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Signs of the Times


It seems to get harder every year to focus on the real message of Advent and Christmas, don’t you think? Now the bombardment of a commercialized Christmas begins before Halloween. And then when we do get to December the world is singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”. Now, I personally have no problem with Santa Claus. But the Church for almost 2000 years has had a different message during this season. That message is: Jesus is Coming to Town. And I think it is important that this message does not get lost in all the hubbub of the season.
Let’s take a look at what Luke has to say about this in Luke 21:25-36. Listen for God’s word to you…
“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. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
29 Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
34 Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 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.”
Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Advent means “coming”. It is the season, at the beginning of the Church Year, when we look back to Jesus’ first coming and look forward to his second coming.

Perhaps that is why this passage from Luke 21:25-36 was chosen by those who put together the lectionary for this first Sunday in Advent. They no doubt thought that this passage had something to do with Jesus predicting his Second Coming.

Well, I think the folks who put together the lectionary, and many others reading this passage, were wrong. This passage is not actually about the Second Coming, though Luke, the author of this Gospel, certainly believed in the Second Coming of Jesus. This passage is not about that.

Rather, Jesus gave these words to warn and prepare his people for the destruction of Jerusalem that was coming in AD 70. This is made clear by the verses that precede our lectionary reading for today. Beginning in verse 20 Jesus says,

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.[d] 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; 22 for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. 23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; 24 they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Bible commentator Tom Wright explains, 

‘Signs in the sun, moon and stars’ might well be taken literally, but such a phrase could easily mean that the great nations and kingdoms of the earth would be, as we say in our own picture language, ‘going through convulsions.’…

The ‘coming of the son of man’ must then be understood, as first-century Jews would certainly have understood it, as the fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel 7. One of the most popular prophecies of the day, this passage was believed to speak about the time when God’s true people would be vindicated after their suffering at the hands of the ‘beasts’, the pagan nations who had oppressed them. This prophecy imagines a great lawcourt scene, in which God, the judge, finds in favour of his people, ‘the son of man’, and against the oppressive ‘beast’. The judgment that falls on the pagan nations is the same judgment that vindicates ‘the son of man’, who is then brought on a cloud to share the throne of God himself.

The best way of understanding this passage in Luke is then to see it as the promise that, when the Jerusalem that had opposed his message is finally overthrown, this will be the vindication of Jesus and his people, the sign that he has indeed been enthroned at his Father’s side in heaven.

So, what does this passage have to say to us today? Again, I find Tom Wright’s words helpful. He says,

Christian readers, puzzling over this passage nearly two thousand years later, are often at a loss to know what it can say to them. For us, the destruction of Jerusalem, an act of great pagan brutality, is far away in the past, and we know of so many other subsequent crises that the church has faced that we are inclined to think of it as comparatively insignificant. We, however, live and preach the gospel in a world which, as Jerusalem did to Jesus, often refuses the summons to peace. We have at least a duty to warn our contemporaries that to reject God’s invitation may well lead to disaster. And in the meantime we must continue to practice patience. We never know when we shall need it.

Allow me to apply this passage from Luke to our own time by asking this question: if Jesus were to come to our town today, how do you think he would want to find us living?

Well, I think there are a few good watch words from this passage to guide us.

And the first watch word is: stand up and raise your heads.I think if Jesus were to come to our town today, he would want to find us as Christians standing up for him and for his principles with our heads held high.

There is the temptation, in our day, for Christians to hang their heads in shame. And no doubt, there is much that is done in the name of Christ by church people today that is shameful. But we need never be ashamed of Jesus, our loving Lord, nor of his good news.

Let us remember the words of the Apostle Paul, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

We have a wonderful message of power and hope for the whole world, with no one left out. Therefore, let us lift up our heads and declare that message of his life-changing love in word and deed.

Secondly, I think Jesus would want us to be watching for the signs of the nearness of the kingdom of God.

We live in a time when it seems easier than ever before to be negative. Every day in the 24-hour cable news cycle we hear stories of political power plays in Washington, shootings in Chicago, New York, and in small town America. We see the news reports of fires in California and other natural disasters and we wonder if these are just precursors to the destruction of the world that we are bringing upon ourselves through our failed stewardship of the earth that has led to global warming.

It is not hard to read these signs of the end. They are proclaimed every day, quite clearly, through television, the internet, and all of our mass media. But it takes a much more discerning and perceptive eye to watch for the signs of the nearness of God’s kingdom, to listen for the soft footsteps of Jesus’ approach. Are we ever quiet enough to hear him? Are our eyes wide open enough to see him at work?

Of this one thing I believe we can be certain, wherever we see the works of love, there we can be sure that God’s kingdom is near, that Jesus has been secretly, and sometimes not so secretly, at work.

Thirdly, I think Jesus would want us to be on guard so that our hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life.

As a pastor, I see this all the time. I see people who are weighed down in one way or another. And I believe it is my job to help lift the load from people’s shoulders, to join with them in bearing their burdens. Of course, that is what we are all called to do as followers of Jesus. Paul says in Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

But would it not be better if each of us did not get weighed down in the first place? “Of course,” you say, “That would be better. But how?”

Jesus gives us the answer: “Be on your guard.” Don’t accept the dissipation, the drunkenness, and the worries of this life as your own.

I have a little discipline I try to practice as a leader and as a human being. Perhaps you have seen me do it. As a pastor oftentimes, people come to you with jobs they want you to do, tasks they want you to carry out. Sometimes people literally come to you with a physical thing they want to hand off to you. It is at that moment, that I mentally try to slow my mind down just long enough to ask myself, “Is this a job, or is this a task, that God wants me to take on?” If the answer is “no”, and sometimes I must wait awhile to hear God’s voice, then I simply do not accept the task, I do not physically receive the piece of paper or whatever it is that someone wants to hand off to me. Sometimes, there are burdens in the world that God simply does not want me, or you for that matter, to bear. Jesus names some of those burdens here: dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of this life. 

Drunkenness we may understand all too well. People generally drink too much alcohol as a way of handling problems or avoiding them. Of course, this does not work as a life strategy, but it is very hard to give up once you are addicted. 

What is dissipation? The word means “drunken nausea”. We know what this is all about too, don’t we? When you get really drunk, you get nauseous and you throw up. It can be a sign, a very serious sign, of trying to handle the problems of this life in the wrong way.

The third burden Jesus says we must be on our guard against accepting into our lives is worry. Now I think we can easily understand how drunkenness and dissipation can get us into trouble. But worry seems almost innocent doesn’t it? In fact, we are almost taught to think that worry is something that all responsible adults just do.

Jesus says simply “no”. Do not accept worry into your life.

Do you know what worry is? The word in Greek literally means a part, separated from the whole. In fact, worry is that activity which divides or fractures a person’s being into parts.

Someone once defined worry as a cycle of inefficient thoughts cycling around a center of fear. 

Now, you may say to me, “I have accepted worry into my life all too often.” The truth is, we all have. And if we are bound up with worry right now, here is what Scripture says we should do about it: “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) Every time you are tempted to anxiety, turn your cares into prayers. Hand all of those worries over to Jesus.

There is a little praise song that goes like this:

I cast all my cares upon you.
I lay all of my burdens down at your feet.
And anytime that I don’t know what to do,
I will cast all my cares upon you.

This leads to our final watch word for today. I believe that if Jesus were to come to our town today, he would want to find us, above all, to be alert and praying.

I don’t know about you, but this is one of the things I struggle most with in my Christian life. I don’t think I am a very good prayer warrior at all. There are days when I feel very much like C. S. Lewis when he wrote:

I haven’t any language weak enough to depict the weakness of my spiritual life. If I weakened it enough it would cease to be language at all. As when you try to turn the gas-ring a little lower still, and it merely goes out.

I think when we feel that way, that is precisely the moment when we need to remember that Jesus is praying for us, and if we ask him, he will pray in us and through us by his Holy Spirit. As Paul says,

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes[q] with sighs too deep for words…
Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.[w] Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:26-39)

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