What Are You LIving For?
Advent 1; Isaiah 64.1-9; 1 Corinthians 1.3-9 Mark 13.24-37
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
Sing: I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me, anywhere Lord, any time
I’m gonna live so God can use me, anywhere, Lord, any time
In the meantime, do your work, Mark says. You don’t know when the master will return. As the clock winds through the Roman military watch cycle of the night—evening, midnight, cockcrow, dawn—Mark chants: Beware, keep alert, keep awake. (Say twice.). No need to get lost in the details. Best to concentrate on being ready. Jesus’ promise is sure. He recognizes your longing for the final revelation, for justice, freedom, mercy, for all. For comfort in your sorrow and your grief. For the permanent love of the Holy present in your next breath.
Oh, that You would tear open the heavens and come down, we cry with Isaiah! The pandemic comes close - church members, friends, my son, Isaac’s 2 dearest friends in Minneapolis are sick. Isaac and his girlfriend, Allie, exposed, test negative for now. Prayers for healing and protection, but they can’t stop at just the ones we know and love. Prayers for every single person and family and community in danger or already sick all over the world. Prayers for scientific validation of these vaccines and especially, prayers for equity and restoration of justice as they are rolled out. First responders, health care workers and then people of color, Black and Brown, whose communities are most devastated by health inequities and this virus in particular. Us healthy white Christians go to the back of the line. This is our work, too.
I’m gonna live so God can use me, anywhere, Lord, any time!
Mark grabs hold of apocalyptic visions from the book of Daniel — a strategy common for this genre of writing. Predictions are NOT contextual solely, but applicable to many circumstances. He wants his readers to pay attention to Daniel because this is what CAN be known: The rebellion against God is powerful as the evil ones use their wiles to woo the righteous to sleep. ,
Why? there will not be accountability for the inequities and injustice they generate with their policies that make life easy for them alone. SATAN, as metaphor for the complete, fallen nature of power exercised for the good of the few over against the welfare of the many. Any empire is at risk of being co-opted, Mark & Daniel both say.
Look it, we live in this apocalyptic kind of time. For example, have you followed the reports about billionaires and how much money they are making every single day during this pandemic? It’s hard to comprehend when you think about the millions of people at risk of losing their homes because they have already lost their jobs. We who have means have to to stay awake on their behalf. It’s our work.
Walk through Woodland Park or any other park and see the many “tent homes” so-called. When evictions start, where will they go? This is our work, too. To pay attention to the suffering of others. Beware, keep alert, keep awake. Which is hard to do, granted, as we cannot solve all the problems we see.
It is disputed sovereignty Mark points to--the cosmic struggle waged in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. In Jesus, healing words, hopeful words, life-giving words, restorative words. In this gospel, Satan’s words are falsehood, destruction, death. Opposition to God is real in demonic powers that can overtake humans, unruly nature, disease, blindness, governments and power-brokers. It is also real in the unbelief of human leaders and individuals who want to be little lords of their own lives. The primary questions Mark addresses over and over again: “What kind of world is this?” and “Who’s in charge?” Questions asked down the ages to this 1st Sunday of Advent, 2020.
Oh if You would only tear open the heavens and come down we cry, again and again. But God has done this, that is, broken into the schemes of the world and delivered judgment. Not like a super-hero kind of god, rather a vulnerable, open-handed, generous God, who suffers in loving service for redemption of the world. Her mighty act of power narrowed to a birth canal. This question haunts: What Are You Living For?
What drives you? What scaffolding do you have in place to guard against the temptations of empire? To be the little lord of your life? To bow down to the liar in your head? Who holds you accountable? For this is our work, too.
In one of the commentaries I read this week, John Anthony McGuckin says, Quote: “Our hearts are conditioned by the society in which we live far more than by the gospel.” Unquote. In radiant language the Psalmist prays, “Restore us O God; let Your Face shine, that we might be saved.” It is this re-conditioning of the heart - at the center of our being, our willfulness to sit under God’s judgment, for we know redemption is drawing near.
So the question: what is our work?
a poet's answer:
Messenger by Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?
Let me keep my mind on what matters which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever (end of poem)
What Are You Living For? Amen
Song: I’m Gonna Live so God can use me