Like this:

“But in those days, after that suffering, 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.  Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.  “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.  So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates.  Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.  “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.  It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.  Therefore, keep awake– for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

——————-

Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator, and from Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior, Amen.

“Keep awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Now, I will be honest.  I don’t think this passage made it into Mark’s Gospel as a warning to stay awake during a sermon.  Keeping awake.  Keeping vigilant.

Jesus is teaching his disciples, and he is teaching about when all of these things, the coming of the Messiah, and all of this stuff is going to happen.  And he gives this answer… you will know when it is time, just be prepared.  He gives them kind of a boy-scout message.  Be prepared.  Keep awake.

Now many like to view this as Jesus speaking about the end of the world or the coming of Christ in some apocalyptic manner.  Well, not so much.  “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all of these things have taken place.”  Well… that generation passed away more than 1900 years ago.  So all of these things did indeed take place.  What took place?  I will get to that.  But more so, I think what Jesus was getting at was “keeping awake.”

I want you to think about the last time you were up late at night… when you should have been, or wish you were awake.  Think about it.  Now, I want you to turn to a neighbor, and tell them about this time – the time when you were up late when you wish or should have been sleeping.  Go ahead… and I will call you all back in a couple of minutes.

I can imagine what most of your answers were like.  You might have been unable to sleep.  No specific reason… just unable to get back to sleep and very frustrated.  You might have been kept up by your worry.  Something was so distracting, you were very worried and couldn’t sleep.  Or, there could have been some other reason.  Something might have been too noisy, and it woke you up.  Last week, I was up at 2:30 a.m. because I was feeding Astrid.

I am not a good one to report back about this… because I sleep very well all of the time.  Generally, adults who are awake when it is time to sleep, it is usually not out of anticipation or excitement.  It is usually out of dread.  Think about it.  The thoughts that go through your mind while you are lying down in bed, they usually aren’t very exciting are they?  They are usually thoughts of strategy, dread, worry.  So when we hear Jesus saying, “Keep awake,” guess what our natural response is?  No way!  I am awake enough!  Compare this to a child, staying awake on the night before Christmas.  That is a different kind of awake isn’t it?  That is an awake out of excitement.  We might be able to learn something from that.

When Jesus was teaching about keeping awake, he was talking about paying attention to what is in front of you that you might not quite see.  Keep awake.

I want to clue you in to the thinking of many pastors.  So that all of you might understand what actually goes in these odd creatures called pastors.  Many times pastors when they encounter something Christmas-like during Advent, they get all frustrated and wave their arms back and forth in the air, screaming “It’s still Advent.  You have to wait for Christmas!”  Well, there is something pastors are trying to get everyone to see.  There is a bit of a secret I am going to point out.  It might be a surprise to you.

Not everybody looks forward to Christmas.  Nope.  Many people, perhaps even most people dread it.  First of all, there is family.  Not everyone in the world gets along very well with their family.  The thought of being forced to be around them is sometimes very distressing.  Being around family can be very difficult.  Nor does everyone really enjoy “the busy-ness” that goes with Christmas.  There is shopping, baking, preparing, decorating.  That takes a lot of work.  Preparing a large extravagant meal isn’t always welcomed by those who are responsible for it.  Or, there are those that miss loved ones on Christmas… they had a spouse, sibling, or other loved one who is no longer with them.  They passed away, and are not around for Christmas.

Not everyone looks forward to December 25^th.  I think many people are not looking forward to Christmas.  They are looking forward to it being over.

When I was a child, I used to say something very common.  “I can’t wait.”  “I can’t wait until school is over.”  “I can’t wait until summer is here.”  “I can’t wait until Christmas.”  I can’t wait until hockey season starts.”  My dad always used to say the same thing to me.  “You know Lyle, you might want to wait until then.  There are a lot of good things that will happen between now and then.”  My dad was giving me the same message that Jesus was… “keep awake.”

So what does keeping awake look like?  Well, it is keeping a look out for when our Lord is coming.  Kind of like my dad said, “some good stuff might happen.”  That is where the Gospel is.  Amidst the busy-ness, amidst the dread of being with family, and amidst the difficulty of being without loved ones who have passed on, Christ is coming.  It is to look around, and see where and when God is coming in the midst of dread, in the midst of worry.

In the name of the Father, and of the the Son+, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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