November 27, 2005: The Treasure of Judgment
Mark 13:24-37; Isaiah 64:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Eileen Parfrey    Springwater Presbyterian Church

"Happy New Year" indeed. The liturgical year always ends with judgment and starts with the Second Coming. It makes a body wonder what's so "happy" about it. And, if you ask me, it's too much to expect of people (still recovering from the biggest shopping day of the year) to tune out their pre-Christmas to-do lists long enough to listen to some theological explanation about "understanding the Incarnation in terms of the culmination of God's plan." What's wrong with getting a little fussed over a Baby and expectations for a Christmas delivery? What's wrong is that there's no "so what" in it for us. Which is what all the fuss is about. "So what" for us and God and Christ as the full expression of humanity as God intends us to be.

Don't you hate it when pastors get their mitts on Christmas? Where's the mistletoe and wrapping paper? It's not that I'm opposed to fruitcake and eggnog. It's just that I've never gotten over the Incarnation. So we begin at the End of the World, not because the scare tactics give us that little thrill we need to get all the shopping and mailing done in time for the holidays. When Advent looks like God is absent, our Advent longing is about "God won't show up unless we whine and beg." God is not Santa Clause. The Second Coming texts today do not tell us, "Resistance is futile." Today's texts set the stage for Advent's call to "wake up, face up, grow up."

All this talk about watching and being alert. Anyone who has house-trained a puppy or potty trained a child knows what "alert" means in terms of watching for "signs." The situation calls the adult to avoid a total absorption in their own agenda, while tuning in to the other with expectancy that the signs will be obvious. It's an expectancy tempered by a whole lot of patience.

Early in the weekend, CNN ran a tragic news story about a father and daughter in Wisconsin who were over-expectant about reading the signs and went ice skating before the ice on the pond could support them. Below freezing in November is a world of difference from below freezing in March. High marks for expectancy, but low marks on accurate reading of the signs. For this family, the End of the World came way too soon. Christians, for the last 2,000 years, have been pre-occupied with expectant alertness to End Times. The 1918 outbreak of Spanish influenza felt like the apocalypse to some, just as the plague years did for others in Europe's Middle Ages. To some today, earthquakes, extreme hurricanes, and ecological collapse are signs portending the Apocalypse, made a bit worse by a scientific community with similar claims sans theology.

These days, we hold off the specter of the Second Coming of the Son of Man with a modern adherence to the notion that there is a pill or product or treatment or process to overcome all personal aches and pains, while ecological rescue only awaits our whole-hearted commitment to solving the problem. The Industrial Revolution gifted us with belief in the notion that human ingenuity can overcome all obstacles. Americans have embraced this notion enthusiastically-and look at the unprecedented and wide-spread level of comfort we enjoy. More than even the 15th and 16th European explorers, American global economy is based on the notion that the world's resources are there for our use. Military might is ever more necessary to protect the implications of that economic notion. And so we begin the Advent time of waiting by hearing the invitation of the Second Coming Jesus to "wake up, face up, grow up."

In one of the more interesting developments of the year-end practice of naming "persons of the year," Glamour magazine has named an obscure Pakistani woman named Mukhtaran Bibi their woman of the year. Mukhtaran's story begins with her gang rape, ordered by her local-council, after which she was publicly humiliated and then expected to quietly commit suicide. Instead, Mukhtaran prosecuted the criminals and was actually given a financial settlement by the court, which she used to start a school for girls. When NY Times readers heard Mukhtaran's school was running out of money, they funded the continuation of the school, as well as a police station, purchased an ambulance, and helped start a high school for girls as well as a women's shelter and clinic. The end of the world for Mukhtaran should have come with her rape, and since she is still under death threat it may soon anyhow, but this uneducated woman refused to accept her culture's prevailing storyline regarding justice, and her "no" has made a tremendous difference in her town.

Friends, our culture's prevailing story may not require humiliation and death for those who stand for justice. But we Christians-with our ridiculous notion that God became a human-we are as counter-cultural in our setting as Mukhtaran in hers. Beware! It's a dangerous world out there! Unless you turn off your television, you may come to believe that, "because you want it, you really need it." And just because you haven't thought of it yet, doesn't mean you won't need it. You may have already signed on to the notion that money can buy happiness, at least at Christmas. Or if not money, then plastic with no interest until February. Finally, you and your loved ones will be secure, happy and thin. Barbie's dream house. The latest Xbox. The perfect party. Weight loss over the holidays without cramping the party.

That's not our story. That's not the story you will hear in church. Advent isn't about Christmas, and Christmas isn't the lies you read in magazines at the checkout counter or the advertising supplements or the made-for-television movies, let alone the constant barrage of messages to buy, buy, buy. By God, we must suspect something's wrong with this picture! If something wasn't wrong with this picture, why are families experiencing such violence, break-up, and disorder at this time of year? Why do we try to drink our way out, or at least find some pill to compensate for the rise in blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar? We're still paying for the Christmas presents in March and April, but we've given the bankers a healthy tribute for the honor. We employ Third World workers in near-slave conditions for the privilege of our deep discounts at the checkout counter. And all of this distracts us from the real story.

The Second Coming of the Son of Man means the world's storyline is under judgment. We start Advent with the end of the world because, fundamentally, Christians must stand counter to the rest of the world. We can't buy our way out of this. We can't dream up new gadgets and drugs to solve the problem. And eventually we've got to face the reality of the toll we're paying for our global trade insecurities. Christians, of all people, know the world's story is a lie. Christians, of all people, know humanity does not have the final word as to how things turn out. The real treasure of Advent is not prosperity, it is life. And we wait for that life, and we wait for that life, and we wait for that life. In the meantime, we can try to live as if we are holy, live as if we can trust God, even if we don't always understand God. And we wait.