Last Sunday of the Church Year “In The End: Hope!”
November 24, 2024 Mark 13:24-37
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
Do you know anyone who’s a pessimist? I mean a genuine pessimist == one like ‘Eeyore’ – the donkey in the Winnie The Pooh stories. Eeyore says things like:
“No matter where I go, I can’t seem to find my way out.”
Happiness? I’ve heard of it. Never experienced it myself, though.”
I always expect the worst. That way, I’m never disappointed.”
My glass is half-empty, and it probably has a crack in it too.”
+++++++++++++
While lovable, and secretly good-hearted, Eeyore is gloomy & negative, always expecting the worst. Eeyore is the opposite of what we find in Holy Scripture. That doesn’t mean Scripture ignores the reality of storm clouds, tough times, wicked sin, pain, sadness or death = not at all. But if a person thinks that the Christian message is like that blues song, ‘life is hard, and then you die,’ that person has misread the Bible. Under every event recorded for us there is a solid foundation of optimism. Mankind sings the blues, but our Creator is the God of hope.
The dictionary defines hope as the ‘expectation of success.’ Eeyore expects failure,
but people-of-God expect success. This hope is no ‘wish’ that things will turn out in our favor.
It is looking to the Almighty – who has spoken to us about what we can expect of Him: victory.
We know success right now in the assurance that God loves us, and forgives our sins because of Jesus’ death on the cross; and we expect fulfillment in the future because we know Jesus will one day return & set everything right. That’s why we also call the Last Sunday of the Church Year the ‘Sunday of The Fulfillment.’
The One -by whom all things were created & are held together- will return. What our eyes know now is a broken creation, and a life with pain, guilt, & sadness; but our God says that will have its end. He is the One who gives us that certain hope. The day is coming when we will see Christ Jesus, and that promise of hope will be fulfilled.
But when? Jesus says, ‘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.” (Mk 13:32–33).
In the yr 1818, while reading his Bible, a Vermont farmer, William Miller, made what he believed to be an amazing discovery: the exact date of Christ’s second coming. In 1831, Miller began to lecture on his ideas, and he gained about 50,000 followers from various Protestant denominations. These were the ‘Millerites.’ Between 1840 and 1843, he organized meetings across the country, and thousands began preparing for the end of the world on March 21, 1843.
On the evening of March 20, a crowd gathered in Low Hampton, New York, to await Christ’s return. But March 21st came & went. Nothing happened. Miller was ‘flummoxed,’ (like that word?) Miller was both angry & confused. He announced that he had miscalculated by one year, so he set another date for March 21, 1844. When that prediction was also wrong, Miller admitted defeat. Disheartened & rejected by most, Miller returned to Vermont and organized a small church. Altho he never lived to see it, Miller’s teachings were taken up by an early follower, Ellen White, who became the founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Many sincere Christians have tried to make that same prediction & ruined their faith. The Jehovah Witnesses are famous for having many failed dates of ‘Christ’s return.’ Some thought 1975 was the year; full-page ads in American newspapers predicted judgement day for April 1982. Of course, who can forget the panic about how the world would end on Dec.31, 1999.
Obviously, we’re all in favor of Christ’s return. In fact, I would appreciate it if He would come back before I have to file my taxes again. But seriously, what we ARE opposed to is the unfaithful act of trying to set any kind of date – rather than to believe Christ’s words in Mark 13, and gladly live in a continuous state of waiting. This believing -plus- this waiting
-equals- HOPE.
If the angels in heaven don’t know the date of Christ’s return, and if Jesus chose -in his human nature- not to know, then we shouldn’t expect to know. Some will argue that, while Jesus says we can’t know the day or the hour, He doesn’t say we can’t know the year.
We won’t fall for that. The Spirit says thru Paul: “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (1 Thess 5:2). Since we don’t when Christ will return, we know that He will return; there is nothing to do but hope, and wait.
+++++++++++++++++
Well,… actually, there are a couple of things besides hoping and waiting, says Jesus. There is watching. “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 rooster crows, or in the morning.” (v 35). This means that He wants us to watch, and expect His return every day.
So Jesus tells His little story: “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.” (v 34). So, Jesus is the master of the house. By His ascension into heaven, He has gone on a journey. In the meantime, He first put His Apostles in charge of the homestead; and that charge has been passed on to US in our day. And to sum it all up, at the end, Jesus gives ALL of us the doorkeeper’s job: “And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” (v 37).
+++++++++++++++++
Now, if this teaching sounds like a warning to you, you need to put aside your old-nature ‘eeyore’. Your faith is not pessimistic. Your Savior’s return is pure optimism.
A couple of men went out to the historic Civil War battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to view the area. While they were there, they came across a lookout tower. They eagerly huffed & puffed their way to the top, expecting to be able to survey the entire area from the platform. How disappointed they were when their view was blocked by all the trees that had grown up thru the years, and were now taller than the tower.
Our view can be like that. Our life has many good things & bad things; they grow up around us, blocking our view, & changing our perspective. We need to hear again & again Jesus’ teaching; His Spirit redirects us to this waiting hope. We need it; and so do those around us. By His work & His Word, we can see beyond the various concerns this life puts on us.
God’s people have always wrestled with balancing the present with the future. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, (and) be strong.” (1Cor 16:13). In other words, watch for the good future, and live with courage. To the Colossians, Paul wrote, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” (Col 4:2).
In these, there is no warning, & no pessimism. We stand & live firmly in Christ – while we watch in hope for His return. When Jesus says ‘stay awake’, He’s teaching that each day may be our last day. But, don’t panic; your faith is nourished now by the Spirit in the Means of Grace = His Word & Sacrament. When the day comes, your faith will turn to sight, & rejoice.
++++++++++++++++++++
So we don’t know when Christ will return, but we know that He will return. So, we hope and we wait, and we watch. And?…..
And we notice, finally, that in this little parable about a man going on a journey, Jesus said that the master of the house “leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work.” (v 34) Nowhere in the Bible are we told that we are to just spend our time waiting & watching & hoping, and to forget everything else. If you & I are in this parable, (and we are), then we are the servants; and servants serve = they work. And what a perfect example of a serving-servant the Son of Man is.
Jesus himself, as one of us, lived willing to work as He watched & waited for His Father’s plan to unfold. He worked hard to accomplish our salvation. It wasn’t easy for Him to put up with the stubbornness of the Pharisees, the dull confusion of the disciples, and the lonely rejection of His own family. It was work when He allowed himself to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, & be nailed to a cross. In hanging on the cross, He couldn’t just ‘give up’; He had to endure the wrath of His Father and the pains of hell for us.
We can’t measure the work-effort for Him to suffer & pay for the sins of the whole world. His death was not just for the ‘nice’, civil people; but for the likes of Cain – who murdered his brother Abel; for wicked King Herod – who slaughtered Bethlehem’s baby boys; for those of Hezballa who butchered the elderly & babies in Israel; even for Jose Ibarra, that illegal immigrant who brutally assaulted & murdered Laken Riley in Georgia.
The Son of God went to the cross for ALL – so that all could have the gospel of their salvation preached to them, that Jesus is their Savior from eternal death. That’s the work Jesus referred to when He said, ‘It is finished.’ All who hear that gospel message, and believe the work that Jesus accomplished for them, receive God’s forgiveness == so that they can wait, watch, and work – with hope.
The early church in Thessalonica understood most of that teaching. But, they were so anxiously watching & waiting for Christ’s return that they assumed He would come back in mere days or weeks; so they sold their belongings, and sat around watching & waiting.
Paul scolds them for being childish & reckless. He tells them that those ‘who will not work should not eat.’
To set them straight in the light of that second coming, Paul wrote: “Now may our God and Father, …. make you increase…in love for one another and for all, … (and) establish your hearts blameless in holy living ….at the coming of our Lord Jesus…” (1Thess 3)
In other words, live lives of holiness & love, striving to do what is right, because our Lord Jesus is coming back. The mission of this good news and our hope surrounds us in concentric circles. Our holy living is in personal behavior, in caring for our household,
& our neighbor, in serving within the Lord’s church, with godliness in our community,
and supporting a wide gospel mission to the world. The Master left us with work to do while He’s out-of-sight, so that many will be prepared when He appears again.
+++++++++++++++++++++
In the catacombs in Rome, those tunnels under the ancient city, many of the early Christians were buried. You can see the symbols of our faith on their tombs. The three most common symbols are: the dove, the fish, & the anchor. The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit; the letters of the Greek word for ‘fish,’ =ICTHUS= stand for the words ‘Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.’ The anchor reflects Hebrews 6:19, ‘hope is the anchor for our soul.’
Poor Eeyore says, ‘no need to bother on my account.’ But Scripture says: Jesus bothered on your account!
On the Last Sunday of the Church Year, we celebrate the optimism we share in the mercy and the promises we have in the Savior who has redeemed us before God; He is returning to fulfill all things, and to restore our lives forever. We don’t know when He will return, but we know that He will return. And that hope He gives us is enough. We will be waiting, watching, and working …. and expecting Him any day.
Amen