Pastor DeeAnn - Watch sermon 11-30-08

Watch!
Mark 13:32-37

     Today is the first Sunday of Advent. The word Advent from the Latin means to come: approach. The very word implies waiting. We are waiting for the next twenty four days to pass for the arrival of Christmas: the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Any birth reminds of waiting. Every pregnancy is in fact an advent: waiting for the child to come. By the final month and weeks of pregnancy any mother will tell you the waiting gets more and more tedious and anticipation becomes desperate. “when will this baby every come!
     During Advent we remember how the Hebrews awaited their Messiah. The prophets had proclaimed His coming through generations. Through those years the people had been ruled by good and evil kings. They had been exiled and returned to the promised land. They suffered foreign occupation and oppression. For the promised Messiah, their deliverer, they waited 400 years.
     In our society, we don't like to wait. The bank is closed, we'll just pop in our cash card, poke the pin number, and get our money almost instantly. Got to have that couch now, swipe the credit card, and have it delivered. Haven't got time to brew a cup of coffee? That's why we have microwaves and instant. I remember when I was in college, I used to have to wait on long lines for the courses Not anymore. Today college students go on line to the website, point and click, and are registered in five minutes or less.
     Waiting can get long, boring and tiresome – discouraging. I think of couples who wait and wait in hopes of their first child. Some wait years. How often I waited on those long lines for what seemed like an eternity, only to be told up front, the class was filled. I'd have to find another course to take, wait on another long line, for another life time and hope to get in. Have you ever waited not knowing you were going to have to wait?
     File a job application and be told, “We'll let you know.” One time I waited three weeks before I called the employer. He hadn't made the decision yet. After another two weeks, “Nope, not yet” Finally, after two months of waiting, I got the job.
     Advent reminds us that just as the Jews waited for their Messiah to come, so we wait for Jesus the Messiah to return. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son. Jesus Himself did not know when He was returning; only God, the Father, in His infinite wisdom knows the exact moment Christ will come again, gather His elect from the four winds, and four corners of the earth, to establish His kingdom forever.
The first century Christians were convinced Jesus was coming back immediately. Paul preached with the fervor of an imminent return. After the apostles, and first generation of Christians died, expectation softened. Paul addressed the persecuted Church regarding their trials and the saints that had “fallen asleep”. The second century crawled forward, and still no opening skies, no glorious trumpet, no second coming. The third, and fourth, through the dark ages, the Renaissance, Colonial times, the Enlightenment, and still Jesus has not yet returned to claim His saints, His Church, His Kingdom on earth. Adventist leader William Miller boldly proclaimed Christ would return March 21st 1842, then revised the date to April 3, 1843. Over 3500 of his followers filled Boston Advent Temple – only to be disappointed. One would think this epic fail would have demolished the movement. Amazingly it grew stronger. Miller recalculated the second coming and published the date as April 18, 1844. It was a no show that day too. Frustrated some followers left the Adventist flock. Undaunted, Miller came up with a third date: October 22nd 1844. Again it was publicized. His followers were rallied. They were so enthusiastic that they denounced Churches that did not accept this date as agents of Babylon, and the devil. Despite opposition from mainline churches thousands of people including many clergy began to turn to the Millerite cult.
     They sold their homes, left jobs, gave away property, left unharvested crops and waited expectantly for Christ's return. Obviously, God had other plans.
     No one knows about the day or the hour, only the Father. So we wait.
Waiting is very difficult if that's all we do; just idly wait. A few years ago a long siege with eye problems required my waiting many hours in doctor's offices. From the first visit, I was determined to utilize that waiting time . I began an afghan for my parents that was crocheted in panels so that it was never too big or too heavy to carry in a small canvas bag and work in my lap. The hand work kept me busy, but it also had other benefits. It distracted me from my discomfort. It prompted conversation with other waiting patients, and through our visit, shorten their perceived wait as well. As we visited and I learned about the person sitting next to me or across from me, I found my self praying for them, the things they shared, and the reason they were waiting to see the doctor. God transformed waiting to service and worship. I worked on that afghan only in doctor's offices. The visible fruit of just waiting was finished in two years.
     Jesus tells us to watch. Watch? Watch what?
Monday is down time for me. Monday mornings I sleep in til 7 or 8 o'clock. So sometimes late on Sunday evenings, after a full morning of preaching, a full afternoon of commitments, and a full evening of teaching in my home, I'm exhausted. Flat-out worn out so I turn on the TV and watch. (Expression). I'm watching TV. Can hardly keep my eyes open, too tired to stagger to bed, I'm watching. Suddenly I wake up and go to bed. Is that how we are to watch? So dragged out and drug out by the world, we spiritually nap until we fall sound asleep?
     Jesus tells us to watch for Him. He warns us about sleeping on our watch. Like servants of a household, each of us are assigned a task until He returns. The task is to live our life for Him here and now. Ecclesiastes teaches us to do whatever we find our hand doing with all we've got. John Wesley was working in the garden one day, when someone asked him, “If you knew Jesus was coming today, what would you be doing?” John replied, “ I would be doing what I am doing.” What a wonderful relationship with Jesus to live every day in His His will, confident in His love.
     We watch for Him, but while we wait, we watch Him. Keep our eyes focused on our Lord. Be attentive to how and where the Holy Spirit moves and let Him move us. Love Him with all our hearts, and minds, and strength, and our neighbors as our selves so that when He returns, He will not find us sleeping, but alert and joyous.
  

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