November 29, 2020 – Mark 13:24-37
Mark 13:24-37
When the Stars Fall, Jesus Comes
First Sunday of Advent – November 29, 2020
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
When I was little I loved looking at the stars in the night sky.
All those pin points of light in the darkness seemed so beautiful.
And here’s the thing: they were the same every night, aside from seasonal shifting in the sky.
I didn’t know much about constellations, but I loved learning how to find the big dipper.
For once I knew how to find it, I could always find it, even at different times of the year.
One night I was looking up and I thought: these are the same stars that ancient people saw.
The same stars that Plato saw, and Cleopatra.
The same stars that Jesus saw.
And there was something very comforting in that. There still is.
When I was feeling down, or things were not going well, I just remembered the stars:
they were still there.
In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus imagines a time when the stars are no longer there
as a metaphor for things going terribly terribly wrong in the world.
A time when you look up . . . and the stars are not where they used to be.
But a time, rather, when the stars fall from the sky, and nothing is the same as it used to be.
A time of crisis.
A time when the stars fall.
The stars fall in every generation, I guess, and the stars fall in the lives of each one of us.
Whether it is the loss of a job, the death of someone close to us, a divorce,
physical or mental illness, a public embarrassment, or a failure,
those are the times when it feels as the stars have fallen.
These days the stars seem to continually fall.
The disorientation of COVID and isolation and physical distancing and all the changes we
have all had to navigate has been enormously disorienting.
We look to the stars, but it is almost as if they have fallen from the sky.
The Good News, Jesus says in the Gospel reading, is that when these things happen,
when the stars fall, it is a sign that he is coming to us now!
“When these things happen,” says Jesus, “when the stars fall is when you will see me coming,
and I will gather you all together and I will be near. So be watchful! And I will come.”
I learned something about this passage since the last time I preached on it.
This chapter of Mark, Mark 13, is sometimes called Mark’s Apocalypse.
Apocalypse means “unveiling” or “revealing” or “uncovering.”
In the Bible, an apocalypse was often written during a time of crisis,
in order to “reveal” or “uncover” that despite present circumstances and current suffering,
God was in still charge and working for a final, good resolution to all things.
Evil would ultimately be judged and banished forever.
In Mark’s context, the crisis he was addressing with Jesus’s words was likely the
destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E.
This event caused considerable trauma for the people.
It called into question Divine goodness and sovereignty,
and how the people could ever again count on God, continue in faith,
and gather for worship.
Since the Temple was considered to be God’s dwelling place on earth.
its destruction felt as if the stars had indeed fallen.
Usually, a typical Apocalypse would announce God’s coming arrival into the crisis,
followed by a description of cosmic disturbances, followed by judgment and salvation.
Mark, however, changes what a person would expect to find in an Apocalypse.
For one thing, God’s arrival (in the form of the Son of Man)
comes after the cosmic disturbances.
It is as if Mark understands that God does not create chaos, but comes in response to it.
For another thing, there is no judgment in Mark’s little Apocalypse!
The typical judgment scene is replaced with something very different.
The Son of Man comes in response to the chaos
and then graciously gathers those he cares about.
(David Schnasa Jacobsen at WorkingPreacher.com)
Nothing is said about judgment or “separating the sheep from the goats,” as we heard last week
in Matthew’s Gospel.
Far from being about separating, Mark understands God’s plan to be about gathering.
In conversation with one of you this week, you wrote to me saying this:
I know this must be the worst scenario for ministry for you . . .
you really are all about the people and right now the people are all separated,
the actual complete opposite of the divine plan, I must say.
It is the complete opposite, which is surely why so many of us feel so disoriented,
like the stars have fallen from the sky.
As it says way back in Genesis 2: it is not good for the earth-creature/human being to be alone.
Separation is not what we are made for.
Gathering is.
We must hang on to that promise.
And watch for Jesus coming to us in the midst of crisis, as he has promised.
Jesus tells a story in the middle of the Gospel reading about a man who went on a trip and
left his servants in charge.
Each is given a job to do but they are not told when the man will return.
The man just tells the doorkeeper to be alert and watchful.
The rest of the staff are simply to keep on doing the jobs they’ve been given to do.
As we await for Christ’s final return when all will finally be restored and
we will all be perfectly and finally gathered together,
we too have jobs to do that today Jesus is telling us to keep on doing.
To heal and bind up broken hearts.
To feed the hungry.
To speak against injustice and forgive the wrongdoer.
To pray and give thanks.
To connect with the lonely.
To share the manna we’ve been given.
To do whatever task we are at in our jobs or in school or in our homes
with our eye always on the common good of all.
For this is how Jesus comes in the present.
We are called be alert and be awake to the many ways in which Jesus appears and
comes in the present.
Advent means “coming,” and on this First Sunday in Advent we are being called by Mark to
watch for the ways in which Jesus comes even now.
Right now we are waiting for Jesus’ first Advent or coming, at Christmastime.
Well, that first advent or coming of Jesus was sort of unremarkable, right?
A small child, born in poverty, to humble parents, in an out of the way place in an
out of the way province of the Roman Empire.
If this is how Jesus first came – so unobtrusively and so beautifully –
in how many other ways does he come, even now – unobtrusively and beautifully –
until his final appearing and the fulfillment of all things?
Watch, and be alert for them.
Jesus comes – Jesus always comes – in the crisis, when the stars fall.
In every act of love, no matter how small, Jesus comes.
In a phone call, Jesus comes.
In food given, Jesus comes.
In a word of encouragement, Jesus comes.
In all these unobtrusive and beautiful ways, Jesus comes near us in the crisis.
And finally, beyond the crisis, Jesus will come, and gather us together, as he has promised.
For that is the Divine plan.
So be alert, stay watchful, keep awake to the wonder of love:
for when the stars fall, Jesus is near.
Amen
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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