The Hour of the Unexpected

Nov 29^th, 2020

1 Cor 1:1-9

1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

² To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. ⁵ For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— ⁶ God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. ⁷ Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸ He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

^{Mark 13: 24-27}

²⁴ “But in those days, following that distress,

“‘the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’^[a]

²⁶ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

²⁸ “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it^[b] is near, right at the door. ³⁰ Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

The Day and Hour Unknown

³² “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert^[c]! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

Isaiah 64 

 

^[3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
    you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
⁴ Since ancient times no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
⁵ You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
    who remember your ways…

⁸ Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
    do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
    for we are all your people.

 

 

** 30 Doughnut Days later…

·        We are fully aware of the dangers and implications in not being watchful – our lockdowns and restrictions have been lessons in patient endurance –compliance and non-compliance!

·        We now have our masks ever at the ready and our awareness of social distancing is built in to our everyday behaviour

·        The unenviable alternative is fully obvious in other places where infection rates are out of control…

 

Today is the first Sunday of Advent – a season of preparation and watchfulness, of hope and expectation.  Beginning the season of Advent with passages about the second coming reminds us that the work of the first advent (coming) of Jesus is not complete. The risen Jesus instructs (and empowers) the church to continue its witness until the second coming (Matthew 28:16-20).

The Gospel writers had an end-time (apocalyptic) orientation, believing that history is divided into two ages -- a present, evil age that God would soon replace with a new age (often called the realm of God or the realm of heaven). The old age is marked by the presence of Satan and the demons, and by idolatry, sin, injustice, exploitation, sickness, enmity between nature and humankind, violence, and death. The new age will be characterized by the complete rule of God and the angels, and by authentic worship, forgiveness, mutual support, health, blessing between nature and humankind, and eternal life.

For Matthew & Mark, God is acting through Jesus Christ to effect the change. The birth, life, and resurrection are the first phase of the transformation, with the complete fulfillment arriving with the second coming. The theologians call this A fully realized kind of eschatology.  Meanwhile, the early faith communities lived in a kind of conflict zone between the ages. Again, the Apostles called their communities to follow the instruction and model of Jesus.

Some scholars believe that many amongst those fledging congregations were losing confidence in the coming of the Realm. The apocalypse was delayed. Their witness was fading. Mark wrote to encourage them to continue.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert^[c]! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴

We are reminded that neither the angels nor even Jesus can know the precise time the apocalypse will occur. Only God knows.

Mark reinforces the idea that the community must “be ready.” In this context, to “be ready” is to continue to do what Jesus taught his disciples. The community is to prepare for the final advent less by doing special things and more by living and witnessing as Jesus instructed.

Our liturgical season of Advent is an annual reminder of the importance of faithfully doing what Jesus said... to Be Ready

Jesus calls the disciples, and empowers them, to witness faithfully to God’s ultimate purposes of love, peace, joy, and abundance. Coming to such clarity of thought and action is a powerful way to prepare through Advent.

It’s about being watchful…

If we aren’t watchful, if we aren’t paying attention, we will be taken by surprise when something happens.

** Driving on Advent Roads can be fraught!  Constant Vigilance is needed as traffic assumes a kind of ‘manic’ quality from here to Christmas – it’s even more needed on the bike as Christmas shopping-distracted drivers rarely notice the lone cyclist!

Constant vigilance in our lives too!  This doesn’t mean we can anticipate every difficult event—accident, illness, loss, financial or political upheaval. However, being watchful means being ready, awake, prepared.

** We are certainly grateful for the preparedness and watchfulness of our governments, our health workers and our border security personnel as they have helped navigate the country through these difficult days – they have paid attention and kept watch for us

>>> Paying attention is one of the main Advent challenges and raises questions for us:

·         How can we best Pay attention to the people closest to you. How will you give and receive love in those relationships?

·         How can we best Pay attention to the people you encounter. How might your interactions aim toward being holy moments?

·         How can we best Pay attention to the people least like you. This may be more difficult, but how will you learn from them?

·         How can we best Pay attention to God and to what God is doing in the world. How can you awaken your senses to notice goodness and peace?

·         How can we best Pay attention to yourself. Self-awareness is highly underrated. How will you be awake to your body, soul, spirit, and values during Advent? How will that self-awareness translate into how you spend your time?

We never know what’s going to happen next, but faithful watching can help us be prepared for both the good and the bad, the delightful and the challenging.

Pay attention. And be ready.  John Shea writes in The hour of the unexpected…

Many other things that happen to us in this life are unexpected… First something happens.

 A friend dies; a child smiles us into wonder; an old lady refuses to be old; an adolescent finds a way out; a secret weakness is painfully exposed; we are unexpectedly kissed.

 First something happens.

 A short fall is suddenly without bottom; an expectation is reversed; a comforting self-image is shaken.

 First something happens.

 At the center of our best effort we discover our worst motive. Our perfect plot fails and their sloppiest plan succeeds. In single-minded pursuit of one goal we blithely achieve the opposite. When all retreat at the sight of the dead, we stay and stare and do not know why. First something happens.

 In these moments, and many more, we are thrown back on ourselves. More precisely, we are thrown back into the Mystery we share with one another. These moments trigger an awareness of a More, a Presence, an Encompassing, a Whole within which we come and go. This awareness of an inescapable relatedness to Mystery does not wait for a polite introduction. It bursts unbidden upon our ordinary routine, demands total attention, and insists we dialogue. At these times we may scream or laugh or dance or cry or sing or fall silent. But whatever our response, it is raw prayer, the returning human impulse to the touch of God.

 This is how it was for Jesus. The Kingdom of God which he preached came as a gift, suddenly overtaking the weariness of the soul.

 ·        In farming a barren field, a treasure is stumbled upon; a corner is turned and the perfect pearl is for sale;

·         out of nowhere an invitation to the King's party arrives.

·        The advent of God, even when we are looking for it, is always surprise and any encounter with Jesus always holds the unexpected.

·        To the lawyer who wished justification Jesus gave challenge. The rich young man wanted advice and received an unwanted suggestion.

·        Zacchaeus merely hoped for a glimpse of a prophet yet dined with his savior. The woman at the well came for casual conversation and went away with self-revelation. With Jesus people seldom got what they asked for. They always got more.

 We pray out of more, when our emptiness is suddenly brimming, when our ravaged lives are called to greatness, when we crash into limits and recoil.

 We pray out of our experiences and the Christian Scriptures.

 We place our personal stories within the Spirit-created story of Jesus.

 In this placing, in the interaction of the two stories, the deepest meanings of our lives unfold. We discover ourselves in dialogue with the events generated by Jesus, with the personalities who preceded him in faith (Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah) and those who drew faith directly from him (Peter, Mary, Paul). Like all who encounter the Christian story we are spun around. Old worlds are subverted: new worlds rise from the ruins. We are touched by Love beyond love, aware of life within Life. We are timid people suddenly filled with daring.

 Every word is prayer.

 And we remember… remember the courage of Mary, the betrayal of Peter, the abandonment of Magdalene, the fidelity of God, and the compassion of Christ. At times these prayers directly address God; at other times they do not. Yet all are witnesses to grace, stuttering accounts of the God whose ways are not our ways.

 In the end there is only one justification for these prayers.

 When God either muscles or smuggles his way into our activities, we know all words are betrayals; yet we speak. At that moment prayer is neither guilt nor task but just the word that is there.

And Finally this… in Beyond Words, Frederick Buechner writes:

The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised his baton.

In the silence of a mid-season dusk there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen.

You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff in the air of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you've never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart.

The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment…

But if you concentrate just for an instant, far off in the deeps of yourself somewhere you can feel the beating of your heart. For all its madness and lostness, not to mention your own, you can hear the world itself holding its breath.