Watch a video of this sermon from November 29, 2020.

“But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. 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.

“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. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; 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 slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Mark 13:24-37 (NRSV)

Do you ever find yourself lying awake in the middle of the night? I think the older I get, the more trouble I have staying asleep. It used to be thinking about work I needed to get done, or dreaming about how I would redo my kitchen if I won the lottery… now it’s more likely the aches and pains of aging that keep me awake at night. But one of the key causes of insomnia is stress, and during the pandemic, lots of people were experiencing sleeplessness as a side effect of pandemic stress. Researchers even coined a term for it: “Caronasomnia”.[1]

Whatever the cause, the problem with sleeplessness is that our bodies and our minds never really get the rest they need. Good sleep helps our brains “reboot” and our minds refresh. Losing sleep creates “brain fog” – we are sluggish and easily confused. We can’t think creatively. We aren’t as effective at our work. We have a hard time staying alert.

So here we are at the beginning of a new church year, diving into the season of Advent, a season when we look forward with anticipation to Christ’s coming. Yet, for some of us, all we can think about is how much we’d really just like to take a nap. Jesus telling us to “keep awake” just isn’t very appealing, is it? But here’s the good news: exhausted sleeplessness isn’t what Jesus has in mind for us at all.

This is the first Sunday in the season of Advent. That word “Advent” means “arriving” or “coming toward” – God is coming toward us in the person of Jesus Christ, as we come toward God through Christ’s grace. And we do that “coming toward” God by means of hope.

I think it’s interesting that we begin the first Sunday in the new church year near the end of Mark’s gospel. Over the last few weeks, we heard Matthew’s version of Christ’s final teachings, and here we get Mark’s recollection of the same timeframe. Both accounts focus on the ‘end of the age’ or ‘end times.’

While these words sound apocalyptic, Jesus is making it clear that he isn’t predicting when the end will come – no one knows the day or the hour. The word “apocalypse” really means “revelation,” but at first glance, this passage seems to obscure more than it reveals. So it might be helpful to understand what Jesus is saying by remembering he is actually talking about his own end, the completion of his own ministry on earth.

One clue that we should hear this as a farewell discourse is the way Jesus uses so many imperative verbs: learn, beware, keep awake, be alert. Christ is giving instructions for his disciples to follow after he is gone. Paul does the same thing in his late writings. Maybe we should take these words of Jesus personally, because he is speaking to all his disciples, and that includes us here and now. 

So what does it mean to “keep awake” as we wait for Christ’s return? How do we demonstrate our hope for Christ’s coming with alert anticipation? The first Sunday in Advent is traditionally called the Sunday of Hope. Where do we find hope in these difficult times? How can we see light breaking into our darkness?

We might think of prophecy as predicting the future, but the prophets of the Old Testament weren’t fortunetellers, they were truth tellers. They saw their job as calling attention to God’s presence in times when people couldn’t see it for themselves. The prophets showed God’s people where to find the light when they despaired in darkness.

We are in a time that seems quite dark. I remember just three years ago, when we were all on high alert to prevent the spread of COVID, I finally gave up checking the Situation Update website every day. I was suffering from pandemic fatigue. I really didn’t want to know how bad it was, how many more deaths there had been, how many more people in my community were sick – because those numbers had become more than statistics to me. They represented people I knew and loved. They were my friends and my own family.

One day, as I was driving near the airport in Minneapolis, I noticed the “threat level” warning sign that had been there since 9/11. And I realized we had all been on high alert for more than 20 years. COVID only added another layer of stress to fear we had gradually begun to consider normal.

News outlets are constantly bombarding us with stories to raise our fear level. Even before war broke out in Ukraine and Palestine, reporters were looking for ways to sensationalize the news, to keep us anxiously tuned in so we wouldn’t miss the latest developments – or the next commercial. This takes a toll, not only on our physical health, but on our spiritual health as well.

We are so tired of being vigilant, so stressed that – even in our weariness – we can’t sleep through the night. Where has our hope gone? Where is the light shining into our darkness?

Part of the problem is that, while we know we must keep alert and be ready for Christ to come again, we have no idea when that will happen. Actually, COVID may have given us an opportunity to train for this kind of alert anticipation.

In the first few weeks of closing businesses and events, we learned how to pace our response to the COVID virus as it spread, realizing we were heading into a marathon, not a sprint. We learned to curb our anxiety as we sheltered in place. We found ways of adapting our normal routines to maintain safe distances from others, while we washed our hands and put on our masks. We became more disciplined. We started to pay better attention to others.

This is exactly the kind of ‘being awake’ Jesus asks of us. Instead of fear and worry, we respond with discipline and compassion. Rev. Diane Strickland writes, “There’s a difference between “keep awake” because everything is out of your control, you can’t fix most of what happening, and it’s getting downright scary—and “keep awake” because God never ceases to be at work, the Spirit is doing a new thing, and you don’t want to miss any of it!”[2]

“Keep awake!” Another way to translate this is “Be awake” – Jesus isn’t telling us to wake up from sleep, but to stay alert. Be in a state of readiness. Four times in this passage, Jesus says, “Be awake.” He doesn’t say, ‘drowsily prop your eyelids open’ or even “wake up!” with a jolt. He says, ‘remain in a state of readiness, of eager anticipation for the joy that is to come. Live in hope.’

Hope gives us the fuel we need to stay alert. Hope gives us the energy to remain ready to welcome Christ into our midst. It is hope that keeps us awake and rested.

We learned last week in the parable of the sheep and goats that Jesus comes when we least expect him, in ways we least expect him, and through people we least expect to bear his image – but when Christ comes, we are to be ready for him, because he does come. Your hope is in the Christ who comes to you in the here and now, bringing light into your darkness, calling you out of despair and weariness into his strength and peace.

Have you ever watched a Texas A&M football game? Next time you get a chance to see the Aggies play, notice the entire student body standing for the entire game. The spirit of the “12^th man on the team” goes back to 1922, when the Aggies had suffered so many injuries, there was no one left on the bench. One version of the legend says that a student jumped down from the bleachers to take the field when the next injury occurred, running in the final touchdown to win the game.

The facts aren’t quite that dramatic. E. King Gill had recently left the football team to concentrate on basketball. He was at the game that day, and put on an injured player’s uniform, standing on the sidelines for the entire game in case another player might get injured. But he never had to go in. The Aggies rallied and won the game, and from that time on, the student body stands throughout each game, partly to honor Gill’s selflessness, but also to demonstrate their readiness to hit the field if needed.[3]

This is the kind of ‘staying awake’ Jesus asks of us. It’s the kind of alert attention that anticipates victory, and remains willing to participate at any moment. Over the next four weeks, we will look for the light of Christ to shine into us in a new way. We need to be awake to see that light.

And there’s another kind of alert wakefulness that demonstrates our hope as we move from darkness into Christ’s light. A mom was driving along when her 8-year-old asked,” Do you want me to throw the confetti in my pocket?” “No, not in the car! Why do you have confetti in your pocket?” the mom asked. Her 8-year-old answered, “It’s my emergency confetti. I carry it everywhere in case there is good news.”[4]

As we move from darkness to light during this season of Advent, this time of ‘coming toward,’ may your hope be anchored in the good news that Jesus comes, just as he promised, and when he comes, he hopes for something, too. He hopes you will be alert, that your supply of emergency confetti will be ready to announce his coming. Jesus is hoping you will be ready to join him , along with those who come from east and west, from north and south, to sit at table in the kingdom of God. May it be so.

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[1] https://health.ucdavis.edu/health-news/newsroom/covid-19-is-wrecking-our-sleep-with-coronasomnia–tips-to-fight-back-/2020/09

[2] Diane Strickland, https://revgalblogpals.org/2020/11/23/rcl-advent-i-keep-awake-youre-kidding-right/

[3] https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1121312-texas-am-football-10-ways-to-know-you-are-an-aggie-fan#:~:text=Texas%20A%26M%20students%20stand%20the,the%2011%20on%20the%20field.

[4] https://www.facebook.com/laurie.kantonen/posts/10219332093186560