First Sunday of Advent: December 3, 2023

Mark 13:32-37

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 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. 35 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— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

I admit that I don’t always think about Jesus’ second coming. As an early teen in the late 1990s, I joined the American Christian culture fascination with end-time events, and then afterward swung as a pendulum to give the opposite amount of attention to the rapture, second coming, and tribulation. Yet, I know that true faith in Jesus must find a balance between the two extremes. 

Elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus speaks of signs of the end, but the end is not yet. In today’s passage, notice that Jesus told His disciples that we do not know when the time will come. He does not tell us to watch for signs of the master’s return, but rather to stay awake for the master himself. I think that it is easy, even tempting, to look at our world and see how the Bible could point to these events as the last days, actual last days. I am not saying that people who see this way are wrong—none of us knows, even the Son Himself. Yet I encourage us in this Advent season to wait and watch for the Lord more than for the signs and events. Let us wait, stay awake, for Him.

Prayer:

Isaiah 64:4 

From of old no one has heard

    or perceived by the ear,

 no eye has seen a God besides You,

    who acts for those who wait for Him.

One and Only God, there is no God like You in all the universe! No one has ever heard of any god like You. In this Advent season, we wait for You. We remember Jesus’ coming at Christmas, amazed at Your wondrous work to rescue humankind from sin and death. We look forward in hopeful anticipation of the day that we will see Jesus face to face. And until then, we wait for Him. In our waiting, teach us to pray. In our waiting, teach us to trust You and trust that You are working even as we wait. You act in response to our prayers for the Buddhist world! O God, You are able to do amazing things that we could never imagine! May the Name of Jesus be glorified in the Buddhist world, today and in this Advent season. Amen.