Prepare the Way Series: Stand! Luke 21:25-31
Why all this talk of judgment, terrors, cosmic signs of the end times?[1] Isn’t Christmas season supposed to be joyous? Yes, but it’s not Christmas In my neighborhood, some people put their Christmas decorations up the day after Halloween, and on some streets there is a Santa in the yard, and a witch still standing in the yard next to it. The Christmas music is playing in the stores for all of those days, and we cannot escape the advertisements about Christmas sales you don’t want to miss. It’s a whole two months of Christmas crack and holiday adrenaline pulsing through our veins, promising to deliver endless cheer and unknown happiness through constant parties, presents, music and don’t forget all that eating. Of course, then Christmas day comes and goes, we come off of our Christmas high. We crash…Then the Visa arrives in late January…This is why we need Advent. Advent is not Christmas. It’s…well…Advent.
This long, 60-day marathon celebration of Christmas is a relatively new way of experiencing the month of December. Up until a few generations ago, Christmas was something you celebrated on Christmas Eve with a quiet Church service and then on Christmas day with a family gathering and gift giving. Historically, in the church, before these days became a tortuous 60-day non-stop shopping spree, with Black Friday, Cyber-Monday and what not, the Advent season was one of quiet preparation, of the heart and of the soul. Advent was a season of learning the discipline of waiting and watching and anticipating. Why do we need Advent as an antidote to the Christmas craziness of modern culture?
Advent comes from a Latin word, which means “coming.” Concerning Advent, The United Methodist Book of Worship, states the following: “The season proclaims the comings [with and “s’”] of the Christ—whose birth we prepare to celebrate once again, who comes continually in Word and Spirit, and whose return in final victory we anticipate.” We come to learn during Advent that there are three comings of Jesus Christ. It is what theologians call an eschatological season, a “now but not yet” experience. Christ has come, but he is also coming again. During advent we await again the coming of the Christ child, and we also anticipate his coming again, but in between these two comings or advents of Christ, the risen Christ is always coming again, showing up in our lives in unexpected and powerful ways to reshape us and remake us. “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).
But it is so easy to miss this continuous advent of Christ in our lives, the continual outpouring of the Risen Savior into our hearts, minds, souls and circumstances. Most of the year we have our heads down, dealing with, to use Jesus’ words, the “anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.” We’re just dealing with life as it comes, and sometimes it comes at us hard. Sometimes there are even moments of terror when it fills like our world is shaken. But Jesus makes a bold statement in the midst of this life of uncertainty and woe. He says, “at the same time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and glory.”
Advent is a season that calls us to get our head out of the daily grind, look up and, as Jesus says, stand up, “because your redemption is drawing near.” You may not realize it, especially if you are no in the spiritual practice of praying without ceasing, that even in the daily grind, even while you have your head down and are just plowing through life, even as turmoil and struggle are happening in your life, something else is happening concurrently or alongside all of this. Even as with toil, struggle, trudge on, deal with boredom, anxiety, even despair, the Son of Man is appearing with glory and power. Advent is a season that teaches us not to miss that constant coming of Jesus, because it is the greatest joy and our greatest source of power. “Stand up, and lift up your heads,” Jesus says, even though you are perplexed and anguished. Christmas time is coming, and you won’t see it with your head looking down, bent over in a spirit of defeat. This is why on the first Sunday of Advent, we always light the candle of hope. The burning candle reminds us that Christ shines, even in the darkness.
We used to get some pretty big snows in central Indiana when I was a kid. Sometimes we would see several inches and snow would be on the ground for weeks. For three or so months out of the year, the trees were bare, the skies were gray and there was white snow covering everything. Behind my house was a large wood that I used to explore and play in. I am so glad I had that wood behind our house, because I learned so much from my walks and romps among those trees. Nature is instructive. I remember one February after a big snow I was in the woods and sat down in the snow, as kids do. I started brushing away the layers of snow on the ground and underneath as I brushed back the last snow, I discovered little, strong, green shoots of some sort of plant pushing up from the cold soil. It was the first time I realized that what we call seasons are just handy terms we use to demarcate the year, but nature does not recognize as separate a season of dying and a season of new birth. Winter is not some cold season of darkness and still death until the spring. At the same time, there is life coming forth, waiting for its season, for its moment to explode into our consciousness and view. I was so excited that I ran back to the house to tell my mom what I had discovered, as if I was the first one ever to experience this.
In many ways Jesus’ eschatological message is a continuation of the exhortations of the prophets to stand firm, stay strong, get right with God and wait for the appearance of the Lord. Our Luke passage is reminiscent of the book of Daniel, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him” (Daniel 7:13)
Biblical scholar Michal Dinkler says this paradox of Light shining in the darkness, of Christ appearing to us, even though all we see at the moment is struggle and no end in sight, is a unique but powerful and transformative characteristic of our faith. In fact, the Gospel is full of paradox:
In Luke, for example, the infant Jesus is more than a baby born in a manger. He’s also “a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (2:11). Both infant and Savior. Jesus teaches “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it” (Luke 17:33). Both losing one’s life and keeping it. He says to his disciples, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51), yet when he returns, he declares, “Peace to you!” (24:36). Both division and peace. On a theological level, Christians affirm paradox all the time: Jesus’ crucifixion led both to death and to new life. Jesus was both fully God and fully human. More is going on than meets the eye.[2]
The prophet Jeremiah (33:14-16) is another example of the prophetic message of Christ is coming, but you have to look up to see him. Jeremiah points to the coming of a “righteous Branch to spring up for David” (v.15). This righteous Branch is none other than Jesus who is shooting up from the ground, so hang on, because when the shoot becomes the Branch, and this Christ is our salvation.
Jesus uses the fig tree as an example of how God works in the world. When you see the sprouts coming out on the fig tree, you know spring is near. Friends, your spring is near. Christ is coming, in fact he is pouring into life now. What barriers of sin or distraction or doubt have your erected to prevent the Light of Christ from driving out the darkness in your life? Do not cower before your enemy, do not look down in fear before your challenge. Jesus says stand up and look up and you will see the Son of Man coming in glory and power.
And it always come back to you and me praying, praying without ceasing, always attuning ourselves to the Spirit of God who speaks to our spirit. Deep calls unto deep, but only in a deep prayer life. Always be listening and speaking, in discourse with the Word, with the Risen Savior who lives in you. Jesus told his disciples, “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” (Lk. 21:36). Powerful advice to us as we await the comings of Jesus this advent season.
[1] The basic outline of this sermon is drawn from Michal Dinkler’s commentary on this passage, located at https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3892
[2] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3892
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