NRSLuke 21
25"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. 28Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
29Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees;30as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.31So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
34 "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly,35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
May the Lord grant you the grace and peace of this Advent season, for the sake of Jesus. Amen.
It’s been an angry year, which is, I suppose, to be expected in an election year. People have been angry over who won, and of course, people have been angry over who lost. People have been angry over the government spending too much, while other people have been angry over the government not spending enough. People have been angry over taxes being too high, and others have been angry over taxes being too low. I have a friend in Wisconsin, where political battles have been rocking that state for nearly two years. I asked him what the mood was up there and he answered with one word: “Angry.” I remember once hearing that anger is a self-feeding emotion, so that the more anger you vent the more angry you become. I feel that way about Alabama football. Don’t get me started. People all over the country are saying, “Don’t get me started,” because they’re already so angry and getting angrier every day -- angry over the bickering, angry over the gridlock, angry over the unending logjam that is the political process. People are so angry that they’re beginning to wonder if the whole system is rigged, that the fix is in, and that maybe we’ll end up hurtling off a cliff – fiscal, environmental, social -- before anybody wakes up.
Welcome to the world of biblical apocalyptic. The angry mood that’s been hovering over us for the past several years is very much in keeping with the biblical message that began to form in the centuries prior to the birth of Christ. This was a time of profound disappointment for the people of God. On the one hand, there was a pervasive sense of expectation. People had the feeling that something great was going to happen because something great needed to happen. The wicked were prospering, the righteous were getting beat up, greed and corruption were everywhere and faith was being tested to near collapse. Something had to happen, but every time it looked like that something was about to materialize, poof, it went away. The great and long-awaited king turned out to be a nut job; the new age was just the old one warmed-over; and even after all the deck chairs were rearranged and reordered, the same old thieves and bandits were still driving the ship. It was like history was at an impasse, stuck, jammed up, frozen.
Faced with this moral and philosophical quandary, some of Israel’s prophets began thinking that history had been hijacked by some insane clown posse. In that case, the only path to salvation would be for God to come from outside of history to put the world back on track. If the world was incapable of justice, then God would bring justice to the world from heaven above. And here’s where we begin to see a new type of literature begin to appear in the Bible’s writings. Scholars call it apocalyptic, from the Greek word for revelation, because the apocalyptic prophet wants to give us a glimpse of the change that God is going to bring to earth. That’s why apocalyptic is typically full of these great cosmic references to the sun and moon and stars in tumult and the seas breaking loose in great floods. It’s symbolic language for the way in which God’s people saw the Lord coming to deliver God’s frozen creation.
This is very beautifully portrayed in the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” When the Pevensie kids first pass through the wardrobe, Narnia is frozen in the grip of the evil White Witch. But as the Lion King Aslan ascends to power, what happens? The world begins to thaw, virtue returns from exile, and life triumphs over death. This is what the Bible is getting at in all those dramatic images of stars falling and the moon turning to blood. It’s code for how God will open up history and unjam the universe.
As Jesus and Pilate face off in today’s gospel, Pilate flexes all the power of his Roman muscle. He’s in control, over the Roman soldiers in his courtyard, and over the prisoner who stands before him. Without introduction or greeting, Pilate speaks as both judge and prosecutor when he abruptly asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” When Jesus answers his question with a question, Pilate becomes indignant, flashing some of his Roman sense of superiority, “I am not a Jew, am I?” When Pilate presses, “What have you done,” Jesus makes a theological point, which also happens to be a political bombshell: “My kingdom is not from this world.”
Today’s gospel is classic apocalyptic, which means it comes to us as both bad news and good news. If God is coming from heaven to earth to deliver the world from sin and sadness, then you might think, what could be bad news about that? Nothing, unless you happen to be part of the sin and sadness that is keeping history in the deep freeze. That’s why we also hear the note of repentance sounded when Jesus says, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap” (Luke 21: 34, 35). If our lives are tied up in and consumed with the very stuff that God is going to throw in the dumpster, then now is the time for us to get our lives and houses in order, which is good news.
Even though this world makes us angrier than wet hens, we still know that God has not abandoned us. On the contrary, we know that God will deliver us from the very insanity that drives us up the wall practically every day of our lives. And how do we know this? We know because of what we have seen in Jesus. In the same way in which Jesus’ body was destroyed and yet raised to life invincible, so God will also subject this fallen creation to God’s own purifying justice and raise it to perfect righteousness, where the lowly are lifted up, where the hungry are filled with good things, where there is neither sorrow nor weeping nor mourning.
This is the pattern of Christian life laid down for us in holy baptism. Rather than getting up to some mountain to wait for God to end the world, we daily die with Christ to sin, to hardness of heart, to the very meanness that so confounds this world and freezes up our souls. But as we die with Christ to sin, so we also rise with Christ to newness of life. Even as we live in this world, we live for that world revealed to us in the glory of Jesus’ resurrection. We live now in the way that we know the world will be when Christ shall return and grace and mercy shall reign supreme. In other words: We live by faith.We live in hope. We live for love.
God knows there’s plenty to get angry about in this world. God knows there’s more than enough to lament and rage over. But God also knows how easily anger and fury can overwhelm our lives and poison our hearts and minds. So God wants us to know that there is a way that runs through the desert, there is a day that soon dawns, there is a promise that will not disappoint. His name is Jesus.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
