Walking In Peace

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For the first Sunday in Advent  in 2023 we start reading from Mark’s Gospel. We read from Mark most Sundays this next year. We begin in this Gospel though, towards the end of Jesus’ public life just before His passion, death and resurrection story. During Advent we look towards the birth of Jesus but we also look to His second coming.

Chapter 13 of Mark starts out with Jesus and his disciples leaving the temple in Jerusalem and heading for the Mount of Olives. Peter, James, John and Andrew start taking about the end times and Jesus obliges with some pretty stark revelations through the rest of the chapter. We get to our reading for Sunday at the very end of the chapter with a call from Jesus to be watchful.

He finishes with a warning that you do not know when the lord of the house is coming. He might come in the evening, or at midnight or at cockcrow or in the morning (dawn in some versions). I guess these are times you might be sleeping and not paying attention. Like the three disciples in the garden of Gethsemane the night before Jesus’ crucifixion. Back to the times of the day mentioned. Cockcrow is an unusual time for us since most of us wake up to an alarm clock or phone of some sort not a rooster unless you are lucky enough to have roosters at your home. So when is cockcrow? Cockcrow was the third Roman division of the night from midnight to 3am. 

Jumping ahead to Mark 14:27-31 we get Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s denial which he says will happen when the cock crows twice, so between midnight and 3am. Peter obliges by denying him right on cue. Matthew, Luke and John offer similar predictions and outcomes. 

I think for most of us, our knowledge of cockcrow is from scripture. It is helpful to know the time as presented in this week’s Gospel because we should be watchful even when we are likely to be asleep. Try listening for the cockcrow in your imagination if you wake up at that time of night then say a little prayer imagined by this week’s psalm on Sunday, give us a new day, Lord and we will call out your name throughout the day.