First reading: Isaiah 63:16-17,19, Isaiah 64:2-7
Psalm: Ps. 80:2-3,15-16,18-19
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: Mark 13:33-37

we are sinful;—¨
all of us have become like unclean people,—¨
all our good deeds are like polluted rags;—¨
we have all withered like leaves,—¨
and our guilt carries us away like the wind.

Our first reading from Isaiah is key to understanding that we must be people of expectation, but not only.

Isaiah describes his expectation. Isaiah wanted his people to know and experience that expectation. If only they could feel my longing. I know it and feel it. If only they would know it and feel it. He knew that everything was wrong and that his people were a people of rejection. The people were apart from God. Isaiah describes their desolation. They have wandered away. They had shut God out of their hearts and minds. Their hearts had no feel for God and for His ways. In fact they considered God to be a sort of formless concept. Something you might think about from time to time, but life is just too busy, too complex, too short for a far off, distant, formless concept. Isaiah goes on to say of God: we fear you not.

Isaiah wanted his expectation to end. He wanted to experience God first hand. He wanted the people to see God, to experience Him. If he, and the people, could experience God surely they would come back. With those great deeds, the heavens rent and the mountains shaking like jello, everyone would certainly say:

No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you—¨
doing such deeds for those who wait for him.

In the middle of all that mess, in the middle of an unfaithful people and a God who wouldn’t send flaming bolts and fiery chariots from heaven as a convincing sign, Isaiah recalls we cannot escape God.

O LORD, you are our father;—¨
we are the clay and you the potter:—¨
we are all the work of your hands.

Brothers and sisters.

Let me ask you, can we escape our maker? Artists and craftsman leave their mark on what they make. Do you have grandma’s china at home? Turn it over and you’ll see the makers mark. I have lovely carvings and handcrafted items from all over the world. Each bears its makers mark. We too. Isaiah knew that, and that is our hope. Because of that indelible mark, that longing for God that is built into our very being, no matter our wandering, no matter our distance or the hardness of our hearts, God is near. He calls after us and is willing to welcome us back.

What a wonderful sign and symbol of love! Isaiah started by asking God to come in an amazing, God like, spectacle. Flames, heavens rent, quakes, chariots, angels, and powers. He ends by stating that we are the work of God’s hands. Because we are the work of His hands He is in us.

Even if we separate ourselves through sin, through intentional laziness toward our relationship with God — putting him in the background, or forbid through outright rejection of God, we do not have to wait for the fiery spectacle to come back. All we need know is that we must get back to work.

If we are separate there is a road home, there is the grace of repentance. God loves us so much that He waits with open arms — and those open arms are for everyone:

But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

My friends,

We have every right to be a people of expectation and a people focused on the last things — a people awaiting the consummation of everything in Christ, but that expectation does not outweigh the fact that we must act and we must act urgently. We must repent of our sins, and set to work today. Isaiah wanted the people to see God, to experience Him. We have to make that happen in our own lives and in the lives of others. That is our job.

Jesus notes that the master put his servants in charge and told the gatekeeper to keep watch. The servants had work to do. We are those servants and we have work to do. That work begins here and now — in real and practical ways.

Our world, for all its advancements, is the same world that Isaiah lived in. People don’t recognize God and they don’t acknowledge Him. We live in a world of rejection. People’s hearts are hard and they ignore God. Most of all they turn their backs to Him, piling on excuses for staying away. If they have a concept of God it is a god that is to their liking, that has no requirements, that likes whatever they like, and for the most part can be ignored.

Can that be changed? Of course! God has written Himself into our very being and we are incomplete without Him. That image, that is in all of us, is the image of the real God.

To change the world, to help it in recognizing God, we must first set to examining ourselves: How do we treat each other, our neighbors, the pesky aunt or cousin, the unfriendly cashier at the supermarket or department store? How do we manage our money — are we free of debt? How do we treat the foreigner, the homeless, the prisoner, the drug addict, the ex-con, or the AIDS patient? How does God’s Church act? How do we live as God’s people?

We can run through a lengthy examination of conscience, but that exam is not focused on the past alone. That examination needs to be prospective, forward looking, and encompasses tomorrow and every day thereafter.

What’s so different about us? What’s so great about faith — true faith in God? The greatness of faith can only be shown through us. It won’t come in rent heavens and quaking mountains. It depends on us. That is the real work — making God real in our lives and the lives of others. Showing God to others by our words, looks, hands, actions, and way-of-life so that they might experience Him in their lives. So that they might experience the reality of God — that the seed that is already in them might grow.

Brothers and sisters,

We are His servants and we have a huge obligation — but more so — we have an even greater amount of help. St. Paul tells us:

for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,—¨
that in him you were enriched in every way,—¨
with all discourse and all knowledge,—¨
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,—¨
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift—¨
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.—¨

That means you. That means me. We are His servants and we lack nothing. We can do everything He needs us to do. We can bring back the most distant. All of us, together, gathered in the Holy Church, have all the gifts necessary for the work that needs doing. While we wait in expectation, while we reform our lives, while we draw closer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we work, drawing all into a life of joyful work and expectation. Let us tell the world by our thoughts, words, actions, and work that we await, but not only. Rather that we await and we know. God is in the world. God is among us. God wants all us all to enter into His joy. For He said:

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Amen.