Sermon 11-30-03
Ready or Not . . . - Luke 21:25-36
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Can you believe it's Advent already? Most of us are probably still stuffed from Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday - be it turkey and gravy, or in my household, vegetarian lasagna and yes, for the first time this year, tofurkey. Most of us are probably still unpacking our Friday shopping bags from the wonderful day-after-Thanksgiving sale mania. But it's here: Advent is here.
What exactly does that mean, though? We know what Advent is, sort-of. It's this time before Christmas, where we light the candles on the Advent wreath. But Advent goes deeper than that, can be more meaningful to us than that, if we try to understand it better. Literally, advent means coming, or comes-before. It is a season of preparation, a season of waiting and watching. It is a season of the hope that will come in the birth of the Christ child, as our hope-candle lit today suggests.
But it's not only the hope and promise of Christ coming as a baby at Christmas. It's also the hope and promise that Christ returns to us again, comes to us always. Advents is a time of preparation not only for the birth of a child, but also a time to prepare to let the full-grown Christ come into our lives, a time to prepare to open ourselves for full discipleship, to accept the crucified and resurrected Christ into our lives as well.
Unfortunately, our gospel lesson doesn't at first seem to instill us with any sense of hope at all. In fact, after reading this passage, we can be overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness. This passage sounds a bit like the one we heard two Sundays ago, only this one has more doom and gloom, more destruction, more chaos and catastrophe. We hear of these mysterious signs in the sun, moon and stars. There are images of people fainting. Heaven and earth pass away, there is talk of a trap, and our hope for escape, and by the end of the reading, it seems the walls are closing in on us.
And yet, in the midst of the chaos of this reading, if you look closely enough, calmly enough, there are some words of hope in the midst of the confusion. Jesus says, "when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near . . . when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near." He speaks of fig trees, an image which may not communicate much to us, but his hearers in that time knew that the fig tree was a symbol of life out of death, a symbol of the hope that comes after the winter, the hope of new birth. (1)
Redemption, God's kingdom come near to us, new birth. Perhaps these are images that we can connect to Advent after all. Redemption is something we're all searching for, isn't it? The truth is, in the midst of this season, when the world is telling us that we should all be seeking that warm and fuzzy feeling, bonding with family and friends, going to parties, eating cookies, and giving and getting gifts - in the midst of what is supposed to be a season of joy - we can feel awfully depressed and lonely. The holidays sometimes remind us only of what we don't have that we're supposed to have. It can remind us that we don't have the perfect family, that we don't have a significant other, that we don't have our parents or our children around to celebrate with. It can remind us that we don't have the financial resources we wish that we had. It reminds us of the ways we can't seem to achieve the perfect Christmas experience, and we are reminded of our own sense of failure. We feel the chaos that Jesus describes. But Jesus, calming us, speaks to us of redemption - "your redemption is drawing near." Redemption means "God's powerful act of freeing [God's] people in need." (1) In this season of Advent, we have the promise of freedom, freedom from that which is holding us down, freedom from the business of the world, freedom from our own sinfulness. Our redemption is near.
Jesus also tells us that the God's kingdom come near. We have to remind ourselves that Jesus doesn't mean that the end of the world is near, not how we think anyway. He means, as he preached from the very start of his ministry, that the realm of God is really here on earth, all-around us. Today we sang, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." You might remember that the angel told Joseph that Jesus would be called "Emmanuel", which means God with us. Jesus is all about showing us that God is right in the midst of us, the we are already living in God's kingdom, that God dwells on earth, comes to us in human form, not in only in Jesus, but also in the faces and hearts of those all around us. Jesus say, when you see that a fig tree is budding, you know new growth of spring is coming, and so also, when you see real life on earth, growth and change, you also know that God is with you, God's realm is right here with you. Pastor Wesley White challenges, "What glimmer of a new heaven and earth do you see? Are you acting on that? Are you sharing [that] with others?" (2) Our Advent hope is that God comes again, and always again, to be with us, right here, right now.
And new birth. This passage we read today shows that Jesus is most concerned that we be prepared. Yes, we have to be prepared to hold our ground in the midst of a world at war, a world faced with ecological destruction, pollution, hunger, disease, and more. We have to be prepared for that. But even more, we have to be prepared for the new life that comes with Christ. Our hope is in the fact that there's something more, something beyond the temporal things, the chaotic and busy things we see around us. Our hope is that out of death, over and against death, comes new life. After winter, comes spring. After Advent, a new baby is born. We have to make sure we're ready to receive the Christ child, with our heads up, our hearts ready.
Two of my favorite theologians pose this challenge: "Our lesson for First Advent asks us to choose which side of the line we'll stand on when things turn chaotic in our lives." (3) Yes, there are signs all around us that our planet is unstable, that our societies are in danger, that evil pervades. This has always been so, and always will be. The question is, what will we do about it? Will we be a part of it, and miss God's realm altogether? Will we be overwhelmed by it, and find our hands tied, unable to receive God's grace? Or will we be prepared, work to ready ourselves and our lives to receive the Christ child? Ready or not, here he comes. Amen.
Benediction: For a hopeless world, Christ is our hope, and Christ, in us, makes us hope for the world. Go out now, prepare yourselves, for the Child of Hope is coming, God's realm is at hand, and your redemption in near. Go in hope. Amen.
(1) Chris Haslam, "Comments", http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/cadv1l.shtml?
(2) Wesley White, Kairos CoMotion, http://66.84.196.7/dialogue/dialogue.dll?kairoscomotion-T20009+1000%
(3) Jeff Krantz and Michael Hardin, Preaching Peace, http://www.preachingpeace.org/advent1.htm