“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 in the heavens will be shaken.
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with
great power and glory. 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.
“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.
So also, when you see these things taking place,
you know that he is near,
at the very gates.
Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until
all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass
away. “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in
heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not
know when the time will come.
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. 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, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to
you I say to all: Keep awake.”
*******************************************************************************************************
I like having guests who are late, because that way I can be
prepared. That instead of running around attempting to make dinner, picking up
my project piles, and rearranging the papers on my desk — in hopes of
unearthing its wooden counter, I can sit in the living room with music playing
and a candle lit, and watch out the windows for my guests’ car to come by and
then hop up, and open the door, and walk out to the driveway to greet and walk
them in. I am rarely this prepared. Instead, and especially if someone is early
or on time, I forget the music until halfway through the dinner I put my guests
in charge of helping me to prepare, and my state of being looks a little more
frantic than calm. In honesty, I am not a, ‘just a drop by and come on in
anytime,’ type of person. I am neither that put together to be always
ready, nor that humble to be un-self-conscious of being unprepared.
But this text says, “he is near, at the very gates.” And I
imagine Jesus walking up to my door and I am pushing papers and books out of
sight under the couch, and resetting the sconces’ tilted candle with my right
as I unlatch the lock with my left. If Jesus was my house guest, I would be
wholly unprepared, I would be Martha running around frantically, missing the
better part. Thankfully, Jesus is not the guest, he is the Master of the House,
and he, not I, is preparing.
“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 in the heavens will be shaken.
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Though there are other more historical reasons that
Christmas falls in winter, it is fitting that Advent is the time of dark.
Despite all that is gold and glitters, and an unfathomable array of Christmas
lights, there is an equally dark haze that glooms over this season. There is
hunger in the visions of sugar plums, and racism worse than Rudolph’s red nose,
there is brokenness that begins the ballet of the nutcracker, and a velveteen
rabbit who is overlooked and ignored. Ingrained in the coming season of light,
are stories of darkness and pain. I listened to my friend Susie yesterday, and
in an almost comically cliche scene she had been driving her parents from the
airport to Thanksgiving with her sister, when her father outburst that her
mother, his wife, in the back seat, has been an alcoholic for four years, and
he, once the secret keeper, could no longer be her support. While the holidays
bring pictures of gratitude and joy around the family table, there are so many
stories in this season of that which is hidden under the rug and hoped to stay
in the dark. Sus’ dad brought the situation to light, and Susie, a former drug
and alcohol counselor went into do-mode. She wanted to look up the perfect
counselor and make appointments for her parents, and lecture her father and
mother, and have her mother’s entire route to sobriety all planned out, and do
all those things that we try to do to ignore the darkness, and do all those
things that we try to do when when forget that we are not the master preparing
the house. The scripture continues,
“Then they
will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’
with great
power and glory.
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.”
In her disappear Susie neglected to see the ways the Son of
Man was already coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Despite the
situation Susie had neither reverted to smoking nor her eating disorder. She
had taken time to go be with a friend, and committed herself to watch her
favorite show that night while doing her excursus. The best thing Susie can do
for her family, is to take care of herself in the midst of their struggle and
she was doing it. There was with her a great power she had missed, a great
light entering in the darkness. She, and I, and we have to keep awake, for the
ways Jesus has prepared a home for us. Our job is not to be in the kitchen
baking dozens of Christmas cookies, or racing the crowds on Black Friday, or
filling up our calendars with events we feel obligated to attend, but instead
we are to sit watching out the window with a candle lit, looking for the master
to arrive.
The scripture quotes,
“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.
So also, when you see these things taking place,
you know that he is near,
at the very gates.
We must watch in a different way, we must keep awake to
notice the ways Jesus is at our door. My skier friends have been online
checking the snow level at Anthony
Lakes for weeks. Did you
see the snow on the mountains this morning? Jesus is very near. At Thanksgiving
dinner with Melissa’s family we each offered ways we were thankful, most
everyone thankful for family, and friends, and the host, (darkness of Mel’s
grandma) and there in the holiday abutting Christmas, the heavenly host was
beginning to enter in. I think of other families in this town with turkeys
galore because you gave in astonishing generosity. Jesus is at the gates but he
is not standing knocking.
This master is not one who prepares in the same way we do.
He prepares with awe and wonder and requires our attention. He comes as a baby,
who smile, a different type of attention.
You must watch, you must keep awake at all hours. This
master comes like a baby.
With a candle lit, we await the coming of the greater light,
that be it in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, will
overcome the darkness.
God comes as a human – watchfulness.
