Don’t You Dare Turn Away
A Sermon Preached by Rob Lee
Mark 13:24-37
FBC|WJ
Will you pray with
me?
God may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our
hearts be pleasing in your sight oh God our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
I am a basket case of anxiety. Now
you may wonder how that’s different from any other day in my life, but
nonetheless this week I have anxiety on top of anxiety. You see in the scheme
of things I shouldn’t be worried; in the scheme of things what I’m anxious over
pales in comparison to the realities of our world today. Even still anxiety has
overtaken my life. You’ve all heard it from me before, some time before
December 19th, I will hear from Duke Divinity School regarding my
acceptance or lack thereof from that prestigious university.
Now some of
you who know me may feel like I am a broken record. While children have
sugarplums dancing in their heads, I have the blue devils dancing in mine. I’m
pretty sure my girlfriend Stephanie has watched me flip out every time the
phone rings. I’m pretty sure my mom and dad are ready to move on with their
lives and not hear about Duke as much as they are right now. But for me, this
is one of the most important moments in my life thus far. This is the reality
in which I live, and for right now, I’m having to be patient and wait. But
honestly at this point it’s keeping me up at night.
Today we
hear eschatological words from Jesus. Eschatology, a theological term for the
study of the end things, but today my favorite part centers around the last
part of the passage. Jesus says, “Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home
and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper
to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master
of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at
dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to
you I say to all: Keep awake.” I love how one translation puts it, “Keep your
eyes open.”
Keep awake. In our go, go, go culture
it can be hard to stay awake and keep watch. But I’ve been especially mindful
this week that God calls us to keep our eyes open, wide open to the
complexities of this world. And this time around ground zero for where God is
calling us to look is Ferguson, Missouri.
For those
of you who haven’t turned on the television this week, Darren Wilson, the white
police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager wasn’t indicted for his
actions, regardless of what you think of what happened, racial tensions are at
an all-time high with looting and protests in the streets and threats of Ku
Klux Klan activity. This has been a rough week for race relations. But where
has God been in all this?
God has
been pleading with us to keep our eyes open, to keep awake and see the horrors
of systemic racism and inequality in our society. You see Advent is a time when
we are called to see the terrible things that go on in our world.
Right here
at home, I think of how this is playing out, I think of Kelly Vannoy and
Michael Sexton who every day keep their eyes open at the Sharing Center to
homelessness and poverty right here in our back yard. I think of Laura McClure
and her ability to keep her eyes open to the pain our world feels and her
combatting that by working with Operation Christmas Child. I think of our youth
who every year keep their eyes open to pain of a community like Birmingham or
Washington DC every time they go on a mission trip.
Perhaps
this year, this Advent season as we wait for the crescendo of our year at
Christmas we could begin to keep our eyes open. Perhaps we could stay awake.
Maybe just maybe we could fight the injustices we face with an Advent hope. A
hope that says nothing, NOTHING can keep us from the love and grace of the
incarnation of Jesus Christ.
You see as
the text suggests, we are all along the watchtower keeping our eyes wide open
to the hope of the incarnation of God. The fullness of our beings will be made
complete in the hope of this time of year. In a world hell-bent on
commercialization of this holiday, we as the church must keep awake to the
coming glory of Christmas.
You see the
problem with Ferguson, Missouri and other places of violence in our world is
that we as a people don’t let our hearts break. Why you might ask? We’ve become
numb to the problems of our society. But let me assure you that the God we
know, the God we have our hope in, God’s heart is breaking. So my prayer for
you this season is that the things of this earth that break God’s heart might
break yours as well. Keep awake dear people, keep awake.
This season
don’t you dare turn away. Don’t you dare fall asleep because ultimately who
else will face the problems of this world with the love and compassion that
Christ offers. For this season, the incarnation means that we are the hands and
feet of Christ.
But where
is the hope in this sermon? Of course it’s the Sunday of Advent where we
celebrate hope. Our hope is that our hearts don’t have to stay broken. The
reality of the incarnation is that God loved us so much that God incarnated God’s
self into humanity’s form. God came to our backyard, and we should welcome him
into our hearts yet again this season.
Dear people
of God I wouldn’t be a good preacher if I didn’t address the rest of the text,
especially this week. Jesus is telling us to keep awake because the end is
near. Christ reminds us that Christ had died, Christ is risen, and that Christ
will come again. What would you do if the world would end tomorrow? Martin
Luther was once asked what would he do if the world would end tomorrow, and he
said he would plant a tree. I’ve been thinking and if I knew the world would
end tomorrow, I’d give my family and friends a big hug and I’d go down to a
place like Ferguson, Missouri and I’d plant a tree. I’d plant a tree and remind
whoever would listen that God is still God. That in Christ there is neither Jew
nor Greek, slave nor free. I would hope that in some small way, that tree would
stand as the world ended and Christ would know that there is still hope for
humanity.
Where would
you plant your tree? Where would you find your hope if the world were to end
tomorrow, you see with the promise that world could end at any time we have the
duty of investing in today. We have the duty of keeping awake to the problems
of our world because the end of our time here on earth could come at any
moment.
Every
Christmas Eve I stay up and watch the Christmas mass from Vatican City, as
Calvin Miller says I’m the Pope of First Baptist so I might as well do my
religious duty and tune in to watch the other pope do his duty. It lasts
forever and is often times goes late into the night. It often makes me tired
and in need of sleep come Christmas morning. But regardless of how tired I am,
it’s worth it because I know I have seen the incarnation of God here at First
Baptist and at Vatican City.
As
Christmas is on the horizon, as we reach the hope of this season, keep awake.
Keep awake and know that God is in the business of using you to change the
world. This is the hope of this season. Know that in the economy of God, racism
and sexism the things we’ve witnessed this week along with all the other “isms”
will ultimately be eliminated.
Duke Divinity School has made me anxious these
past few weeks and especially now. But I was reminded of the beauty of this
season by none other than Pastor Michael, you see Michael and I have a deep
relationship and he always keeps me on the right path. He’s one of the greatest
mentors I’ve ever had, and I’m thankful for his friendship. I texted him one
night and told him about my anxiety, my lack of sleep, and my fear of what
would happen if I didn’t get in. Michael texted me back and said, “I know you
are anxious, but you are going to have to continue to exercise patience and
genuinely trust in the peace of Christ. Duke is not the essence of your
identity.”
First
Baptist Church, I echo those words today. As we keep awake and keep our eyes
open to the terrors of this world, we’re going to have to genuinely trust in
the peace of Christ, and remember that Duke Divinity School, that our jobs,
that our fears and anxieties are not the essence of our identity, God is. God
is the essence of who we are and who we are called to become. So keep awake,
keep awake and know that God is still God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
