Making the Most of Our Time
Mark 13:24-37
Two weeks ago, I preached about reconsidering time – last week, I preached about Ezekiel’s hope. In some ways I worry that I have already stolen my own thunder with today, the first Sunday in Advent. Mark’s gospel encompasses both themes, around both time and hope… and I’ve really already preached on both… and recently! So do I just repeat what I’ve said, and hope it sinks in? Probably not. I have heard of some preachers who preached the same sermon 5 weeks in a row to see if anybody was paying attention, but I am not really doing that today. Yet, some of the themes are common, and they really do bear repeating, and repeating often.
For us, the decorations are coming up. The plans are all being made. Christmas is now less than a month away and we are in the first Sunday of Advent… the anticipation of Christ’s coming. But while our decorations are all filled with snowflakes, pieces of greenery, generally yuletide… this isn’t the kind of preparation that Mark was anticipating. Mark lived in a time where chaos reigned. Part way through 66AD, the first Jewish-Roman War exploded, and the tiny handful of early Christians were getting caught in the crossfire. Mark was compiling and writing his gospel as a way to preserve the stories, which at this point had been told and shared by word of mouth. In many ways it was under duress, but as with Ezekiel last week… some of the most hopeful messages come in times of deep personal darkness.
Mark was no different. Christians had been persecuted for the first time two years before, blamed for the fires in Rome. Jerusalem was burning, and it was obvious to anyone that was there that it was time to go. It was not surprising that Mark saw this in apocalyptic terms, and drawing on images from Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel used them to help frame their current situation, and to give the early Christians hope when everything else was literally crumbling around them.
But what an image for the beginning of Advent! We’re supposed to be decking the halls, pulling out the decorations, singing happy songs, and coming to church with smiles on our faces! And instead, we get Mark struggling to write a word of hope with stones literally falling about his head. This is not what we were expecting. This is not what we were anticipating!
But then again, life is often not what we expect or anticipate. Sometimes it takes us on turns that we don’t want to go down. That much is true. In very real terms, the days that lead up to Christmas in the northern hemisphere are increasingly dark. For many Christmas is a difficult time… many of us know that personally… for the early Christians the times in general were far darker than what most of us have experienced. So in that sense this passage from Mark is entirely appropriate.
Taken entirely out of context, this passage Mark where Mark says “Beware” would seem to be one to encourage a fearful outlook of the times. Yet we know from reading Mark as a whole, instilling fear in the people was about as far away from understanding Mark as we could possibly get. A better translation would simply be “be on guard” or be mindful that God is always present amongst us… but it was never intended to inspire fear. For Mark, fear was the opposite of faith. So to use language that would instill fear was so completely opposite of what Mark was trying to accomplish, we’ve missed something in the translation and context.
For Mark, these were words of encouragement in the midst of some very dark times. For Mark’s community, he was imploring them to keep the faith and to not be afraid. The times are changing, like the seasons of the fig tree, but don’t lose heart no matter how dark things get. Make the most of our time.
There was an urgency in how Mark wrote his gospel. Something we lose entirely in translation. He wrote the entirety of the gospel in the present tense, as if it were unfolding right now, for the listeners to hear and participate in. This was a deliberate literary choice on his part, as a reminder that God in Christ is very much in the moment with us, and encouraging us. The lesson of the fig tree is part of Mark’s overall message to live in the moment.
It’s not a side of Jesus that we see, or really know that’s there. To live in the moment is a phrase often used to characterize people who don’t particularly care… those who never plan, and always seem to be winging it. For us in the church we’ve become so obsessed with what’s past or what’s coming, that we’ve forgotten the moment that we are in right now. But oddly enough in Mark’s gospel, that’s where Jesus is calling us to be.
There’s a word in verse 33 translated for us in our pew Bible as “Beware!” But it’s again, one of those words in Greek that doesn’t translate well into English very well at all. It calls us to perceive the moment, to have understanding… but not in any way to be afraid. In short, in spite of everything going on around us, make the most of our time… live in the moment and appreciate what God is calling us to be right here right now. Not next week, not next month, not even what you’re doing after lunch. What is God calling you and I to be right now?
So we begin Advent. We begin with Mark’s call to us to make the most of our time. To live in the moment, to make the most of our time… no matter how much time we might have.
Amen.
Two weeks ago, I preached about reconsidering time – last week, I preached about Ezekiel’s hope. In some ways I worry that I have already stolen my own thunder with today, the first Sunday in Advent. Mark’s gospel encompasses both themes, around both time and hope… and I’ve really already preached on both… and recently! So do I just repeat what I’ve said, and hope it sinks in? Probably not. I have heard of some preachers who preached the same sermon 5 weeks in a row to see if anybody was paying attention, but I am not really doing that today. Yet, some of the themes are common, and they really do bear repeating, and repeating often.
For us, the decorations are coming up. The plans are all being made. Christmas is now less than a month away and we are in the first Sunday of Advent… the anticipation of Christ’s coming. But while our decorations are all filled with snowflakes, pieces of greenery, generally yuletide… this isn’t the kind of preparation that Mark was anticipating. Mark lived in a time where chaos reigned. Part way through 66AD, the first Jewish-Roman War exploded, and the tiny handful of early Christians were getting caught in the crossfire. Mark was compiling and writing his gospel as a way to preserve the stories, which at this point had been told and shared by word of mouth. In many ways it was under duress, but as with Ezekiel last week… some of the most hopeful messages come in times of deep personal darkness.
Mark was no different. Christians had been persecuted for the first time two years before, blamed for the fires in Rome. Jerusalem was burning, and it was obvious to anyone that was there that it was time to go. It was not surprising that Mark saw this in apocalyptic terms, and drawing on images from Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Joel used them to help frame their current situation, and to give the early Christians hope when everything else was literally crumbling around them.
But what an image for the beginning of Advent! We’re supposed to be decking the halls, pulling out the decorations, singing happy songs, and coming to church with smiles on our faces! And instead, we get Mark struggling to write a word of hope with stones literally falling about his head. This is not what we were expecting. This is not what we were anticipating!
But then again, life is often not what we expect or anticipate. Sometimes it takes us on turns that we don’t want to go down. That much is true. In very real terms, the days that lead up to Christmas in the northern hemisphere are increasingly dark. For many Christmas is a difficult time… many of us know that personally… for the early Christians the times in general were far darker than what most of us have experienced. So in that sense this passage from Mark is entirely appropriate.
Taken entirely out of context, this passage Mark where Mark says “Beware” would seem to be one to encourage a fearful outlook of the times. Yet we know from reading Mark as a whole, instilling fear in the people was about as far away from understanding Mark as we could possibly get. A better translation would simply be “be on guard” or be mindful that God is always present amongst us… but it was never intended to inspire fear. For Mark, fear was the opposite of faith. So to use language that would instill fear was so completely opposite of what Mark was trying to accomplish, we’ve missed something in the translation and context.
For Mark, these were words of encouragement in the midst of some very dark times. For Mark’s community, he was imploring them to keep the faith and to not be afraid. The times are changing, like the seasons of the fig tree, but don’t lose heart no matter how dark things get. Make the most of our time.
There was an urgency in how Mark wrote his gospel. Something we lose entirely in translation. He wrote the entirety of the gospel in the present tense, as if it were unfolding right now, for the listeners to hear and participate in. This was a deliberate literary choice on his part, as a reminder that God in Christ is very much in the moment with us, and encouraging us. The lesson of the fig tree is part of Mark’s overall message to live in the moment.
It’s not a side of Jesus that we see, or really know that’s there. To live in the moment is a phrase often used to characterize people who don’t particularly care… those who never plan, and always seem to be winging it. For us in the church we’ve become so obsessed with what’s past or what’s coming, that we’ve forgotten the moment that we are in right now. But oddly enough in Mark’s gospel, that’s where Jesus is calling us to be.
There’s a word in verse 33 translated for us in our pew Bible as “Beware!” But it’s again, one of those words in Greek that doesn’t translate well into English very well at all. It calls us to perceive the moment, to have understanding… but not in any way to be afraid. In short, in spite of everything going on around us, make the most of our time… live in the moment and appreciate what God is calling us to be right here right now. Not next week, not next month, not even what you’re doing after lunch. What is God calling you and I to be right now?
So we begin Advent. We begin with Mark’s call to us to make the most of our time. To live in the moment, to make the most of our time… no matter how much time we might have.
Amen.
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