11/23
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| yes, keep wearing your mask |
Another week begins.
The young woman is still missing.
The General Services Administration has said that it will start a “transition”process with President elect Biden…with Trump’s acquiescence…though he maintains he will still “prevail.” I’m beginning to relax. A bit,
Tonight we shift our study into Advent, With a reading from Mark 13: 24-37. . Mark’s “Little apocalypse.” Mark grabbing lines and images from Isaiah (13:10, 50:2-3), Ezekiel 32: 7-8), and Joel 12: 10. 31). It’s the parousia…coming…we’ve been building towards the last few weeks.The coming of the son of man, the human one.
Marsha likes the emphasis on being prepared. Wondering what’s he going to do? Who is he?What’s going to change?
Amber Lee likes the image of the fig tree, and remembers the other times Jesus talks about fig trees. Like the cursing of the barren fig tree, 12: 11-25, drawing on Old Testament metaphors (Hosea 9:10, Jeremiah 24), or a fig tree that bears no fruit (Jeremiah 8:13), and in Micah 4:4) where the fig tree represents Israel.
Russ says it’s a call to stay woke.
We think of music like Bach’s “Sleepers Awake” or the carol “Watchman tell us of the night.” Or even “People Get Ready” by Curtis Mayfield.
There is the cryptic discussion of the ingathering. What is that about? There is Mark’s use of the master/slave story (34) which probably underlies the lengthier parables in Matthew and Luke we have been studying these last few weeks. We are called to vigilance, because there will be an accounting. Marsha wonders what that actually means. I recall an old friend’s saying “Time wound all heels.” And we realize our younger friends don't know the word “heel” for jerk.
We ponder that at the beginning of Advent, we are taken right onto the heart of the Passion story. Right between the triumphant entry and the Last Supper. Our Advent is about this years’s Christmas, the historic birth of Jesus and his final coming. All at once. It's as if to say with this Jesus we follow, his birth and death are inseparable.
Amber Lee wondered what Jesus knew. I tell her that if we believe as our theology states, that Jesus was fully human, then he didn’t know everything. If his story is to mean anything, then he had to have that Gethsemane moment of Let this cup pass…as the Rolling Stones sang,
And I was 'round when Jesus Christ
Had his moment of doubt and pain
He was as we are. We don’t know, and yet we must act.
Mark's story was written in the midst of suffering. The revolt had been crushed. Perhaps as many as a million Jews had died. Signs point to all predictability gone. Nothing left to trust. And we realize that it's not the end of the world that is being predicted, it’s the end of suffering.
God knows we have suffered. What all have we been through the last eight months? Last four years? What have we suffered? Each of us can write our own litany.
Today I was called and told that my friend Rachel had died in her sleep. Her suffering is over. I am so glad I got to see her and say goodbye. To tell her there is nothing more she had to do.
Probably people in any age can see their own day as apocalyptic. My friend Father John always said we needed nothing more than this, that we all die. We area all going to come to an end. And that’s all the apocalypse we need.
Marsha, from Texas, recalls that it’s the tradition at Texas A&M for the “corps” to stand throughout the whole game. It goes back to a story from the early days of A&M football when the team was down a player and one of the”corps” came down from the stands onto the field and ran for the winning touchdown. The standing is a symbol of being ready to step in at any time when you are needed. To be ready to play your part.
Not a bad metaphor. We don’t know, and yet we must act.
People, get ready.
Mark 13:24-37
New Revised Standard Version
The Coming of the Son of Man
24 “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.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
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[a] 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.
The Necessity for Watchfulness
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;[b] 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.”
Footnotes
- Mark 13:29 Or it
- Mark 13:33 Other ancient authorities add and pray
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