Mark 13:24-37
Advent. Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a new church year. The wonderful season of hopeful expectation. The liturgical color is blue, for Mary and for dawn. The first candle on the Advent wreath is lit.
Among the many images for Advent, I’d like to offer you one more. It’s the very familiar scene of a family heading out on a trip in the car. Maybe to the mountains or the beach or to grandmother’s house. And the kids in the back seat of the car asking… Are We There Yet? Huh? Are we? Are we there yet?
Two parts to that illustration. First, the answer, of course, is “no.” No, we are not there yet. But the other part is the kids excited questions. Their excitement and ours comes because we know where we are headed. We know the destination, and we’re eager to get there. It’s an exciting destination. We are not there yet, but we can’t wait to get there. That’s Advent.
The church reminds us during Advent that we are actually on two journeys. We hear it in the Advent Collect and in the readings. Two journeys: the journey towards Jesus’ first coming and the journey towards Jesus’ second coming. The journey towards Christmas and the journey towards the ultimate fulfillment of God’s kingdom.
Both are journeys to exciting destinations. The birth at Christmas of a child, Emmanuel, God with us. And the second journey leads us towards the fulfillment of God’s ultimate desire for us and the coming of the kingdom. Mark is talking about the coming of the kingdom at the end of time. His description is stark, maybe not sounding like something to look forward to. But the journey towards the kingdom is an exciting one. It is a destination to be yearned for. And we know this because of Christmas. Because Jesus came the first time and lived among us, we know what the kingdom is like. We know what we are looking forward to on our journey towards Jesus second coming and the fulfillment of the kingdom.
- The kingdom is like a poor child for whom the angels sing.
- The kingdom is like a world where a lion lies down with a lamb. Where predator and prey are reconciled.
- It is a place where all sins and hurts are healed. All.
- In the kingdom the marginalized are seated at the head of the banquet table.
- The kingdom is a place where arrogance and hatred and injustice are wiped away. Where all the barriers that divide us are gone.
- In the kingdom peace soothes all fear and anxiety.
- It is a place where love conquers even death.
We are not there yet. Look around you. As individuals, as a society, as a world, we are not there yet. But we are on the way and we know where we are headed. I’ve often said that the seasons of the church year are cumulative. In one sense, we live them all all of the time. And the part of Advent that stays with us year round (after the journey towards Christmas has passed) offers us the reminder that we are on the road towards the kingdom, the promise of the destination that lies ahead. But Advent also reminds us that we are not there yet. It jolts us out of any sort of complacency that we “have arrived” already, that we have already become all that God hopes for us to be.
We are on the way, but unlike kids in the back seat, we are not just passengers. Stay awake, Mark says. And be attentive to the tasks the masker has given you. Be alert. Stay awake. Mark can’t seem to decide if Jesus’ second coming will be in the lifetime of the current generation or some time in the future that no one knows. It’s possible that Mark is conflating two different traditions. When do you think Jesus’ second coming will come? When will we arrive at that journey’s end? If it were tomorrow I expect we’d just throw up our hands and pray for the best. Or often, I think we imagine it so distant and indefinite that we ignore it altogether. But what if it is, say, a year from now. How would that affect the way you live? That’s enough time to really cast away some works of darkness, as the collect says. Let us cast away the works of darkness. Let us work on building the kingdom, such as we can, here. That’s the job the master has given us.
So this Advent maybe we can each look or one bit of kingdom building to do. One place where we can create health or reconciliation or be agents of peace or hope. One specific, tangible thing in our lives that will bring the kingdom closer.
We are not there yet. But we are on the way. That’s Advent. We are not there yet, but we are kingdom bound.
And there’s one very, very important postscript. Because we area also on a journey towards Christmas, towards celebrating anew the birth of God with us…. Because of that, we know that Jesus is with us as we journey towards the kingdom. With us to guide, comfort and strengthen.
Are we there yet? No. But we are on the way.
