1 Advent B
Transcribed from a
sermon given
At St. Barnabas
Episcopal Church
November 27, 2011
Mark 13:24-37
By Rev. Valerie Ann
Hart
The little story or tiny parable
that Jesus just tells at the end of this reading about the servant that is left
in charge of the house as the master is away doesn’t really resonate with most
of us. I know all of you pretty well and I don’t think any of you have servants
at this point in your lives. And, as far as I know, none of you have served as
a slave or a servant, so we don’t really have a good sense of the implications
of this story. In Jesus’ time people understood about a rich household and how
the servants or slaves would have authority. They knew that whoever was the
door keeper would have authority over the whole house to keep it safe and be
sure that everything ran smoothly. But that doesn’t resonate with us, so I
thought I’d tell it in a slightly different way, something that some of us at
least have had experience with - selling our houses.
Now imagine that you are putting your
house up for sale. There is a lot of preparation to get ready for that. You
know. You paint the things that you have always meant to paint. You fix the
things that need to be fixed. And you get the carpet cleaned. You do all those
little things. Then during the time when it is up for sale you need to keep it
really clean all the time, because you never now when somebody is going to come
to view it and see it. You hope that the real estate agents will call first so
you can do a quick straightening up of the house, but there is no guarantee.
And sometimes the amount of time you have isn’t very much. So imagine that you
are trying to sell your house, and it has been on the market for a while so you
have gotten a little relaxed about keeping it nice. Suddenly the doorbell rings
and there is a man at the door who says, “Your house is in exactly the
neighborhood I want to be in and exactly the style of house that I want. This
is my only chance to see it, can I come and see it?” Suddenly you go through
your mind and you realize there are dirty dishes in the sink, and you haven’t
dusted in a couple days, and you meant to take the garbage out last night
because it was already starting to smell a little bit then, and then in the
bedroom, the stuff, the clothes that are sitting around, Oh my! “Well could you
come back in a little bit?” “Well no, this is the only time I have to see the
house.” Well needless to say you’ve lost your sale because the house doesn’t
look or smell or feel like home for this person. You’ve lost the opportunity
because you haven’t kept awake. You haven’t kept things in order.
Symbolically in literature or when
interpreting dreams the house represents our bodies, ourselves, who we are. So
when Jesus talks about keeping the house and keeping awake for the master to
return he is reminding people of whose house it is. This body, this body was
created by God. We didn’t make it. And whatever that is that says “me” and “I”
is really just using this body. It is on loan. I am a servant of the master. Or
as it is put in the Old Testament, “He is the potter, we are the pot.” So what
we do in keeping our house represents ourselves.
If we were to say symbolically
someone had a messy house then they might have a messy inner life. If they
leave the garbage sitting around and it starts to smell that could represent
those parts of ourselves that we haven’t dealt with. The old angers and
resentments that are still sitting there and we have never cleaned out. Things
we have never dealt with and after a while they just start to putrefy and they
start to affect our whole being. These are the places where we haven’t asked
for forgiveness or we haven’t forgiven. It is all those ways in which we are
not paying attention, being awake.
This particular story comes right
after Jesus was talking about the end time, which was a very common theme in
the prophets in the couple of hundred years before Jesus. It was the idea that
the world was unjust, that things were terrible and at some point God was going
to come and wipe out things the way they were and bring back the glorious
Kingdom of God. Because during that time the Israelites were pretty much always
under the thumb of some empire, whether it was Syria or Rome or some other
empire. Things were tough and they wanted things to change and they predicted
there would be an end to the world as they knew it and a new life with God. So
Jesus is referring to and uses the language of those prophets when he talks
about the Son of Man coming on a cloud. So right after he is talking about the
end time, he uses this image of being ready, of being prepared.
Now it wasn’t too long ago, less
then a month or so, I don’t remember the exact date, when there was that pastor
somewhere in the south that said he knew exactly when the end of time was going
to come. And it didn’t, so he recalculated it and said it is coming at this
other time. He must have missed this part of Mark. For a pastor to not have
read that even Jesus and the angels don’t know when it is going to happen. I
don’t know how he could think that he knew.
And I don’t know when it is going
to happen or if it is going to happen or what it is going to be like, but I do
know that each and every one of us will have a time when the world darkens,
sun, moon, lamps, will give no light. We will no longer be able to see. We will
no longer be able to hear. And everything will be different because each and
every one of us at some point is going to die. And we don’t know whether we are
going to die at the same time that everybody on earth dies, which would be the
end time as it is described, or whether our death will just be the end of our
relationship with this earth, but we all will have a time when we die.
We as Christians believe that at
that point we are going to encounter Christ. What’s that going to be like? Well
if you haven’t kept your house clean and you haven’t kept you house in order,
what is it going to be like? Now there will be some of us, some people are
graced with knowing they are about to die. They have an opportunity to reconcile
with those people they have never reconciled with. They have had an opportunity
to express their apologies, to receive forgiveness, to forgive others, to put
their house in order. It is like the person coming to the door gives you a call
a couple of hours ahead, so you can race around the house and clean everything
up. Some people are given that grace. Some of us aren’t. Some of us may die in
an automobile accident or a heart attack or a stroke with no knowledge ahead of
time. No chance to clean up those lose ends. There will be the knock on the
door and there we will have whatever it is we have.
Now if the person at the door is a
stranger it is going to be pretty tough. But let’s suppose instead of that
being a stranger that wanted to buy your house suppose in that story it was
your mother. And your mother comes and knocks on your door and your house is a
mess. Well, my mother is no longer alive, but I would be embarrassed, you know.
I’d feel like I let her down. I wasn’t living up to what she wanted me to live
up to. And she would probably give me that look, you know, every mother has a
look. Each mother has a look that is some combination of “you’ve done it
again,” and “I love you anyway.” We all know that look. And those of us that
are mothers are really good at doing it as well. So if my house was a mess and
my mother was at the door I might be embarrassed, I might feel bad, I might
apologize, but I would know that she would still love me. There would be no
question about that, assuming that I had kept a good relationship with my
mother.
Or what if you have a really good
friend and they drop by? A really good friend is that sort of person that can
drop by and you don’t feel bad about the fact that you haven’t picked up the
house because they have been there before. They have helped make some of the
messes in your house. They know you, they know who you are and how you live,
and they appreciate you for who you really are. And you are comfortable with
them no matter what. You trust their love, no matter what.
And so when we die, and we
encounter Christ, who will Christ be to you? Will Christ be a stranger that you
feel judged by? Will Christ be a loving parent where you will feel sort of
embarrassed at the life you have lived, but you know they are going to love you
anyway? Or is Christ going to be a good friend who has been with you each day
of your life and so at this point knows you completely. What will it be like?
St. Therese of Lesieux is known
for writing about the “The Little Way.” She was very simple and profound nun.
In one of her writings she includes a little prayer.
After earth’s
exile I hope to go and enjoy you in the father land but I do not want to lay up
merits for heaven I want to work for your love alone. In the evening of this
life I shall appear before you with empty hands for I do not ask you Lord to
count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish then to be
clothed in your own justice, and to receive from your love the eternal
possession of yourself.
Keep awake, prepare for the coming
of Christ. But what really is going to matter at that moment is not what we
have done or what we have left undone, what is going to matter is our
relationship with the one who comes to greet us.
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