Sermon by Reverend Dr. John W. Mann | December 3, 2023

Matthew 13:24-37

The beginning of Advent for Christians is a time when we remind ourselves that God is always coming into the world. Our challenge is to be ready for that when it happens. And to realize it’s always happening.

Over the last year we have been exploring stories from Matthew’s portrait of Jesus. Today we turn out attention to the story of Jesus found in the Gospel according to Mark. Mark is the earliest of the four gospels. It is a compact story, rather like a handbook on Jesus. The background of Mark is the rebellion against Rome that was centered in Jerusalem. Both Christians and Jews were involved in it. It led to the destruction of the city.

In the story of Mark, there’s no time to waste. Marks doesn’t tell of when or where Jesus was born –his story begins when he starts his work. The earliest versions of Mark didn’t even include the resurrection. The tomb was empty – so get out there and spread the word.

Over the last few years, the world as we knew it came to an end. We are on a journey through profound change. Every aspect of our world seems to be in upheaval. We have changed is some ways. We see people in a new light. We have a greater appreciation for many things in life. Things like family gatherings, our loved ones and our friends. We know the pain of grief.

Some people used to say, “You’d better study hard in school! You don’t want to end up stacking shelves at Walmart!” These days, that person stacking shelves at Walmart is a hero. Putting food on the shelves is an essential task. That high school girl checking out your groceries, dealing with all kinds of people coming by her till – she’s a hero.

We see people that we didn’t use to pay much attention to, and we realize that they are very important part of the fabric of our society; that without them we could be a lost worse off under the circumstances.

And we see some people in a new light that shines harshly. We see some people as thoughtless and uncaring of their fellow human beings. Rampant greed and corruption. We see the apocalypse descend upon them and we think, and maybe even say it out loud, “Well, they brought it on themselves. What do you expect?”

People will sometimes ask me, “What is it you do as a minister?”

There were times when the question felt threatening, as in, “How do you justify your existence” or “What are we paying you for?”

No answer seemed to measure up to the questioner’s expectations. After some time, many years in fact, I decided not to worry about people’s expectations. Probably those expectations were a creation of my imagination, rather than what people really wanted. After some time, it became quite clear what it is I do. And that is, to simply show up. Show up and remind people that God loves them.

There are so many situations in life where there is little else we can do.

But my job remains, to one and all, to simply to show up and remind folks that God loves you. If that makes any difference it is that as we give and receive love, we touch upon God’s purpose for our lives. We carry that purpose with us, and we share it others.

Some people are easy to love and for some who might not be so easy to love, perhaps our way of showing God’s love is to be less judgmental. I don’t know what’s going through that guy’s head. I haven’t walked a mile in her shoes. God loves them as much as God loves anyone.

Jesus said when the world turns upside down, be ready – pay attention – keep awake.

One time during gym class in the 9^th grade we were doing a course on gymnastics. I was practicing on the parallel bars, doing what I was supposed to do. I was working up to a good swing when suddenly I found myself on the floor, flat on my back. I didn’t know what had happened, but I couldn’t breathe. The teacher came over, grabbed me by the arm and lifted me up, saying, “You’re alright. You just had the wind knocked out of you.” In a moment, I was able to breathe again.

That’s what happens in life. We get the wind knocked out of us. We try to be strong people; we try to be prepared for what might come our way. But sometimes, wham! And we’re down for the count. If Jesus said we must be ready for the unexpected hour, then how? He said, “Keep awake,” but what did he mean?

We mull over what it means to stay awake. If you’re a student you sometimes have to put in extra hours of study; if you work the late shift you have to stay awake for your job; if you’re sitting with a dying loved one, you are alert into the wee hours. Or you’re awake at 3:00 AM, worrying about what might go wrong.

An image that sticks in my mind from a few years ago when I was in downtown Minneapolis, waiting to catch a bus to my daughter’s house. It was a bright spring day. A lot of people were out and about; people walking along while looking at their phones. About a half a block up the street a woman was crossing the street, looking at her phone while wearing earbuds. She did not see the train barreling down upon her. She didn’t hear it. A guy sprinted and managed to give her a shove that sent her flying out of harm’s way at the very last second. He risked his life and they both lived to tell the tale.

To me it was an illustration of how some folks go through life. Focused on what’s in front them and not paying attention to what’s going on around them or in the rest of the world.

What this story from Mark is telling us is that “staying awake” is to be alert to the realities of life. It’s asking the question, even on the level of the unspoken, “where is God in any of this?” Life is joy and sadness mixed together. It is height and depth, mystery and certainty all wrapped into one. We never know when God might appear in the mix, because God is just as real in the depths as God is real in the heights.

Perhaps staying awake to realities of life also involves waking ourselves up to the possibilities of God in life. Perhaps not even in a religious sense, but just to the simple sense of there being some hope in the possibility of a good outcome.

Vedran Smajlović is a man known for his practice of hope. In 1992 a group of people had lined up in front of a bakery in the city of Sarajevo. The city was under siege and the bakery was going to sell bread. The people were hungry and desperate. At 4:00 in the afternoon a mortar shell landed in the crowd and twenty-two people were killed. It was one more brutal act in a brutal war.

Vedran Smajlović was a cellist who had played with Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra. One day he took his cello and went to the spot where those twenty-two people had been killed. He played a piece called Adagio in G Minor by Tomaso Albinoni. It’s just less than nine minutes in length. Each day he returned to that spot at different times of the day and played that piece for 22 days.

He could have easily been shot by the snipers who were in Sarajevo. But he wasn’t. His twenty-two-day concert was a memorable enactment of hope. The world was reawakened to a sense of hope. 

Hope is not practical; it is not something we can put our hands on. Hope is something we must let into our heart and soul. Hope must be nurtured against onslaughts of the world. Hope is poetry of the soul.

The poet George Herbert once wrote: “He that believes in hope dances without music.”

Emily Dickenson wrote that –

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all.”

Kalil Gibran wrote –

“In the depths of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.”

Amidst all the forces that try to dominate our lives, we hope in a God of truth and justice to have the final word. Where violence always seem to win the day, we hope in a love that is the supreme power.

In a world where hope seems so far away, we are a people of hope. We listen for the voice of angels in the wind. We stretch to see the first light of a new day on the horizon. We long for a new birth of grace in every human heart. We wait. We listen. We hope. Amen.