Sunday's Message - Reasons for Thanks

Here's the message I offered during the celebration services in the Presbyterian Church of Hopedale, Ohio on Sunday, November 29, 2020.

Mark 13:24-37 [Contemporary English Version]

In those days, right after that time of suffering,

“The sun will become dark,

    and the moon will no longer shine.

The stars will fall,

    and the powers in the sky will be shaken.”

Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. He will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the earth.

Learn a lesson from a fig tree. When its branches sprout and start putting out leaves, you know summer is near. So when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time has almost come. You can be sure that some of the people of this generation will still be alive when all this happens. The sky and the earth will not last forever, but my words will.

No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don’t know, and the Son himself doesn’t know. Only the Father knows. So watch out and be ready! You don’t know when the time will come. It is like what happens when a man goes away for a while and places his servants in charge of everything. He tells each of them what to do, and he orders the guard to keep alert. So be alert! You don’t know when the master of the house will come back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or in the morning. But if he comes suddenly, don’t let him find you asleep. I tell everyone just what I have told you. Be alert!

Reasons for Thanks

Of course, I don’t think I need to tell y’all that four days ago we observed Thanksgiving, our annual celebration of food, family and of course, football. Man, we all know that. Just like we all know that this year, well, it was different. I mean, I don’t know about y’all, but this was my first Thanksgiving in the middle of a pandemic. And I guess, for that reason, a lot of folks found it a little challenging to be all that thankful. 

But I’ll tell you, I don’t think that’s totally fair. You see, I believe we have some genuine reasons for thanks. For example, the Presidential election is over, and regardless of how you feel about the outcome, I think the country could probably use a breather. I mean, roller coasters may be fun, but you can’t live on one 24/7. Using a term popularized by another Ohioan one hundred years ago, I think we’ll be returning to normalcy, and that’s certainly something for which we can be thankful. And it looks like a there’ll be a vaccine for COVID pretty soon, which means that maybe next year will be, again, a little more normal, and for that, I know I’ll be grateful. And on a more personal level, we all have families and friends. Babies are about to born and daughters are home from college. And this morning, we’re entering what’s called the Season of Advent, which means that Christmas is around the corner but still far enough away that it’s not stressing us out...yet.

And since this today sort of kicks off the season, we’re looking at same kind of passage that always falls on this particular Sunday. You see, as we begin to consider the first advent of Jesus, you know his birth, we always start by looking at his second advent, in other words, his return, his second coming. Of course, I recognize that for a lot of folks, this event seems to have more to do with Halloween than Thanksgiving. My gosh, with all this business about the sun and moon becoming dark and the stars falling from the sky, man, that causes fear, not thanks. And I haven’t even mentioned all those images from Revelation. But I’ll tell you, before we just buy that frightening farm and move on, let’s pause for just a minute, and I’ll tell you why. In spite of all that stuff that may scare the puddin out of us, I believe we can be genuinely thankful about the return of the Son of Man. In fact, that’s going to be our focus this morning. You see, we’re going to look at the passage we just read from Mark and consider three reasons we can be truly thankful as we think about the second advent of Jesus Christ. And I’ll tell you, each of these reasons can have a major impact on what we think and how we feel right now. And like I said, it all comes from these verses.

For example, first, I think this passage reminds us that God is in control of the future, and I’m talking about the future in general but also our future in particular. I mean, just listen to what Jesus said to his disciples:

In those days, right after that time of suffering,

“The sun will become dark,

    and the moon will no longer shine.

The stars will fall,

    and the powers in the sky will be shaken.”

Then the Son of Man will be seen coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 

He will send his angels to gather his chosen ones from all over the earth. [Mark 13:24-27, CEV]

Now that’s what he said. And once we get beyond those very symbolic imagines that folks who study the Bible call apocalyptic, I think this is a pretty powerful statement about who’s actually in charge, and brothers and sisters, it’s not presidents or viruses or us. Man, it’s God, isn’t it? I mean, Jesus said that the Son of Man will be seen, not could be seen or may be seen or should be seen; no, he will be seen. And he going to be seen coming with great power and with divine glory. Brothers and sisters, that’s going to happen. And when it does, the Son of Man is going to send out his angels to gather up his chosen ones from all over the world. Now, I think it’s really important that he didn’t talk about gathering some and rejecting others. Instead, he’ll be gathering all those whom he has chosen, all those whom he loves, all those for whom he will die. And it’s sure not up to us to determine the basis for his decision much less to do the choosing ourselves. I’m telling you, without our permission, the Son of Man will come and without our help, the angels will gather his chosen ones. Why; because God is in control of the future. 

And I’ll tell you something, if that doesn’t give us some hope as we move forward, I don’t know what will. You see, even though we might make all kinds of mistakes and even though, when we do, we’ll pay the consequences, the ultimate destiny of creation isn’t in our hands. Instead, it’s in the hands of the one who has power and glory. It’s like Paul said to the Romans, “The Lord told Moses that he has pity and mercy on anyone he wants to. Everything then depends on God’s mercy and not on what people want or do.” [Romans 9:15-16, CEV]. You see, our passage from Mark reminds us that God is in control of the future; therefore, we can move forward with hope. And in my opinion, that’s one very good reason for thanks.

And second, we can also be thankful that God is involved in the world right now. And again this is something we can see in these verses. Remember, Jesus said, “Learn a lesson from a fig tree. When its branches sprout and start putting out leaves, you know summer is near. So when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time has almost come. You can be sure that some of the people of this generation will still be alive when all this happens. The sky and the earth will not last forever, but my words will.” [Mark 13:28-31, CEV]

Of course, this is another one of those parables that has to do with plants growing, and a lot of them, well, frankly, they’re kind of confusing. But here, the point seems pretty obvious. When trees start turning green, we don’t need to have minored in biology to know that summer is coming. I mean, dah. And that’s exactly the way it is with the coming of the Son of Man and the gathering of his chosen ones. Man, it’s coming as sure as summer follows spring and Christmas follows Thanksgiving. It’s coming, and it’s closer today than it was yesterday. And I’ll tell you, whether we can see it or not, it is coming and do you know how we can be sure? Because when God makes a promise, man, it’s in concrete. 

And you know, when we accept that, when we accept that God is present and active in the world right now, but more than that, that he’s moving creation toward it’s destiny, I think that can give us a lot of peace as we look around. As a matter of fact, when we decide to trust in God and his promises and when we decide to believe that the day is coming when the Son is going to come back and those whom he’s chosen will be gathered together, man, we’re going start recognizing signs that we may never have noticed before, signs that are frankly all around us. I mean, instead of being surrounded by a world that’s bleak and burdened and dying, man, we’re going to see the branches sprouting and putting out leaves. You see, this passage also reminds us that God is involved in the world right now; therefore, we can look around with peace. And in my opinion, that's another very good reason for thanks.

And third, and this may be the most exciting of all, we can be thankful that God’s given us the opportunity to be involved in his world as well. But that’s only going to happen, when we choose to get up and to do it. And I’ll tell you, I think that was point Jesus was making when he said, “No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don't know, and the Son himself doesn't know. Only the Father knows. So watch out and be ready! You don't know when the time will come. It is like what happens when a man goes away for a while and places his servants in charge of everything. He tells each of them what to do, and he orders the guard to keep alert. So be alert! You don't know when the master of the house will come back. It could be in the evening or at midnight or before dawn or in the morning. But if he comes suddenly, don't let him find you asleep. I tell everyone just what I have told you. Be alert!” [Mark 13:32-37, CEV]

Now I think this is really important. I mean, since Jesus said that we can’t know the day or the time when all he described will happen (man, he doesn’t even know), let me ask you: Does it make sense to spend our lives worrying about it? And does it make sense to use our energy trying to interpret the signs? And does it make sense to waste the time we have right now sitting around, waiting for it to come? Does that make sense? Or should we claim the time we’ve been given as a gift? And should we put our talents and abilities to good use? And should we step out beyond ourselves and really live as though we believe that he meant it when “Jesus answered, ‘The most important one says: “People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” The second most important commandment says: “Love others as much as you love yourself.” No other commandment is more important than these.’” [Mark 12:29-31, CEV] Now, you tell me, since we can’t know exactly when it’ll end, how is the best way to use the lives we have?

Well, I think we all know the answer, right? Therefore, like it or not, we’ve got focus as we reach out. In other words, I think we’ve got a pretty good idea about how God wants us to live. And if we find ourselves in situations where the options are a little fuzzy and the right choice isn’t as clear as we’d like it to be, let me suggest a question we might want to ask ourselves before we make a final decision and take genuine action, and here it is: Does this show love for God and/or love for others? And if the answer is, “well, it doesn’t,” then we probably shouldn’t do it. Of course, this only works when we’re sincere in asking the question and honest in giving the answer. You see, in my opinion, this passage reminds us that God’s given us the opportunity to be involved in his world; therefore, we can reach out with focus. And for me, that’s the third reason for thanks found in this passage.

And I’ll tell you, I think that’s something we probably need to remember as we move past Thanksgiving and enter the Season of Advent. And even though this has been a challenging year so far, I believe we can be thankful as we consider the return of the Son of Man. You see, it reminds us that God is in control of the future; therefore, we can experience hope as we move forward. And it reminds us that God is involved in the world right now; therefore, we can know peace as we look around. And finally, it reminds us that God’s given us the opportunity to be involved as well; therefore, we can have focus as we reach out. And that’s going to be true regardless of presidents or viruses or all the other stuff that surrounds us.