“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory…Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come…Therefore, stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come…lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay Awake!”[i]
At first glance, today’s lectionary readings seem strange for the first Sunday of Advent, it sounds like we’re celebrating the first Sunday of Apocalypse. Heavens torn asunder, the sun darkened and stars falling from the sky replace our iconic images of lowing cattle, kneeling shepherds and a star firmly established in the East. However, these highly charged metaphors of cosmic cataclysm are the perfect starting point for a season of expectation as we not only celebrate Christ’s birth, but we anticipate His second coming on the clouds and His great day of vindication.
Mark’s second Temple audience also awaited something: primarily, messianic deliverance and redemption from their Roman rulers. Like them, we too find ourselves in exile, waiting patiently for the ultimate restoration and redemption of this world. We too are weary of the rulers, powers and principalities of this world and anticipate the day when Yahweh will punish the host of heaven and the kings of the earth.[ii] Even still, some 2,000 years after these word’s were pinned, Christ’s Kingdom on earth is still not complete, causing all of creation to groan expectantly as in the pains of childbirth.[iii] We, like Mark’s listeners, yearn for Christ’s ultimate arrival as the satisfaction of God’s ancient promise to bring all of creation back under his rightful rule.
But, in the meantime, we turn our full attention to the ambiguous face of human history. Mark’s choice of apocalyptic language has little to do with holding the carrot of eternity before our nose. The precise raison d’etre for apocalyptic language is to deny the imminence of easy kingdom victory, to force us to accept the agony of history. The total effect of the ever-retreating horizon of Kingdom fulfillment is to support an atmosphere of genuine hope amid our current frustration. Mature faith in the cross understands the enduring struggle that historical existence entails.[iv] We want absolution now, but eagerly await his coming again in glory. It is precisely the conviction that the new order is ‘here but not yet’ that motivates each Christ follower to join in the unfinished, genuine struggle for new creation.[v] Mark’s gospel compels us to enter into the historical moment, to choose between the old order which is passing away, and the new world which is coming through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.[vi]
And so, we wait and watch for His coming like the disciples in Gethsemane who also heard the command to “watch and pray…”[vii] Now, we see the entire world and our call within it through the lens of Gethsemane: to stay awake in the darkness of history, to refuse to compromise the politics of the cross and to follow Christ through the crucible of suffering. Because of His ultimate work on the cross, God’s plan is unveiled and the curtain is drawn back; new creation has begun. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is the boundary event of our existing paradigm; it is the starting point for a wholly new way of understanding the human experience. We pause each Sunday to commemorate not only his death and resurrection, but also the gift of new creation as we wait expectantly for his return.
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