1Advent C; Dec 2, 2018; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson; ICCM
You might be wondering “Why are we reading about destruction and death? It’s almost Christmas! We should be reading about the joy of the coming birth of baby Jesus!” Well, readings like this always appear at the start of Advent, because we are preparing the way not just for the birth of the baby, but for the coming of Christ again, not necessarily in a literal and dramatic end of all time kind of way, but now, again, day after day, in each of our lives.
We find in Advent a countercultural message as a way of preparing for Christmas. Instead of encouraging us to prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth by decorating, throwing parties and spending lavishly in order to shower our friends and family with gifts (as if it is their birthday), the tradition of the church invites us into a period of self-examination and preparation. It is the opposite of what the world tells us to do. It is countercultural in the highest order.
The Advent season gets off to a roaring start with a dire prophecy about the end times:
“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. …when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:25-28, NRSV).
This prediction is illustrated by a story and then a call upon the hearers to prepare:
Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down …and that day does not 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 … stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21: 34-36, NRSV).
In other words, we are to prepare for the birth of Jesus into the world and for Christ’s coming again by living as people who are prepared to die. It’s not a very Christmassy topic.
Stephen Covey, who passed away at the age of 80 in 2012, wrote the book, 7 habits of highly effective people. One of those habits is beginning with the end in mind. He suggested an exercise in the book, imagining your own funeral and what your friends, coworkers, and family would say about you if you died tomorrow. Then imagining what you would like them to say about your life and crafting the path forward so that second vision becomes a reality. Steve and I used to lead pre-marriage workshops where we used that powerful exercise with young people just setting out in life.
But, here we are, a gathering of older Christians, and here I am, one of the youngest of us, preaching to my elders. It’s a daunting task sometimes, as I look into your faces, lined as they are with the signs of lessons learned, losses felt, wisdom gained, troubles survived, joys shared. Mortality looms. Steve’s brother Dave has been fighting lung cancer for 4 years now. We thought we were going to lose him this fall, but with a combination of immunotherapy, surgery, radiation and chemo he’s in a new window of health. He even went deer hunting a few weeks ago. We came face to face with his mortality though. That’s our story—and you each have yours. I was reading Joan Chittister’s recent book, The Gift of Years; growing older gracefully, and came across this line, “Old age is an island surrounded by death,” wrote the Ecuadorian essayist Juan Montalvo.”
Isn’t that the truth? We don’t want to die or see our loved ones die, but there is nothing we can do about it. Tens of thousands of people are dying right this very minute. Many more will die before the sun goes down today. Human life is fragile and brief in the grand scheme of things. Recently I’ve been wondering what Jesus’ teachings would have been if he had lived to old age… hmmm….
Many people, when they read passages like this one from Luke, imagine a day when the world and all life upon it draws to a dramatic, sudden, and violent close. They look for signs in the world that signal that the time is coming and try to prepare for it by praying and sharing about the saving power of Christ with others. In that theological worldview, when the end comes, people will be lined up before the Lord to be judged. Those who confess Jesus Christ as their Savior will immediately be saved for eternal life in heaven, and those who do not will be left behind to go down with the ship.
Whether or not it happens like that doesn’t really matter much to me. Martin Luther was pestered once by someone who wanted to know what he thought about the afterlife. He said, “The afterlife is God’s business and I don’t have to worry about it.” I’m with him. What I do believe is that each of us will one day find ourselves in the full and utter presence of God. I think the clouds and trumpets sounding are figurative language.
What comes after this life is as unknowable and indescribable for those of us now living as our current life was unknowable for an unborn child. When we were yet unborn how could we know the taste of a strawberry, or the feel of a caress, or the smell cinnamon toast, or the agony of loss and grief? Our life in utero was safe and warm and all-inclusive but so limited. Faith teaches us to believe that the love and glory and grace of God’s compassionate embrace carries us from one reality to the next. I believe with all my heart and mind that just as we once moved from floating in the waters of life to being cuddled and snuggled in a soft warm blanket held in our mother’s arms, we will melt once more into the embrace of God’s own self, in Paul’s words, into a reality abundantly far more than all we could ask or imagine!
When is will this be, for me, for you, for our loved ones? It might be in the next hour. It might be before the sun goes down today. It might be next week, or next year, or for some of us here thirty or forty years from now. We have no way of knowing.
What we do have is the ability to prepare ourselves by examining our lives and repenting and turning away from those things that are not life-giving. We have the chance to live whatever time we have left on this earth in the ways that Jesus came into this world to teach us. We have the opportunity to participate in the healing of the world. We have the prospect of offering the hope, peace, joy, and love that Jesus was born to share.
And now I’d like to close this sermon with a prayer based on the one Paul offers for the church in Thessalonica:
Gracious God, with our brother Paul we offer prayers of thanksgiving. We earnestly request that by the power of the Holy Spirit you will restore our faith and the faith of others. We pray that Christ will draw us to himself and that his love for us may find expression in our love for one another. Finally, we pray that Christ will strengthen our hearts in holiness, that we may live as people who know ourselves to be blameless before God, through Christ. Amen.