Luke: 21: 25-36
Mel Prestamo, Elder PCUSA
Reading these verses at the beginning of the Advent Season might be thought of as being odd given that during Advent we are usually looking towards Christmas Day and the stories of the Babe’s birth in Bethlehem. During the Advent Season, it might seem more appropriate to be reading the stories from the first chapter of Luke. We are expecting the narrations of the story of the Angel Gabriel’s visit to the young virgin girl Mary and her acceptance of her role in God’s plan for salvation and a recitation of the Magnificat. But rather than hearing the stories of the infant Babe and the little town of Bethlehem, this lectionary and the gospel writer Luke take us to the end of Jesus’ ministry here on earth. Today’s gospel reading has us focusing on not the first coming but the next coming of the Christ.
Focusing on the next coming of the Christ was something that the early Christians did a lot of. The believed, indeed they expected, that the Christ was coming again, soon – right away. They were looking for it. They were hoping for it. The prayed for it. It was the obsession of every waking moment. During the time following the life, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus there was no celebration of his birth. There was only anticipation of the next coming of the Christ. Perhaps it is something that we don’t do enough of.
I wonder how many of our congregation arose from their sleep this morning contemplating Christ’s next coming this day. Think about that. What would it mean in our lives if the Christ stopped time and broken into our realty and returned to take us home, today. Honestly now, is that the first thing that you thought of when you awoke this morning?
Our lives have really gotten too busy. We’re planning the holiday season with check lists. We’re scheduling and preparing to host Christmas parties. Others of us are making travel plans to be with family. We’re arranging dates for visiting this relative or that one. We’ll be decorating our houses with lights and holly, and trees with ornaments. I’m sure that even after one of the largest menu packed days of our year, Thanksgiving, there are some well-prepared cooks who are already planning their Christmas dinners. And don’t forget to leave some time for gift shopping. Recently a family member announced they had already completed their Christmas shopping. That may not sound so bad expect they made the announcement back in October. We’re making the time for all these concerns and worries but have we stopped to hear the message that Jesus gave his followers in verse 34. “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.”
If we allow ourselves to be distracted by the anxieties of this life, we can lose the importance of the good news. That is that Christ will come again to take us home and we need to be ready.
The early Christians were consumed by the thought of it. And why shouldn’t they be? Many of them had seen the Christ. He had walked among them. He had taught them on the hillsides and from the lake shores. He had fed them on the mountain. Some were privileged to see him after his resurrection. They broke bread with him. They touched his wounds. They received his Great commission and saw his ascension. They knew he was real. They were very much the other extreme from us. They were looking for signs in the sun and the moon every day. In the time of Luke’s writing, which was already after the destruction of the temple by the Romans, they must have believed they were all the more close to his coming. They must have been retelling the stories and Jesus’ words of how they needed to be prepared looking closely for the signs he had mentioned.
Then there were those who planned for the coming of the Christ in much a different way. They did nothing. So real was it for them that he would be coming again soon to take them all to the Kingdom that they laid down and did nothing.
Jesus had predicted the destruction of the Temple. It had happened.
Jesus told them, they would be arrested. It happened. Peter and John and others had been arrested by the religious authorities. Some of them were executed by stoning.
So, for the early Christians, they believed it was all coming together. They were waiting for his next coming. They were excited. They were vigilant.
But after two thousand years, we have lost that anticipation. We come to worship each Sunday with no particular urgency. No. Wait. Let me rephrase that. We come here today with too many urgencies. Our minds are cluttered with arrangements that need to be made. Our hearts are distracted. We are weighed down with the worries of this life. We are not, “On guard.” Let’s face it, if Christ came today to take us home, we would cry out, “No. Wait. I’m not ready. You’ve come too soon. You were not expected.”
We are like the bridesmaids at the wedding feast waiting for the bridegroom. They grew tired of waiting. They fell asleep and let the oil in their lamps run out. And while they ran out to buy more oil, the bridegroom came and they missed him.
So much of what we do in our daily lives is a distraction. So much pulls us away. It bogs us down. It fills our minds with so many worries. In Mark, Jesus tells not to be concerned about the clothes we wear or the food we eat. Look at the flowers in the fields and the birds in the air. They are provided for by God. Are we not more important than these to God? As he cares for these so will he care for us. We shouldn’t allow this life to be so filled with worry that we become distracted from what is really important.
But we are. We’re concerned about car payments, mortgages, the cost of living, our raises, our standard of living. We’ve grown complacent. The hour grows late and we’re letting our lamps run dry. We grow tired of being vigilant. Our eyes are heavy and we long for sleep. And in that moment of distraction, we miss him.
We are far removed from the events of Jesus’ lifetime. We didn’t hear his words directly from him. We read the words in the gospels but we let them fall as just words instead of hearing them as the Word. We miss the exhortation.
“Be on guard!”
All of the things that Jesus warned us about are happening in our time. Christians are still being arrested and persecuted. Christians in China have to profess their faith behind closed doors. Priests and church leaders are imprisoned for the practice of their faith. In Africa, Christian workers are murdered because of the faith they profess and teach.
If the persecutions are still going on today, if the waiting is still going on, shouldn’t our vigilance go on, as well? Shouldn’t we still be on guard?
When you leave this place today will you be on guard? When you sit down for dinner this evening, will you still be on guard? This Advent Season as you prepare for the coming of Christmas and of the coming of the Babe, will you be on guard for the next coming of the Christ?
Read verse 34 with me again. “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down … with the worries of this life and that that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live upon the face of the earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all those things that will take place and [pray that you will] stand before the Son of Man.”
Amen.
