Company In The Night
Mark 13: 24-37
A Sermon by the Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
Epworth United Methodist Church

A long drive in the middle of the night. All you can see is the glare of oncoming headlights and the lines of the highway just in front of you. You must stay awake. But you are you’re starting to feel drowsy, with endless darkness and hundreds of miles ahead. You turn on the radio, drink coffee, chew gas station delicacies, and roll down the window to enlist the cold night air to keep you from falling asleep at the wheel.

The biological urge to sleep can overcome even the keenest awareness of the dangers of the road or the urgency of the journey.

The psychological, sociological, political and spiritual urge to sleep can overcome the dangers and the urgency of our journey as people of faith.
Our Gospel reading this morning reminds us to keep awake.

Mark tells of cosmic events, heavenly and earthly signs … falling stars, wars and distress that are not simply a prelude to the end, but a reminder of what’s at stake … an assertion and an assurance that throughout history as well as at the end of history, the same God we know in Jesus will be the God who comes to us… as light and love … as healing and power.

Throughout the ages Christians have read apocalyptic passages like this reading from Mark’s Gospel. They have looked at their own times … and have seen enough evidence of confusion, tumult, suffering, fear and tribulation to convince them that theirs was the end time. Age after age people have concluded that the end of the world was near. Book store shelves are filled with evidence of this today.

But Jesus said this:
But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son but only the Farther. Beware, keep alert for you do not know when the time will come.

*I’ll never forget witnessing the theological battle of Berkeley bumper stickers, side by side, on Shattuck Ave. The car ahead of me in the left lane had a bumper sticker that read: Warning! When the rapture comes, this car will be without a driver. In the very next lane to the right, ahead of me, side by side with that car was a car whose bumper sticker read: When the rapture comes, can I have your car?

The alternative to searching the skies for the exact day or hour of end times and examining who will be in and who will be out is to recall Jesus’ life and teachings. THIS will show us how to watch, wait hope and stay awake.

Signs of the end have never meant that our chronological time was about to be finished. But they have always meant that eternal values were at risk, and that redeemed, reclaimed, and reconciled lives were at stake.

We hear the call … “Stay awake!” … “Awake to what?” … To the signs? No. Awake to the presence of God. Awake to the purpose of God here and now in our time and in all time.

Todd Schaefer just came up to me as we passed the Peace of God and said that this morning, he and Molly were talking to Sophie about this being the first day of Advent, and that this is the time we get ready for the birth of Jesus. Then Sophie said, “But he was born last year!!” Exactly. We need to keep awake for every birth of Christ, for every birth of new life, for God’s promise already and not yet!

Donna Schaper writes, “We have to …stick to what we can see in our headlights. We will likely be surprised by just how much there is to see and feel and experience wherever we are... Advent’s trick is this: Jesus is not only coming. Jesus is already here. Where? In our spirit’s capacity to know him and his great truth. The promise is now, not later. The promise is in our headlights. It is our own focus we need to adjust.”

Growing up, I remember marathon cross-country drives from Los Angeles to Connecticut. I remember being grateful that the car needed gasoline, because otherwise my father, the sole driver, would never have stopped the car. I also remember late at night, sticking my face between the two front seats, and silently watching the road while my dad drove and the family slept. I was certain it was my watchfulness that kept my Dad awake and the family safe. Ah, the omnipotence of childhood.

Many years later, when I was the only passenger on a late night public bus from Manhattan to Stony Point, New York, I sat up by the driver, watching the dark country road late into the night. I realized that keeping him company comforted me. And then, so many years later, I realized that keeping my dad company made me feel safe, that keeping my dad awake awakened something within me.

When Jim and I drive together late at night, over and over again we ask each other sleepily, “Do you need me to keep you awake?”

The answer this Advent season is “Yes.” We need each other to keep us awake.

This Advent we are on a journey of waiting, we are waiting by the window for a longed for future, for a loved one to come home, for our souls to find home,we are waiting by these windows for the arrival of the Light of the world! We share the darkness, share the light and we need each other to keep us awake.

These candles in the window that surround us remind us that candles in the window are signs of waiting and also signs of defiant hope and resistance. The children in South Africa during apartheid whose candles in the windows were destroyed by the police, proclaimed, “They are afraid of candles in windows!” Communities in Montana who lit the town ablaze with candles in windows in order to combat hate crimes against Jewish neighbors.

At least a part of why we gather in a community, in a congregation, as partners in faith is because we know we can’t do it alone. There are nights too long for even the most alert and courageous to travel alone. There are dawns so brilliant they must be shared. And so we seek and offer company in the night.

This morning …you will receive a candle … an invitation not only to share the light … but to show someone in your community … one person … by your visit, by your showing up, that you will keep them company on their journey.

This morning as we celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism for River Sanchez… not only River’s parents, Steve and Prema … but this entire community of faith … will affirm that River is not alone … she has company for her journey. This morning as we welcome new members, Carolyn, David, (Sophia and Eva) into the life of this community, we promise to keep each other awake.

This morning we begin this remarkable season with the elemental reminder … that when we are traveling in the night or waiting by the window … we need to stay awake. And to stay awake, we need company. Company, both divine and human, that is present and available.

Albert Schweitzer reflected on his experience of this truth as he wrote,

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”

Company in the night … may we always offer it when we can, and find it when we need it most. It is God’s promise to us and through us for this and every day. Amen.