"What's the World Coming To?"
Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36
“The days are surely coming,”
proclaims Jeremiah. The days of promise
and fulfillment are surely coming. The
days of justice and righteousness are surely coming. The days of salvation and safety are surely
coming.
But when?
The first Sunday of Advent each year features apocalyptic
imagery and a sense of foreboding. The
gospel writers and the lectionary committee won’t let us get away with
sentimentalizing these weeks of Advent and skipping ahead to the baby Jesus in
the manger. Earlier in this chapter of
Luke, Jesus had told this disciples that the days will come when the Temple
would be destroyed, and they asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what
will the sign be that this is about to take place?”[1]
The earliest Christians thought the Second Coming would be
immediate... and they lived
accordingly. For many centuries, Advent
was observed as a season of waiting. The
faithful waited for the feast of the Nativity, a time to celebrate the mystery
of the incarnation. They waited for the
Second Coming of the Christ.
But over 2,000 years have
passed since God came to dwell among us in Jesus of Nazareth, and Jesus hasn't
come back. And so we wait.
Centuries before the birth of Jesus, the Old Testament prophets
were preaching about waiting for one who would be like a light for the
darkness. Those who heard the prophets
were weary with impatience. “The
days are surely coming,” Jeremiah had said. But when?
We look around, and we wonder, “What’s the world coming
to?” I think this apocalyptic passage in
Luke seems very relevant when we don’t expect it to predict our future—but
rather to see how it states the truth of our life now.
It seems that every week there are terrible things in the
news. This week it was the release of
the video of the squad car video of the shooting a year ago of 17-year-old
Laquan McDonald in Chicago by a police officer—16 times and the resulting
community unrest. It was the shooting at
a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs that killed Officer Garrett Swasey,
campus police officer, father of 2 young children, and a church elder… and 3
civilians… and wounded 5 police officers and 4 civilians. Paris is continuing to mourn the mostly young
people who were killed in the terrorist attack.
The conflict between the state of Israel and Palestinians continues to
escalate. Around the world, people live
in fear of more terrorist attacks.
What’s the world coming to?
People are “fainting from fear” and foreboding of what’s
happening in the world… and what might happen.
The powers of the heavens are shaking. As Karoline Lewis writes, the gospel lesson
is profoundly relevant, because in and through it we hear the truth of our
human brokenness. Jesus speaks the truth
“about our condition, about the world’s condition, that never really changes.”[2]
The way Luke tells it, Jesus is deliberately vague about
when Jesus will return. He refuses to
give his disciples any hint of a timetable.
Instead, he says, “When all these fearful things are happening, stand
up…raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
The Greek word translated here as “drawing near” is the word
used in various places to talk about how the kingdom of God is near in a sense
of immanence. The kingdom is not far
off. It is right here in the Son of Man,
and in his proclamation. The kingdom of
heaven has come near.
Then Jesus tells them a parable of a fig tree. As soon as the fig trees sprout leaves you
can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.”
What is the world coming to?
I believe there are a lot of people here and out there who are genuinely
worried about the direction in which our society and our world seem to be
moving, and worried about what sort of future their children and grandchildren
may inherit.
Now, concerns about the state of the world aren’t new. We’re not the first Christians to look at
the world around us and see cause for alarm. Like us, those early Christians would have
been tempted to wonder where God was in the midst of a world where things
seemed to be going from bad to worse.
Luke probably had those early Christians in mind when he
recorded the words Jesus spoke in today’s gospel lesson. They’re confident words, words that offer
reassurance and hope: “Your redemption
has come near.”
It’s hard to wait and pray and hope and stay alert. We have prayed for peace, and still we
wait. We have prayed for healing in the
quiet corridors of the hospital. We have
prayed for the healing of the creation
and the healing of the wounds of racism.
We pray, and we wait.
The church has always struggled with its pain over a future
that fails to come. “Come, Lord
Jesus,” the early Christians
prayed...but it was Roman soldiers who came.
“This world is passing away,” they sang...but the world remained.
If there is no God-shaped future at hand...if nothing is
about to happen-- then there’s just a
series of days. All that’s left for the
church is to be another well-meaning
institution. All that’s left for the
church to do is to get together for routine Sunday services, and keep the doors
open and the roof repaired, and have
pot-luck suppers. If nothing is about to happen.
But if the church is standing at the threshold of God’s
kingdom of justice and peace, then the church can dare to touch the wounds of
lepers and pour out its resources
freely for the poor. If the new age of
healing and mercy is just around the corner, then the church can cheerfully
bear suffering and persecution...and faithfully sing its alleluias.
Today’s gospel lesson was written to encourage the early
Christians during hard times and to call their attention to the signs of the
forthcoming kingdom. Although the
promise of the second advent of Christ hadn’t yet been completely fulfilled--
it was forthcoming. The harvest in a
planted field is a forthcoming event.
What is forthcoming stands at the horizon of the present. The signs are there-- if we look up and take
heed of them.
The signs of evil are still rampant in the world around
us. If we don’t look up-- they’re the
only signs we’ll see. That’s why we
need to remember to look up...to look closer, through the eyes of faith, for
the signs of God’s kingdom, like the tiny buds of a fig tree.
As Christians, we’re called into a life of hope and
trust. Each day brings an opportunity
for us to experience the miracle of the dying and rising of Christ...and a new
opportunity to live out Christ’s love in our lives.
Jesus’ words invite us to have hope and confidence. They assure us that-- despite the direction
in which the world seems to be moving-- the situation is under God’s
control. Like a coach whose team is down
at halftime, Jesus offers us a pep-talk.
“Stand up,” he says. “Raise your
heads.” Don’t give in to the temptation
of pessimism and despair. The Lord will
prevail, and for that reason, we can keep our heads held high.
Each day we need to be on the lookout for signs of the
kingdom of God. “The days are surely
coming”-- but we won’t notice their
approach unless we’re looking for them...anticipating them...knowing that they
are coming.
I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time with the
short days and the long, dark nights this time of the year. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy the
Christmas lights. Later in
December, I’ll be on the lookout for the
winter solstice and how the days gradually start getting a little longer.
Then, near the end of
winter, I start watching the sunny places on the south side of peoples’ houses
with great anticipation for the first snowdrops and crocuses to pop up and
start blooming. I’m on the lookout for
signs that spring is coming.
I’m also constantly on the lookout for signs that people are
growing, being transformed, becoming more Christ-like in our Littlefield
community and elsewhere. When someone
tells me they’re becoming a better person because they’re a part of our
Christian community-- it gives me as much hope and joy as seeing the first
bulbs in the spring!
If we look up, through eyes of faith, we see the signs. We see groups of Christians, Muslims, and
Jews building bridges through social media and personal relationships, forming
friendships, finding ways to work together to work for a more peaceful world. If we look up, we see people of goodwill
working and praying together for racial justice and reconciliation. We see people working tirelessly to bring
peace to Israel and Palestine.
If we look up, we see people from Littlefield and all over
our presbytery working together to serve a delicious Thanksgiving dinner for over
1,700 people in need… and serving the people who come to Fort Street Open Door
for various kinds of help. We see our
mission partners changing peoples’ lives by embodying God’s love.
Look up, and see through eyes of faith.
The season of Advent challenges us to know that Christmas is
so much more than family gatherings and gift-giving. Advent calls us to watch and pray-- to open
ourselves to the presence of Christ in our lives now...and to allow our lives
to be shaped by the anticipation of Christ’s coming kingdom.
Be alert. Pray at all
times. Pray “Thy Kingdom come-- because
that is the shape of the future. All the
signs point to it.
I believe today’s gospel lesson has a word for how we are to
wait in the meantime, between the past and future advents; between God’s coming to us in the past and
God’s coming in the future, as it unfolds.
Waiting and watching is the posture of God’s faithful people. But how are we to wait?
I believe that we are called, not to a passive kind of waiting,
but a vigilant waiting and watching.
“When these things
begin to take place, stand up...” I
think this is the kind of waiting and watching Luke has in mind. Our waiting and watching prepares us to join
in at those points where God’s future is struggling toward fulfillment
now. The call to watch is a call to
discern the ways in which we may be faithful to the way God has set before
us. It’s a call to be actively about the
Christian life, to live into God’s future as it continues to come into our present
lives.
Even when we see tragedy, cruelty, evil, and abuse all
around us, and we wonder, “What’s the world coming to?”-- the Good News of Advent is that God isn’t
finished with us yet. God isn’t finished
with the world yet.
So, be alert. Pray at
all times.
Pray that the Lord make us increase and abound in love for
one another and for all...and strengthen our hearts in holiness, that we may be
blameless before our God at the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Every word we say...every thing we do...every prayer we pray
is important, because we’re called to live our lives in hope and anticipation,
as we watch and wait for Christ to come again.
So pray. Pray for the
coming of the Christ. Pray for his rule
in our lives...and in the world. Pray
“thy Kingdom come, thy will be done”--
because that is the one prayer that we know will ultimately be answered.
Come, Lord Jesus!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
November 29, 2015
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