Mark 13:32-37

&nb= sp;

Advent happens whenever Christ is present.<= /o:p>

A sermon preached by

Rev. William O. (Bud) = Reeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

November 30, 2008=

Donna Spratt, a mother= in Melfort, Saskatchewan, wrote in to Christian Reader ma= gazine to tell about a discussion that had been held in her teenager’s youth group. The youth pastor asked= the teens, “What would you do if your doctor told you that you only had twenty-four hours to live?” A couple of kids immediately mentioned being with friends and family, but then Donna’s 13-year-old son raised his hand. The youth pastor said, “OK, = Jason, what would you do if your doctor told you that you only had a day to live?”

Jason said, “I&#= 8217;d get a second opinion!”[1]

Today we are beginning= the season of Advent, and maybe you’d like to get a second opinion. Our culture, of course, does not e= ven recognize Advent. We are now = into the season of Christmas. It s= tarted officially on Friday, with a frenzied rush to the malls and Toys R Us, but = the Christmas decorations were up and activities had begun long before that. Santa Claus reigns supreme. All around us now there are decora= tions and holiday music and massive hopes for an economic recovery.

Then we come to church= , and we get a different point of view. A lonely prophet cries from the pages of = the Old Testament, “In the wilder= ness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”= [2] A wild-eyed preacher crie= s from the banks of the Jordan River, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wr= ath to come? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand! …The one who is more powerfu= l than I is coming, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. I baptize you with water, but he w= ill baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”[3] The pastor in your church may want= to talk more about prayer than parties, more about preparation than purchases, more about radical repentance than conspicuous consumption. This is not culturally correct. It is unsettling, like being told you’re going to die in twenty-four hours. Perhaps you want to get a second opinion.

Don Shelby, retired fr= om many years as pastor of United Methodist churches in California, wrote in a book of Advent meditations, “We need a season of Advent to interrupt = and unsettle us, to give us pause, to make us ponder, and to challenge our intentions and priorities. We= need this season because we can be creatures of habit and routine who take each other and our spiritual life for granted.&= nbsp; We need this season because we are prone to reduce the mysterious in order to make it marketable and manageable. We need this season as a reminder = that our encounter with God through Christ can forever change our life and our world.”[4]

It is a bit unsettling= to think about Christ coming to earth. But we believe it; we confess it every time we say the Apostles̵= 7; Creed: “From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” It must have been unsettling the first time Jesus came. It’s still unsettling to think that one day the Master will re= turn and find his servants taking care of his things. What if he came today, in the midd= le of our cultural Christmas celebration? Do you think Jesus would be pleased at the way we celebrate his birthday? When will he come?<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Nobody knows. It could be today; it could be long years from now. Jesus himself professed not to know the exact timetable of his return: “About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”= = [5] We’d like to know the answer, so we could know when we have to get ready. Not knowing the answer= , we could get caught sleeping when the Master returns. We could fail the test.=

There was a major college football team that w= as facing its biggest game of the year when the coach received word from the academic dean that his star quarterback was on academic suspension. The coach went running to the dean= 's office to protest. The dean said, "We caught him cheating on a major examination this week." The coach demanded to know how they knew the quarterback had cheated. The dean said, "Well, he sat right next to an= 'A' student, the best student in the class, and on the first nine questions, his answers were identical, word-for-word to the answers of the 'A' student.&qu= ot;

Not satisfied, the coach replied, "That d= oesn't prove he was cheating. Maybe he really studied this time. Or maybe the 'A' student copied from him."

The dean answered, "Actually it was the t= enth question that did him in. The 'A' student wrote, 'I don't know,' and your quarterback wrote, 'I don't know, either.'"[6]

We don’t know, either, the answer to the question, “When will the Master return?” So how can we stay ready? How can we prepare? How can we make our lives constant= ly aware of his Advent? Just two simple things.

STAY ALERT. Jesus says it̵= 7;s like servants who have been left in charge of a master’s belongings w= hile he is away on a trip. They sh= ould take care of his stuff all the time, because they don’t know when he = will return. They can’t tras= h the place or throw a big party for all their friends and expect to get a day’s notice to clean the mess up.&n= bsp; The master could show up at any time—morning, noon, or night.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Three times in this passage Jesus = says, “Keep awake.”

This is not a recommendation for sleep deprivation. Jesus is saying = to stay on top of your discipleship at all times. Keep alert for the intervention of= God every day. Be aware that God = might show up in your life at any moment and in unexpected ways.

There was a movie call= ed The Preacher’s Wife that cam= e out at Christmas several years ago. Rev. Henry Biggs was a pastor trying to make a difference in a decli= ning community. With Christmas com= ing, he was faced with the closing of a community center, a church member in tro= uble with the law, and a boiler in the church that had quit working. One night he sat on the edge of hi= s bed and voiced a simple prayer: "Lord, I know you're especially busy this = time of year, but I'm just a little tired. If you get a moment, I sure could use some help."

The next day, Pastor B= iggs carried on with his normal routine. Suddenly a man, an angel in disguise, appeared alongside him and announced, "My name's Dudley. I'm here in answer to your request."

Forgetting his earlier prayer, Biggs faltered, "My request?"

"For help," = Dudley reminded him.

First confused and then amused, Biggs replies, "Is this some kind of joke?"

"Ah, no," responded Dudley. "He doesn't make jokes."

"He?" questi= oned Biggs incredulously.

Dudl= ey looked upward, and Bi= ggs's eyes followed. Dudley explained, "C= apital H, capital E. Now I want you to know that the three of us can help you thro= ugh this little crisis you're having."

Still uncertain of this friendly stranger, Biggs argued, "Look, I don't know who you are…"

"Dudley," the angel interrupted.

"…or who pu= t you up to this…" Biggs persisted.

Dudl= ey interjected, "He did."

"…but I'm a= fraid you picked the wrong day for me to be a good sport." Biggs then got in= his car and drove away.[7]

Sometimes we can miss = the presence and the help of God because we are not awake to the possibility th= at God just might answer our prayers and come into our midst.

The Good News of Adven= t is that God has come and God is coming in Jesus Christ. God enters our human situation, ta= kes on our flesh, feels our pain, and redeems our lives. It’s called incarnation.

Last week we talked ab= out lepers. One of the most incarnational people in mission work was a priest named Father Damien, who moved to the island of Molokai in the Hawaiian = Islands to live and work among a colony of lepers.= For 16 years, he lived in their midst. He learned to speak their language.= He bandaged their wounds, embraced = the bodies no one else would touch, preached to hearts that would otherwise have been left alone. He organized schools, bands, and choirs. He built homes so that the lepers could have shelter. He built 2,000 coffins by hand so t= hat, when they died, they could be buried with dignity. Slowly, it was said, the leper colony became a place to live rather than a place to die. Father Damien offered hope.

Father Damien was not careful about keeping his distance. He did nothing to separate himself from= his people. He dipped his fingers= in the food bowl along with = the patients. He shared his pipe.= He did not always wash his hands af= ter bandaging open sores. H= e got close. For this, the people l= oved him.

Then one day Father Da= mien stood up and began his sermon with two words: "We lepers…."= He had contracted the disease. Now he wasn't just helping them. <= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> He was one of them. From that day forward, he wasn't ju= st on their island; he was in their skin. First he had chosen to live as they lived; now he would die as they died. Now they were in it together.<= /o:p>

One day God came to Ea= rth and began his message: "We humans…." Now he wasn't just helping us. Now he was one of us. Now he was in our skin. Now we were in it together.= = [8]

Advent is the time whe= n we recognize that God did come in the baby Jesus, that he is Emmanuel, which m= eans “God with us,” and that he will come again. Advent happens whenever God is wit= h us, whenever Christ is present, and he is present all the time, if we are alert= to it. William Barclay, the Scot= tish scholar, said, “The best way to prepare for the coming of Christ is n= ever to forget the presence of Christ.”[9]

Advent is more than just a season on the litur= gical calendar. It is an attitude of expectation and patient waiting for God to be present with us. Then we faithfully focus our lives= on the things of God and shut out all the other gods that clamor for our attention, at this time of year or any other. Advent is an attitude we can devel= op all year long. It’s what Je= sus is talking about when he says “Stay alert.”

The second part of being ready for the Master’s return is to NEVER = LOSE HOPE. Never ever lose hope. Hang on to the belief t= hat God will make it all right in the end.&nbs= p; He will come again to establish his Kingdom. Even though he has been a long time coming, never lose hope. Even though you may experience all kind of trials and heartaches and hardships, never lose hope. Even though = the world may disbelieve and scoff and ridicule your faith, never lose hope. It’s going to happen; you ha= ve seen the signs if you’ve been awake.

A friend of mine was visiting London several years ago, and he got into a conversation with an older gentleman w= ho could remember what it was like during the days of World War II, when the N= azis were bombing London day and night. It was a dark = and dangerous time. The old man h= ad been young then, but he still recalled the horror of standing in his back y= ard on the outskirts of London and seeing the central city going up in flames. Bomb after bomb fell, and the whol= e city was covered with thick, black smoke. He said:

It seemed to me t= hat everything was lost—the war, England, all the values of civilization, everything. I f= ound myself asking again and again, “Is there any hope? Is there any hope anywhere?”= I found myself crying like a baby.= But then something happened, somet= hing wonderful, something that I really believe was an act of God. All of a sudden there was a gust of wind, just for a moment, and it blew the smoke away just long enough for me= to see the Cross of Christ atop the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral. And the instant I saw it, I felt a= surge of hope in me that I hadn’t felt before. I stopped crying, because I knew, I really knew, that there’s a Power greater than all the powers of evil= in the world, and that Power would somehow see us through, and we would be abl= e to continue on.[10]

This is our hope, and in this hope, Paul said,= we are saved.[11] Holding on to hope gives us to stre= ngth to persevere in the midst of all our trials and difficulties.

I heard about an interesting scientific experi= ment that was conducted a while back. A group of behavioral scientists put some = rats in a tank of water, and observed them to see how long they would survive be= fore drowning. The average time wa= s 17 minutes. Then, they repeated the experiment, but this time they rescued the rats just before the point of drowning, dried them off and returned them to their cages. They fed them, and let them play for a few days, and repeated = the drowning experiment.

This time, the average survival time for these= rats increased from 17 minutes to 36 hours! The scientists explained that phenom= enon by pointing out that the second time around, the rats had hope. They believed that they could survi= ve, because they had been rescued before. One scientist said, "They were= able to survive because they had been saved." [12]

This is our hope. We have hope because we have been saved. We never lose hope bec= ause we believe in God. Our God is= more powerful that all the evil powers in the world. He has come in Jesus Christ; he has conquered sin and death; he will come again to make his home with us. The Master will return, and the sa= ying that is written in Revelation 21 will come to pass: “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their G= od; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe e= very tear from their eyes. Death w= ill be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more!” = [13]

One day we will all be at home together, and G= od will be with us. You can get a second opinion if you want to, but this is all true. Come, Lord Jesus! Come home, Master! Your servants are awake and waitin= g! Amen!