The First Sunday of Advent (B), November 30, 2014 - Mark 13:24-37

When the world is going to hell in a handbasket,

the chickens have come home to roost,

the whole world's at sixes and sevens,

you're up the creek without a paddle,

we're going down with all hands,

everything's gone widdershins,

everything's gone bananas,

life's going down the tubes,

it's all gone horribly wrong,

it's FUBAR, and SNAFU,

things go cattywumpus,

all hell's broken loose,

we're taking on water,

the shit hits the fan,

it's pandemonium,

the wheels fall off,

things fall apart,

and the jig

is up,

then

kairos,

peripeteia,

crossroads,

a conversion,

a metamorphosis,

the turn of the tide,

the moment of truth,

the defining moment,

everything fresh and new,

the tree suddenly leafing out,

something you somehow haven't

to deserve occurs when you least expect it.

No one knows how that is, or when it is, either;

But it's something to anticipate, like the summer.

And who knows? Maybe it will even come like a baby.

Scott L. Barton

(The idea that the literal shape of a poem can be a part of the poetry came to me some years ago from J. Barrie Shepherd's The Moveable Feast: Selected Poems for the Christian Year and Beyond (1990)).


“But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”