Calvin Synod Herald, 2014 (115. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2014-11-01 / 11-12. szám

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

9

Text: Mark 13:24-37

What is This World Coming To?

My father, bless his memory, was inveterately tardy. It exasperated my mother - bless her memory. But did he ever change? No. I came to understand as a lad that if our target time to leave on vacation were 9:00 a.m. we could expect my father to be ready about 4:00 p.m. Exasperation, while we cooled our heels.

We Christians have been waiting a long time too. Some of us have become so exasperated we just quit expecting. Many pulpit speakers never make any reference to the return of Christ. It’s become just too exasperating to talk about.

On the other hand, there are always those who tell us they have it all figured out. William Miller, the founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, led his followers out on a hillside on March 21, 1843, to receive Christ’s return. Hal Lindsey, who sold millions of prophecy books, predicted the Lord’s return in 1984. A preacher in Oakland, California, Harold Camping, set two dates in 2011 which proved unfulfilled. Some mathematical problem, he alibied.

Traditionally the Advent season concerned itself not so much with waiting for a baby to be bom as to waiting for a King to return. Some who do not understand Advent just want to scratch it off the calendar and hurry into Christmas celebrations. In many churches that’s exactly what they do.

Have you noticed? Christmas has already begun in the culture. For many it begins at Macy’s at 12:00 a.m. on Friday morning after Thanksgiving. No time for waiting. Just rush in when the doors open. What Christmas is all about sits on the shelves at a reduced price.

But in chinch we wait. We wait for his birth in the long ago. We wait for his return in the time yet to be. We sing 4th century words from the Liturgy of St. James:

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,

And with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded,

For with blessing in his hand

Christ, our Lord, to earth descendeth

Our full homage to demand. (See Habakkuk 2:20)

When we wait in Advent’s exasperation we engage in a sort of argument with God. With the Psalmist we cry, “How long, O Lord, will you allow fools to prosper?” (See Psalm 73:12) Let us not fear such complaint. Jesus in the Garden asked, “Is it possible, Father that this cup could pass by me?” (Mark 14:36) And from the cross he lamented, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

We recall Isaiah, waiting in Babylonian and then Persian captivity, crying aloud, “O God! O that you would break apart the heavens and come down to us.” He seems to say, “O God, you did it at Sinai; you revealed your will. But now in this terrible exile all I hear is an awful silence. Where is your action now when we really need it?” (See Isaiah 64:1-9)

And so we say today: “You came to us, O God, in the child

of Bethlehem, the Man of Nazareth, to show us the way, indeed to be the Way. But that was long ago and far away. We’re still waiting for you to finish what you started. As your servant, Paul, put it well, ‘The whole creation waits as if in the agonies of child birth for the redemption of the sons and daughters of earth.’” (Romans 8:22 paraphrase)

In the prophecy of the prophet, Isaiah, people approach the watchman on the wall of the city. It is night. The people ask, “What do you see?” He replies, “The morning comes and also the night.” (Isaiah 21:12)

O Isaiah, surely the night comes. ISIS wreacks mayhem and murder in Iraq. Will the reality of terror take further toll in the year ahead? And at home our political process seems broken. What can fix it?

The night comes! Indeed! But also the morning. Some persons run to a flaming car to pull a helpless occupant to safety. Occasionally someone still waves us into line ahead of them in the traffic. Genuine thankfulness and human solidarity shine as families gather for Thanksgiving. And those in need feel the generosity of the churches around them.

The night comes. There is also the morning! The light breaks and the eastern horizon awakes. That is why we light advent candles - to signal our belief that morning comes, to enhance the light and not just to curse the darkness.

Where is our hope?

Our hope is not in the evolution of the race. Nothing merely human can save us.

Our hope is not in the mere passage of time. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that left to its own devices life finally drains into entropy.

Our hope is not in the certitude of our so-called modem prophets. As scripture says, “Of the times and seasons we know not.” (I Thessalonians 4:5)

Where is our hope? Our hope is in the One who made heaven and earth, who came to us in the well-beloved Son in the midst of history and who therefore has no intention of ending history with a meaningless bang or whimper.

In Advent in the year of our Lord, 2014,1 hear a three year old from the back seat of the car ask, “Daddy, Mommy, are we about there? How long will it take to get there?”

And from the front seat comes the reply: “It won’t be long, but it’ll take a little time yet. Try to be patient and enjoy the ride. Use your time well. It’s worth the wait.”

In the name of the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit, world to its end. Amen.

David B. Bowman

REFORMED PRAYER IN KINGDOMTIDE

Almighty and everlasting God, the Source of all life and power, who has promised to bring up again from the dead all those who sleep in Jesus; gather not our souls with sinners, and reunite us with Your saints of all generations in glory everlasting; that having been joined with them in one communion here, we too may share in the resurrection at the last day; through Jesus our risen and eternal Lord. Amen.