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Exegesis
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 |