Sermon Tone Analysis

The Temple

It was January 27, 1986.

The whole nation was getting ready.

It was going to be a special time in the life of our nation.

All eyes were watching.

It was going to be the all time greatest space launching.

We had a schoolteacher; a woman; an astronaut.

It was one of the most exciting days in American history.

The nation was glued to the television set because everyone knew it was going to be a historic moment.

With breathless anticipation for this grand moment, the nation waited and waited, and suddenly there was an ignition of all that power and the rocket shot high into the air, high, high, and higher into the air.

And all of a sudden, the rocket exploded along with the hopes and dreams of many.

The lives of all astronauts on board came abruptly to an end.

All of a sudden the cheers of the nation turned to tears.

Jesus said, "And so shall it be at the end of history.

It will come suddenly like a thief in the night; like a snare; like a trap that snaps shut.

So quickly.

It happened on September 11th, 2001 when hijacked planes struck terror into the hearts of the United States—nearly 3,000 people were killed in just moments.

Again it happened in the mountains of Pakistan on October, 2005.

A massive earthquake struck and 80,000 people were killed instantly.

The end came so suddenly, so quickly, like a thief in the night.

Or more recently, back on September 19th of this year, the earthquake in Mexico City which claimed the lives of 369 including many children.

It all happened in a moment, like a thief in the night.

It happened right after Christmas in South East Asia.

The tsunami wave, that towering wall of water rolled across that part of the world and millions lost their lives…in a moment, like a thief in the night.

Or how many times I have heard someone tell of the loss of a sister, mother, spouse… and say, “But she was so healthy, so strong, hardly sick a day in her life.

Now she is gone.”

It happened so suddenly.

She wasn't expecting it.

No one was.

Jesus said, "And so the end will come suddenly , unexpectedly, like a thief in the night; like a trap that snaps shut.

So quickly.

It is with such images in mind that we turn to the gospel lesson for the First Sunday of Advent.

The theme for the First Sunday of Advent is always this: be alert at all times, ready to meet your God because all of a sudden the end is going to be here.

The invitation for you and me is to be ready at all times, ready to meet the Lord face to face.

The Temple

The text that we have today is the second half of Jesus’ longest speech in Mark’s Gospel.

It is likely that we find these words from Christ in the Gospel of Mark because of what was going on in Jerusalem as Mark’s Gospel was being put together.

The year was 66 AD… nearly 40 years after Christ’s death.

The Jews of Judea had taken up arms and rebelled against their Roman oppressors.

But an army had been dispatched by Rome to deal with the Jewish revolt.

Within two years the resistance in the northern part of Israel had been completely eradicated leaving Rome to put its full attention toward Jerusalem.

The Roman army laid siege to the Holy City, slowly squeezing the life out of it until 70AD when Roman legions broke through the city’s defenses.

Thousands were slaughtered, thousands more were enslaved and sent to work in mines in Egypt, still others were sent to arenas to be butchered for entertainment—but perhaps even more traumatizing for the Jewish people, the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

The Holy House which they believed God resided in was taken apart piece by piece… and its relics were shipped off to Rome itself as spoils of war.

Had God turned God’s back on the people of Israel?

Had they strayed so far that now God was punishing them with the legions of Rome?

What must they do… what must they change in order to regain God’s favor?

These questions rocked their world.

The single instant of the walls of Jerusalem being breached in 70AD changed Jewish identity for years if not millennia to come.

And that moment came like a thief in the night.

It is with such images in mind that we turn to the gospel lesson for the First Sunday of Advent.

The theme for the First Sunday of Advent is always this: be alert at all times, ready to meet your God because all of a sudden the end is going to be here.

The invitation for you and me is to be ready at all times, ready to meet the Lord face to face.

It happened so Quickly

It was January 27, 1986.

The whole nation was getting ready.

It was going to be a special time in the life of our nation.

All eyes were watching.

It was going to be the all time greatest space launching.

We had a schoolteacher; a woman; an astronaut.

It was one of the most exciting days in American history.

The nation was glued to the television set because everyone knew it was going to be a historic moment.

With breathless anticipation for this grand moment, the nation waited and waited, and suddenly there was an ignition of all that power and the rocket shot high into the air, high, high, and higher into the air.

And all of a sudden, the rocket exploded along with the hopes and dreams of many.

The lives of all astronauts on board came abruptly to an end.

All of a sudden the cheers of the nation turned to tears.

Jesus said, "And so shall it be at the end of history.

It will come suddenly like a thief in the night; like a snare; like a trap that snaps shut.

So quickly.

It happened on September 11th, 2001 when hijacked planes struck terror into the hearts of the United States—nearly 3,000 people were killed in just moments.

Again it happened in the mountains of Pakistan on October, 2005.

A massive earthquake struck and 80,000 people were killed instantly.

The end came so suddenly, so quickly, like a thief in the night.

Or more recently, back on September 19th of this year, the earthquake in Mexico City which claimed the lives of 369 including many children.

It all happened in a moment, like a thief in the night.

Or how many times I have heard someone tell of the loss of a sister, mother, spouse… and say, “But she was so healthy, so strong, hardly sick a day in her life.

Now she is gone.”

It happened so suddenly.

She wasn't expecting it.

No one was.

Jesus said, "And so the end will come suddenly , unexpectedly, like a thief in the night; like a trap that snaps shut.

So quickly.

The Text Today

It is with such images in mind that we turn to the gospel lesson for the First Sunday of Advent.

The theme for the First Sunday of Advent is always this: be alert at all times, ready to meet your God because all of a sudden the end is going to be here.

The gospel for today is an invitation for you and me to live with a sense of readiness.

I think about our law enforcement folks in the congregation who spent years of their lives with that sense of readiness.

One never knows when that radio is going to sound off the need, but there is the knowledge that sometime during the day or during the night that 9-1-1 call will come through.

In the meantime they might work on a variety of different tasks or perhaps hone their skills a bit more.

But they need to be ready at a moments notice.

It is a matter of life and death to go quickly.

There’s no time to wait around and think about it.

And so it is with a Christian.

Like a law enforcement officer, we are called to live with a sense of readiness, but what exactly does that mean for us?

What are some qualities of this readiness Jesus has in mind?

I’ll mention a few.

The first is this: to live with the assurance that I am a child of God, that you are a child of God, that if my life or yours came to an end today, we would be with God; that nothing can separate us from his love, not even death.

This readiness is a confidence, an assurance, an awareness that God is gracious, that I am a child of God, that God truly knows me.

This readiness is being assured that our salvation does not rest on how much good we have accomplished, nor on our good behavior.

What matters most is that I know for sure that I am a child of God loved eternally by God.