Be Prepared!

Daniel 12:1-3, Hebrews 10:11-14, 18; Mark 13:24-32

In Marks Gospel today we hear about the second coming of our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ +. Jesus will come – of this we can be certain – He will come in Glory to judge the living and the dead.

Exactly when that will happen, exactly when He will come – we don’t know – and Jesus even tells us “of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."

Many people today waste their time trying to predict when and where Jesus will return – when or where He is coming is not important – all that is important to you and I is that He is coming and the question we have to ask ourselves is – Am I ready?
Consistently throughout scripture we hear that it isn’t important when He is coming but whether or not we are ready, if we are prepared for His arrival.

We have all heard the stories and parables:

• about the owner of the house: “if he had known the hour of night that the thief was coming he would not of allowed his house to be broken into …”

• about the ten virgins who took their lamps to meet the bridegroom, 5 were foolish and 5 were wise …

• about the king who invited guests to his sons wedding that made excuses as to why they could not attend …

• or the man going on a journey, who called in his servants and entrusted each of them with different amounts of his money …

These and so many more Gospel stories “warn” us to be prepared – to be vigilant – for at a time we do not expect – Jesus will return. We can’t wait until the master of the house arrives – for then it will be too late – we must be prepared, each and every day we must make ready for His arrival OR our departure – because none of us knows the day nor hour of that either. If, we do live each day, in joyful expectation of His return – we will be greatly rewarded:
For “blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.”

Jesus wants us to be prepared – He doesn’t want us to be caught off guard. He tells us today that we must know and recognize the signs:

• "Learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.”

And speaking to the Pharisees Jesus said: When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain – and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot – and so it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time.

The Pharisees where blind to who Jesus was.

Recall that when John the Baptist sent his followers to ask Jesus if He was the one – what did Jesus say? "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”

In just the same way, Jesus tells us the signs we need to watch for that reveal His second coming: hear what scripture says:

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." (40 years later the temple was destroyed)

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Let us not be blind to the signs of our times like the Pharisees were.
We hear that before Christ’s second coming there will be a period of tribulation like never before – and the faith of many will be shaken. The reality is that we are in “end times” today – this very moment – and the question we have to ask ourselves remains – Am I ready?

I think – that we may very well be ready – if we have St. Paul’s attitude – listen to what he said in his letter to the Philippians:
My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose. I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better. Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit.

If that is our attitude – that we don’t know which is better – to die to and be with Christ or to remain here to fight the good fight – if that is our attitude then we are probably ready for His second coming.

And when the Son of Man comes, in all His glory, with all His angels – he will sit upon His throne and all nations will be assembled before Him. He will separate them as a Shepard separates the sheep from the goats – He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

Then He will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.'

And the righteous will say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And our Lord will say to them, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'

And they will say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?' Jesus will say to them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

So what are you and I supposed to do? We must live each day as if it were our last – we must strive to be in a constant state of grace – and if we did that we would find – believe it or not – ourselves – we would become the people we have been called to be – we would find peace – His peace – we would find strength – His strength - and we would find love – His love – we would become more and more like Him – He who came to serve and not be served.

You may say that is all well and good but what am I supposed to do. Perhaps a story will help:

A man went to Calcutta to see Mother Teresa. He was swept off his feet as he watched this small giant wash sick bodies. He said to her, "I want to remain here permanently with you." Mother Teresa, whose wrinkled face showed thousands of miles of wear, said to him with a smile, "No, no. It is but an illusion. Go home and bloom where you are planted. The message that each one of us is a member of God's family is as much needed where you came from as it is here. Go home.”

Mother’s message to that man and to each of us is that We must (all) do small things with great love." – where we have been planted – with those God has given us – our families, our friends and neighbors and those strangers amongst us.

There will be a generation that witnesses our Lord’s second coming to judge the living and the dead – and we don’t know when that will be, all we know for certain is that He will come and each passing day brings us one day closer.

If we aren’t that generation then each passing day brings us closer to our natural death – either way the question each of us must ask ourselves remains – Am I ready?