dancing day, for God is coming to us in swaddling clothes.

Hope gives us the courage to look, and not only where the light is good.  Because we’re looking for the coming of a savior.  Almighty God, give us grace to stay awake in hope and faith.  AMEN.