Stay awake
Text: Mark 13:24–37
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Advent is the season of preparation—preparing to remember Christ’s first coming at Christmas. As we begin this season, though, we are reminded that our true preparation is for his second coming which we continue to wait for. Jesus has plenty to say about that day, as we’ve heard for the last few weeks, and that continues today.
Today, though, the focus is less on what we are waiting for, but how we should wait. The three points for today are:
We don’t know when the end will come.
Christ calls us to stay awake.
We have everything we need while we wait.
We don’t know when the end will come.
When I was nearing the end of my studies at ALC, there were an awkward few weeks where we had begun meetings with the bishops about our placements and we were getting all excited (and nervous) about what might come next. We were fixated on where the current vacancies were and throwing darts on the map, guessing who might end up where.
It was an awkward time, though, because the semester hadn’t finished yet—there were still essays to write and final assignments to hand in. We graduates had already confirmed the dates for our ordination services and a placement was being found for us regardless of our pending academic results. The end was in sight, so it was extremely difficult to apply ourselves to our studies and do our absolute best to the very end.
A similar kind of thing might happen towards the end of a long shift at work or day at school. I wonder how many accidents happen at workplaces or schools within the last hour of the day because the person’s focus was reduced, knowing they were nearly at home time.
Quite often, when we know the timeline on something and we know we’re near the end, we start to relax a little and lose a bit of focus. God knows this about us, so when it comes to the end of the world, he withholds the timeline from us.
Jesus describes quite clearly what will happen at the end, but not when. He does say that the temple will be destroyed within a generation, which it was. That was the signal for the beginning of the end. Ever since then, we could say that Jerusalem has continued to fall until one day, it will be no more. When Jerusalem ends, we know the end of the world will follow.
“At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
Mark 13:26–27 (NIV)
Jesus makes it quite clear that our entrance into God’s kingdom will not be dependent on how well we live. We don’t gather ourselves. He says that he will gather his elect, his sheep. We recently heard the parable of the sheep and the goats—Christ will separate the faithful from the unfaithful. He will come to save those who believe in him.
So, we know what will happen at the end, but just not when it will be. How do we live while we wait?
Christ calls us to stay awake.
He calls us to stay awake four times in this short passage. To be “awake” means to be vigilant, attentive, alert, watchful. If Jesus kept us completely in the dark about what our fate would be, we would be waiting nervously and anxiously. But we know the outcome of the end of the world for those who believe, so we wait with confident anticipation.
Jesus doesn’t call us to just sit on our hands while we wait, though.
It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
Mark 13:34 (NIV)
I once heard someone describe a local church as “God’s waiting room” (that person and congregation shall remain anonymous, by the way). If a church community has no sense of purpose and no sense of call to be a part of God’s mission in the world, that’s precisely what it is.
What happens in a waiting room? Nothing. Waiting rooms are the most boring, lifeless places on earth. No one wants to be there. The people sitting there are all suffering from the same boredom and dread of their imminent appointment, yet they avoid making eye contact with each other and just suffer through it.
A local church can become like a waiting room where no one really wants to be there, no one connects or interacts in any genuine way, and everyone is only there out of obligation or force. As soon as the service is over, they might suffer through some polite small talk and then get out of there as soon as they can while trying not to look like they’re desperate to leave and get on with their day or night.
That is not this congregation, by the way, but any local church can become this if its purpose and sense of involvement in God’s mission is lost.
Jesus calls us to be patient while we wait for his second coming, but he also puts us to work. The church, when Jesus is present, is not a waiting room at all. It’s an industrious, busy, active, and exciting place to be. He gives each of his servants their assigned task. The Church not a busy place for the sake of being busy and feeling good about our business, but because its people are passionate about the tasks that Christ has assigned to them.
What is that work? It’s to make sheep out of goats.
The number one purpose for the existence of the Church is not to run weekly services. It’s not to offer Bible courses or opportunities to have fellowship. The number one reason we are here is to tell people about the gospel that made we goats into sheep.
We have everything we need while we wait.
For in [Christ] you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:5–9 (NIV)
Every Christian person and every local church has its assigned task. No church is called to be everything to every one. There are not many churches in the world that have a flourishing children’s ministry, an active youth group, a thriving young adults program, a booming worship life, a well-managed property portfolio, a charismatic pastor, an energetic group of lay workers, a growing school, a bustling kindergarten, and healthy finances.
We can’t do everything as well as we might like, but we do have plenty to do and plenty to work with. We might not have hundreds of kids and teenagers waiting to be taught the faith, but we do have some. How are we meeting the needs of who we do have?
We might not have a young and energetic group of volunteers running stacks of programs, but we do have a few faithful and experienced servants. How are we enabling them to serve with their gifts?
We might not have an overflowing bank account, but we do have some money to work with. Are we using what we do have to enable God’s mission in our community?
It’s the same as individuals. No single person can play music, preach sermons, teach Bible studies, manage money, lead people, and interact well with kids and teenagers. However, collectively, we have plenty of those spiritual gifts. Paul goes as far as saying that we do not lack any spiritual gift as we wait for our Lord Jesus.
Between us, we’ve got all kinds of knowledge, speech, and abilities. Maybe it’s worth taking a step back to see what we’ve got and then think about how we can further the gospel in our town with what we have.
Regardless of the skills and talents in the room, though, we really only need one thing as we await Christ’s return: faith. And that’s not even just our work—it’s Christ that keeps us firm to the end and makes us blameless before God, who himself is faithful. He has called us into the fellowship of Christ, which we call the church. Don’t think God is done calling people—it might just be a matter of rethinking what “church” really is.
We don’t know when Christ will come again, but we do know that he will come to restore us and bring us to himself. He will keep us awake and keep us firm to the end, and he gives us everything we need as we wait for him this Advent and always.
