+ Last Sunday of the Church Year – November 25th, 2018 +
Series B: Isaiah 51:4-6; Jude 20-25; Mark 13:24-37
Beautiful Savior Lutheran, Milton
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Whenever our kids know that someone is coming over to the house, you’ll find them glued to the front windows like sea stars on rocks. Maybe you’ve done the same watching and waiting for an amazon package. They may not know the exact hour. Yet there they are. Watching the driveway for cars. Waiting to see who comes to the door.
This is our life as the baptized living in these Last Days. Watching. Waiting. Living in hopeful expectation of the return of the King. Knowing that Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.
But concerning that day or that hour, Jesus declares, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard. Keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.
To live in these last days is to live on the threshold between time and eternity. We live in the time between times. The time between Jesus’ first Advent in the flesh and his second Advent in glory. As the church year draws to a close and Advent begins the church calendar anew, we join the saints in singing and praying that ancient prayer: Come, quickly Lord Jesus.Jesus calls us to stay awake. Watch. Wait.
And as we wait and watch, Jesus prepares us, as he did his disciples, for the End. Jesus does so by telling two short stories. One about a fig tree. The other about a doorkeeper.
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
For many people, and maybe you’re one of them, the thought of the End is a fearful thing. Judgment day. Doom and destruction. Zombie apocalypse and Thunder bolts of lightning, very, very frightening. But Jesus points to a tender fig branch, full of sap and life with budding green leaves as a sign of the End times. Instead of a sign of death, he gives life; instead of destruction he promises a new creation. Instead of judgment, he brings redemption.
Though it’s true, these Last Days are dark and dangerous. St. Paul instructs us to walk carefully, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Jesus warned his disciples about this too. “When you see these things”. And they would see it all in their lifetime. Wars and rumors of wars. Persecutions. Christians martyred for the faith. Famine. Disease. Death. The destruction of the temple.
Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Jesus’ words give us a sense of urgency. Every generation of Christians believes that the end will come in their lifetime. The disciples did. The early church fathers did. Luther did. And even if they didn’t understand the Lord’s timing they had the right view of living in the Last Days. We’re always living as though this present moment is on the threshold of the last day. Jesus is near. Jesus is coming. He is at the very gates. Stay awake. Watch. Wait.
It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
Here we could learn a lesson from God’s 4-legged creatures. Every morning our cat Tillamook is awake, waiting for me by our bedroom door. Watching to see when I’ll come out to feed him. He waits and watches, and if I am delayed in feeding him, he waits and watches some more. He won’t stop watching me till I feed him. He may not know when, but he knows I will.
Our Christian lives are the same. Stay awake. Watch. Wait. This doesn’t mean we quit our jobs and stand around gaping into the skies waiting for Jesus to appear. It means that we go about the work we’ve been given to do, our vocation, with the knowledge and understanding that today or any day could be the Day of the Master’s return.
Problem is, we’re not very good at waiting are we? It’s not just that we live in a world where our every want, desire, or longing can be instantly gratified; the problem is us. And it’s not just that we’re impatient, complacent, and selfish. Those are the symptoms. Sin is our real problem.
And if that’s all we had at the end of our lives or the End of the world, well then, it would be a day of judgment and death. But it is not. Not for you, the baptized. Our day of judgment has already come in Jesus’ dying for you.
For all our faithlessness, Jesus is faithful for you. For all of our spiritual drowsiness and lethargy, the Lord keeps constant vigilance for you. Behold, he who keeps you his Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. For all our impatience and selfishness, Jesus is patient, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast, sacrificial love for you. For all our fears, sin, and death, Jesus gives us hope and comfort, forgiveness, and life. Life today in his Word that never passes away. Life today in the End Times verdict that slips out early in the absolution: you are forgiven all your sin. Life today in his body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.
All our doubt and despair, all our pain and suffering, all our anxieties, worries, and fears, all of our laziness and impatience born of sin, it’s all been judged already in Jesus. The verdict has been read: not guilty. Go your way, your sins are forgiven you. You are covered in the blood of Jesus. Clothed in his righteousness.
Jesus the door has opened the way to our heavenly home for us his doorkeepers. Jesus’ cross is our tree of life. The winter of sin is over. Summer is near. And the fruit of his harvest is in the feast he gives us today.
This is how Jesus prepares us for lives of waiting and watching, by hearing and receiving him who is present with us and for us in his own body and blood. Indeed, the Lord is near. Jesus is coming. Today. And one day, He will come again.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time,and now and forever. Amen.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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