November 29, 2020
/First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Mark 13: 24-37
The Rev. Jeffrey Bohanski
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Let me be the first person to welcome you to the new year of 2021! Happy New Year!
Nope, I have not had too much communion wine! Today marks the first day of the new church year. The new liturgical year always begins with Advent. I read somewhere that the first Sunday of Advent is always the Sunday before our parish feast day, Saint Andrew’s Day.
I think Advent is the season of the church year that goes most counter to what the culture is doing at the time. Everywhere one goes one sees Christmas decorations being put up. People are buying gifts. I heard online shopping has dramatically gone up this year due to Covid-19. Now, I must admit I’ve already done most of my Christmas shopping online already. The cooking shows, always popular in my house, are now all about making the perfect Christmas foods.
While the world wants to start celebrating Christmas like a Hallmark TV Movie where all the hope is placed in the perfect new love, the perfect Christmas gift and the perfect Christmas party, today in church we talk about death and the end times.
In today’s Gospel we heard the author of Mark give an account of a conversation Jesus had with his disciples as they were leaving the temple concerning the end times. In the story Jesus uses words from Daniel and Isaiah to talk about the forth coming disaster that will befall Jerusalem. These words would have been well known to Mark’s community, a community expecting Jesus’ return to be eminent. One may wonder, where is the hope in that?
This week as I read and reread this Gospel, the statement Jesus uses, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not.” have stuck with me. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not.” Everything will pass away; the decorations, the gifts, the foods, the parties, and yes even our loves will pass away. Jesus’ words will not. Now this I find hopeful.
Yesterday someone posted on Facebook an old ‘70’s picture of the marquee for “Robby’s Restaurant,” a local fast-food establishment in my home town of Stevens Point, WI. I sent a screenshot of the picture to my brother and sisters on our family text thread. For a good part of yesterday morning we posted memories we all had of our grandparents taking each of us to “Robby’s” for lunch. We shared the memories of the fun we had with my grandparents eating our burgers, dipping our fries in our vanilla shakes like my grandmother enjoyed doing, laughing, carrying on, enjoying life and how they made us each feel special. Memories of eating “Robby’s” burgers and fries for lunch with my grandparents are some of my favorite childhood memories.
Today, “Robby’s Restaurant” is no longer there. It went out of business long ago when major fast-food chains came to town. Come to think about it, the restaurant that replaced “Robby’s” is also long gone.
My grandparents are no longer with us, they both passed away over forty years ago. My grandmother died first when I was in middle school. A few years later when I was in high school my grandfather died. I remember being with my whole family at my grandfather’s bedside when he died. I remember sometime during that day my father told us that death is part of life. Dad told us that he remembered when his grandfather died and then he added, today is the day his father died and one day he will die. As a high school kid I didn’t quite get that that statement implied that one day I will die. I know that now. In fact, Victor and I already have our niche in the Palmer Columbarium ready, one day, to receive our ashes.
Robby’s, my grandparents and great-grandparents have passed away, the house has been sold and changed dramatically. This building we are in or are streaming into will one day pass away. Palmer’s Columbarium will even one day pass away. All these things will pass away but the words of Jesus will not. Words like, I love you, I forgive you, be healed, love one another as I have loved you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, forgive seventy times seven, feed my sheep, do not let your hearts be troubled, I am the way the truth and the life.
In a few minutes we will all recite the Nicene Creed. We will say together: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. . .” I wonder how I would be judged for living according to these words of Jesus. I know I am very grateful to be able to ask for and receive forgiveness for the times when I have not loved my enemies, prayed for those who have persecuted me, allowed my heart to be troubled, when I did not trust in God’s complete and abiding love and when I did not feed his sheep. These words of forgiveness I find most hopeful.
Let me again wish you a happy new year. Let me invite us all this Advent to embrace more fully the fact that heaven and earth will pass away but the hopeful words of Jesus will not. Words like I love you, I forgive you, I heal you, love one another as I have loved you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, do not let your hearts be troubled, I am the way the truth and the life. And when we fail to embrace Jesus’ words let us all repent and return to God, with God’s help. Amen