Dr. David D. Young
February 3, 2008
Daniel 7:9-18
Mark 13:24-37
"What Are You Waiting For?"
(Consummation)

Today completes our sermon series, "A Place for You: Winter Journeys in Christian Foundations." The Christian faith, with its tradition and perspectives, provides a place for each of us to stand. Jewish author – yet close companion of Christ, Simon Weil, once wrote:

"We are like barrels with no bottom to them so long as we have not understood that we rest on a foundation."

Certainly, we recognize that our foundation is God through Jesus Christ – while at the same time recognizing that things like creation, the fall, incarnation, salvation, reconciliation, and consummation are part of it as well. And so, today we conclude by looking at consummation.

Simply put, consummation in theological terms means completion – or as some would say, the conclusion of the world. Whenever things have heated up in the Middle East – as they have often these past number of decades – there are those who say we are at the beginning of the end. People have been preoccupied with the end of time since practically the beginning of time.

"Why?"

One of the most painful experiences of a person’s life is meaninglessness. When life no longer makes sense, when the present seems dead, when the future seems impossible, and when our most important relationships are shallow or broken – we are left with a sense of emptiness.

Few of us escape that feeling of a terrible void sometime in life. I know I’ve had it – in a very depressing and painful way – and I bet you have too. You see, the collapse of meaning has plagued practically every age of history. Shakespeare expresses this sense of despair as well as anyone in those lines many of us had to memorize in high school English literature class from Macbeth,

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

We are all too aware of the meaninglessness that pervades our day as well.

Oh, we fill up our days with things and distractions to convince ourselves that we are important. But we know deep down that there are times when we feel pretty insignificant – because we’re convinced that we are.

There are many life philosophies that promote living one day at a time. Well, I heard of a discouraged person who said,

"I only dread one day at a time."

And going all the way back to New Testament times – there was considerable despair and uncertainty among the early Christian community. Without going into all the history – people were severely persecuted for their Christian faith. Our second lesson this morning is taken From Chapter 13 of Mark’s gospel and is part of what is known as Apocalyptic literature. Apocalyptic writing usually appears during difficult and despairing times. Apocalyptic means to unveil, uncover, reveal. It is strange, veiled language that carries with it a profound and stirring message of hope - to those who know how to read it or unveil it.

It was in the midst of great struggle and despair that came the messianic hope – that Jesus would come again. And so the New Testament community was waiting for Jesus’ return – even in their lifetime. The apocalyptic expression of hope in the gospel of Mark is taken (in part) from Daniel’s vision of the consummation, that the son of man will come in clouds with great power and glory. As you will recall, our text from Mark says in verse 30,

"this generation will not pass away before all these things take place".

And yet, how many generations have come and gone and it has not taken place – literally. Perhaps the literal expectation was only the husk and not the kernel of the New Testament perspective of the last things, of the end times, of the consummation.

Still, today, there are many who want to take this highly symbolic, Apocalyptic language as literally as they can. Thus, at one end of the spectrum we find fundamentalist Christians who are hung up about every little detail about who’s gonna be in and who’s gonna be out – and how and when things will end. And at the other end are liberal (not literal) Christians who shy away from any discussion about consummation whatsoever.

It’s amazing how many books have been written about the end times. I was trying to think of one of the more recent series and I just couldn’t – so I guess because I couldn’t remember I’ll just be "Left Behind."

I marvel at how people capitalize on other people’s fascination of needing to know when things will come to an end – as though it makes a difference whether the end comes tomorrow, in 12 days, 12 months, 12 years or in 1200 years as to how we will live our lives today. The point is not about a precise date – but about the quality of our lives.

I am suggesting then, that there are two kinds of waiting. One image suggests a person comfortably laying back in a recliner waiting confidently for someone to come to him or her. The other is an active waiting – preparing things and doing what needs to be done in the person’s absence. In both cases the persons believe that things are in God’s hands – but in the first instance the waiting is passive and assumes God will do it all. And in the second case, because it is in God’s hands it is also in our hands. We are stewards with God in our waiting and in our living.

Every one is waiting for something. What are you waiting for?

Some people are waiting for their ship to come in, to hit the lottery, others a new job, others for children to be born, to leave home – or return home, some are waiting for springtime, a vacation, others for retirement, others the result of a test, others for a loved one to die, and still others simply to die. Some people are waiting for peace, others a cleaner environment, others the end of poverty and hunger – and still others a new change in leadership for the future. The point is we’re all waiting for something.

And the temptation is to live in the future rather than the present moment. The challenge today is to a deeper level – the faith level.

In your faith life, what are you waiting for?

Out of an eastern tradition which believes in re-incarnation comes the story of a man waiting by a river …a man comes up to him and asks why he’s just sitting there...and he says – "many lives before…many lives to come…I thought I’d just sit this one out."

In our text this morning Jesus says several times that we are to watch and so I‘d like to offer 3 watchwords while we wait for completion. I’m at the 28th verse:

"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."

The first watchword then is – Awareness.

We are to be aware of God’s presence and movement in the world around us. Poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it beautifully in these familiar lines:

"Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes…
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."
      (Aurora Leigh, Book VII, 820)

Awareness can put us in touch with the newness that comes by being in communion with God. Awareness means opening our inner eye and using peripheral vision. A good piece of advice comes by way of humorist James Thurber:

"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness."

Isaiah, the prophet of old, puts it this way, "Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles."

God continues to draw near to us and is on the way to meeting us – just as we too are on the way, the journey of meeting God. There is a mutual towardness in our relationship with God.

It’s easy to be unaware without even realizing it. It happens to us all the time – so much is coming at us all the time. I can hardly believe all the things I miss every day. The first watchword then is Awareness!

Our awareness keeps us ready for the next step with God. Let’s return to our text:

"Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

There’s that sticky verse. Between two specific references stands the eternal word:

"Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away." (VS 31)

There is a paradox here in that the only really substantial things in life are unsubstantial. Or as the apostle Paul put it, "We trust not in things seen – but in the unseen." We also encounter a word of warning and ease. First a warning that no one should try to pin-point when things will end – so, secondly relax, that it is in God’s hands and no one else’s –not even the Son’s. And yet look at the time and energy people put into the endeavor of trying to figure it out.

Our lesson goes on to say, and I’m picking it up at the 33rd verse:

"Take heed, watch; 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 servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch."

From this parable – we discover the second watchword – Trust. Not just our trust in God – but surprisingly God’s trust in us. Look closely at the text. If the man is like God – then he first entrusts us and I quote, “each with his (God’s) work.” Not only does God first love us, before we ever love God (1st John), but God also trusts us, before we in turn trust. Our faith affirms that we can trust a trusting God. Children are more apt to trust parents if they know that their parents trust them. We can trust God to bring our lives and the world to completion in God’s good time and not in ours.

In the meantime we know that waiting and working, waiting and service, go hand in hand. German theologian, Christopher Blumhardt, knew this insight well, when he said: "Waiting is a great strength. Waiting is a great deed." So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get going.

Anonymous, whose lifetime spans the centuries, was also aware of the connection when saying, "Learn to labor and to wait, but be careful how you start, lest you learn to wait so well, you overlook the labor part."

Our second watchword is trust. We trust – because God first trusted us. We trust God’s word because God’s word is worthy of our trust. We trust that God is working his purpose out and that we will seek to be faithful to our part within those purposes. And so we watch and wait in trust – lest some great opportunity for service to God’s kingdom come and pass by, unseen and unseized.

Well, awareness leads to trust which lead to our third watchword – Hope. See if you can catch it in the last three verses of our text,

"Watch therefore – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning - lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Watch."

Our hope is in the Master and he will come. God is not finished with us yet or this here world. That’s the good news of this passage. God hasn’t left us for good. God’s will is to return to us again and again and again – combined with our effort to return to God.

It has been said that,

"Hope is effort, not wish; effort to make it so, not wish that it may be so."

Our hope rests in the awareness and trust that God has not given us up nor given up on us. This is the apocalyptic hope of God’s completing process. God will not leave us alone.

In this faith of ours, what are you waiting for? Perhaps you are waiting – just wanting to sit this one out, as it were. Or perhaps you are waiting to be changed into a new person – where the old is finished and gone and everything becomes fresh and new. God’s completing consummation is an ongoing process. We know from experience that when Christ is present in our lives we are more whole and complete.

Is it not interesting that the signs of the end as depicted in verse 28 – are but signs of God’s new beginning? The fig tree beginning to bud is as a sign of God’s completing process – it implies there is more yet to unfold and blossom.

In a real sense, every day is the last day – we die to what has been when we go to sleep and rise in the morning to what is and will be. The Christian faith lifts up the hope that our partial and fragmentary lives will be completed in a total and larger plan than any which we control or comprehend.

And so, our three waiting watch words of God’s completing, consummating process are:

Awareness!
   Trust! and
      Hope!

Awareness keeps us ready for our next step with God!

Trust keeps our relationship with God good!

And Hope keeps us open and moving toward the new possibilities God is ever offering for our very lives!

Amen!