The Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent
December 3rd, 2000
Thank you Lord Jesus for teaching us to use the measure of eternity; to see that disturbances are nothing to fear, rather they are really opportunities for redemption. Amen.
Luke 21:25-36
Title: “Signs”
After foretelling the end of Jerusalem and the Temple in the week before last week’s gospel reading, Jesus moves on to another “end” and the coming of the Son of Man in the gospel reading for today. As Jerusalem was faced with a crisis when Jesus appeared to teach there, so will the whole world be faced with a crisis when he appears in the “World Temple.” For the “worldly” it will mean judgment, for the “other-worldly” salvation.
The End Time is inevitable, but unpredictable, despite any signs. “Signs” are present in every age and are signs of the “age,” which means they are signs of sin. Jesus teaches his disciples to be just as concerned with the “meantime,” the in-between time, as with the end-time, even more so. They are to live lives prepared for the End at all times, both the end of the world and the end of their time in the world. In the meantime there will be false messiahs, persecutions and catastrophes of all sorts –cosmic, agricultural, social, political, familial and personal. They are to keep their sights on the horizon and goal and live accordingly.
In verse 25 there will be signs: Jesus makes use of apocalyptic stage props similar to those of Joel 3: 3-4. Such language is often used in apocalyptic to denote sudden and violent change and the emergence of a new order. The fabric of the universe will show signs of breaking up.
Nations will be in dismay: Those without the eternal vision will react in a predictable way – with fear and in panic. It is the “way of the world” to do so. Fear and panic are themselves signs, signs of unbelief. Whenever there is an appearance of God to humans, the message is always begun with, “Fear not.” Only believers can counter fear with courage in the midst of tumult and conquer it. The this-worldly simply encounter fear and are paralyzed by it.
In verse 27 they will see the Son of Man: There will come a time when no one will be able to deny the presence of God. For now, his presence is available only to believers, but the day will come when denial of God will be impossible because he will be too obvious to do so.
In verse 28 stand erect and raise your heads: Jesus empowers believers to take this “resurrection stance” at all times. Here, he is especially commanding it as a sign of distinction from the cowering and fearful.
Your redemption is at hand: There are facts and then there is the interpretation of those facts. Jesus tells his followers not to deny the facts (the undeniable), but to interpret then correctly. To unbelievers this will be a terrible experience. To believers it will be an awesome one. Though the line between terrible and awesome is a fine one, it is a real one, making all the difference in the world.
In verses vv. 29-33 the fig tree: The fig tree reminded Jesus of the final judgment and what leads up to it. And deservedly so. In contrast to most of the trees of Palestine (the olive, oak, and evergreens) the fig tree loses its leaves in the winter and (in contrast to the almond which blossoms in early spring) it shows signs of life later than other trees. So, when the branches get soft by the sap flowing through them and leaves begin to appear, it is a sure sign that the warm season is very near. The lesson is that there is not a lot of time between the first signs of life and the full-blown blossom, like the other trees. So be careful, the end is soon. Keep a watchful eye for all signs of life (the presence of God). The image of the fig tree lends itself to Jesus’ constant teaching of being watchful and prepared for the imminent End.
In verse 34 beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness: “Your hearts” rather than simply “you” clues us into what Jesus means. While he would not recommend carousing and drunkenness in any event, he is using the image metaphorically. Hence, “your hearts,” means your attitudes. He is saying, “Don’t succumb to the intoxicating attractions of a sinful world while you are waiting for the end. Don’t let the delay of my return lull you into complacency, compromise, comfort or the conceit that you have plenty of time. Beware that your way of life is not burdened or dulled by dissipation, intoxication (poisoning) or excessive solicitude for material things.”
In verse 35 like a trap…everyone: The End Time, Second Coming, Day of the Lord, Last Judgment – call it what you will- will admit of no exceptions or exemptions. Everyone will be involved. No one can bring a doctor’s note or note from Mom and be excused from it.
In verse 36 be vigilant at all times: If no one knows the time and no one is excused, the only really sensible thing to do is to be prepared at all times. (Remember the Parable of the Ten Foolish Maidens.) Jesus is saying that we are to live every moment in the light of “no moment,” every time in the light of “no time.” He means eternity. Eternity not only follows time in the sense that we experience “eternity” after our time on earth. It exists now, in time. More correctly, it is time which exists within eternity, since eternity is clearly “bigger” and “longer” than time. So, we are to find, contact and stay aware of the eternal dimension within time if we are to be “ready” for its demise and ours.
Pray: In Luke’s gospel “prayer” means “heightened awareness” of the hidden presence of God, conscious contact with God. That awareness itself bestows the strength to withstand all onslaughts as well as the strength to withstand the intensity of the experience of the encounter with the no-longer-hidden-from-view Son of Man. As such, there is no substantial difference between prayer and vigilance. The appearance of the Son of Man will be for unbelievers and the unfaithful an encounter with a stranger. For the faithful believer it will be a meeting with a friend, one they have come to know through the practice of “heightened awareness” or prayer.
By the time Luke’s gospel is written the Church has realized that Jesus’ return is going to take a longer time than they hoped. They realized he wasn’t looking at a calendar when he said he’d return soon, but looking at eternity. They realized that his giving of his Spirit was “return” enough for now. He was already present in the form of the Spirit. His “Second Coming” would really be the end of the process. It’s “time” is simply unknown and unknowable. Now, the Church is in for the long haul and she turns her attention to “mission,” completing the work of Christ, or more correctly, spreading it throughout the earth, totalizing it.
They realized that when Jesus was speaking of the imminence of the End he was not recommending that they live in a state of emergency, but one of urgency. He was cautioning them (and us) not to go soft, get bored, lapse into complacency just because nothing seems to be happening. Keep the sense of urgency, he says, and realize that your personal death is, in fact, soon and unpredictable. This attitude gives meaning and purpose to every moment. Waiting is not sitting down and doing nothing. It is preparing for the inevitable. It is acting in such a way that the “visit,” the “inspection” can come at anytime. It is keeping the “house” clean, the “books” in order, the “table” set, even the “towels” in the bathroom neatly folded. Living life in the face of and without the fear of death makes life precious, fun, full of expectation, livable and lovable. In the interval, we are not to be anxious about God’s agenda for the closing up shop, but our own agenda for keeping the business running well.
Jesus likes to tell us in advance what we can expect. He warns us to expect the sufferings, the failures, the set backs, the tragedies, and especially, the persecutions. Expect your “world” to fall apart many times in the meantime. But also expect the end. There will be an end to it all. If we have come to know him personally through prayer (conversations with him) and love we will meet him at the end as a friend. If not, he will be a stranger, even a judge, to us.
When Jesus uses the example of a carouser and a drunkard he uses a word that means “hangover,” the consequences of seeming to have fun when, in fact, we are engaging in destructive behavior. When life has lost its purpose or interest, we can try to escape into “another world” by artificial means, like drugs. – prescription and non-prescription. The result is we are always “hung-over.” Thinking we are getting into “life” we are only using lethal weapons to destroy ourselves and those around us. We coast from “high” to “high” in a hung-over state and are aware only of the pain of existence. We do nothing productive, only what will get us by for the time being. We are all too well aware (or “sick aware”) o f all the pains but none of the possibilities of life. We are perfunctory in the performance (and “performance” is all it is) of our duties. Wrongly expecting “artificial means” to deliver on their promises, we sink deeper and deeper into a state beginning with escape but ending into despair. What’s the remedy? What’s the antidote? What’s the formula?
Prayer. Not prayer as word formulas, but as “heightened awareness.” As we keep in conscious contact with the eternal dimension of life we receive light to guide us, power to move us, and love to enrich us. As we live in the meantime, in the “waiting” room, we keep God’s dream for us in our minds and it sheds light on what is important, worth pursuing, and what is pointless and a “dead end” rather than a living one. Prayer gives us perspective on our lives. Then we are more than willing to wait, to trust, to hope, and to move toward the goal. The cost, though there, is well worth the end result. This kind of prayer requires discipline. We don’t do it only in a crisis, when we feel like it, or the “spirit” moves us. We do it constantly until it becomes “Second Nature.” Then we understand “Second Coming” better.
When the world or our life in it ends it will be a good experience for those who lived their lives in the light of eternity and a bad one for those who did not.
Signs: Meaning: There are facts and there are the interpretations of those facts. “Signs,” as used by Christ and the evangelists, refers to the interpretations of the facts of our lives and the world we live in. First we must discern what things are and not mistake them for what we would like them or hope them to be. First, then, we must “get real.” However, facts in themselves are meaningless until we see them in their context, enabling us to relate one fact to another or others and thus derive their meaning for our lives. One of the major teachings of Jesus is that if we interpret the facts of our lives in the context of this world only or in the context of our personal selves only, we are using too small a measure and will get their meaning wrong. If, on the other hand, we interpret them in the broadest possible context, we will see them for what they really are. In other words, Jesus helps us to “get really real.” The objects, events and people in this world, in our lives, are not automatically “signs.” They only become such when we look into them and not merely at them. We need a special light, the light of eternity, to look into physical things, events, phenomena and even people. If we don’t have that light or use that light we will get the meaning wrong. If we use only the light of this world we might be able to see past the surface, but only a level or degree or two deeper. The eternal light lets us get at the core meaning.
Signs: Cosmic: There are all sorts of cosmic phenomena that are just plain scary. We ordinarily do not fear the cosmos itself, so long as we are firmly planted on earth. (We really can never be “firmly planted” on earth, since even the earth is not “firm,” but in constant spinning motion.) It’s the earthly cosmic disturbances, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, forest fires, global warming, even strong storms, that scare us. They remind us of our fragility when compared to nature’s power, our helplessness in the face of forces too powerful to be faced, let alone tamed. Jesus uses this universal experience of cosmic disturbances (“in the sun, the moon and the stars and on earth…the roaring of the sea) to make a point. Those who use this world as the context for interpreting the meaning of such disturbances will literally die of fright, if not of the force of such disturbances. However, those who use another measure, the measure of eternity, will be able to see such disturbances in a different light and not be scared. They will be able to see them as opportunities for redemption. They can learn from them that the whole world is as fragile as the human being and as bent on self-destruction as the human being when left to itself to govern itself. For those who can truly see such cosmic disturbances are examples of sin on a cosmic scale. Not that they are sins in and of themselves. How could they be? But they are “signs” of what sin can do and does do, even if less dramatically and undeniably. They reveal that a greater power than they must rule the universe or it will go haywire and destroy itself and everyone in it. The havoc and devastation they wreak is a “sign” of what any sin, even private sin, does when a human being attempts to live life on his/her own terms. It is almost as if nature says (to herself), “I can do this. I can flood. I can tornado. I can hurricane. I can toss meteors at the earth. I can do these things, so I will do them.” Humans do that all the time when they sin. They say, “I can lie, so I will. I can steal, so I will. I can break the rules, so I will.” Now, thank God, natural, cosmic disturbances are relatively rare. Would that human sins were also rare. If such disturbances became frequent, say as frequent as individual and corporate sin, then the planet would not survive very long. There is a limit to the amount of rule-breaking that nature can sustain. The same is true on the human level. Christ is saying that there is a limit to the amount of sin that life on this planet can sustain and we are fast reaching it (“Fast” in cosmological years, not calendar years). So, we are to shape up and let God be God before it is too late. Amen.
