Don't miss the awe and wonder of God coming - Maranatha!

Scripture: Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:24-37

In the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle, it is easy to get frustrated, upset, depressed, and lose the joy, the excitement and "reason for the season." What can we do to regain the awe and wonder anew - like a child at Christmas?

As we begin Advent, and Lectionary Year B, we once again consider time, and waiting, and what we should do while we wait. This week's focus is on being alert in the context of apocalyptic warnings. Apocalypse is from the Greek which means revelation - an uncovering of meaning. Eschatology is the study of the "end times." In his book History and Eschatology: the Presence of Eternity, Rudolph Bultmann considers Christ the "eschaton" in whose presence we experience the meaning of history. God meets us in the presence of Christ. The Greek term for "end, teleos,means more than far away. It also means "the limit," or "the final issue or result of a state or process."  We're talking "end game" here.

The "second coming" is known in Greek as the parousia. In our gospel lesson from Mark, Jesus speaks of the end time and second coming, "Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come..." in the context of the darkening of the sun, the falling of stars, and heaven and earth passing away." He is talking of what ultimately matters. But maybe he is speaking of more than of things to come.

The Rev. Dr. Russell Levinson, Jr. in  "Two Minute Warning," discusses this week's gospel not only in the context of the second coming, but also from the perspective of the importance of how we are to live, with expectation and alertness in love and service to God and our fellow man. The opportunity to recognize and live in God's time, kairos, not chronos, can present itself in otherwise unexpected situations, people and places, and especially in the stranger, with Christ present to guide, counsel and advocate for us. We are called to be alert so we don't miss what could be the most important "time of our lives."

As we look at the "end" time, we are about to experience the beginning again in the birth and incarnation of the Christ. From Alpha to Omega, and Omega to Alpha, in Christ, God works his plans through us, his beloved.

I think T.S. Eliot captures the wonder of Advent, seeing in awe and wonder the birth of Christ anew each year in this part of his poem The Gidding V:

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

The Shepherd King - it's Christ the King Sunday

Scripture: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 and Psalm 100 (Track 2: Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 and Psalm 95:1-7a); Ephesians 1:15-23; Matthew 25:31-46

This is Christ the King Sunday, the Last Sunday after Pentecost. Advent is only 10 days away. We have studied lessons about God's kingdom. Take time to reflect on the kingdom, of what kind of King Jesus is, and the nature of his power and authority. Think about the shepherd king in this week's Ezekiel passage, the 23rd Psalm, David as king, and the Good Shepherd. What is the king concerned about in the gospel passage from Matthew 25?

 

In her homily, the Rev. Kay Sylvester asks "So what do we mean when we affirm that Christ is King? What are we celebrating? How is this monarchy part of the Good News?" John R. Donahue looks at the gospel passage from both discipleship and apocalyptic perspectives in his “Viva Cristo Rey!”

 

The parable of the talents...

Scripture: Judges 4:1-7; Psalm 123; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; Matthew 25:14-30

This week the gospel lesson is the parable of the talents. We have studied God and man's justice and judgment, humility and weakness and power, abundance and scarcity, and what it takes to enter, be and act in the kingdom of God. Last week we studied the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, of being prepared and to act, of being alert so as not to miss the opportunity to see and do God's will. Last week the wise virgins would not share their oil with the foolish virgins - the foolish presumed the generosity of others. In the parable of the talents what do learn about generosity? Of giving of talents? What does the parable teach us about being in and participating in the kingdom of God? See John Donahue's "The Parousia is not for Wimps."

In "There's Two Sides to Every Story, the Rev. Linda Pepe tells us "a common thread that runs through both of these interpretations.  And that is, the perceptions of how each of the servants perceived the master determined his course of action. What do you get out the parable? How did the servants perceive the master? What did they do? How did the master perceive the servants? How does God perceive us, and others who are different than us?

"Getting Real" in Today's "Me, Me, Me" centered world

Scripture: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25 and Psalm 78:1-7 or Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16 (Track 2: Amos 5:18-24 and Wisdom of Solomon 6:17-20 or Psalm 70); 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13

We have finished the vineyard parables, have considered the great commandment of loving God with all our heart, mind and soul, and also loving our neighbors as ourselves. Last week Jesus told us to "get real", and showed us how to practice what we preach.

This week we learn more about how to "get real," by giving up "false idols" in the Joshua scripture, and being attentive, "be awake" so we don't miss the kingdom, when the bridegroom comes. We must keep our lamps filled with oil and keep our wicks trimmed. We don't want to miss out on the real deal.

What must we do to "get real," and not miss out on the kingdom, and working in the vineyard? In "Be Prepared," D. Brent Laytham and Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom tell us "It's easy to read the parable of the ten virgins as a tribute to two core American values:  Individualism and meritocracy. Individualism and meritocracy. Individualism imagines the kingdom of heaven like this: "I got mine," the five wise virgins say to the foolish ones, "so you get your own." That sounds like our culture, which encourages us to "look out for number one." Hearing the parable this way affirms a selfish individualism, rather than the mind of Christ—who came to seek the lost, to serve the neighbor, to lay down his life for his friends. Meritocracy imagines the kingdom of heaven like this: "Everybody finally gets what they deserve. The wise virgins looked out for number one and earned their delight by being prepared. The foolish virgins, who played when they should have been working, deserved their despair." That sounds like our culture's approbation of ingenuity and effort, but it doesn't sound like the kingdom of God. The password for entrance into the kingdom has never been "try harder," and the kingdom's economy has never been one of scarcity ("If I share with you, I won't have enough"). Instead, the kingdom of heaven is about an abundance, given to all.

So how might we read the parable as Christians called to serve, love and give?

Walter Brueggemann ties the gospel passage into the Joshua passage in his homily "The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity" Consider this description of the kingdom of our Lord :" The forgiveness of debts is the hardest thing to do--harder even than raising the dead to life. Jesus left ordinary people dazzled, amazed, and grateful; he left powerful people angry and upset, because very time he performed a wonder, they lost a little of their clout. The wonders of the new age of the coming of God's kingdom may scandalize and upset us. They dazzle us, but they also make us nervous. The people of God need pastoral help in processing this ambivalent sense of both deeply yearning for God's new creation and deeply fearing it.The feeding of the multitudes, recorded in Mark's Gospel, is an example of the new world coming into being through God. When the disciples, charged with feeding the hungry crowd, found a child with five loaves and two fishes, Jesus took, blessed ,broke and gave the bread. These are the four decisive verbs of our sacramental existence. Jesus conducted a Eucharist, a gratitude. He demonstrated that the world is filled with abundance and freighted with generosity. If bread is broken and shared, there is enough for all. Jesus is engaged in the sacramental, subversive reordering of public reality."

 The lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the sick are healed, debts are forgiven and prisoners are set free. And death is not the end of the story. Thanks be to God.