1st Sunday of Advent, 3rd December 2023
Wolf Kirchmeir Endings & Beginnings
[Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; 1st Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13: 24-37]
O Holy Spirit, assist us we contemplate your word, that we may be enlightened by your truth. Amen.
Dear Friends in Christ,
[Mk 13:34] It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his 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 cock 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!’“
Today we begin the season of Advent. When I was a child in Austria, we put up the Advent Calendar. It showed a castle-like mansion with many windows. Every window revealed a surprise, a toy, and animal, a flower. Then on Christmas Eve we opened the double front doors and discovered the Christchild and his family. Advent was a season of expectations, of looking forward to something wonderful.
It still is. We look forward to something wonderful, the coming of God into his creation. We look forward to God living a human life as one of us.
Expectations of the future are also reminders of the past. As today changes into yesterday, and tomorrow becomes today, something ends, and something begins.
So we may think of Advent as a time when old things end and new things begin. Endings and beginnings, that’s one of the themes of the Gospel appointed for today.
But expectations are not always wonderful. As we grow older and learn something of how the world really works, our expectations become darker. We realise that the future holds as much evil as good, perhaps more.
Today’s gospel is one of several that deal with the end times. Jesus sometimes spoke of the ending of the old world and the beginning of the new one. Here, Jesus talks about the end of the universe. That is the end of the world as we know it. In other words, he’s prophesying. And most of the time, his prophecies are ignored. Or else they are misunderstood.
We look around the old world, decaying, running down, a time of wars and conflict, of selfishness and greed, of irresponsibility, self-indulgence, and carelessness. As the Irish poet W. B. Yeats wrote, we feel that Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold... The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
But this ugly old world will give way to a beautiful new one, the Kingdom of Heaven.
That’s what we say we believe.
Our actions suggest a different attitude. We are constantly planning for the future as if there will be no end. Planning for the future lets us imagine that our lives will go on. And if and when we do think about the end, we make a will, so that our plans will continue to be fulfilled past our endings.
But here is Jesus telling us we can’t know when the end will come. Not for ourselves, not for our civilisation, not for the Earth, not for the universe.
Of that day and of that hour knoweth no man. [Mk 13:32]
When he talks about the stars falling from the sky and the moon losing its light, Jesus is quoting Isaiah. Even so, I don’t think Jesus is really concerned with explaining how the universe will end. He’s setting up a contrast between the end of time and the here and now. What really concerns him is how we live our lives here and now, in this generation, as he says.
He knows perfectly well that the world as we know it is always ending, because the world as we know it is always changing into something else. He knows, too, that for each of us our own personal world will end. The only world that is real for us is the one we live in now, not the one that came before us, and not the one that will come after us.
That’s why I think Jesus ends his discussion of the end times with a parable:
It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
He ends with a one-word command: Watch! [Mk13:37]
Because something huge will happen.
Something wonderful. Something so amazing that we rarely pay attention to what the words tell: God will enter his creation in exactly the same way as each of us come into being. He will be born as a baby.
This Advent season reminds us once again of that event. At this time, the beginning of the Church Year, we commemorate the long wait for the Messiah, the Chosen One of God, who would be born to lead his people into the Kingdom.
Many of the first followers of Jesus believed that the kingdom would be a political one, that Jesus would drive out the hated Romans and establish an independent Israel.
For us, the Kingdom is a spiritual one, it’s the Kingdom of Heaven.
And that’s a puzzle. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus says two things: one, that the Kingdom is coming; and two, that the Kingdom is at hand. It is both something to look forward to, and something that is here already. How can that be?
Well, there is no single definite answer. The are many possible answers, and what matters is how these answers affect the way we live. I want to explore one of these many possible answers.
Have you noticed that whenever Jesus talks about the end of the world, he talks about the beginning of a new one? He does that here too. Watch, he says. The master has left on a far journey. He has left you in charge. He will return. But you don’t know when. So make yourselves ready for him. Watch!
He has left us in charge. He has made us stewards of his creation. He will return. He will demand an accounting of how we spent our time while waiting for him.
That’s why I think that we should not ask How will the world end? but How shall we live in this world?
How then are we to spend our time while we wait for God’s chosen one?
We already know what we should do. But we need reminders. So let us remind ourselves of what we have done and of what we have left undone.
Today’s Gospel gives us some clues: each servant has their assigned tasks.
Last Sunday, we heard the parable of the sheep and the goats. That’s another clue.
When I think about what Jesus wants from me, I think of Zacchaeus the tax collector. I think of the widow who gave far more of her little wealth than the Pharisee gave of his surplus. I think of the many Psalms that ask God to protect the poor and the weak from the greedy and the strong. I think of the prayer we recite every Sunday: Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
I think of the summary of the Law and the Prophets: Love God, and love your neighbour.
These are all clues to how we are to live this life. They are all direct and indirect guides to the tasks set before us.
We each have work to do, according to our talents. St Paul lists some of them: teaching, healing, giving wise advice. What’s your talent? How do you use it in the service of God?
We have our daily round of tasks that keep our world functioning. St Benedict said Laborare est orare, to work is to pray. That’s a reminder that we should do our work mindfully, as best we can. We offer our daily work as a service to each other, and by so doing, we offer it to God.
We have treasure in abundance to share with those who have little or nothing. Like the Pharisee, most of us have more than we need. Sharing what we have is what Jesus wants us to do. And while sharing what we don’t need is good, the sacrificial sharing that Jesus admired in the widow’s offering is better.
Think of time. None of us has more time than we need. Time is most precious gift we can give. Spend time with someone who’s lonely. Chat with someone who has few friends. Visit someone who’s shut in. Call someone whom you haven’t seen in a while. Send a card or an email for someone’s birthday. All these things take time, time shared, time given as a gift.
What you did to the least of these brethren you did to me, says the Son of Man when he divides the sheep from the goats. That means that in God’s eyes the least of these our brethren is at least as valuable as we are. Each is a vessel of the Holy Spirit, a child of God. To serve them is to serve God.
In another place, we are told of the rich young man who heard the Good News. What must I do to be saved? he asked Jesus. Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, is Jesus’s answer. That’s a hard lesson for us, for like the rich young man we love our things, and we want to keep them.
God demands justice and offers mercy. We pray that he may forgive our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. That’s a tough petition. It’s saying we desire the same forgiveness from God as we offer to others. What if we hold a grudge? What if we won’t forgive? I think it’s clear: we are to forgive each other, as we hope and pray God will forgive us.
Love God, and love your neighbour.
To love God is to love his creation. Exploiting its riches without repairing whatever damage we cause is wrong. Sustaining the abundance of life that God has created is right. If these tasks cost us some wealth and comfort, well that’s the price we have to pay.
We pray for our daily bread, for what we need. God will supply our needs. Giving up some whims and desires in order to sustain God’s creation so that it can supply our needs, well, that looks like fair exchange to me.
Love is what we do, not how we feel. Sure, a feeling of affection makes it easier to do what we have to do, but it’s the doing that’s the love. Love is an active verb. Love one another, as I have loved you, Jesus tells us. I don’t think he means Have nice feelings about each other. He means Do what I’ve done.
And what has Jesus done? He’s given his life for us.
We will soon celebrate the Incarnation, the coming of God into his own creation. In the meantime, in the season of Advent, we will watch for him. We will do the work he has left for us to do, each with our assigned task.
Let us pray.
Lord, you made us to love and serve you by loving and serving each other. By the power of your Spirit strengthen our trust in your promises, so that as we watch and wait for your kingdom we may live as you desire us to live. We pray that we may each know our assigned task and perform it faithfully. We pray in the name of that Love that will return in glory, who lives and reigns with you and the Spirit, now and forever. Amen