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Reflections on the Gospel readings for Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary

Advent

Reflections for the Season of Advent, Year A of the Revised Common Lectionary

MK 13:24-37 

Marginally Mark…Advent 1…Revised 2017 

Many, of course, will see ‘Mark’ tweaking what Jesus has said long before to hold out both encouragement & hope for times becoming more & more difficult. Jesus hasn’t ‘come back’ yet, & the young church is walking a hard path as is the Jewish nation. Brendan Byrne¹ puts it: ‘What is described here in highly apocalyptic language is not ….to be taken literally. This does not mean it has no relationship to reality. The gospel’s describing a transcendent reality - the establishment of God’s Rule on earth  - & employing the only language suitable for expressing that reality: the language of symbol & myth.’ 

All this adds up to the need for a great deal of imagination in our preaching. Advent calls us to wait hopefully. Wait & hope for Whom? Wait & hope for what? How are we to wait? What’s the significance of a Church heading towards Christmas with a passage leading up to the end of Jesus’ earthly life?  

Jesus is drawing on the Scriptural heritage of His people & the tribulations they've already experienced & weathered over the centuries to challenge disciples of His day. Two millennia later, He’s challenging us to face the realities & consequences of the politics of our day, too. What encouragement can we gain from the picture ‘MK’ paints of Jesus back then? What kind of encouragement does today's Community of Believers walking a similarly hard path need?

Heavenly powers of any kind don't seem to cut much mustard today, do they? Before we take refuge in apocalyptic, remember there are always more signs on the ground than in the heavens! Today's signs may be different, for the church & for the world at large. But they’re still signs; for those with spiritual eyes & ears to see & hear! Christ is born in squalor, raised amidst terror, despised & rejected by most of those He came to, crucified beside a rubbish dump, & raised from death to show God’s grace & love & ultimate power. Can we serve such a Christ if we’re failing to care for His fellow-belittled? In our chronos while we wait for God’s kairos to triumph? Jesus’ 'fig tree' allusion is an illustration of a principle of God's Rule: being ready demands being ready now, in our chronos, & God’s overlapping kairos.

Advent isn’t about Christ coming at Christmas, back again in Resurrection, or even at the ‘Last Day’. But it is about ‘coming-ness & coming-together-ness; God’s way(s) of coming. It is about God’s kairos, when necessary, over-taking & over-riding our chronos situations.

¹ A Costly Freedom, Liturgical, MN, 2008, p. 207