Last Sunday of the Church Year

November 21-22, 2009

“The Preparation of Christians”

Mark 13:24-37

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

On September 13, 1759, one of the most significant battles of the 18^th century was fought: The Battle of the Heights of Abraham. The Heights of Abraham were, and still are, the cliffs above the St. Lawrence River in front of the city of Quebec, and the battle was part of the conflict we know as the French and Indian War, even though it pitted the French against the British, with Native Americans fighting on both sides. The commanding officer of the French troops defending Quebec, the Marquis de Montcalm, felt very secure in his position because of the natural defense offered by the Heights of Abraham. So he sent only a small detachment of men to watch the cliffs and repel anyone foolish enough to attack in that way. Unfortunately for them, the British General James Wolfe had found another way up the cliffs, leading to the flatter surface at the top called the Plains of Abraham. The French guard were caught sleeping, and quickly overwhelmed. By dawn, Wolfe had almost 5,000 men at the top of the Heights, to the west of the city. And the rest is history. Montcalm attempted to rally his men, but having been caught by surprise, they were too disorganized to mount a counter-attack. Both commanding generals, Montcalm and Wolfe, were killed in the ensuing battle, but the outcome was never in doubt. Quebec surrendered the next day, and with that, Canada was lost to the French, and became part of the British Empire. It happened primarily because the French force at Quebec failed to stay awake and keep watch. Had they been alert that day, the city would not have fallen to the British, and the outcome of the war might have been quite different.

In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus gives His Church a similar warning – to stay awake – to keep watch, and not be taken by surprise. Jesus’ comments in our text today are a continuation of His response to the disciples that we heard last week, when they were so impressed with the grandeur of the Temple. He told them that the Temple would be destroyed, that there would be persecution and suffering, and that when it happens, His followers should not stay in Jerusalem, but should run for the hills. The early Christian historian Eusebius wrote that just before the Roman siege that destroyed the Temple and killed many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some of the Jews escaped from the city and fled into the surrounding regions because of “an oracle given by revelation.” Perhaps he was referring to the words of Jesus, and the fact that some of the people heeded His warning.

Jesus ends today’s Gospel lesson by giving us a warning about His own Second Coming. “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. 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 stay awake. Therefore stay awake – for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning – lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

We are to be alert, Jesus says, for His return. And this leads us to a couple of important thoughts about this text. First, the fact that Jesus is coming again. He didn’t leave this earth for good after His resurrection, when He ascended back into heaven. He will be coming back, at a time no one can predict. And that is something special to look forward to. He says, “then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And 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.” The Second Coming of Christ is an important doctrine of the Christian faith, and it’s one that is misused and misunderstood in some ways.

One way it is misused is that it is often just overlooked, almost forgotten. It can be so easy for us to get caught up in the events of this world that we start to think this is all there is. The way the world is now is the way it always has been, and always will be. So some Christians encourage us to take advantage of the world as it is, to thrive and prosper and gain wealth as a sign of our faithfulness. Others point us to the misguided effort to bring about the Kingdom of God in its fullness on earth. For them, the Gospel is about, and only about, worldly justice, peace, and equality. Anticipation of the glory of the world to come, eternity ushered in by Christ’s return, is forgotten. Both of those viewpoints miss the point, and either ignore or downplay the truth of the Second Coming.

And another way this event is misused is in those who try and predict the timing of the end, and tell us when this all will happen. The Millerites of the 19^th century, named after their founder William Miller, and from whom both the Seventh-Day Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim their beginnings, tried multiple times to predict the end of the world, obviously without success. The present day end times prognosticator Hal Lindsey wrote a book in the early 1970s called, “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” in which he predicted the end of the world would occur in 1988. Clearly, he was a bit off on that, but he is still out there suggesting revised dates for the end. And while some of those doing these kinds of things are indeed Christian in their beliefs, to obsess over predictions of when the end will happen also misses the point regarding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Which leads us to another important thought about our Gospel lesson today: God still has work for us to do here on earth. The purpose of Jesus’ first coming was to accomplish the work of our salvation, which He did by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. We are connected to His life and salvation through Baptism, Word, and Eucharist. In those means of grace, we are filled with the gifts of God, receiving from Him the forgiveness of our sins, life and salvation. In the life of the Church, then, we are given all that we need to remain steadfast in the one true faith; given all that we need to, as St. Jude puts it in our Epistle Lesson, “build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

And in this faith, we are called not to fixate on the end of the world, and wonder when it will happen, but to live out our Christian lives in the local community. We are called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Part of that is living out the Great Commission Christ has given us, to “go and make disciples of all nations” by baptizing and teaching. And we can do that not only in our words, but in our actions, as we serve others in works of mercy and compassion. Many of the people around us out there are searching for something. Go to the book store, and you can find dozens and dozens of books under the topic of “spirituality,” but not many of those have anything to do with Christianity. What an opportunity we may have to gently encourage the seekers in our lives to find the peace and the contentment they are looking for in Jesus Christ.

In this way, rooted in God’s grace given to us in His Word and Sacraments, striving to live the Christian life from day to day, we are prepared for Christ’s Second Coming, whenever that may happen. There is no reason for us to worry about that day, or obsess over trying to predict when it will happen. We simply live out our calling as followers of Christ in this world. Or consider it this way: when he was asked what he would do if he knew the world would end tomorrow, Martin Luther replied, “I would plant a tree.” In other words, there is no reason to do anything out of the ordinary; to do anything other than what God has called us to in our lives. We can do just that, and be fully prepared for whatever may come, in joyful anticipation of Christ’s return, beginning and ending each day as it all began at the baptismal font: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep both your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.