Happy New Year to you all! Today is the first day of the church year and with it we begin the long march to Pentecost. Over the next 6 months we will, once again, endeavor to understand the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what those events mean for ourselves, our community, and our world. There was a time when Advent was treated as a season of penitence and repentance, similar to that of Lent, but we have since discerned that Advent is more for reflection and anticipation. So here we are, once again waiting, watching, and anticipating; but for what do we wait? For what do we watch? What are we anticipating?
Today’s passage from Luke’s gospel hints of the coming apocalypse; of the end times; of the end of life as we know it and then warns us to be ready. At first glance this is a pretty scary passage of scripture, we are not used to Jesus telling us to fear anything, but here he is saying “be on guard”; but before we get carried away let’s take a moment to remember that an apocalypse is nothing to be feared, and in fact the message here is actually one of Hope. The Greek word apokálypsis, from which our word apocalypse is derived, means to uncover or reveal something that is hidden, as opposed to our definition which is the complete and final destruction of the world. While semantically that is arguably the same thing, for now we are just going to focus on the Greek definition because Greek is the language Luke used when he wrote his version of the Gospel.
Another thing to be aware of is that this passage is taken out of its context, and is in fact the very end of a sermon Jesus gave while teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem, during which he described the hypocrisy of the scribes who do everything for show; he described the widow who gave all that she had to the temple; he speaks of the eventual destruction of the temple; he describes the persecution his followers will endure for the sake of the gospel; and then he describes the eventual destruction of Jerusalem itself. It is only at that point that we reach today’s passage, a passage that describes the return of Emmanuel, God among us. Jesus’s words are not a warning to fear his return, it is not a condemnation of non-believers and sinners, though that is how it is often viewed because for nearly 2,000 years that is what has been taught, but that version is wrong. It is wrong because it makes absolutely no sense within the context of everything Jesus taught and stood for. His entire ministry, as presented to us in four different books shows us that he never advocated anything except love. Does he talk about separating the sheep from the goats? Yes, he does. Does he talk about returning to sit in judgement? Yes, he does. Does he talk about the destruction of the world? Yes, he does, we just heard it. The issue here is not what Jesus may have said about these things, the issue is that we are failing to understand the broader context in which these things were said and taking that into account as we discern their meaning.
Theologian and Presbyterian pastor Wes Avram says that “Luke wrote with a deep and growing sense that Christian discipleship is a kind of living in between—aware of Jesus, waiting for Jesus, and coming to know Jesus for whom we wait in the midst of an eventful, unpredictable, even tumultuous world, waiting to stand before him, yet not always knowing where he is.” Dr. Avram’s words jumped out at me because in them I see what Jesus is describing in Luke’s gospel, not just in the little snippet we heard today, but throughout. Jesus is telling us that being his disciple is going to be hard. People are going to challenge us; they are going to persecute us; they are going to think we are crazy Jesus people and sometimes they are going to be right about that; sometimes it is going to feel like the earth is quaking; that the sun and moon, and stars are falling; sometimes the nations, the people of the world, are going to be confused and not know what is happening, and they will react viscerally to protect the things they believe are important. In short, the world is going to continue to be the world because human existence is messy, and chaotic, and scary and just because we find comfort in the idea of a loving God, that doesn’t mean that everyone does and it also doesn’t mean that we are always able to find God in the chaos. Which is why we have to ask where is Jesus in all of this? Where is Emmanuel?
The world in 2024 is a scary place for many people. Many fear that the values by which they define themselves and their families, are being taken away as western society opens itself to wider definitions of love and inclusion; and likewise, there are many who fear that the new definitions of acceptance will be undone. Some are using the power of government to oppress and destroy peoples they deem dangerous or simply in their way; just as there are people whose lives are destroyed by those actions, who want nothing more than to be able to live their lives in peace. Most people simply live their lives, doing their best to follow the rules and be a good person, but they too are afraid at times. They are afraid that they aren’t good enough or that their efforts are somehow not worthy. For many people, every day feels like the end times, like the apocalypse. This world, today, is no different than the one Jesus experienced, which is why his teachings continue to be relevant.
At the beginning of this I asked for what are we waiting and watching? Hint, we are not waiting for the birth of Christ or his resurrection. There is no need to watch, and wait, and anticipate something that has already happened. We need to watch for the presence of God among us; we need to wait for God to soften the hearts of those who cling to earthly power; and we need to anticipate the day when Christ will once again walk among us and reveals the full glory of the kingdom of heaven.
As we begin another church year, as we wait for the return of Jesus, as we watch for and anticipate God’s presence among us, we must also cling to the knowledge that God never left and that the great revealing of which Jesus spoke may in fact be the knowledge that while we await the return of Jesus, God is in fact among us in spirit. God the Holy Spirit is in the hearts and minds of all. They are in the hearts of those who want to protect their sense of self; they are in the hearts of those who use the power of government for destruction and for good; they are in those who wish to simply live peacefully. What this boils down to is this: in our anticipation of the return of Christ Jesus, as we wait for the Holy Spirit to do their work, as we watch for the presence of God among us, we need to not lose sight of the message of the gospel, the message of love and forgiveness that Jesus embodied because it was and is this message that has and will continue to better the world, despite our best efforts to stop it, until the day when Christ returns. Amen.
Learning by Fire! 