Its Beginning to Look a lot like Advent

Luke 21:25-36

“It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas / Everywhere you go / Take a look in the Five and Ten / Glistening once again / With candy canes and silver lanes aglow.” The words of the old song are dated. There are not too many Five and Ten Cent stores anymore. You couldn’t buy anything for a nickel or a dime if you tried! There are no more Woolworths. Now there are Dollar stores, and most of the stuff there costs more than a dollar. But even if the lyrics are from yesteryear, when December arrives it still begins to look a lot like Christmas. That is true for the town of Sandwich. The Christmas in the Village was yesterday. I will be going to hear Bach’s Magnificat in Alton next Sunday, then there is the Sandwich Singers Christmas Concert the Sunday after that. It is barely December but already it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The song talks about the signs of the season, the changes that begin to take place that tells us that Christmas is coming.

Our Scripture lesson for today is about the signs of Advent. Advent is different from Christmas. It is a season unique to the Christian church. You won’t find it advertised in commercial holiday flyers. For most of American society this is the Christmas season. We are given regular reminders how many shopping days there are until Christmas. But in Christian churches it is Advent, which is a season unto itself. Advent is about a lot more than just Christmas, as our Gospel lesson for today reveals. There is no mention of the baby Jesus in these texts. Instead the passage in the Gospel of Luke tells us about the signs leading up to the Advent of the Lord – which is the coming of the apocalyptic figure known as the Son of Man. Jesus says in our gospel reading verse 27 “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” That is what advent is about. I am not saying it has nothing to do with the birth of Christ. We are certainly look forward to celebrating that also. But it is about more than that; it is also about the so-called second advent of Christ. There are four different types of signs of Advent mentioned in our gospel reading today.

I. First are the Signs in the Natural World. Verse 25 says, “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.” A few verses earlier Jesus spoke of other signs in nature: “And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.”

We have been seeing some unusual signs in the natural world this year. Things like the superstorm called Hurricane Sandy, which the East Coast experienced not too long ago. Talk about the “sea and waves roaring!” That is a pretty good description of what happened to New Jersey and New York! And we all felt that earthquake a month or so ago. Californians are used to earthquakes, but they are rare for us. They may not be so rare in the future. The most dramatic, long-term and far-reaching natural sign of our times is climate change, or global warming. The arctic ice cap is melting at an alarming rate, glaciers are receding rapidly, the ice pack on Greenland is melting and causing the land mass to rise, which will in turn trigger more earthquakes as the earth’s crust adjusts, and then the sea levels to rise which will cause more coastal flooding when future hurricanes appear. I know there is political controversy about whether or not climate change is caused by human beings and what steps we ought to take to stop it or slow it down. But regardless what your opinion is on that question, it is irrefutable that climate change is happening and accelerating and we are in for many more natural signs like flooding, famines, fires and hurricanes as a result of this change in the ecosystem of our planet. These are the types of natural signs that Jesus mentions as the signs of Advent. Clearly it is beginning to look a lot like Advent.

II. The second type of Advent sign that Jesus mentions is the sign of the fig tree. “29 Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31 So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

Jesus tells us here that Advent is about the coming of the Kingdom of God. He says that when you see the signs of Advent, then know that the Kingdom of God is near. The Kingdom of God is the central teaching of Jesus Christ. Virtually all of Jesus’ parables were about the Kingdom of God. He would usually start most parables saying, “The kingdom of God is like ... a mustard seed, or a woman kneading dough, or the prodigal son returning home” or some other illustration. Here he says that the coming of the kingdom is like a fig tree.

Christianity understands that the Kingdom of God began appear the first Christmas in the birth of Jesus Christ as a baby in Bethlehem. The Kingdom of God unfolded in the earthy ministry of Jesus. It was powerfully demonstrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It was further advanced in the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. These are some of the events that Jesus had in mind when he said that “this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place.” It seems clear in the context of this chapter that he is also talking about the destruction of the city of Jerusalem which he predicted would occur within that first century generation, within the lifetimes of some of his hearers. Indeed it did happen in the year 70 AD, about 40 years after Jesus predicted it. The destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem by the Romans was also a sign of the coming kingdom of God.

But the Kingdom of God has not fully come. It is still not fully here today, even at the end of the year 2012. There is still a future fulfillment of the coming of the Kingdom of God. That is why he speaks the parable of the fig tree. “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31 So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.” His words are relevant for us today because the Kingdom of God is still to come. We are to look for the signs of its coming. The sign of its coming is the fig tree.

Some interpreters think that the fig tree refers to the nation of Israel being reestablished in our time in 1948. I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind. That feels too much like reading current events back into ancient texts. There are a lot of people who get very wrapped up in this type of prediction. They read the morning newspapers looking for modern day fulfillments of ancient prophecy. This type of thing has been going on for 2000 years, but has been particularly active the last couple of hundred years. Every generation has thought that they were the last generation. But all these predictions, date setting and identification of the symbols of Revelation and Daniel with nations, leaders, wars of recent centuries have been wrong. Every single one of them! That ought to tell us something. I think it tells us that it is time to stop and take a different approach.

I think Jesus is talking much more generally. He is saying that just like you can see the signs of spring in the natural world – specifically in the budding of the trees – (notice Jesus mentions not just the fig tree but all trees) so are we to pay attention to and look for signs of our times and what they say about God and his Kingdom. We are to look for the coming of the Kingdom but not get too wrapped up in date-setting and scare tactics. That is the sign of the fig tree.

III. The third sign that Jesus mentions are the signs in people’s hearts. Jesus mentions the human heart a couple of times in our passage. He says in verse 26 “men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” He says in verse 34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” He says two things about human hearts.

He says, that “men’s hearts fail [ing] them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth….” One sign is fear. Have you ever noticed how the network news always tries to scare you. I never noticed this until I read an article that pointed it out, and sure enough it is true. The first two or three stories on the evening news every night are designed to scare us. We are supposed to be afraid of meningitis from Massachusetts or hurricanes brewing in the Carribean or forest fires or earthquakes or terrorists or natural gas lines blowing up our homes. Be afraid of nuclear weapons in Iran or salmonella in your peanut butter. During this most recent election both major parties were doing their best to make people feel afraid of what would happen to America if the other party – whichever party that is – got elected. Financial, political, social, moral Armageddon!

 Be afraid! be very afraid! That is the message of the news today. And that is one of the signs, says Jesus, that will be present as the Kingdom of God approaches. It will be a time – to use Christ’s words -  when “people’s hearts will fail them from fear of the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.” It sounds a lot like our time. Theh front page story in USA Today on Novem ber 13 was on the preppers. The headline was “For preppers every day could be doomsday.” It was about those people and groups of people who are convinced that a nuclear or biological terrorist attack will happen any day, and so they hide themselves in bunkers in the wilderness to prepare for the end of civilization as we know it. It is beginning to sound a lot like Advent.

Then Jesus says in verse 34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life….” This is another way that some people react to the climate of fear. They numb the fear in their hearts with alcohol or drugs. Or they get emotionally “weighed down … with the cares of this life.” People are emotionally burdened and weighed down by life – by the financial burdens of mortgages, student loans, credit card debt, unemployment. If they are employed they feel weighed down by their jobs. People feel social pressures – bullying, isolation, loneliness. Emotional pressures can lead to suicides and depression. People are – like Jesus predicted - weighed down by the cares of this life.

IV. What is the solution? What is a faithful response to these signs of Advent? Jesus gives us two at the end of our gospel lesson. He says in verse 36 “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Jesus tells us to watch. The word “watch” often refers in the OT and NT to a spiritual practice. It is a deliberate way of approaching life. It means to view the world from a spiritual perspective. It means to be awake. The word is often used in combination with prayer and fasting. Just like fasting is to go without food, so is watching to go without sleep. To watch means to stay awake. People in biblical times would sometimes stay awake throughout the night – fasting and praying - as spiritual preparation for an important decision they were making. On the night before Jesus’s death, he watched and prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and asked his disciples to watch and pray with him. But they were unable to do that and fell asleep. Jesus in one of his parables talked about the bridesmaids who did not watch but fell asleep while waiting for the bridegroom to appear – a clear reference to the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Here in this passage he is using the term “watch” more generally to mean to be spiritually awake. The epistles use the term that way. Paul says in Romans, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” He says in Ephesians, “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” To watch means to live awake.  Many people are not living awake. They are sleepwalking through life, completely oblivious to spiritual reality. Completely unaware of anything beyond today’s physical or emotional needs. They are completely immersed in work or family or friends or social commitments. Entirely wrapped up in the affairs of this life and the things of this world, living unconsciously and unaware of the spiritual dimension. They might get little glimpses of it once in a while in an experience of beauty in nature, art or music. But it quickly passes and they fall asleep again. The gospel of Jesus is a call to wake up out of sleep, and to live the awakened life every day. Watch!

The other advice Jesus gives is to pray. Watch and pray. This is likewise a spiritual discipline. But like watching it is much more than speaking words to God. In fact I think that true prayer transcends words. There is a saying attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel always; if necessary use words.”  I think the same is true of prayer. “Pray always; if necessary, use words.” Prayer is not about the words we use. Words are optional. It is about the orientation of our heart and soul. Prayer is about orienting our hearts, souls, lives, and everything we do and say in relation to God. It is about opening ourselves up to the Kingdom of God in our midst now and opening ourselves up in love to the world. 

People close themselves off from God and others. Jesus tells us to love God and others with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. That is a prayerful attitude. That is living a life of prayer. Our whole lives are to be a prayer to God. Some writers – including Friedrich Nietzsche and Oscar Wilde – have talked about viewing life as a work of art. From a Christian point of view, we can say that life is to be a living prayer. Let us lives awake to God and awake to God’s presence in the world and in others. Then we can see the signs of God’s presence everywhere, and not be afraid. We will watch and pray, standing before God rejoicing at the coming of his Kingdom to earth.