The challenge of preaching on this text from Mark is to stay on edge without falling off one way or another. There are a couple of polar-tensions evident in it, but the one that draws my attention is waiting--expectation, or a kind of active-waiting.

Or how about Ched Myers phrase “Revolutionary Patience” (See Binding the Strong Man)? Normally we think of a revolutionary as impatient, anxious to bring about change. And we typically think of patience as nurtured by a sense of contentment or at least an accommodation to things as they are. But what if we blew open these assumptions and put them together?

Could it be that amid cosmic (or economic?) changes that shake heaven and earth (if Chicken Little is right) there is a possibility of remaining spiritually calm? Could it be that in waiting which goes on and on there can remain an edge to it that anticipates already that which is yet to arrive?

I do feel a judgment about ministry here. Have I backed away from offering a word that would invite a reconsideration of life/priorities in favor of the calm, reassuring, safe response? Have I been unsettled by questions and issues in the church that in the end don’t amount to a hill of beans? If Advent is a time for confession then I confess. I’m often exercised without an inner calmness with the result of being unfocused in my calling and I’m often calm because I’ve let go of any sense of expectation and fallen asleep at the helm.

Part of Mark’s message seems to me to be an invitation to wholeness both in ourselves spiritually and in relationship to God. The Visitor might be a suitable movie reference…a man going through the motions who wakes up to life and relationships anew.

(from www.goodpreacher.com/blog/)