What are you waiting for?
Mark 13:32-37
11/23/2003
Last Sunday of the church year
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen
Mark 13:32-37 32 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 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 his 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 midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ’Watch!’"
Every time I read those passages, I want to ask God, “What are you waiting for? I am ready God; end this world with all of its hunger, disease, cruelty, and pain. Come take all of those who believe in you home, so we can spend eternity with you, free of pain, sorrow, and hardships.”
But too many times, as I get busy living my life, I forget God’s words in the rest of the passage, verses 33 “Be on guard! Be alert”! and in verse 37, “What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch”. In Greek, the words guard, alert, and watch, as they are used in the context of this text are imperatives, that is, they are commands. They are not suggestions or just good advice. They are God’s words to us. We are to do them.
Even knowing that, too many times I forget those commands. Why sometimes, I believe that if God were to tell me he is coming back, I might answer, “God, can you put it off a little longer? You know how busy I am. Your coming back just does not fit into my schedule. Tell you what God, let me check my calendar and see when we can get together. How about coming back next Tuesday at 11pm? By that time I will have finished watching Leno, said my prayers and I am ready for bed. Yes, I think I can work you in at eleven, next Tuesday.”
I know that what I just said sounds silly, but I am afraid that for too many people who consider themselves Christians, what I just said is probably closer to the truth than they would like to think it is. They are so busy, that they just do not have time to squeeze God into their schedule. Oh, they might give God some time on Sunday morning, but the service better not run much longer than an hour, because that is all the time they have allotted for worship. To give God more time, for say, Bible study is just not going to work into their schedule.
Why is it that Christians, who profess their faith in Jesus Christ, do not live their lives in preparation, watching for Jesus’ return, since we have his command, “To be on guard, to be alert, to watch”?” As I thought about what appears to be our inability to do what God would demand of us, I came up with what I believe is the answer for why we act the way we do. The problem is that because we are sinful human beings, we have a tendency to believe that God will not come back in our lifetime. After all, it has been almost 1800 years since the command to be on guard, to be alert, to watch was written. It has not happened yet, why would it happen now? What is the use in our waiting expectantly for Jesus’ return? We will always have time, won’t we?
Whenever we ask the question of God, “What are you waiting for?” whether we ask it out of impatience or unbelief, it ends up in the trash heap of condemnation along with all of our other faulty questions, reasoning, and excuses.
If anyone should ask the question, it should be God. He ought to ask us, “What are you waiting for?” We need to be reminded of our inability to reach out to God on our own. We need to look deep inside ourselves, to see what, or who it is that is keeping us from being on guard, being alert, watching for his return. We need to know without a doubt that he is our Savior, that he is the only way for us to be saved from the eternal punishment of our sins, a punishment that we all deserve.
God wants you spiritually prepared for his coming. He wants you to have more than head knowledge, for even the devil and his angels know who Jesus is. He wants you to be in his Word where you can read his words of wisdom, those words that not only save us, but also will help you to lead a better Christian life.
The more I think of it though, it is not our asking God, or him asking us, “What are you waiting for?” It is our knowing “who is waiting for us.”
The only place we can find the answer to who is waiting for us is in the Scriptures, the inspired Word of God. It is there that we find that God is the one who is waiting. He is the real watcher of time, because before time, God set the date for his coming back. He knows the year, the month, the day, the hour, the second, and because of that, we know that it is God alone who will bring about the Day of Judgment.
It is in the Holy Scripture that you find that it is God alone, who out of his love, sent Jesus Christ to die in your place. It is only there that you find that when Jesus died on the cross, rising three days later from the grave, that he paid the price for your sins.
We are to watch for Jesus now, because he is here among us now, just as he was at his birth, Calvary and resurrection. He is here among us, each time someone is baptized. He comes among us each time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, where he strengthens our faith. He comes among us each time we gather in his name, to hear his words of life. Every time he comes among us, he offers us his forgiveness, and eternal life.
There is another lesson to be learned in our Gospel reading this morning. Did you notice that when the master left, he did more than tell the servants to watch for his return? He assigned specific tasks to each of his servants. The text does not tell us what each servant was to do, but I think that we can safely say that some of the tasks assigned were probably rather ordinary. To the cooks, they were to cook; to those who cleaned, they were to clean; those who took care of the buildings, they were to keep the house in good repair. None of those tasks were more or less important than the others, for they all kept the house running.
We too, the people here at St. John Lutheran Church who are gathered in the Lord’s house this morning, are to do more than watch for Jesus. Our master is physically absent from us, but he has given each of us specific tasks to accomplish in his absence. Some are to preach, some are to teach, others are to clean up, sing, or play a musical instrument. He has assigned some to cook, some to greet, some to be leaders in the church. Others are to care for the needs of the members of the congregation. The list can go on and on. All the members of St. John have been given the ability to serve God in some capacity.
God has given us more than special gifts to serve him. He has given all of us financial resources to support God’s work here in our community, nation, and world. Some he has blessed with little. Others have been blessed with a lot. For most of us, we are somewhere in between the two. But whether we are blessed with a little or a lot, our God who loves us so very much, wants us to share whatever amount of money with which he has blessed us, to support God’s work in the church.
That is why we are celebrating Stewardship Sunday today. I say celebrating, because that is what it is. It is a time of celebration, for we are doing nothing more than responding to God’s love, as we give back to him what is actually his to begin with. Amen
