Just Wait Till Your Father Gets Home

Just Wait Till Your Father Gets Home

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Read Mark 13:33-37.

A lot of energy is expended by people trying to figure out when the end of the world will come.  For example, many teenagers today are enthralled by an idea they picked up on television that the world would end in 2013.  The way I understand this is that it is based on an ancient calendar system that the Mayans developed.  The world progressed through regular cycles.  Following this model the current cycle is due to end in 2013.  

There is a natural instinct in us to fear the end of the world.  We are finite people, meaning our time is limited, so the idea of the world suddenly ending before we get to do some things we long to do seems unfair and causes anxiety.

It isn’t just teenagers watching the Discovery channel that focus on the end of time.  Many Christians do, too.  I can remember when I was a kid watching Jack Van Impe (i think that was his name) looking at current events and explaining to me how these were playing out Biblical prophecies.   And it is a lucrative business, the end of time, when you consider how many books Hal Lindsey sold in the 70s and how many books the Left Behind series has sold this decade.  There is always a market for certainty.

Advent is an appropriate time to consider the return of Christ.  Today’s reading issues the warning to be alert because we have no way of knowing when the return will happen.  We do not know when the Lord will appear among us.  

Among us.  Hmmm.  So much energy is expended in predictions and calculations (Jonathon Edwards was convinced the world would end in the 1860s) but little time is spend considering the admonition that Jesus actually gives us.

We aren’t told to predict or second guess God.  In fact, just a few verses before this Jesus tells his disciples that noone knows the time and day of the return.  Noone.  Amazingly, not even Jesus! 

We are told to keep watch and be on the alert.  Jesus explains the situation to be like a man who leaves for a time and entrusts his workers with certain tasks.  

Ever leave your children at home for a few hours?  How often before you walked out the door did you tell them certain things that needed to get done.   “Pick up your shoes.  Fold the laundry.  Empty the dishwasher.”  Remember how you used to think, I better make sure I have done those things before Mom gets home?

That is exactly what Jesus is talking about.  Dad has left for a while and we have certain chores to take care of individually and collectively.  We wont know exactly when Dad gets back, but we should make sure that we are working on those things.  We don’t want to be caught watching television and the laundry still be in the hamper.

During this Advent season, worry less about when Jesus will come back and worry more about doing the things that God has left us to do.  Spent some time this weekend praying that the Holy Spirit reveal to you those things that God has assigned to you.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)”