Welcome to Advent, the four weeks before Christmas. And Christmas is of course, the celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Jesus the Christ, God come to earth. Advent, which I expect many of you also know, means coming. Advent is an interesting time from a church perspective. Traditionally Advent is considered a time of preparation—a time of the year when we think about the Saviour Jesus’ coming into our lives. It is actually a good time to look within our selves, and prayerfully consider how we can open ourselves up to a deeper relationship with Jesus, a time to come even closer to Christ. That’s why bible and book studies are offered during Advent! We’re surrounded by pre-Christmas advertising to buy, buy, buy, and we are all busy cashing in on the pre-Christmas publicity. So, coming to church is a good thing, an opportunity for some time for spiritual introspection, to get a break from the busyness and media hype. In our scriptures on Sundays in Advent, we look back on some of the salient biblical events that happened before Jesus’ time that signaled the coming of the promised Messiah. It’s like a search for the promise of God entering into the history of God’s people. So that’s why we look all the way back to the book of Jeremiah to start off the first Sunday of Advent, with reminders of God’s promises of bringing goodness to God’s children! Jeremiah’s prophecies came during the time of the Babylonian destruction of Israel & Judah; many of the Hebrew people had been exiled to Babylon and for those left behind, life was difficult, miserable and the people wondered where God was in the unhappiness and extremely tough conditions of their lives. The people of God were exiles and refugees of war, a reality probably not so different from the lives of the refugees in camps that we see still today on television: a horrid way of life, now or then. And in the midst of all of the realities of the Babylonian and Persian conquests, God sends the prophet Jeremiah to bring the Hebrew people the promise of better times ahead. He tells them to turn back to the Lord as the focus of their lives—for their falling away is what precipitated their downfall. He tells them God will also send someone who will save them and who comes from the family of their great King David. This saviour will be called “the Lord is our Righteousness”, who will “execute justice and righteousness in the land” of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. Yes, this saviour was coming, God had promised, God had not forgotten them!
Well, now we fast forward some 370 years or so to the time of Luke, and Jesus is bringing his followers a message that makes him sound a bit like those old time prophets. He’s warning them of a time of fearful doom and gloom to come. Our gospel reading from today is classic apocrypha – an end of the world message. Now, there seems to be two camps of biblical scholars here; those who feel that the end times Jesus was giving warning about was the destruction of Jerusalem, which in fact did come in 70 AD. The reference in verse 32 “this generation will not pass from the scene before these things have taken place” strongly influences this particular line of scholarly thinking. However, on the other side of the argument are those scholars who feel that Jesus was referencing the actual end times, when Jesus will come again—known as the second advent of Christ—the “second coming”. It’s an argument that we’re not going to settle today, to be sure. Whichever camp you find yourself leaning towards; this is still not an easy message to hear. Jesus is preparing his followers for the eventuality, to watch for the signs and to be ready because some tough times were a-coming. He tells them; “There will be strange things happening to the sun, the moon and the stars. On the earth whole countries will be in despair, afraid of the roaring of the sea and the raging tides. People will faint from fear… for the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Jesus does rather sounds like the prophets of old, doesn’t he? In fact, this was the point, Jesus was quoting Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Joel, and quotes a number of psalmists too in this apocryphal or ‘end of the world’ exhortation. These words still can be frightening to hear and cause concern and conjecture for us today.
But in the time of Jesus and for the people who were listening to him, they heard this with different ears than how we hear it, 2,000 or so years later. They lived in the times of prophets, they came from a history of prophetic interventions, prophets who warned them that they were not living according to the promises of the covenant, the treaty that they had made with God to live righteous lives according to the Laws of Moses. They believed that God was the one who was ultimately in control of everything, particularly in natural events of the sun, the moon, the sky, the tides. The concept that God is totally and completely in control of God’s world -- the past, the present and the future would not have been as strange concept for them as it can seem to us, in our scientifically oriented world view. The idea of divine intervention on such a large scale, such as Jesus was warning them of, using the words of the earlier prophets would have reminded them of those scriptures in the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah. It echoed the times around the destruction of the first temple, the time of God’s cleansing the unrighteous and the unjust ones from Jerusalem, the city of David. First century peoples would have understood that reference point; they would have automatically made those associations, and also understood that this larger than life language, this apocalyptic language was used to anticipate really important events.
Not surprisingly, the disciples wanted to know when these things would happen, and Jesus told them to look for the signs, like the fresh new leaves sprouting on a fig tree signify spring. He told them to watch, to be aware, because it would come, but Luke doesn’t give us any more indication as to when. But, Jesus told them, when it did come, “the Son of Man will appear with power and great glory” and that is when we are to stand up and raise our heads, because our redemption, our salvation is drawing near.
Now these are words of comfort from Jesus. “The world’s a scary place, but don’t let your hearts be troubled. I have overcome the world. So wait in the midst of it all, just before the dawn, for in the midst of the night, there are strange and redeeming events afoot.” [1] In the midst of those fearful times to come, whenever they come, Jesus promises he will be there; we are not to cower in fear but stand up tall, raise our heads and look for Jesus because He will be there. Now that doesn’t mean we can lead idle or irresponsible lives, Jesus warns, don’t get caught in that trap. Be vigilant, pray for strength for times of trouble, and pray that we will see Jesus when he comes again!
We also need to remember that Luke is writing to his community of late first century Christians, which was a difficult time to be a Christian, to be sure. And it was very much a time where many truly believed Jesus’ return was imminent—like any day now. So, what Luke is telling his community is that they were living in time in between--after Jesus’ first coming and before his second coming. So, they were to really be prepared for Jesus coming into their lives again, and to live accordingly!
That is the true message and the celebration of Advent, for those days, and for today as well -- the thoughtful looking forward to the joy of Jesus’ coming again, the day of redemption when all will be gathered to our Saviour. But mixed with the apprehension of not knowing when that will be, or what that will bring. Yet all the while we can remain strong in the knowledge, the comfort and hope of knowing that Jesus will be there to see us through that time, just as he is with us every day as we deal with the anxieties of our day to day lives.
This is the paradox of Christianity, the “right now, but not yet” of our faith. Jesus lived, died, rose again to prove that evil cannot overcome God. The Spirit of Jesus is with us, in the here and now, and Jesus will come again; the paradox of Christianity and the hopeful message of Advent. Jesus is coming, and Jesus is here! Amen.
[1] Wesley D. Avram: in Pastoral Perspective for Luke 21: 25-36 in Feasting on the Word, Year C Volume 1 p. 22