11/29/15 Advent 1 Trinity, Kent
“Signs, signs, everywhere signs”
Pr. D. Fidler
In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here we go again!!! Sandwiched between Black Friday and Cyber
Monday we enter into the time of the year as one advertiser has
put it-- “thanks-getting”, the time of colossal savings, unseen
before events and drama unfolding that will change your life!
It’s also that time of the year when the focus is on the birth of the
Christ child and the time when His coming again will set
everything right. It’s a confusing time of the year. It’s what we
call in the Church the season of Advent! Coming. And Jesus
comes singing,
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin'
out
the
scenery,
breakin'
my
mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?” it’s all very clear
what’s going on – can’t you read the sign?
You know those ornaments that say “Baby’s First Christmas?” We
have two of them that Deborah insists still go on the tree every
year. Well, I realized that this will be my 60th Christmas (a
milestone for which I’ve never seen an ornament) and therefore
also my 60th Advent!
I’ve also been in this pastoral role for 35 of those Advents, and really,
by this time I know the drill. The First Sunday of Advent?
That’s always when Jesus talks about “signs” of “that day” when “the
Son of Man” comes in power and glory and a final judgment is
pronounced, echoing the vision of the prophet Daniel that we
heard last Sunday at the Church year’s conclusion.
But I’ve heard it 60 times now – well, minus the number of times I
was too young to understand… and the years by other important
stuff like finals, parties, Christmas shopping and the endless
paging through the Christmas catalog and wondering what would
be there under the tree for me.
Okay, so I’ve heard it at least a few dozen times; how there will be “on
the earth distress among nations…”
Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus says, “nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes,
and in various places famines and plagues,” but you know what?
I’d be hard-pressed to identify an Advent in my lifetime in which
that’s not been the case. Luke adds the vivid detail that “people
will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the
world.”
I don’t know that he’s talking about folks literally losing
consciousness and slumping to the ground. But I do know people
right now who are so exhausted by life’s struggles that they don’t
know whether they have the strength to take another step.
I know people who are well-nigh paralyzed by anxiety and don’t know
where to turn.
I know people who look to the future and see in it little or no hope of
anything good. And I don’t suppose there’s ever been an Advent
in which that’s not the case, either.
So I wonder if Jesus’ words point us in a rather different direction
from the road we usually go down when we hear about “signs in
the sun, the moon, and the stars,” and try to figure out whether
any of the end of the world predictions have any truth to them or
whether we had better go ahead with Christmas shopping after all.
What if Jesus’ warnings and predictions have less to do with the end of
history than they do with the passing moments and the missed
opportunities of the here and now?
I’m not saying that there won’t be an end to the world as we know it.
Everyday experience tells us that nothing lasts, that everything
changes; we just don’t know exactly when, or by what or how.
The Bible is clear that Creation as it’s presently constituted is not the
end point of God’s creativity or purpose; and what Jesus says here
and elsewhere indicates that in the run-up to earth’s ultimate
transformation things could get pretty rocky, though the same
could be said for any transitional time in this world’s history,
including perhaps the one we’re living through.
But I’ve long had the sneaking suspicion that whenever people become
engrossed with developing a timetable for “the end time,” it’s at
least in part so that they can figure out how much time we have
left before we have to get serious.
It’s just how we humans roll, or at least I do. “When’s the deadline?”
--that’s always a great motivator for me. But I don’t think Jesus
would utter such “predictions” and then say, but don’t pay any
attention just yet for another 2,000, 3,000, 10,000 years or so.
It would, for example, make a significant different in my work habits
if it were understood that instead of always gathering for worship
on Sunday morning at 8:15 and 10:45 we could assemble at any
time between Wednesday and Sunday morning whenever one of
you sent out a group message that said, “I need church to happen
now! Meet me at Trinity in 90 minutes.
It seems to me that that sort of “on call” alertness is what Jesus is
talking about. We don’t know and we can’t know whether this
world will rock on for another 10,000 or 100,000 years or whether
the sun goes nova on Tuesday. (I think we’d have a little more
warning about that, but by golly I’m a theologian NOT an
astrophysicist so I don’t know for sure.)
We don’t know, and we can’t know, whether our life in this world will
last another 60 years, or end tomorrow with absolutely no
warning. The thing is, we don’t need to worry about any of it!
Everything is unfolding within the Lord’s plan and purpose, and
the end of the story- of all our stories – is guaranteed to be good.
So here’s what Jesus tells His followers to do when things get rocky,
when the news seems to be nothing but bad, when fearfulness is
the prevailing mood and people around us are losing hope and not
even trying anymore.
“Stand up!” He says, “Raise your heads, because your redemption,
your redeeming is drawing near.” To “redeem” something is to
activate its value, like the Kohl’s coupon that’s worth exactly
nothing lying on my desk but is worth 20% off anything in the
store when I remember to take it with me and hand it to the
cashier.
We will be redeemed, our God given value will be seen fully on that
day we enter God’s New Creation, whether we are among those
whom the apostle Paul pictures as “caught up in the cloud” to
meet the Lord, or among the much larger throng of resurrected
saints in His entourage. That’s what God has in store for us, and
it’s pretty awesome to contemplate. But for us who are in Christ,
redemption has begun already, and the Lord is in the process of
activating what He knows to be our value. THAT’S what Baptism
is all about! Here God claims us as His very own – a value
beyond any cost. End of story. And nothing can change that!
So when Jesus tells us to “be on guard” and to “be alert” He doesn’t
only mean for us to live in the awareness that at any moment we
could find ourselves stepping into eternity. In fact, that seems like
a cop out. It’s a future event that has no meaning for me today.
Jesus is telling us to be alert to the presence of God’s Kingdom among
us now, wherever two or three of us are gathered together, or
connected with each other by telephone or text, by email or
Facebook, or in prayer for one another urging us to remain
watchful for the opportunities that we have to extend His
Kingdom’s reach in what we say and do every day, with every
person we encounter.
In fact the way I read it Jesus wants us to understand that it’s precisely
when our world is distressed, when things are shaken up or seem
downright scary, that the prospect of redemption is near, it’s at
hand. It’s in those unsettling times that the Lord does some of
His finest work, creating something new, something of value, out
of the ruins of what used to be. It’s when the lesser things upon
which we had come to depend fall away or fails us that we learn
to fully rely on God. That’s Gospel good news for the life of this
world, for you and me in the ups and downs of our life.
Advent is also a time that we remember Christ’s first coming and the
signs He performed remind us that the Kingdom of God has
ALREADY BROKEN IN among us. God’s future has entered our
present. It IS at hand and it is coming – soon and very soon—in
God’s time.
The kingdom is near, and it’s coming with all its fullness soon. And
until then I can’t help but think that Jesus is more interested in the
signs to be seen here on earth, than the signs to be seen in the
skies – to signs in the sun, moon and stars, but signs in me and
you and us. We’re not so much looking for signs, as WE ARE
signs!
We are people who have read the end of the book. We know how the
story ends. We know God wins! And so we as God’s people, in
our life together are not waiting for the end to come, holding up a
sign of resignation –‘someday.’ but we live in such a way that our
life IS a sign “The New Beginning is Near!”
We are the beachhead of the kingdom.
We’re like the preview or trailer of the movie that makes people look
forward to seeing the full show.
We’re like the warm-up act that gets people pumped for the concert
that is about to begin.
We’re the appetizer that makes people hunger for the full feast – like
the person at the ice cream shop who lets me get a taste of the rum
raisin before she hands me the full cone. You want to see the
coming future?... look at faithful, loving Christian lives.
We are the sign!
And you know what? We’re not the same as we were last time Advent
happened.
We have learned, and we have grown; and maybe we’ve slid back into
one or two bad habits.
We have tried some new things and been pleasantly surprised; we have
tried others and fallen flat on our faces.
We have welcomed new people into our lives and are richer for it; we
have said sorrowful “goodbyes” to persons that will never be
replaced, to places and moments in time that can never be
replicated.
We’re not the same; and for any one of us, this is not the same world
we inhabited only a year ago, not quite; or not nearly.
And you know what that means? This Advent is happening for the
very first time! We really don’t “know the drill.” We don’t
know what “new thing” the Lord is going to do in us and through
us but we do know that He will be with us breaking in upon us in
ways we hadn’t expected. –That’s Advent!
Here we go! “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
fulfill the promises I made…” It’s Advent, again, and yet also
for the very first time…Past, present, future-- God is coming and
God’s Got Us! in the most precious name of Jesus. Amen.