Mark 13:24-37; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
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One evening during the summer of 1986 I was having dinner with my grandparents. We were sitting at the kitchen table eating supper and watching the evening news. A very interesting news story came up. People were coming from all over the place to some little town in Ohio to see what appeared to be the face of Jesus rusting up on the side of a town water tank. I looked over at Granddaddy and it appeared that he had become rather interested in this story and was becoming visibly angry for he had stopped eating. All of a sudden he blurted out, “What in the world! The Bible says Jesus is coming back on clouds of glory, not on the side of some water tank. Ain’t that right boy?” and I said, “Yeah.” Then he just shook his head for a minute or two while the story finished and then went back to eating.
Granddaddy’s response begs a very important question: “Why were so many people, and good Christians at that, searching for hope on the side of a water tank?” For Granddaddy, the Bible said quite specifically that Jesus would be coming back on clouds of glory and that was good enough for him. He didn’t need the proof of Jesus coming back on a water tank. Yet, these water tank Jesus folks, they apparently needed some proof. It wasn’t that they needed proof that Jesus was coming back. They rather wanted something, a miracle, to assure them that the God they believed in was real. Person after person that the newscaster interviewed at this water tank phenomenon said just that, “This proves that God is real. This proves that Jesus Christ is alive.”
So, why were they coming to the water tank for validation of their faith? Well, this was going on in the midst of the economic crisis that bedeviled the “80’s. There was also living daily with the Cold War fear of nuclear holocaust. The first hints of the cultural decline of Christianity were becoming visible. The AIDS epidemic was afoot with some actually believing it to be a plague sent by God. In the midst of all that social turmoil people just wanted proof that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost hadn’t taken the last train for coast.
To many people, the times seemed so “Apocalyptic” (if I might misuse the term), like the world was going to end soon, and they wanted to know if God was with them. That’s back when I first accepted the call to follow Christ (not just believe) and I remember very clearly how Endtimes-focused a good bit of American Christianity was. You didn’t need to look too hard for a class on the Book of Revelation. And it wasn’t just the church that this apocalyptic fervor touched. The artist formerly known as Prince was singing “Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1999” and that song was all about an impending end of the world. In the mid-80’s there was a strong sense of expectation of something apocalyptic in the air and those water tower Jesus people were just wanting some assurance.
Well, what’s all this got to do with Mark’s gospel and Jesus coming back? This is the first Sunday in Advent. It’s traditionally called the Prophet’s Sunday and, on this day, we remember how the prophets of the Old Testament were filled with the expectation of a day when God would come as the Saviour/Messiah to set things right and establish his kingdom forever. Their hopes and expectations were partly fulfilled with the coming of Jesus. They also hoped for a day when God would pour out his Spirit on all peoples and this has been happening in part since the day of Pentecost when God poured his Spirit upon the church. They also looked forward to the Day, the Day of the Lord, when God would finally put all things to rights. We still look forward to that same day, the day when Jesus will return and all things will be created anew. This “looking forward” is what distinguishes the Judeo-Christian faith from all other religions.
In our text today Jesus proclaims to us the message of the prophets to expect a day when he will return in glory. It is often the case that some find it difficult to accept that Jesus will return. After all, it’s been nearly two thousand years now and he hasn’t shown up. I could very easily accept this view point on the basis that it fits reality, but I cannot. To say that Jesus is not coming back robs our faith of its hope, a hope born in the expectation of a day when God will finally put an end to sin and an end to death. I have seen too often the difference that hope can make in a person’s life (particularly those who are near the end of life) just to dismiss the world which the prophets, the earliest Christians, and Jesus himself hoed for and imagined.
In expectation of that day, Jesus commands us to keep awake, to not be found sleeping. It’s never a good thing to fall asleep at a time when you’re supposed to be awake. You miss important stuff like things that are going to be on the exam or that you’re driving off the road. Jesus commands us to stay awake meaning to keep hoping in God, to keep expecting God to act not just at the end of time but more so now, in our daily lives right now.
We hear a lot people making semi-funny jokes about how bad 2020 is. Humour is a good way to deal with 2020. Yes, the times are bad now. You would think it was the 80’s all over. We’ve got a pandemic that’s requiring us to adapt with major changes to our lifestyles. It’s got the global economy on the brink of a shambles. There’s the instability of the American political situation. There seems to be no such thing as straight up news anymore. Even the weather report seems to be a biased opinion piece, but I guess that’s always been the case with the weather. Everybody just seems to believe what they want to believe. Sometimes I scroll through Facebook and see some of the stuff that people I went from elementary to High School with post; particularly the political stuff. I can’t believe we went through the same schools and had the same teachers and see things so differently. There’s still the threat of nuclear attack but more so from a terrorist group than from another nation. There’s societal distrust of the institutions of authority but blind allegiance given to authoritarian figures. Then, there’s the impending Climate crisis. That one really worries me.
Jesus said, “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 will be shaken.” That’s a style of writing called “Apocalyptic” and he’s just saying that that all the institutions and beliefs and what not that hold a society together get shaken to where nothing makes sense. It’s like clearing an Etch-a-Sketch so you can start over. We are in such a time as that now. Now more than ever hope and a people who live according to hope are necessary.
Jesus says, “Keep awake.” God will come to us in this time of upheaval, and its best we not be sleeping lest we miss it. I don’t want to sound like one of those Bible-thumping, late-night, AM radio preachers and scare people. No. Quite the opposite, I want to give hope. People are already really scared and just don’t understand what the hell is going on. We need hope. I started out talking about people flocking to a small town in Ohio back in the ‘80’s to see what looked like the face of Jesus rusting up on water tank. People need to see the face of Jesus right now. It is my prayer that he shines through our faces, our lives and isn’t just rusting away on us. We need to keep awake. Attend to your devotional life. Keep in contact with people especially those shut-in. Encourage people to work together to solve our common problems particularly the problems faced by those who are struggling. All the finger pointing and labelling people as enemies does absolutely nothing towards healing divisions. Encourage people.
Encourage people. In the passage I read from 1 Corinthians Paul remarks on how God had given them so much grace meaning that God had been so evidently at work in their midst. That being the case Paul says, “He (God) will also strengthen you to the end.” I have been through periods in my life when everything has been upside down. This verse has meant the world to me. Tough, tumultuous periods come but will in time come to an end and, truly, God does strengthen us to get us through them. In these times when everything is being turned upside down and inside out be encouragers. I’ve run a few marathons in my life and there is nothing like another participant coming alongside you at mile 19, mile 20, when everything is its most disillusioning, hurting just as much as you are and they simply say to you, “We got this.” Then, the next 6-7 miles go by and where the strength came to finish from? Who knows? It just did. Friends we got this and God will strengthen us to the end. Encourage people. Give hope. Amen.
