THE COMING OF THE LORD

The first week of Advent (Wednesday)

Mark 13:32-37 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back — whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'"

What does it mean to “watch”?

Some think it means to seek to discover the date of the Lord’s coming. They search the scriptures and the news “religiously”, hoping to know what neither the angels nor even the Son know. And every now and then, to their own embarrassment, they take a guess. I have a little book in my library titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could be in 1988. I suspect it’s the first in a series, 89 Reasons..., 90 Reasons..., 91 Reasons...

But, for Jesus, watching isn’t about guessing a date, but living a life of preparedness. And we do this the way faithful workers do it when the boss is away. We simply apply ourselves to doing what he told us to do. Unpreparedness is not about being surprised when the boss shows up, but being asleep. And our hope is not that the Lord will find us with our heads up searching the heavens, but with our heads down over our work.

But – and this is a question that troubles many – does watching for the return of Christ mean that we must believe that someday he will literally descend from outer space and pass through the atmosphere till his feet touch down on Mount What-ever-it-is? Personally, I don’t think so. Of course, if it happens exactly that way I’ll probably be one of the people saying “I told you so”, but I believe that those who restrict the meaning of his coming to so literal an image make it trivial.

Though “the coming of the Lord” may have an ultimate consummation, it is a constant reality, woven into the fabric of human life. It’s the existential crisis that shocks us out of our self-righteous complacency; that moment of epiphany for individuals and communities when, in a brilliant flash of true enlightenment, we see as we are seen, know as we are known. When this happens we are invariably dismayed, but far more importantly, we are changed.

Saul of Tarsus experienced “the coming of the Lord” on the Damascus road, and he became Saint Paul. Francis of Assisi was just another obscure, wounded soldier when it happened to him, and he became Saint Francis. And who are these “Spirits of Christmas”, working the miracle of transformation in Ebenezer Scrooge, but the Spirit of “the coming of the Lord”?

As Julia Ward Howe, in the midst of a tragic civil war, brooded over the suffering of her nation, a terrible certainty stole upon her in the night, and she penned these awful and wonderful lines:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

A nation or community can experience “the coming of the Lord” as surely as an individual can, but, as with individuals, only inasmuch as it will allow that its misery and mourning might be the judgement of righteousness, and inasmuch as it is willing to be changed.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic, sung by Johnny Cash

(As Cash closes the show he sings a few lines from one of his signature songs. Love means watchfulness, and watchfulness has the capacity to shape our lives.)