Sunday 1st December 2024

 “Anticipation” (Luke 21:25-36 )

Intro:  Today as we enter Advent, we begin the new church year.  The Christian calendar starts with the first Sunday of Advent.  As a curious twist, the first passage of the lectionary each year is usually about the “end of time.”   Our reading this morning comes from Luke, chapter 21. //

This Sunday begins the season of Advent.  It is the time that has been set aside for centuries for people to prepare anew for Christ’s coming at Christmas.  Advent is a Latin word that means “to come.”  The birth of Jesus Christ, the first time that God came to be with us in human form is rightly considered “Advent.”  And we are all familiar with the story of how Jesus came as a child.  But throughout the Bible God speaks of a return visit, a “coming again” of Christ.  The first Sunday in Advent has traditionally been set aside to consider the second coming or “advent” of our Lord.

There’s probably no Christian teaching that’s caused more excitement and confusion than what is often called the “second coming of Christ.”  As Christmas comes closer and the pace of preparation becomes more and more hectic, I can just imagine some saying, “I hope he does come and let’s just get it over with!”   There have been some interesting comparisons between frantic roaring shopping malls and the end of time but I won’t get into that.  

In one of my favorite Peanuts comic strips, Linus and Lucy are standing at the window looking out at the rain falling. Lucy says to Linus, “Boy, look at it  rain…What if it floods the earth?” Linus, the resident biblical scholar, answers, “It will never do that…in the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” With a smile on her face, Lucy replies, “Linus, you’ve taken a great load off my mind.” To which Linus responds, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

“Sound theology,” the teachings of Jesus, will hopefully take a load off our minds about the second coming, but will also put a load on us – a load of discipleship and living in expectation.

This whole idea of Christ’s return, has been troublesome and confusing partly because of the kind of language the Bible uses to describe it. Scholars call passages like this one from Luke “apocalyptic literature”.  We find this style of writing in the Books of Daniel  and Revelation as well. It is a style that uses vivid, striking images to convey a message of hope and faith. It was used especially during times when God’s people were being severely oppressed.

Apocalyptic literature is heavily concerned with the movement from bondage to freedom.  And God’s preoccupation with bondage never ceases.  God is always acting.  But how God acts is never fully understood.  The signs in the stars and sun are hard to make sense of.  But this story brought hope to those who first read it.  The writer of Luke had a good sense of oppression.  He would have seen firsthand the Roman occupation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the city.  He would have seen Jews being forced to tear down the Temple with their own hands.  He would have seen all kinds of things that might look like the end of the world in the worst ways and yet he looked forward to the end time with hope, and expectation.   

While we today do not fully understand it.  We too, can still take hope from it.  We can  understand it’s essential message. When you put it all together, it’s saying,  “No matter how bad it looks, don’t give up the faith.  God is in control.  God is coming.”

I think that the church makes two mistakes in regard to the teaching of Christ’s return.

First, some do become obsessed with it. In fact, many claim to know too much about it. It’s not a bit confusing to them. They can pull out their charts, graphs and timetables to give you a very logical explanation about when the exact date is.  There have been a number of religious leaders that have convinced others to sell all they have because the second coming was coming in 1989, or 92, or 2016.  They have all been wrong so far. 

Reinhold Neibuhr, a Christian scholar, once said, “Some people claim to know the temperature of hell and the furniture of heaven.” The thing is we don’t.   Jesus said in Mark, the angels do not know, nor the Son.  And when he was asked in Acts 1 when the end times would take place, he tells them, “It is not for you to know the times or periods  that God has set.  We are not going to know.   But we are to live as though it could happen anytime. 

The other mistake the church makes is in treating this teaching too lightly or dismissing it altogether. Some see it as an outdated doctrine that causes more trouble and confusion than its worth. It’s no longer relevant for us.  To ignore it would be to miss a central truth to our faith.  If God is not coming again, if there is not somewhere, someday a completion of God’s will and work, where does that leave us? 

“Our task, in connection with the second coming, is neither denial on the one hand nor precise dating on the other, but simple obedience to  witness and to work now, doing the tasks which are within our scope.”  That’s the message. We are to live in expectation and anticipation that it could be. 

I do not believe that it was the desire of Jesus that talk of a second advent be frightening, or confusing. To the contrary, it is meant be a source of hope and assurance, a great stimulus to deeper discipleship, if we look at it with new eyes.  Eyes that can see the leaves of summer even in the midst of winter.  The fig tree that Jesus speaks of is a consoling image of God’s garden coming to life, a new creation about to spring forth.  This green and fruitful view of the future is very comforting in the midst of chaos; hope in the midst of chaos is a sign of faith.  We are people of faith. 

There are lots of signs of distress and problems with the world.  But here before us is an invitation to stand with our heads high in the middle of it all, and hold fast to the truth that God will come to meet us.  That “coming” that took place once in Bethlehem, it will take place on a world scale at some point in the future.

It is getting harder and harder to be a Christian these days, especially at Christmas.  If you said to someone at the office Christmas party what do you think about Christ coming again, you’d be standing by yourself pretty soon.   Many people have a hard enough time with the idea of God coming the first time.  It can be hard to see the joy and the wonder.  As we enter this time of advent.  Do we see God at the center of all this and do we see truth in the possibility of God’s coming again?  That is what we face in the reading this morning.  Do we think God will come again?  Do we live that way? 

This Advent season, let us be open to saying maybe.  Maybe it’s possible that God will come again.  It seems impossible to those outside the faith, it sounds impossible to many within the faith as well.  It is a rather “fantastic” idea.  But it is fantastic enough that all across the world there are preachers preaching about this, there are people who could be elsewhere, who are listening to them, hymns are being sung, prayers are being offered and it is fantastic that in a world like ours people still say at least maybe to the possibility of God at all.  But we do.  Thanks be to God who lives and reigns and will come again.   Amen.