A Long Obedience

Mark 13:24-37

They say there are two kinds of people … early birds and night owls. I think there are actually three kinds of people … early birds, night owls, and some kind of permanently exhausted pigeon. Who here are early birds? Now I’m not talking about early birds by necessity. People who have to be at work really early but you’d prefer not to get up that early if you didn’t have to. Where are my early birds? You like to go to bed early and get up early. The weirdos who wake up before the alarm clock goes off. The people who like a good sunrise.

Ok, now where are my normal people? I mean night owls. The people who understand that the snooze button was put there for a reason, and use it. The sunset people. I’m definitely more of a night owl. Now, contrary to the opinions of some, BOTH are equally normal approaches to daylight. Some people just naturally prefer getting up early and others naturally prefer staying up later. Just the way individual bodies work. But yes, there are those of us who oversleep.

And in the ongoing battle against oversleeping, humanity has devised some clever alarm clocks. But for all their clever designs, most alarm clocks still suffer from a common drawback – they’re not designed for multiple users. When one person’s alarm goes off, other people in the room or throughout the house have to wake up too. Most alarm clocks have no way to selectively wake up one person and leave the other person undisturbed. Until now, that is.

Wake is a new breed of alarm that targets individual users and wakes up one sleeper without rousing others. Here’s how it works. After it’s mounted to the wall above the bed, the device uses an infrared temperature sensor and special body-tracking software to discern where each person is lying (without a camera). When it’s time to wake one person up, Wake silently takes aim, rotates into position, and then directs a tight burst of light and sound at their face.

To keep from rousing other sleepers, the device uses a set of parametric speakers capable of focusing sound into a narrow beam. Think of it as a spotlight for noise. If Wake is pointed straight at your head you’ll hear it loud and clear, but if you’re outside of the beam’s small radius, the sound will be extremely faint.[i]

And then of course there’s the explosion of drive through coffee shops with drinks designed to keep us awake once we finally ARE awake. I think many of us would simply prefer to be asleep most of the time if we could! That’s a concern of Jesus too. Well, maybe not being physically awake, but being spiritually awake. It’s something he talked about at length with his disciples before going to the cross.

Jesus and his disciples have been in Jerusalem for almost a week now. It’s just a couple of days before the Passover and Jesus’ last supper with his disciples. Time is short. He’s sitting on the Mount of Olives with four of them – Peter, Andrew, James, and John – looking at the temple and helping them to process some really difficult things that he’s just said. Because he’s just told them that before their generation dies out, Jerusalem’s magnificent temple would be destroyed.

For the Jews, the temple wasn’t just place of worship. To them, it was a powerful religious and national symbol, a reminder of their relationship with God and role as the people of God. It gave them hope – hope that tomorrow could be better than today, that God was going to act in human history to save and restore them. The problem was that God was acting in human history to save them, right under their noses, and they were missing it. Caught up in nationalistic dreams of a messiah who would defeat Rome and lead them to greatness, they missed the messiah who would defeat sin and death and lead them to God. When Jesus said that the temple would be destroyed, even his own disciples were shaken to the core. And they ask for an explanation.

But, as is often the case with Jesus, he doesn’t tell them what they WANT to hear. He tells them, and us, what we NEED to hear. And the message is, quite simply, Wake up! And then stay awake! Turn with me to Mark 13:24-37.

Passages in the Bible like this one – like all of Mark 13 really – are exciting for some, terrifying for some, and confusing for most. One of the reasons I tend to like to preach through books of the Bible is because it forces us to wrestle with really hard passages – passages that seem confusing, or frightening, or that challenge us to our core. We can’t just stick to what we like and are comfortable with. If “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” (2 Tim. 3:16) then we need to engage with “all Scripture.” Even the parts we don’t like, the parts that challenge or confuse it.

And in Mark 13, Jesus is talking about the reality that everything will one day come to an end. God is very slowly, by our standards for slow, bringing human history and the history of the entire cosmos, to a conclusion. Even science agrees with this. A very, very basic, over simplified explanation of the second law of thermodynamics states that the universe is winding down, even as it continues to expand. Now, left to its own devices, without any outside intervention from God, that would take a very, very long time. Now, let’s be honest. Topics like this aren’t on the list of favorites for most of us. Here’s the thing. Jesus thought it was important enough to bring up with his disciples very near the end. Of everything he could be talking to them about right now, he considered this significant enough to bring up, and we would do well to pay attention.

According to the current understanding of science, it will take about 100 trillion years (that’s a really, really long time, but not infinite) for every star in the universe to burn out, leaving basically nothing. It would take about another 5 billion years for our own sun to burn out completely, and it would burn much hotter before imploding in on itself, so life on earth would become impossible before that. But the truth is, scientists know that eventually, life will no longer be possible anywhere on earth, anywhere in the universe, for that matter.

What Jesus wants us to understand is he made it all, he sustains it all, and he will bring it all to his conclusion. God will not allow the state of chaos and confusion that entered the world with sin when humankind fell to go on unchecked forever. He has already initiated his solution in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. For now, that solution lives in the hearts of those who follow Jesus. Hearts that have admitted that they are fallen, broken, and sinful, and turned toward Jesus to take care of that and forgive. But Jesus WILL return to bring that solution to bear in it’s fullness. And this time, his coming will be unmistakable, impossible to miss. In fact, it will shake the cosmos to its core. Look at Vv. 24-27.

When Jesus came the first time, there was some disruption. The shepherds to whom the angels appeared knew it. The wise men watching the stars far from Judea knew it. Their travel to Judea drew the attention of Herod to it. So much so that Mary, Joseph, and the baby had to flee to Egypt to avoid Herod’s bloody, murderous rage. But the impact was very localized. Most went about their business as if nothing had happened, because from their perspective, nothing had happened.

When Jesus returns, bringing God’s reign in its fullness, his entry will shake not just this world but the entire cosmos. Jesus wasn’t necessarily describing the end of our sun and moon for good. But he’s certainly making it clear that his return will be a turning point in the history not just of humanity or even of this planet, but of the entire cosmos. ALL of creation will be impacted when he returns. ALL of creation will be shaken and disrupted. There will be no missing it. There’s no description of a final battle here, and there’s no vision of heaven. Just the words of Jesus that he will return and no one will miss it. The stars themselves will give way before him.

Now, it’s important to understand that creation goes into confusion BECAUSE he returns, not as a sign that its about to happen. Over the past 100 years or so, Christians have tried to discern patterns and signs pointing to Christ’s coming being immanent from our human perspective. Like soon as WE think of soon. But Jesus doesn’t do that. He isn’t giving an end-times road map here. He’s made it clear that from the time of his ascension, humanity has been living in the last days. And he’s also made it clear that from then to now, his coming could be at any time, so be aware. But some efforts to discern the signs almost feel like some are afraid we’ll miss it or something, and that isn’t something we need to worry about. His return will be unmistakable. It will shake the cosmos to its core, but not destroy it.

Now, look at Vv. 28-30. He tells a really short parable using a fig trees. Fig trees are one of the few deciduous trees in Judea. Most of the trees there hold on to their leaves year round. But fig trees lose their leaves in winter, as we are used to with most of our trees around here – except of course for the pines. But they didn’t get their leaves back until later in the spring. So when the fig trees leafed out you knew summer was right there. He wanted his disciples to understand that one of the most earth-shattering events they could imagine – the destruction of the temple – was right around the corner. Their generation would experience it. But he didn’t want it to shake their faith.

Earth shattering events happen. Children die. Two of mine have died and I feel their absence every day and I hate it.  Despotic leaders get their hands on nuclear weapons. Nations rise and nations fall. Cities and villages and homes are destroyed by fires and earthquakes and storms. And yes, we get mad when those things happen. That’s okay. Get mad, and let your anger move you to loving action. But when your world is rocked, and it will be, don’t lose your grip on a God who knows you, who loves you, and who wants you to know that it won’t be like this forever. He is waiting to welcome you into his loving embrace, either when your life on this earth is over or when he returns, whichever happens first.

But he also wants all of us to understand that all of this together – wars and rumors of wars, natural disasters (all of which we looked at last week), the destruction of the temple, the persecution of those who follow him – they function like the leaves of the fig tree. They remind us that his coming could happen at any time. And that is no more or less true today than it was then.

But then he gives us this absolutely critical reminder. I referred to it briefly last week. Look at Vv. 32-37. EVEN JESUS DOESN’T KNOW EXACTLY WHEN HE IS COMING BACK. That information rests with the Father alone. Efforts to predict it specifically, as often happens, are fruitless. Efforts to chart everything to try to create a cohesive road map of the end times are a waste of time.

So what ARE we supposed to do with this? How are we supposed to live in light of this? Because that’s the point, right? That’s always to point. There are lots of Christians out there who know the Bible really well. They can quote verses. Maybe even chapters. They know where Nahum is in the Old Testament. If I said, “Turn in your Bibles to Nahum,” they could do it. Without using the table of contents. But they never actually do anything with their lives for Jesus. For many of us, the point of faith in Jesus is to know the right things about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit.

But there has to be more than just knowing this book. We ARE supposed to know this book, SO THAT we can go out there and do something with our lives for Jesus, so that we can actually FOLLOW Jesus while we’re at the gas station, shopping at the grocery store, at work, with our friends, in our homes with family members who annoy or challenge us. We don’t know it just to know it. We are supposed to know it so that we live differently.

So how are we supposed to live differently? We’re supposed live AWAKE! What does that mean? It means first of all that we never lose sight of the truth that Jesus IS coming again, and this time there will be no missing it. It will shake the cosmos. And that gives us hope. Not wishful thinking. Hope grounded in the truth of who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing. Hope that gives us the stamina to keep going, to keep obeying, to live into a long obedience because we don’t know when he’s returning. We only know THAT he’s returning. A long obedience. When our world, or the world, is falling apart, we keep loving people and telling them about Jesus. A long obedience. We’re willing to keep going. To keep loving. To keep praising him. To keep telling others about his love, no matter the cost.

So we go about our work, our calling, no matter what is happening around us. Look at V. 34. Each servant has his or her work. What does the master want? To find them doing that work when he returns. That’s it. He just wants to find them doing what they’re supposed to be doing. If that’s preaching, then preach. If its teaching, then teach. If it’s singing, then sing. If it’s serving, then serve. If it’s hosting and hospitality, then host. If it’s welcoming, then welcome.

Robby Robins was an Air Force pilot during the first Iraq war. After his 300th mission, he was surprised to be given permission to immediately pull his crew together and fly his plane home. They flew across the ocean to Massachusetts and then had a long drive to western Pennsylvania. They drove all night, and when his buddies dropped him off at his driveway just after sun-up, there was a big banner across the garage – “Welcome Home Dad!”

How did they know? No one had called, and the crew themselves hadn’t expected to leave so quickly. Robins relates, “When I walked into the house, the kids, about half dressed for school, screamed, ‘Daddy!’ Susan came running down the hall – she looked terrific – hair fixed, make-up on, and a crisp yellow dress. ‘How did you know?’ I asked.

‘I didn’t,/ she answered through tears of joy. ‘Once we knew the war was over, we knew you’d be home one of these days. We knew you’d try to surprise us, so we were ready every day.’”[ii]

Jesus IS coming back. Might be today. Might be in 100 years. Might be another 1,000. We don’t know. HE doesn’t know. What we do know is that he wants us to keep worshipping, keep loving others, keep telling others about him, until he comes back. May that be the case for us. Let us pray.

[i] Drew Prindle, Awesome Alarm Clock Uses Parametric Speakers To Wake You Up Without Disturbing Your Partner, DigitalTrends.Com (4-2-15)

[ii] Lee Eclov, in the sermon “Heaven,” PreachingToday.com