Luke 21:25-36

“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 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 escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Sermon Text

With the start of Advent, with our sanctuary decorated in the bright lights of hope and life, we acknowledge a dark aspect of this season we celebrate. Since the time of the prophets, God has cast a vision of a day when there would be an end to this present age of darkness and death. A light would break out suddenly and end the long night that had hung over creation since humanity’s first disobedient steps out of Eden. A day that would change everything, that would initiate eternity, and a day that was in itself terrible despite the hope it would bring. The Day of the Lord, the moment all things was to be set right, is cast as a frightening end to one chapter and the beautiful start of another.

We as a culture have an unhealthy obsession with the end of times, to the point that people are constantly wasting time and money fretting about it or spending money on it. The reality of our Christian witness is that we believe that the world will someday end, I’m not gonna pretend that is not the case. Scripture is pretty clear as well that the end of this present age is not an easy transition either – the chaos of what was must be fully excised after all. However, nowhere in scripture does it say the Church is to be worried about the coming of God’s kingdom. Instead, we are only ever asked to be ready.

Advent, the season we now find ourselves in, is meant to be a remembrance of the wait that creation endured before Christ was born, and the present wait we all take part in before Christ returns. It is a season where the mystery of the faith we recite during Communion become all the more meaningful, “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” The divine and incarnate Word of God, having lived a fully human life, died and rose again that we might anticipate what his glory would look like when he returns to bring that same resurrection to all flesh. The day of God’s justice is coming, and we of the Church mark it year after year.

So, if we are not supposed to be fearful of God’s coming, nor to be too absorbed in the fact it will someday be here, what is the Church to do? As with anything we question in faith, the best place to start is in the scriptures that describe it. Here, today, we have read Luke’s version of what is often called Jesus’s “little Apocalypse.” Jesus describes signs in Heaven and chaos on the earth. Elsewhere we are told, “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars… but the end is not yet.”[1] All these occurrences are signs toward the end, but not the end in itself. Its those signs that I want us to reflect on.

Signs in the Heavens is a pretty broad topic. Eclipses – solar and lunar – happen fairly regularly and are usually specific to a part of the world, not the entire planet. Star and planets do sometimes align in significant ways, but only if you know what they look like normally. (Personally, I just wait for my astronomer friend to tell me what cool thing is going on.) Wars are constantly being fought and speculated about across the world, and chaos and natural disasters are, sadly, pretty commonplace as well. All the “signs,” of the end are everyday, commonplace, occurrences.

So is Jesus trying to trick or confuse us? We’re supposed to look for signs that are already everywhere? No, I don’t think so at all. Jesus moves from the broad description of the conditions of the world before its end to a parable of a fig tree. “When a fig tree looks ready to produce fruit,” Jesus says, “You know it will be time to pick that fruit soon.” The key idea here “soon, but not now.” I did some digging on fig tree ecology and found that the leaves on fig trees grow well ahead of the fruit becoming wipe. Scripture shows us this elsewhere in Jesus cursing a fig tree. Jesus sees the tree at a distance, goes to pick a fig from it, and finds that it is not fig season yet. He still curses to tree to never grow again, a prophetic lesson that clarifies Luke’s version of the story.[2]

The signs of Jesus’s coming, as described in scripture, are all commonplace yet horrific things. Wars are being waged now that are costing innocent people their lives and homes – in Yemen, Gaza, Sudan, the Ukraine, and beyond. Each year, as climate change becomes more pronounces, storms get worse and worse – hurricanes stronger, snow storms more long lasting, droughts followed by flooding all too common. Disaster, disease, desolation of all kind, all these things are always with us and yet always seem to be growing more and more ubiquitous. Every generation believes they are the last before the end, because every generation faces the real and present dangers of a world that is waiting to be reborn.

Jesus will return someday, amidst signs that are constantly being shown to us. We do not have to seek them out, we do not have to speculate whether this or that eclipse or this or that war are the true and final signs of that return. They all are equally signs that are meant to remind us to be alert to God’s presence in the world that is, and prepare for the world that is to come. We are always meant to be on the lookout, and we are meant to do so in a way that is rooted in the faith and the scriptures that tell us what to look for to begin with. We are told to be alert, watchful, and most important of all, to be active.

Christ elsewhere describes his return as a master returning to his household to find his servants either at work or slacking off. The lesson is, if you are always doing what you should be, then you don’t need to worry when the boss is coming. As we celebrate Advent, as we note the fact that doom surrounds us and awaits the world we inhabit, from what can we find hope?

Firstly, in the knowledge that Christ will return and set things right. Secondly, in the constant reminder that the present pain of this world is a sign that everything needs to be reborn, and will be reborn. Finally, in the work that Christ has given us in the meantime. To proclaim the Gospel that is our salvation. To care for those in need, to fight the good fight for our neighbors and our enemies well-being. To embody holiness not only in the hurtful things we choose not to do, but in the abundance of good we choose again and again to do.

God has asked us to be alert to Christ’s coming. Let us not fail to stay awake. God has given us the work we must do in the meantime, let us not fail to see it through to completion. God has asked us to hold onto Hope, let us never give into despair. Advent has begun, we wait to see what God will do in this world. Let us celebrate fully that we know God’s grace will always prevail, and that even when doom seems overpowering, God is not done with this world until it is fully born again. – Amen.

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[1] Matthew 24:6-13 gives an idea of the kinds of things Jesus identifies as signs of his coming.

[2] Matthew 21:18-22