You’d Better Watch Out!
Dr. Larry Thorson
Mark 13:33-37
33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know
when that time will come. 34 It's like a man
going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with an
assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.
35
"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house
will come back—whether in the evening, or at
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the season
when we prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. What I want to do this Advent is use some
popular Christmas songs to introduce my sermon ideas. For these Advent sermons,
I’m going to use popular as well as standard religious music as a means of
focusing our thoughts on the great themes that this special season suggests.
Now, there are some Christmas songs that I decided
to eliminate from consideration right from the beginning. Songs like “Grandma
Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” According to one survey, “Grandma Got Run Over by
a Reindeer” is now the most requested Christmas song ever, and has sold more
than 10 million copies. It also spawned a MTV video. I will add, however, that
some polls also rate it the most hated Christmas song of all time.[1] I can’t imagine why. Anyway, I decided not to
use it.
I decided instead that the familiar first line of
the popular song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” would better fit this first
Sunday in Advent. “Oh, you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not
pout, I’m telling you why: Santa Claus is coming to town.” And especially those
lines, “He’s making his list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty
or nice.”[2]
Some people think of Jesus as a sort of Santa
Claus who’s coming to town to bless those who have been good. And they read the
same kind of warning into our lesson for today from Mark’s Gospel especially
when he told his disciples, “No one knows
about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only
the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.”
But Jesus isn’t Santa
Claus. For one thing Santa never hangs
around long enough to have a relationship with anyone. What kind of a guy drops by only after he
knows you’ve gone to bed? Jesus isn’t
like that. He is a real person who had
real relationships with real people and whose Spirit enables us to have a real,
day to day heart felt relationship with him today. If you talk to Jesus and
listen for him he will communicate with you.
Yet there is one comparison to Santa Claus. Because we don’t physically see Jesus we put
him out of our minds just like even children put Santa out of their minds once
Christmas is over.
I’ve never heard a
parent say to their child in February “You better watch out, Santa is
watching”. In February Santa is out of
sight and out of mind. Unfortunately the
same is often true with Jesus in our February minds. Think about it, the only time I saw my
previous church packed for a prayer meeting was the night of 9/11.
Jesus says in our lesson from the Gospel that he
is coming back and that we need to live in a spirit of watchfulness like
children eagerly waiting for Christmas Day.
I’ve heard people ask how Jesus could come back if he’s still here in
the spirit in the present. What he means
when he says he’s coming back refers to when he comes back to bring history to
a climax and establish a new world order, an order straight from God. The book of Revelation, the last book of the
Bible talks about that time.
The early church thought it would be in their
lifetime. It’s been 2,000 years. “Why does the Lord tarry?” many ask. We don’t
know. We don’t even know what tomorrow
might bring.
Think about how the people who died on 9/11
had no idea such a fate would befall them. I’m certain they would have called
in sick or something if they knew the jetliners were going to ram those towers.
Have you ever thought about those who
could have been there that day, but were not? Sometime back the head of
security of the
One man was late because it was his turn to bring
the doughnuts. One woman’s alarm clock didn’t go off. One missed the bus. One
spilled food on her clothes at the last minute and had to take time to change.
Another’s car wouldn’t start. And one person couldn’t get a taxi. Perhaps the
most amazing was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning and headed
in to work, only to develop a blister on his foot on the way. Because he
stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band‑Aid for his foot, he is alive today.[3]
We have no idea what specifics that future will
bring. The scriptures provide us with
few details about the nature of Christ’s return, and much of what we do have is
written in a kind of code that can be widely interpreted or misinterpreted as
the case might be. I believe the reason
we don’t know the specifics of the future is that God wants us to trust and let
our future go in his hands.
For example, did you know that Ronald Reagan was once
considered the anti-Christ? Ronald Wilson Reagan has six letters in each of his
names, 666 which is the mark of the anti-Christ beast in the book of Revelation.
What more evidence do the Democrats need? At one time the website of the PBS
show Frontline carried a list of prominent figures that have been labeled the
anti-Christ at one time or the other. Some are quite predictable, ranging from
Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein to former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev,
because of the strange mark on his forehead that some said was the mark of the
beast. And how about John F. Kennedy?
Kennedy was there because he received 666 votes at the 1956 Democratic
Convention and a head wound killed him. Bill Gates was there because he would
enslave the world through computers and even the old folk singer Pete Seeger
was there, though we are not told why.[4]
The parts of the Bible that foretell the end of
time is written in a kind of code and is open to much interpretation. And,
obviously, it is all pre-space age imagery. My own guess is that, if it were
being written today, instead of Revelation 19:14 describing the armies of
heaven going to war at the end of time “riding on white horses and dressed in
fine linen, white and clean,” they would be coming in rockets or flying
saucers. Horses don’t have much of a chance in modern warfare, but the writer
wrote using signs and symbols from the world he knew. But do not look to
Revelation for a literal description of how Christ will return.
In other words, don’t let the fear mongers cause
you undue distress. I know that our daily news has been shocking. Wall St.
Citibank. The big three auto
companies.
But those of you who were alive on October 29,
1929 when the stock market collapsed and unemployment eventually shot up to 24%
of the population or one in four compared to today’s 8% unemployed or those of
you who were alive on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
know that wasn’t the end of the world even though it may have seemed like it.
Since we have very little information about the
end of time, rather than sitting around worrying about it, Christ wants us to
live in the here and now. That’s the purpose of today’s lesson from Mark. It is
to remind us of two essential truths: One, the future is in God’s hands, not
ours. And two, we can trust God for the future.
The same God who sent a tiny babe 2,000 years ago
to redeem our world is the same God who holds the future. Here’s what you and I
need to do. Make good decisions about the future to the best of our ability and
then trust God. The future is in God’s hands, not ours.
The century in which Jesus spoke these words were
just as turbulent as ours. In 70 AD, about the time Mark was writing his
Gospel, the Roman army did the unthinkable it destroyed the great
The future is in God’s
hands, not the hands of the junior senator from
Recently I was talking
to one of our seniors who told me that he wanted to travel as much as he could
while he and his wife still had their health to travel because they know
without a shadow of doubt that one day they’ll be too old to travel. I agreed with him. He also does a lot for our Lord in this
church in between trips.
I think seniors know it
best that their days are not endless. We
know without a shadow of doubt that one day life will not be as we know it today. Life as we know it today is merely prep work for
what’s coming. While Jesus tarries, he gives
us another day to prepare for that change.
Use the time you have now as if it’s the last days you have to make a
difference in this world. Use the time
you have now to influence a young person.
We still need another Sunday school teacher for grades 3-5 to teach
every other month. Use the time you have
now to help our deacons to properly care for many of our elderly who find it
difficult to even care for themselves. Use
the time you have now to help feed the homeless.
Jesus said if you
believe in me you will see my Father and have eternal life. But he also said if you believe in me,
greater works than I do you will do.
Do you believe that
Jesus is God’s Savior for humankind?
Have you opened your heart and asked Jesus to come into your life and
forgive you? Perhaps you’re not as close
to God now than you were earlier in your life.
Disappointments have gotten in your way.
Things or people or events have sidetracked you. It’s not too late. God has given us at least this day to turn
back and make what’s left of your life to count. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!' "
[1] Uncle John, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Christmas Collection (San Diego, CA: Portable Press, 2005, p. 123).
[2] Copyright by J. Fred Coots and Henry Gillespie, 1934.
[3]Daily
Grace: Devotional Reflections to Nourish Your Soul (
[4] http://bloomingcactus.typepad.com/bloomingcactus/2005/11/mark_132437_kee.html.