Christ is Coming

Christ is Coming
November 29, 2009
Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 21:25-36

Now, that can’t be right!?

This is the first Sunday of Advent, Thanksgiving has come and gone and we are still enjoying our tasty leftovers and today after church we are going to listen to Christmas music and decorate and then tonight have a special service as we put up the sacred decorations in our sanctuary. It is a great day!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…everywhere you go…

Right? So what in the world are we doing reading this kind of scripture today? Ya’ll know that I preach out of the lectionary – so I didn’t just close my eyes, flip through the Bible and pick this scripture at random, no this is supposed to be the first scripture of Advent, and actually if you remember I told you last year at this time, this is the first Sunday of the Christian year. So what in the world were they thinking? Today is like this perfect combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year all in one…but…that passage just doesn’t fit.
People will faint from fear and foreboding…what is that about?

I know you all came here today to hear some Christmas carols as it ‘tis the season and all…and probably expected to start hearing those old familiar stories about Mary or Joseph, you wanted images of pregnancy and expectation, but instead we are stuck with what…a warning…
Be on guard, be alert

Sure we are on guard for a great sale to buy Christmas presents…we are alert as to how many shopping days are left…26 including today…but that is not what this text is about…
This is a text about the end…again. Didn’t we just do this? The lectionary led us to Mark 13 two weeks ago and now as we start the Christian year, as Advent begins we are back here? Beginning at the end?!
…or are we ending at the beginning?

Our Jeremiah text was good, what we expected:

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land

This is what we want, a good ol’ promise that Jesus is on his way. After all we are waiting for Jesus right? Advent means “coming” and so we know that Jesus is coming…but while the world is telling us we are to prepare for the first arrival of the baby Jesus…as we see in Jeremiah…Luke reminds us that we are also waiting for Jesus to come again. This isn’t really an easy thing to preach about…it would be much easier to pick up a nice story about Mary and jump on the Christmas bandwagon but--advent is a part of our Christian year for a reason…we have work to do in the next four weeks, and no it is not just decorating and shopping, we have work to do on ourselves so that we are on guard, alert, open –heads raised, prayerful and strong for Jesus’ arrival.

Because truth be told we are afraid. After my sermon two weeks ago on Mark 13 I heard from many that this discussion had taken place in your homes. That the movie 2012 that I commented on had accomplished its task of eliciting fear not only of what the end will be, but also that it is on its way. In that text Jesus sought to give the disciples are larger perspective, so that they would see that while yes buildings will fall, systems will be destroyed…that when we put our trust in God and not the things of this world there is nothing to fear for God will not only endure but lead us into a new heaven and a new earth that is beyond our imagining.
And today we hear from Luke how it is that we should respond to talk of the end times. He writes:

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. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world…

*for the record I don’t think that is the ideal reaction. Luke, like Mark and other Christian apocalyptic texts, as I have said before are not trying to scare us, the purpose is not for us to be afraid…listen

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory.

*that’s not scary right?

Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

At first this sounded to be like raising your hands on a roller coaster…I’m not one of those kind of people…those that are already on a scary roller coaster and they fully embrace the fear and adrenaline, taking the extra risk of not holding on so they get the full effect on the ups and downs and twist, turns and loops. But I don’t think that is what Luke really means. He isn’t telling us to relax, he’s not saying that to be a good Christian we have to be thrill seekers ready to jump in to the birthpangs of the apocalypse. I think this text along with the text from Mark does tell us to hold on…just to hold to the right safety harness. Don’t hold on to the world, but hold on to God and then there is no need to fear.

But Jesus does not stop there as he did in Mark. He goes on…he tells a parable about a fig tree…he offers the tree, or all trees really as a way of understanding this new creation that he is talking about. He says,

as soon they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

What strikes me about this is that the kingdom of God has not arrived yet, Jesus doesn’t say anything about full bloom, the summer time is still yet to come…if the leaves are just coming back it is probably the beginning of spring…that in between time when we still feel winter – it has not left us yet and yet we see signs, we trust and believe that summer is on its way. This is the season of Advent.

The Old Testament text that Don read from Jeremiah is written in the middle of winter. Ironically, it is the more frightening scripture of the two even though it might not look that way. While Luke talks about distress, fear, and foreboding and Jeremiah talks about promises, justice and righteousness these passages were written from quite different places. In Luke Jesus is there, he is present in the world offering compassion and hope and healing and peace to his people, while Jeremiah is written while the people of Israel are in exile. They have been removed from their homes, and their homeland, separated from people they knew, systems they knew, culture that they knew and thrust into a foreign land where they are powerless and alone. Jeremiah is written from the bleak mid-winter…that time in winter where we can hardly remember the summer time and it feels like an eternity until it will be here again. All they had left…was hope.

Luke’s world on the other hand was a little more like our world, even though there is pain and brokenness we have comforts, we have safety and security, and so we are filled with fear…fear of losing what we have, fear of change.

Isn’t that odd…that those in the winter are filled with hope while those enjoying the summer are filled with fear?!

So how do we reconcile the two?

This is our task of Advent. Looking back and looking forward.

Yes we are waiting for the coming of the Christ child but we do so in ritual, we do so with our eyes and hearts turned back in history. The birth of this child is our past. But still we have this season, this sacred time of anticipation – as we await his coming. We decorate trees, we gather with family, we light our world with candles and Christmas lights – we sing beautiful songs…we fully embrace the sounds, the smells, the tastes of this season for we know where they lead…
To a baby boy born homeless, to an adolescent who never quite fit with expectations, to a man who wept over the death of a friend, to a teacher whose students betrayed and denied him, to questioning God’s will, feelings of abandonment, and to death on the cross…

The life of Jesus on this earth was not as beautiful as we like to make it out. There was pain and doubt and struggle and suffering…all this begins on Christmas Eve. But what do we do? We celebrate! We do not allow the fearful parts of Jesus life to keep us from rejoicing. Why? Because we know that was not the end of the story. Yes he was homeless, outcast at times, betrayed, denied, he suffered, he died…but three days later he rose again. When we look at the life of Jesus we see it all…from Bethlehem to the empty tomb and we rejoice in every step of that journey.
And so when we look toward the end…we must do the same. There will be fear and foreboding, the stars and moon and roaring of the sea and waves will bring distress and confusion but that will never be the end of the story…the end of the story is a new heaven and a new earth, it will be abundant love and peace and joy of God -- on earth!

So maybe this scripture is right? Maybe as we live in this time of advent…this time when Christ is “coming” we are to anticipate and prepare for the 2nd coming in the same way we anticipate and prepare for the first.

When we think the words or hear the song….its beginning to look a lot like Christmas…we are excited and anxious and expectant of what is to come…
And so when we see the signs…when it seems like the kingdom of God is drawing near…let us be filled with the spirit of advent…with hopeful expectation of the coming of Christ. Amen.