Mark 13:32-37

Mark 13:32-37

Open Your Eyes and See God

December 2, 2007 (Advent 1)

Part 1 of 2007 Advent series – Open your eyes, ears, mouths and hearts – God has come!

             The Season of Advent has arrived!

            The Sanctuary is beautifully decorated – the Chrismon tree is up and the Chrismons are in place – the garland and the wreaths are beautifully placed around the sanctuary and one of the candles on the Advent Wreath has been lit.

            Yes – the Season of Advent has arrived!

             The Season of Advent has arrived – and that can only mean one thing – Christmas is coming!

            Christmas is coming!

             Of course, all you have to do is look around you and you’ll know that Christmas is near. The beautiful Church decorations – the burning Advent candle —  the parties we are having parties and making plans for — the fact that we are practicing for the Joy Gift program – the fact that we are planning how to reach out to those in the community in need for Christmas – and all of the other activities that are taking place lets you know that Christmas is coming!

             In the world outside the church you can also tell that Christmas is coming! Newspapers are stuffed with flyers from stores advertising special sales – stores are decorated for Christmas – the sound of Christmas music can be heard in the stores – stores are full of shoppers – and the lights downtown on the Christmas tree and around the mall are shining brightly .  Television stations are showing Christmas specials – many that are heartwarming stories of love and laughter.

            Yes – Christmas is coming!  

             When you add in everything else December brings – decorating, Christmas shopping, parties, family gatherings, etc., etc. etc., — well – there is very little doubt that Christmas is indeed coming!

             Christmas is coming!

            These words can make children’s eyes get big with anticipation and excitement – and adults eyes get big with fear over all they have to do and not much time to do it in!

             Christmas is coming!

             But – wait – it’s not Christmas yet.

            Christmas is coming – but it is not here!

            Christmas is still four weeks away – but the Season of Advent starts today!

            Advent is a season we overlook so many times as we rush to Christmas.

             Advent is not promoted by the world outside the church – the world that rushes to Christmas before Halloween is over – and so many times it is overlooked by churches also. But – even though it is overlooked many times – it is an important season for us.

Advent is a time for waiting for the coming of Christ – preparing our hearts and minds for Christ to come into our lives and change us.

Advent is important because it gives us an opportunity to realize that Christ is with us – that God has come into our lives and our world – has changed us – and can change our world.

Advent is important because it gives us an opportunity to see that God is active in our lives and in our world – an opportunity to hear God’s activity in our lives and in our world – an opportunity to proclaim the activity of God in our lives and in our world – and an opportunity to open our hearts and let God come again into our lives and change us.

Advent can be a time for:

Open eyes to see God

Open ears to hear God

Open mouths to tell about God

and Open hearts to accept God

We’re going to look at these aspects of the Season of Advent as we go through this Season this month. 

God has come!

            Open your eyes to see God

            Open your ears to hear God

            Open mouths to tell about God

            Open your hearts to accept God

            Today we are going to look at opening our eyes to see God as we read Mark 13:32-37.

            Listen to God’s word.

                                    Our God is a God who comes

writes the Presbyterian poet Ann Weems in her book of poems Kneeling in Bethlehem. 

Our God is one who comes to us in a burning bush

in an angels song

in a newborn child.

Our God is one who can not be found

locked away in the church,

not even in the sanctuary.

 Our God will be where our God will be,

with no constraints,

no predictaility.

Our God lives where our God lives,

and destruction has no power

and not even death can stop

the living.

Our God will be born where our God will be born,

but there is no place to look for the one who will come to us.

When God is ready

God will come

even to a God-forsaken place

like a stable in Bethlehem.

Watch …

for you no not when God comes.

Watch, that you may be found

whenever

wherever

God comes.

Ann Weems    Kneeling in Bethlehem p.13

            Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God!

            God comes to us in the most surprising and unexpected ways – ways that we might overlook if we are not vigilant in our efforts to see and recognize the coming of God into our lives. If we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God, we might miss God altogether!

            God comes into our lives – and into our world! 

            Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God! 

         You know -- it is difficult to stay awake -- to stay alert -- when nothing is happening.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep our eyes open to the things going on around us – especially when it may appear that nothing all that important is going on.                   I have a friend who tells about his teenage son learning to drive.  He says that his son is so excited about learning to drive – he thinks that driving is the most exciting thing in the world.  My friend warned him, though, that the time would come when driving would seem routine.  He told him that, hard as it might be for him to imagine, the time would come when he would have to be careful not to fall asleep at the wheel.                  Even driving can become boring and routine after awhile.                 Have you ever been driving and found that you’ve gone miles without really paying attention to what was going on?                Have you ever been driving and suddenly realized that your car was bumping along the side of the road – or had someone honk their horn at you as you drifted into their lane? 

It’s a scary experience – although one many people have.  

       I almost had one of those experiences driving home from Camden Thanksgiving night. As I usually do at family Thanksgiving gatherings I had eaten way too much that day – and was drowsy.  Sally was already asleep in the passenger seat as we drove down I-20 heading to Florence.  About the time we approached the Bishopville exit I saw the blue of a Highway Patrol car flashing behind me.  Even though it was pulling another car, I suddenly found myself wide awake – eyes open – and alert.  I stayed that way the rest of the trip!

       Yea – it is difficult to stay awake -- to stay alert -- when it seems that nothing exciting is happening.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep our eyes open to the things going on around us.    And yet -- God comes to us in the most surprising and unexpected  ways – ways that we might overlook if we are not vigilant in our efforts to see and recognize the coming of God into our lives. If we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God, we might miss God altogether!

             God comes into our lives – and into our world!

           Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God! 

             Staying awake – staying focused – staying vigilant – especially when it seems that nothing is happening — is not easy.

                I’ve talked to Viet Nam vets who have told me that pulling guard duty at night in Vietnam was extremely difficult.  They would sit for long stretches of time --  trying to see into the darkness -- watching for an enemy that seldom came.  They had to stay awake -- to stay alert -- to watch -- but it was hard.  It wasn't that they wanted anything exciting to happen, because that could be deadly -- but the boredom was deadly too.

  God comes to us in the most surprising of ways – unexpected ways – ways that we might overlook if we are not vigilant in our efforts to see and recognize the coming of God into our lives. If we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God, we might miss God altogether! 

             God comes into our lives – and into our world!

             Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God! 

             In our scripture passage for today, Jesus calls on us to stay awake -- to stay

alert -- to keep watching.  He promises that He will return in glory – and then He says:  

34It'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. 36If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!' "                The implication is that, if we are not vigilant – if we do not watch for the coming of God – we might miss God’s presence and miss the beautiful fact that God is with us and in our world. 

           God comes to us in the most surprising of ways and unexpected ways – ways that we might overlook if we are not vigilant in our efforts to see and recognize the coming of God into our lives. If we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God, we might miss God altogether!

            God comes into our lives – and into our world!

             Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God!

             It may have been easy for the first Christians to keep alert and watch for the return of Christ.  They thought He was coming back soon – so every day they could have kept alert and watched for signs of Jesus’ return and signs of God at work in their world. But – it may be much more difficult for us.  It’s been over 2,000 years since Jesus promised His return.  After that amount of time, do you think God still expects us to be vigilant – watchful – looking for signs that He is active in our world – here and now?  I believe so!  I believe that God still acts in the world – still does His will – and can still surprise us with His presence.

             I still believe that God comes to us in the most surprising of ways and unexpected ways – ways that we might overlook if we are not vigilant in our efforts to see and recognize the coming of God into our lives.

I still believe that — if we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God, we might miss God altogether!

            I believe that God comes into our lives – and into our world!

            I believe that – if we open our eyes – we can see God at work!

             Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God!

 Weems writes:

 When God is ready

God will come

even to a God-forsaken place

like a stable in Bethlehem.

            God comes to the strangest of places.

            God comes in the strangest and most unpredictable of ways.

            Can you see God’s presence in the world around you?

            Are your eyes open enough to see that God is with you – that God is with us – working His will in our world – here and now?

            Too many times we see only the bad in the world. We only see   the sin – the violence – the poverty – the problems.  We let these things blind us to the good – the love – the compassion – the solutions. Too many times we let the problems dull our senses and lull us to sleep – when Jesus has called us to be vigilant – to stay awake – and look for His presence in our world.  

God comes to us in the most surprising of ways and unexpected ways.

God comes to us in ways that we might overlook if we let the problems of the world keep us from being vigilant in our efforts to see how God comes into our lives.

God comes to us in ways that we might overlook if we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God at work.    

       God comes into our lives – and into our world!

      Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God!

             If we are not careful, we can miss God

                        in the smile of a friend

                        or the touch of a loved one

                        or the face of a child as they sing a Christmas Carol

                        or the excitement of children as they plan their Christmas program

                        or the excitement of giving things to others – not the mention the excitement of those we might be giving to –  

                        or the time a volunteer spends teaching someone  to read

                                    or mentoring a young person

                                    or doing something for someone who can’t do for themselves

                                    or helping people find peaceful solutions to their problems

                                    or giving a bag of groceries – or a hot meal – to someone in need – 

            In all these things, God is there!

            In all these things, God comes to us!

            We just have to open our eyes and see these things for what they are – for they are God’s activity in our world – they are God’s way of coming to us!

             God comes into our lives – and into our world!

             Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God!

            Not only do we need to see God at work in the world – but we need to be signs of God’s activity to the world.  We need to get involved in showing God and God’s love to others – so they can open their eyes and they can see that God is with them!  We need to get involved in the numerous things the Church is doing – from helping with the Christmas Workshop this afternoon to helping with the Joy Gift program practices to donating to our community outreach to helping shop for the families we are reaching out to – so many things that we are doing – all in God’s name – and God is using them all to work in our lives and in our world. See all these things as opportunities to see God at work and help others see God at work – see all these things as opportunities to:

             Open your eyes and see God!

            Open your eyes and see God!

 God comes to us in the most surprising of ways and unexpected ways.

God comes to us in ways that we might overlook if we let the problems of the world keep us from being vigilant in our efforts to see how God comes into our lives.

God comes to us in ways that we might overlook if we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God at work. 

 Sometimes we can find ourselves doubting that God is at work in our lives and in our world – but if we look around us with eyes of faith we will see that God is indeed active – God is indeed with us.

 I’m sure you’ve heard the story – but it needs to be told again and again.  It’s the story of a little girl named Virginia O’Hanlon whose friends told her that there was no Santa Claus.  She wrote the New York Sun Newspaper to see if they could tell her if there was or was not a Santa.

The famous response reads:        VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.           That’s how Santa is.           That’s also how God is. God comes to us in the most surprising of ways and unexpected ways. God comes to us in ways that we might overlook if we let the problems of the world keep us from being vigilant in our efforts to see how God comes into our lives.     God comes to us in ways that we might overlook if we do not make a concerted effort to open our eyes and see God at work.            Sometimes we can find ourselves doubting that God is at work in our lives and in our world – but if we look around us with eyes of faith we will see that God is indeed active – God is indeed with us.