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November 27, 2005 First Sunday of Advent (B) Rev. Timothy Schehr Isaiah 63:16-19; 64:2-7 X 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 X Mark 13:33-37
Are you ready for Christmas? We will probably answer that question many times in the next few weeks. Answers may include how many decorations we put up this year or how much shopping we have yet to do. We can hear the Lord asking the same question in the Gospel for this Sunday. But he is looking for an answer that has to do with our spiritual preparations. Jesus urges his disciples to be on the lookout. He has been talking to them about the coming of the Lord. Naturally they want to know when this is going to take place. But Jesus won’t satisfy that question. Instead he concentrates on readiness. He makes a comparison. Think of it as the lord of a house leaving servants in change until he returns. In the meantime each servant has some task to do. When the lord of the house comes back they had better be busy doing what they are supposed to do. As for times, Jesus does mention some specifics—evening, midnight, cockcrow, or in the morning. It may be purely coincidental, but each one of these times comes into play in the closing chapters of Mark’s gospel. It is evening when the apostles celebrate the Passover with the Lord. But one of them is not watchful He has allowed the attractions of this world to enter his heart and steer him away from Jesus. His name is Judas. Later that same evening Jesus prays deep into the night. He invites his remaining disciples to watch and pray with him. But each time he returns from prayer he finds them sleeping. It must have been around midnight when the unfaithful disciple returns with a crowd and betrays the Lord. Once again the disciples are not prepared. They all forsake him and flee away. And who can forget the fateful cockcrow that marks the threefold denial of Peter. He was not alert and watchful for his Lord. And very early on that first Easter morning the Risen Lord appears to the disciples and is greeted with unbelief. They are still caught off guard, unready for the challenges of faith. The disciples might have learned a thing or two about readiness from the first reading this Sunday. It comes from the Book of Isaiah. The faithful of Isaiah’s time had just the right prayer for readiness. We could paraphrase their prayer this way: May we be doing the right thing when you come to meet us Lord. Of course this prayer comes near the end of the book of Isaiah. They people had not always been so insightful about their spiritual journey. In fact at the start of Isaiah’s book things are looking really bad. God’s children are running off in every direction and paying no attention at all to God. But many chapters later things have changed dramatically. Years of exile for the Promised Land made them wiser. They make a prayer to God and even address God as “our father.” Things look much brighter by the time Isaiah’s book comes to a close. Paul opens his letter to the church in Corinth with another kind of prayer It is a prayer of thanksgiving for all the wonderful gifts God bestowed upon the brothers and sisters in that church. They need to hear this from Paul because, as seen in later chapters of the letter, some of them still do not appreciates the gifts they have. But Paul is confident that with God’s grace they will be found worthy on the day of the Lord. ©Rev. Tim Schehr |
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