”There will be
signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among
nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of
what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be
shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of
Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place,
stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing
near."
Then he told
them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they
sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already
near. So also, when you see these things
taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not
pass away until all things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
"Be on
guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness
and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.
For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may
have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand
before the Son of Man.”[1]
Today
begins the season of Advent. “Advent”
literally means “the coming”. Aside from
textbook definitions, what does it mean for us?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer offered a pretty clear view from his jail cell in
1945. Bonhoeffer was a German Pastor,
who during the Second World War opposed Hitler’s Nazis. He was arrested for his opposition to crimes
against humanity being conducted by the leaders of his homeland. Shortly before he was executed by hanging at
Christmas 1945, Bonhoeffer wrote to his family and friends[2]:
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Advent
is no prison cell, but it is
a time of waiting, reflection and anticipation.
In the Christian calendar it is the beginning of a new year. Advent is adventus,
Latin for “draw near”. We reflect on our
closeness to Christ, and anticipate His closeness in coming to us…we reflect on
history, and his first coming, we wait in the present day as we anticipate his
coming in the future.
We (Christian believers) are to be continually alert, reflecting
on the first incarnation of Jesus Christ, and anticipating the second; we do
this because Jesus himself told us to keep looking up as our redemption will
come in the clouds. Like little children
in the back seat of the family car, our hearts ask, are we there yet?
How shall we keep “looking-up”?
How
shall we anticipate His coming? The good
Doctor Luke wrote down what Jesus said about it at the end of today’s text. He tells us to pay particular attention to
the culture in which we live, and to be responsive to that which we
observe. He told us to read the culture
and react wisely to the culture.
READ THE CULTURE
“Be
on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and
drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly,
like a trap. For it will come upon all
who live on the face of the whole earth.”
To
be on-guard, or alert means we have to be aware of what kind of world we live
in. It means we must figure out our
environment so we can confront this culture with faith.
To
many people, even faithful Christian believers, the horizon of our culture is
too bleak to look at, much less confront.
It is a scary world in which we live.
One look at the newspaper or a dose of early morning TV or talk-radio
will tell you that! Places like Egypt, Palestine
and the West Bank are a world of images of war and terror.
In
our culture there is conflict upon conflict.
We could literally spend months on end just cataloging all the unnerving
events going on in the world today. The news
is hardly ever encouraging; the choices are always fairly simple and
consequential –
þ
we can
ignore the pain in the lives of others because it is too great for us to bear…
þ
or we can attempt to deaden the noise and
pain with activities, drugs or alcohol, or desensitizing exercises; we can bury
our heads in the sands of materialism and vacations…
þ
or…we can do what Jesus commanded…read the
culture, understand what the signs of our times are, and then…
REACT WISELY TO THE CULTURE
“Be
alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these
things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Reacting
wisely to the culture takes understanding; it takes reading the culture in the
light of eternity and faith. Here, on
the first Sunday in Advent we commit to waiting, anticipating. Silence is commanded, listening is
warranted…and neither is generally practiced.
Note
the two ways Jesus said that our alertness can be put into practice as we
confront our culture in this new millennium:
Praying
Jesus
commanded us to pray. Now, the Lord was
not talking about our blessing before the fried chicken this afternoon. The word “pray” in the verse comes from a
root verb which means “to bind”. When we
truly pray, we come to the Lord in faith, willing to open our hearts to what He
wants (not the Christmas shopping list), and to be bound by His will. This table is a good place to bind yourself
to Jesus.
Plodding
By plodding I don’t mean to imply just
“sledging-through” in life, dragging oneself as if you are wading through a
hip-deep bog. Rather, to plod is more a matter of staying with
the stuff every day, keeping our eyes fixed on the goal.
The
table we share this morning is a source of that strength; it is called grace!
Prayer
and Plodding – this is how we react to the culture wisely. This is a balancing act certainly. It is not for the faint of heart. It is for those willing to surrender their
hearts to a purpose which is eternal. In
so doing we receive strength to look for His coming.
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