Mark 13:24-37 Last Sunday Nov 25, 2012 This past weekend my parents were here from FL so we could have a little early Thanksgiving celebration on Sunday afternoon. The next day, Monday, I was scheduled to get a cancer treatment here in Buffalo. Now, just so you realize, this treatment is not actually chemotherapy. It s Rituxin, an antibody that is given to me as an ongoing treatment, even when the Lymphoma is in remission. Because it is common to have a reaction like an allergy to the infusion, it is standard to give Benadryl. You know what Benadryl does. I was in and out the entire time I was getting it. The clinic also was clear that I should not drive. But it wasn t me that I wanted to tell you about. It was my dad. We had some errands to run and after we got home, my dad wanted to take a short nap. He slept for a little bit and then it was time for us to pick up Andrew from the train station. Since I couldn t drive, my dad was going to have to. I woke him up and I had never seen him act this way. He was like a teenager. He slammed his head into the pillow. As he was diving under the sheets, he complained about how he wasn t ready to get up yet. We didn t have any choice. Then when we were driving he kept talking about how his head felt so thick, and he really did act like he was in a fog. We had to stop at McDonalds for a coffee before he started to finally wake up. I don t think Jesus is saying anything about getting your coffee, but he definitely is saying to avoid that state of drowsiness. I m sure we all know what that drowsiness feels like. Maybe it s by the time you get out of the shower that you come out of it. I usually work out in the morning so it s while I m getting ready that I come out of it. By the time we walk out of the house, we re usually awake. That s what Jesus is saying. Stay awake, but more than that, be alert. My dad was awake, but he wasn t alert. When you are stumbling around before getting in the shower, we re awake, but we re probably hardly alert. Jesus is not saying, Wake up, but stay awake; stay alert. He s already woken us. Have you ever been woken up with a splash of cold water on your head? I ve threatened to do that to my kids if I couldn t get them out of bed, but I don t recall if I ve ever done it. I m sure it s effective, and you have to figure after a while the sheets will be dry. Even though it wasn t to get them out of bed, I know it s been done to them, both of them. God did it to them, and I was his instrument, because I had the honor of baptizing both my kids. With a splash of water they were woken from the dead. Not just from sleep but from the dead, the spiritual death into which they and everyone else is born. We are born spiritually dead and everyone who has been baptized has been woken from the dead. Did you ever think about it that way? With a splash of cold water on our heads we were woken up. So, yes, you can say you were woken up with a splash of water on your head. We all were.
OK, then. We re awake. The Holy Spirit saw to it. Now Jesus is saying Stay awake. Don t fall back asleep or into a drowsy stupor. Do you realize what it means that you have been woken up? That you have been raised from spiritual death? That you are alive, and yet so many people in the world aren t and more and more people are being born in our country who won t be? It means you are one of the elect. Jesus uses that word in our reading today. He tells us He will send out His angels to gather His elect. Elect. It s not a word we use in church very often, although we should. God knows who is going to be saved. We don t make a decision. He does. Your baptism marks you as one of those whom He has decided will have eternal life. That s what it means to be elect. Now, I know, we figure if He chose some to be saved, then He chose others to be lost. That s not true, because He is very clear that Jesus s death is for all people. He came to take away the sins of the world, the whole world. We don t use this word, elect to determine who is saved and who isn t. Instead, we use it as it is intended to be used, to give security and comfort to those who are the elect. If you don t care that you are one of them, it s possible you aren t, but you might still be. The point is, your baptism is a mark that should give you great comfort and security because baptism is a mark of the elect. On the last day, the angels will go out gathering in all His baptized elect, and Jesus wants you to take comfort in that thought. While we don t use the word elect very often, it is in the Bible, and it is something that could be very comforting. Another word or phrase that is not so comforting, perhaps because it was not being used biblically, is left behind. It wasn t that long ago that all these people were talking about being left behind. It was practically a hysteria. Do you remember? There was a popular book series and even a bunch of movies. They would say, Make sure you are not left behind. When Jesus comes back, you want to be sure you are not left behind. Perhaps you heard the way they were using the phrase was wrong but I don t think that s the reason why we don t hear it anymore. The phrase just doesn t seem to be talking to churchgoers of today. The movies probably didn t make the cross over to DVD s and you could probably only find the books from used book sellers. It just doesn t seem like it is speaking to the people of today like it was then. As it is, I don t hear anything like it. Do you? It seems like today s churchgoers are concerned about other things, like how they ought to live as they focus on trying to obey the Law. Why? Why don t we hear much about it anymore? Maybe the creators of the hysteria lost credibility. I don t think that s it. I think the people have become exhausted trying to stay alert. It takes a lot of energy. Besides, I don t think they think it is relevant to their lives. Jesus knows how we think. It does take energy to stay alert and to be patient. If something doesn t happen after waiting a while, if there seems to be nothing after waiting, then our thoughts shift elsewhere. We re ready to go on to something else. It was a fad, but it s passed.
Jesus is telling us today, we can t spare that kind of thinking. If we do, it s going to catch us sleeping. We think we have more important things. We can be just like the fickled church market that is no longer interested in talking about the last days. But we make a mistake if we do. We want to be told how we ought to live, as though by telling us what we should do, we could actually clean up our lives before God. We deceive ourselves. It s not by the Law that we will be saved. We don t earn God s favor by trying to be good, despite how important we might think it should be that at church we are told how we ought to live. Last week we had our family movie night. If you weren t here, you really missed a good time. We didn t just throw a DVD in the player and watch a normal size TV. We set it up with a projector and put it up on that wall. But even before that, the church was decorated like we were having VBS. We had life-sized stand-ups of John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, and Dale Evans, and then some more modern characters like Cruella DeVille and Lord of the Ring s Gandalf. We had a theater style popcorn popper and decorations like we were at the academy awards. Then after some games and dinner, we watched a Veggie Tales movie called the Pirates Who Don t Do Anything. There is a profound theological truth in the name of that movie that runs counter to how we think we are saved. We may think it s by following the Law that we are saved, but rather we are like those Pirates. We don t do anything. To get God to love us, we don t do anything. To get God to forgive us, we don t do anything. To make sure we are among the elect the angels will gather at the last day, we don t do anything. This is not heresy. We don t do anything. He does it all. He gives us forgiveness. He is the one who wakens us from spiritual death. He is the one who sees to it that we remain in the faith But to make sure we don t slip into a drowsy stupor from waiting, our Lord provides what we need to keep us awake. He doesn t just remind us though. It s not just a constant harangue, be sure to stay awake. Instead, every year for several weeks, it becomes the primary focus of our attention. Look at these readings. Look at the hymns. If you are like I used to be, then you probably don t really pay all that much attention to the hymns, but you re not going to get much out of them, if you continue to be like I was. If you do pay attention, you might recognize our opening hymn for Thanksgiving was the same as we used today, Come Ye Thankful people come. It sounds like it is just Thanksgiving, but if you looked at it more closely, you will see it is talking about the last days in terms of a harvest. It perfectly transitioned us from Thursday to today, which is completely devoted to the last day. But the last day, the day Jesus returns, is brought to our attention a whole lot more than just once a year. First, we confess it every week. Every week, whether we are speaking the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed we confess it. The Apostles Creed, I believe in the Resurrection of the Dead and the life everlasting. And the Nicene Creed which isn t that different I look for the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Both are talking about the Last Day, the Day Jesus returns. So, no matter which Sunday, we are always having our attention drawn to that Great Day. Still more than that. We rehearse it weekly and every other week it even includes a meal, as it does today. But it more than just a rehearsal. We re not just practicing. We re getting a real taste of that glorious event weekly. We tend to look at the last day just in terms of the end of the world. But Jesus wants us to look beyond that. He wants us to see it as the beginning of a glorious event that will never end, when all traces of sin will be wiped out, and there will be no more pain or suffering or sorrow. He wants to get us to actually look forward to it, because we know too much disappointment now. The world was not created to be that way. Disappointment and heartache were not part of the original plans. Here on earth we have to endure it, but we look forward to when that is gone and living in His unmasked glory begins. This is what the end it is all about. Not just to keep it in our minds, not just to keep us awake and alert, but rather because we need the gifts He gives us, He gives us that taste. Although it s here every week we are given His body and blood, I suppose, dear Saints, we pulled it from the shadows and the background and started putting it in the foreground and in the spotlight on All Saints Day. That s when we talked about how Christ comes down with His angels and saints when we worship. When He comes down, just as He had the first time when He became flesh, now He gives us that flesh. With that flesh comes life, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and therefore the power to live as His vigilant people. It s with this flesh and blood He gives us the power to stay awake. As if it s not enough to actually live it to actually receive the flesh and blood of God, the reality of what is happening here is brought out multiple times throughout the service. Consider what this is and recognize that He calls this glorious time an ongoing feast. Now, run through the service, particularly this setting and count how many times you hear the word feast. Let s start near the beginning of the service. What do we sing immediately after the Kyrie in the first five minutes? It s right in the title. This is the Feast. Listen for it in the Prayer of the Church, the one where we pray for any number of things and then then the prayer of Thanksgiving shortly after we get into the service of the Sacrament. Both distribution hymns speak of the feast, the first one in its title, At the Lamb s High Feast, and throughout, the second as it is clearly describing what happens in heaven and also calls it a feast. In the post communion collect, which comes in the last couple minutes of the service, we will pray about celebrating the marriage feast of the Lamb in His kingdom, and then the closing hymn will call it a wedding hall where we will eat the ongoing Supper. These are just the references that are explicit. There are numerous other references that imply what is happening here at worship. Therefore, when Jesus says, Stay awake, stay alert, He s not telling us to do this with our own willpower. He provides all we need to keep up awake and alert. It s not coffee, but maybe it s like spiritual coffee. It s His weekly gifts, which every other week is accompanied by a miraculous meal. This is what keeps our attention sharp, and alert through the very same thing creates a desire in us for Him to return. AMEN