Sermon from December 6, 2009
"The Day of the Lord"
Mark 13:32-37

Jesus said: “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

“Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” – Mark 13:32-37.

This is the Jesus you need to know and reckon with.

“Mine eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord, He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loos’d the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.” Julia Ward Howe wrote that to interpret the meaning of the Civil War. She saw even better than Lincoln the spiritual meaning of the war.

We don’t talk like that any longer. We interpret war in terms of politics, economics, and military strategy, but not God. \The religious significance of national life has been reduced to a cartoon character, who wears a sign saying, “The End Is Near.”

We have diminished the prophetic tradition in American Christianity. But the God of all the earth still judges the nations with justice. If we are to discern God in our nation’s affairs, then we need (in Jesus’ words) doorkeepers, who watch for the glory of the coming of the Lord.

These doorkeepers need to be saturated with the images and language of the biblical prophets. I want to introduce you today to one of those images: the Day of the Lord. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5:1-4.

The Day of the Lord
Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. Here are four characteristics of the Day of the Lord.

First, it’s going to catch people by surprise. Jesus said of that Day that no one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father – Mark 3:32. The Apostle Paul says here in verse two that it will come like a thief in the night. Don’t believe it when people set dates for the end of the world or the Second Coming of Christ. They don’t know, and they lead people astray.

Second, the Day of the Lord is a day of great travail. Verse three says: While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Third, the Church can be ready for the Day of the Lord. Paul wrote in verse four: But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. Jesus said, “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” – Mark 13:35-37. That brings us back to the importance of doorkeepers, who help us to discern God in our nation’s affairs.

The fourth characteristic of the Day of the Lord catches us off guard. It is not a one-time event. It is a recurring event. Here is why I say that. The Prophet Isaiah first used the expression the day of the Lord 800 years before Christ. Other prophets at other times did the same. The Apostles Peter and Paul used it in the half century after Christ. The Day of the Lord came and ended, and then it came and ended again, many times.

There will come the final Day of the Lord, when Christ returns, and the nations come, “trailing like a caravan, out of the darkness for judgment” to Him. But until then, “the glory of the coming of the Lord” will visit the earth with judgments, and His people need to be ready for them. That’s the Jesus you need to know and reckon with.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
The Day of the Lord! I wonder if we are heading for such a time. As a doorkeeper in the House of God, I am watching day and night in an effort to discern God’s hand in the affairs of our time. I’m not sure it is.

It may only be a time of dramatic change. Change of that magnitude makes us uneasy, but that alone does not make this a Day of the Lord. We just have to keep watching and waiting.

However, we should be making preparations in case this is the real thing. In the words of the prophet Amos: Prepare to meet your God! – Amos 4:12. Let me give you two ways in which I am making preparations.

First is prayer. Whether I am giving thanks, praising, confessing, or praying for other people, it is a discipline in which I seek to submit myself to the will of God. Join me. Let’s be people of prayer.

Second, Jesus said: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” – Mark 7:6. For us pastors that is an occupational hazard. We know the language and the routines. We can do them in our sleep. My greatest fear is that I, serving the greatest cause, may try to make that cause serve me. Then, I betray you, and I betray Christ. Guard your heart! Look within and see if your religious life is becoming more lip service than heart service; and repent and seek the Lord with all your heart.

Third, if you are not a person of faith in Jesus Christ, the first and most important preparation you can make is to believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead and confess that Jesus is Lord. Why not do that right now? Doing it can be as simple as what Doubting Thomas in the Bible did. He said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” – John 20:28. Then, be baptized and confess Jesus to be Lord.

You say that to Christ and mean it, and from there you will discover where your faith can take you. This church has dozens of ways of helping you to make those discoveries, so that your life flourishes here and now, and leads on to eternal life in the age to come.

And so we come to Holy Communion, a place of prayer and heart searching. Let’s prepare to receive it first with a prayer of confession. I’ll lead us in that prayer. “Almighty God, our heavenly Father: we have sinned against you through our own fault, in thought and word and deed, in what we have done and what we have left undone. For the sake of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, forgive us all our offenses, and grant that we may serve you in newness of life, to the glory of your Name. Amen.”