Keep Awake: SALT's Commentary for First Sunday of Advent
First Sunday of Advent (Year B): Mark 13:24-37
Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on this passage, “Understanding Christmas - Part One.”
And check out the debut of Strange New World’s brand-new series, “The Night before Christmas: Part One,” focusing on this week’s passage from Isaiah.
Big Picture:
1) Happy New Year! The Christian year begins with the season of Advent, and this way of beginning is itself significant. You might think the year would begin with the trumpets of Easter, or the softness of Christmas Eve, or the fires of Pentecost — but instead, we begin in the shadows of despair, war, sorrow, and hate. For it’s precisely there that the God of grace will arrive, and accordingly, it’s precisely there that God’s church is called to light candles of hope, peace, joy, and love against those shadows. It’s worth remembering this deep poetry: as the Christian new year begins, we enter the darkness, waiting, singing, and praying anew for the light.
2) This week is also the beginning of “Year B” in the Revised Common Lectionary, a year of walking together through the Gospel of Mark. Mark is a crisp, crackling, action-packed account of the ministry of Jesus, likely written during (or just after) the disastrous revolt against Roman imperial occupation in Palestine (66 – 70 CE).
3) Rome’s vengeance shattered and shook Mark’s world to its core. The imperial armies vanquished the rebellion and destroyed the Jewish temple, desecrating what for Jews was nothing less than the sacred heart of the world. The message of Mark’s Gospel is thus a message of hope proclaimed in the midst of catastrophe. To really hear it, we have to listen from a position of desolation, chaos, and bewilderment; we have to listen alongside the grieving victim, the traumatized soldier, the displaced refugee, the heartbroken addict, the exhausted nurse, the mourning spouse. This is where Mark lives. These are the depths from which he proclaims his good news.
4) When death-dealing forces seemed to have the upper hand, one ancient response was to envision an imminent future in which God directly comes to the rescue in spectacular fashion: righting wrongs, routing wrongdoers, and thereby inaugurating a new era of justice and compassion. This literature is often called “Apocalyptic” (from the Greek word apokalupsis, “uncovering” or “revealing”). God pulls aside the veil, revealing the hidden, dramatic rescue to come. Apocalyptic narratives and images can be found throughout the Bible (Daniel and Revelation are prime examples), typically including cryptic, poetic language; ominous signs in the heavens; falling stars; natural disasters; anguish followed by victory. In essence, these are extravagant, evocative visions of hope when all hope seems lost.
Scripture:
1) This passage is the tail end of Mark 13, a chapter sometimes called, “the Markan Apocalypse.” As Mark tells it, this is Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples before the passion overtakes him, and in that sense is a kind of “farewell discourse.” The temple will be destroyed and desecrated, Jesus says. A time of great suffering will follow. But then (and here he clearly, intentionally echoes the ancient voices of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Amos) new signs will appear, and the Child of Humanity will arrive and make everything right. But since we don’t know exactly when the Child of Humanity will come (not even Jesus knows — strange but true!), we have to stay mindful and alert, so we’ll be ready. Keep awake!
2) Reading this stunning, challenging passage during Advent, we may well think of Mary’s “Magnificat,” her song responding to Gabriel’s astonishing good news (Luke 1). In its own way, that song is a hymn of praise for apocalypse, for revealing how God is turning everything upside down, lifting up the lowly and bringing the mighty down from their thrones.
3) But make no mistake: God’s revolution runs deeper than military victory. This will be a revolution of love and justice, a revolution of Spirit and flesh, a revolution of “good news of great joy for all people.”
Takeaways:
1) As we enter the season of Advent, this is a the perfect time to name what Advent is all about: entering the shadows of despair, war, sorrow, and hate, actively waiting for Jesus to come, lighting candles of hope, peace, joy, and love.
2) Likewise, to really hear what Mark is saying, we first need to enter the shadows, those places where all hope seems lost. Roman armies desecrate and destroy the temple, ruining the sacred heart of the world — not just in first-century Palestine, but also here and now. And in an age of struggle and conflict, many people are already in the shadows of suffering, anxiety, exhaustion, and grief. A key message of Advent and Christmas is that such shadows are precisely the place where Jesus comes, and where the church is called to go.
3) Once we have entered the shadows (both intellectually and emotionally), from there we can proclaim the good news, the hope that rings out when all hope seems lost. The essence of apocalypse, the point of what is “revealed,” is that God is on the way! Accordingly, all of us should be watchful and alert over the days and weeks ahead, cultivating a mindful attentiveness to signs of hope and wonder all around. Keep awake!
p.s. For a mind-bending graphic novel version of Mark’s account, check out Steve Ross’ Marked; and for a compelling scholarly commentary emphasizing the social justice dimensions of Mark, check out Ched Myers’ Binding the Strong Man.
p.p.s. Check out SALT’s “Strange New World” podcast episode on this passage, “Understanding Christmas - Part One.” And check out the debut of Strange New World’s brand-new series, “The Night before Christmas: Part One,” focusing on this week’s passage from Isaiah.