Dear friends:
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, and our Scripture lesson is a look ahead in time!!! Mark 13:24-37 is a passage about the second coming of Christ, and is the passage commonly read for this Sunday..
But wait a minute! I thought we were looking back at the birth of the Christ child. I thought we were concerning ourselves with the Holy Family, a manger scene, shepherds, Wise Men, and a guiding star. That is what Advent is all about. None of that is in Mark's passage. So what does this have to do with Advent.
The passage of Scripture in Mark is the last lengthy teaching in that Gospel Jesus gives His disciples prior to His death and His Resurrection. It therefore serves as a kind of "Farewell Address". And the word Jesus gives His disciples is "WATCH". Disciples are called to both Follow and Watch.
Advent is a time of preparation. Not for the physical birth of the Christ-child. That has already happened, and has changed the world forever because it happened. But an equally important birth is the coming of Christ into the human heart. Advent is a time to say "Yes" to God, inviting Him into our hearts, anticipating His birth in those places of our lives and ourselves where there is darkness, and where a New Birth needs to happen.
And Advent is also a time in which we acknowledge that God is in charge. No matter how bad things seem to be -- with the economy, with our jobs, with our personal lives -- the Lord has told us to Watch. Jesus is coming back. We watch with expectancy because we know that God is in charge, and will return at any time. When we watch for God, we expect to see Him, and that changes our whole outlook on how we live.
May we begin this Advent expecting to see a miracle in our midst. Cause God is in charge.
Just a thought. More to come on Sunday. See you then.
Keith
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