ADVENT 1B
November 30, 2008

What if...
by Linda Kraft

Mark 13:24-37
Isaiah 64:1-9
	
It's late.  The minutes tick past and your teenager is out past the time
you agreed upon.  What if...
	
The waiting room is empty except for you.  It seems like hours since the
surgery began.  What if...
	
The pregnancy has been going well, but now the doctor wants to run more
tests.  What if...
	
The boss has called you into the office, you with so many years of
experience.  What if...
	
The fuel bill is so high and the prescription is running out; there's only
a little food left.  What if...
	
The house is empty and no one has called on you lately to see if you're
doing alright.  What if...

We've all done it; played the "what if" game.  We worry about something we
can't control and our imaginations take over and before we know it we're
creating all kinds of dire outcomes.  Sometimes those become self-fulfilling
prophecies.  Other times, thank goodness, what we fear never takes place and
life moves forward.
	
God knew life would be like this.  God knew there would be times in our
lives when we'd feel lost, alone or afraid.  These feelings are nothing new.
Our first reading comes from the third section of the writings of the
prophet Isaiah.  The pleading cry we heard dates from more than 500 years
before Jesus was born.  This section is often called the Exiles' Prayer.
	
You know that God chose a certain group of people from among all the people
of earth to protect and guide.  These people had a responsibility to live in
the world in such a way that everyone around them would see their
relationship with the Creator and know there was one and only one God.  But
the chosen people had forgotten they had been blessed to be a blessing.
They gave up showing kindness, including the stranger, honoring the Sabbath
and sharing with all.  They forgot to be thankful and offer prayers and
praise to the one who had provided all they had and needed in life.
	
It became necessary for God to remind them, then, about who and whose they
were.  The prophet Isaiah, like other prophets before him, tried to warn
them that they were asking for trouble.  The people didn't listen.  They
went through their everyday lives giving lip service to their relationship
with God without giving their hearts.  Going through the motions, and not
really meaning what they were saying or doing, they lived their lives as if
there were no tomorrow.
	
But there was.
	
For those people, life as they knew it came to an end.  Their homes were
destroyed, their temple thrown down, and they were carried off into
captivity to become slaves in an alien land.  They lived under oppression
for more than three generations before God opened the eyes of a foreign king
and led these people home.
	
What if...  I'm sure that question came to mind for them many times over
the decades of their exile.  The reading we have today is a plea from the
exiles, acknowledging their error and asking for mercy.  They feel as if
God's face has been hidden from them for all this time.  But they don't
blame God for their situation; they know they brought it all on themselves.
	
'We know we are broken.  We are shattered.  But do not remember us like
this forever.  We are YOUR people,' they plead.  'We can learn; we are like
clay.  Reshape us; make us again the work of your hand,' they pray.

What is it about nighttime that can make us afraid?  Some people love
solitude, the quiet and peace and sense of rest that surrounds them.  Others
fear being alone.  To them, time alone is difficult, to say the least.
Being alone with themselves may lead to self-examination, self-awareness,
self-realization.  Better always to be part of a crowd so they don't have to
look too closely.
	
But an occasional nighttime of the soul  can ultimately be a good thing for
most of us.  Taking time to explore our reasons for being can make us more
aware that we are not alone.  We are not alone to face the world with all
its possible problems.  And we are not alone without resources, and gifts
and possibilities for blessing.  We are NEVER alone without God, even when
we may be feeling closeted away in the darkness of our souls.  It is only
our OWN unwillingness to realize God's presence that separates us from God's
comfort, peace and hope.
	
Five hundred years later, the people would see a new light.  They would
walk and talk and laugh and cry and eat and drink and dance with their
creator.  Immanuel, God with us, Jesus would be born.  He would call them
back from their hopelessness and give them the joy of new life -- if they
would let him.  But many still chose to live in darkness.
	
Jesus predicted this would continue, through his lifetime, through his
death and into the world of 2008 and beyond.  God has always known we are
people who live in darkness.  It is not within our nature to live in the
light.  Day to day we struggle with the joy that wants to infuse us with its
hope.  We keep it weighed down with the "what if's" of life, with the
busyness of work, family, routine or boredom.
	
Then comes a time like this, like this season of Advent, when the Church
reminds us that THIS life is not all there is to life.  There is yet another
life to come.
	
What if it comes this evening?  What if it comes at midnight?  or at
cockcrow or at dawn?  Will you be ready?  What if...  Can you stay awake?
Can you let the light shine into your life and fill you with joy so that
others will be blinded by Christ radiating from within you?
	
What's stopping you?  Wouldn't it be wonderful to live each day so filled
with the triumph of God's love for all in Christ that the "what if's" would
have no power over you?  Keep awake, Jesus tells his followers.  He's
speaking to US.  'Keep awake, I am coming again.  I am coming into your
life.  Will it be tonight, this afternoon, in a moment?  Am I already here?'
	
He is, you know.  Jesus is already here.  He is in our lives day and night.
He's with us when that teenager is late or the diagnosis is pending or the
economy is bottoming out.  He's with us when the job is at risk and the
retirement is lonely and the children are getting on our nerves.  He's with
us in the bad times and in the good times and in every time in between.
	
And he will come again.  What a concept!  Jesus was here.  Jesus is here.
Jesus will come again.  Sounds sort of Easter-like.  The one God who created
all that exists never leaves us alone to walk in darkness.  The one God who
offered his life in exchange for ours never leaves us alone without hope.
The one God who infuses us with the Spirit at our baptism never leaves us
alone without comfort, strength and peace.
	
Walk into the world, through the what if's, knowing that you do not EVER
walk alone.  The One who was and is and is to come journeys with you.  Keep
awake, therefore, and find the joy of his presence in all that you do.  Amen

(Comments to Linda at Linda_Kraft@Ecunet.org.)
Linda Kraft, Pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Trumbull, CT