Sermon for Advent I Year C 2012 Prepare the Way Apocalypse Now: Fear? Terror? No! Rejoice!

Transcription

1 Sermon for Advent I Year C 2012 Prepare the Way Apocalypse Now: Fear? Terror? No! Rejoice! Okay, it s true confessions time! How many of you are concerned that the end of the Mayan calendar is just a mere 19 days away? I imagine most of you couldn t care less... But perhaps there are a few of you who are just the tiniest bit spooked by the idea that the ancient Mayans who were renowned for their artistic, mathematical and scientific achievements who constructed stone monuments and pyramids with precise computations... these ancient peoples predicted that time would end on December 21st, 2012 were right. It has come to be known as the 2012 Apocalypse. Whether we are a little anxious or just amused and a bit curious about the Mayan apocalypse, we cannot escape the message of end times altogether especially if you were listening to the readings this morning which begin with a promise from Jeremiah The days are surely coming which were then followed up by apocalyptic thunder as Jesus overwhelms his hearers with the unspeakable doom they are about to experience. The heavenly bodies will be shaken. People will freak out and faint with terror. They will be filled with anxiety about the future. The End is here! 1

2 Now, I ve never pictured Jesus as a sandwich-board wearing type preacher with a message of doom and gloom before, but it seems like that guy and Jesus have similar messages. (Actually, Jesus is an apocalyptic preacher just not a preacher of gloom and doom. There is a difference. More about that a little later.) But let s be honest, while we (or at least I) dismiss sandwich-board guy who warns of impending doom, gloom and doom is the message that fuels our cable news cycle 24/7 albeit in a more nuanced and sophisticated way. I do not say this to belittle the real suffering that happens in the midst of storms like Hurricane Sandy or other forms of calamity, like the most recent drought in the mid-west and in Africa. I bring it up because people that I encounter make this very connection when calamity strikes well, many say it in jest, but still it comes up. So... is the most recent calamity what Jesus was talking about this morning? End time thoughts are so common in such circumstances, it seems it is just human nature. In the midst of uncertainty and a lack of control over our circumstances, we become unsettled and grab hold of anything we can, 2

3 perhaps even going into survival mode anyone dig a doomsday bomb shelter in their basement recently? But Jesus points the way to a different response to the end! Jesus points to a redemption (a liberation!) of what comes naturally to us humans. Redeemed (liberated) human nature doesn t give way to fear, or faints of terror or become overwhelmed with anxiety. It also avoids the pitfalls of escapism (i.e., Jesus, get us out of here before anything bad happens). Jesus is so stoically matter-of-fact in today s text one has to wonder if he s being driven by faith or fatalism. When the end comes, Jesus says, stand up, lift up your arms and I will grab you and pull you up and out of that mess. Wait, wait, that s not what Jesus said, is it? No, what he actually said is, Stand up and lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near! In the midst of the calamity that signals the end, redemption (our deliverance) is fashioned somehow through the power and glory of the Son of Man who comes in the midst of mayhem. 3

4 And Jesus reinforces this point with a parable about the fig tree. The message remains the same, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. In other words this is good news! God is near, salvation is near. This is what I meant when I said Jesus is an apocalyptic preacher because apocalypse really means revelation In the midst of a confrontation of good and evil, God s liberating grace is revealed. In the face of calamity, fallen human nature asks, Is this it? Yet, in the light of Jesus teaching, another question seems more important: How should we live before, up to and in the midst of calamity that signals end? What are the attitudes and actions of the faithful affected by any such calamity? What does it really mean to hasten the arrival of this apocalyptic moment? Well, first, Jesus says, Be careful. It is possible to lose sight of it, to miss it. You can be so blind that you just walk into the trap of getting caught up by responding out of your fallen human nature. If you are not careful you will live your life plagued by anxiety, weighed down by the stuff of real life, such that you seek to avoid reality 4

5 through things like drinking too much. That is not the life that God intends for you. That is not the purpose for which Jesus came and is coming again. That is not redemption; that is not the liberation or the deliverance that God has in mind for us. In the years leading up to the year 1000, religious leaders spoke of the world as being world grown old and senile, ripe for a well-deserved oblivion. (Nice, right?) Many people believed the day of judgment (what the Hebrew scriptures called the Day of the LORD) would come exactly one thousand years after Jesus birth and their fears seemed to be confirmed by what they saw going on around them. In the tenth century, Europe was under attack, with fierce Slavs invading from the east while the Muslims were swarming up from the south. Meanwhile, the air was thick with pollution from countless wood fires and sewage ran in the streets. People saw meteors in the sky and volcanoes on earth. It is said that when the Pope stood motionless in front of the altar at the conclusion of the mass on New Year s Eve 999 AD, no one breathed as the church bell began to ring midnight: 5

6 One, two, three now is the time to repent your sins Four, five, six any second now, half of us may be gone Seven, eight, nine hold tight to your children s hands; are all of them baptized? Ten, eleven, twelve look, the pope is still there with his hands in the air look, so are we! Alleluia! God has seen fit to spare our lives! Thanks be to God! The truth is, life is a series of end times mini-apocalypses : deaths, retirements, accidents, interims, graduations, changes, mystery, lost hopes and leave takings of all kinds. Life is also a series of feelings about these end times: anxiety and fear, but also expectation, waiting, and, hopefully, reflection. And Jesus wants us to know the good news that above all, life is a series of promises which often follow end times: new hopes (are revealed) new growth and new births or beginnings (are seen and experienced). The fig tree is a symbol of promise of new life more than a warning of impending doom. Remember, God's promises are initiated by God and not in response to anything we might have done to deserve them. 6

7 Too often we want to hold onto the old; we fail to let go so that the new can come in. Yet we can lift up our heads in anticipation because the One who promises is faithful. The fig tree reminds us that new life resurrection is always present if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear. This is why we rejoice because eternal life, life abundant begins now not just in the beyond. Advent is preparing for the long view As someone once said, you will never steer a straight course until you look farther down the road. Humorist Erma Bombeck seems to have had the long view of things about life and end times. She said: When I stand before God at the end of my life, I hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say [to God], I used everything you gave me. Wouldn t it be wonderful if we could all say that or at least strive for that? What a great revelation of the kingdom that would be! Did you know that on every car there is a wonderful Advent message printed on the side-view mirror on the passenger side? Objects in mirror are closer than they appear... Try it this way: God and God s kingdom are closer than they appear 7

8 Or at least they may appear to those who are not prepared to see them! God and God s kingdom are always closer to us than we can see or imagine. The thing we need to do is to prepare to see them and believe the message that they are closer coming to us more quickly than we had imagined. Did you happen to hear about the police officer who bought a pair of boots for a homeless street man? Is it not a sign of the kingdom of God and the presence of Christ in our world? What a wonderful way for us to begin Advent with this visible sign of the kingdom breaking into our world! Advent is for taking the long view, yet all the while knowing that the kingdom is closer than it seems. Advent means quite literally I come to During this Advent season, let us rejoice in thanksgiving for the liberation and deliverance at this good news which we will all proclaim together at the table in just a few moments Because Christ is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come! 8