Scripture Luke 21:25-36 The Message
25-26 “It will seem like all hell has broken loose—sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking.
27-28 “And then—then!—they’ll see the Son of Man welcomed in grand style—a glorious welcome! When all this starts to happen, up on your feet. Stand tall with your heads high. Help is on the way!”
29-33 He told them a story. “Look at a fig tree. Any tree for that matter. When the leaves begin to show, one look tells you that summer is right around the corner. The same here—when you see these things happen, you know God’s kingdom is about here. Don’t brush this off: I’m not just saying this for some future generation, but for this one, too—these things will happen. Sky and earth will wear out; my words won’t wear out.
34-36 “But be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it’s going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.”
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I saw a diagram on Facebook the other day showing the difference between Bible translations.
John 20:17
From the Greek: He said to her, Jesus, “not me you touch or cling to.”
New Revised Standard Version: Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me.”
Dynamic Interpretation: Jesus said to her, “You can’t touch this.”
Ok, that’s kind of a joke, but not entirely. Most of you know that I prefer Bible translations that are more like the second one, scholarly and as accurately translated into English as possible. But sometimes looking at things a little differently helps us understand them better. So this year, for the whole of Advent, we will be using The Message for our scripture readings.
In today’s passage, Jesus warns of the dangers of distraction, of hard times to come, of the very real possibility that we will lose our strength and faith when the world around seems to be falling apart. It is so easy to all into depression, to think there is nothing we can do to change things, that all of the anger and evil that surrounds us is all there is. That the end, in fact, is near. Or, alternatively, that we will be so distracted by our daily lives that we won’t see what’s right in front of us.
“But look at a fig tree - or any tree for that matter.”
“How do I know there’s a God?” I asked. Who knew (at age 13) that this was not a good question to ask in my Wednesday night religious education class? The nun in charge went immediately to get the priest, who chastised me severely and made it very clear that there was to be no questioning of such things. I must simply believe.
You may not know this, but I’m really not good at being told what I must do, or think, or say, or believe. I wanted to quit going, but I knew Mother would never allow it. So when I went home I told my father what had happened. My father, being a very wise man, shook his head, grumbled about bad teachers, and took me outside. To look at a tree. We looked at the leaves, with all the veins running through so the sap can bring nutrients. And we looked at how the bark protects the inside of the trunk and branches from bugs and cold and all sorts of damage. And we looked at the root system, how it reaches down into the earth searching for every last drop of water the tree needs to grow. Then he asked me if I thought that these things could all simply happen randomly, or if someone had to have created this tree. And if someone greater than a human had to have created the tree, the what about all of the other amazing and intricately detailed life forms? Including humans. And then he told me that only God could do these things. And that I would have been much better off being taught by Jesuits, who understood the importance of asking questions.
When I was in seminary, the apartment downstairs from mine was reserved for students from foreign countries. During my four years there I had neighbors from Brazil and South Africa and Kenya. My Kenyan neighbor didn’t understand winter at all. Well, none of them did. But with most of them, we just talked about the need to wear hats in extremely cold weather, and the dangers of ice on the sidewalks and road that lurks under snow, and whatever you do, do not turn off the heat when you go away for Christmas break! (Frozen pipes are bad!) But my Kenyan neighbor and I had a theological conversation about winter. We were walking to class one morning and he asked why the seminary didn’t cut down the dead trees on campus. Where he lived, he said, all of those trees would be firewood by now. I realized that he was looking at all the trees that had lost their leaves in the Fall and were now dormant until Spring, so we talked about the nature of deciduous trees, the way they only seem to be dead but that in the spring they would be resurrected. It’s what I grew up with, of course, but coming from Kenya, this was a foreign concept. Not the resurrection, of course. He was a Christian. He believes in the resurrection. But that trees can also reflect the life of Christ, and be used to teach theology - this was new. To him.
Because using a tree to teach theology was not a new thing. My father taught me how to do it, but he learned it from Jesus. And Jesus’ message was this, just as the fig tree gives clear signs of the changing season, so the things happening in the world around us will make it clear that it is almost time for the Son of Man to return. The disciples believed it would happen in their life times. It didn’t. Since that time, the end of days has been predicted over and over again. People would look at omens, like those we read in today’s scripture, and say “This is it! All of these things are happening now! Repent! For the end is near! Jesus is coming back next week!” Specific Dates were set for the Last Day. Expectations ran high among those who believed the prophets of doom. People even sold all they owned and wandered off to pray on a mountaintop or something. Then that day would come, and go, and nothing of any great note would happen. *sigh* And the people who had believed would come back from their mountaintop and wonder what to do now.
Jesus said, “Be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation be dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it’s going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.”
This particular piece seems highly appropriate for December, when people start celebrating and running around shopping and worrying about what to give all of their friends and neighbors and family members. Pretty much the last thing on most minds is that this might really be the End of Days. But that’s what Advent is - it’s the time when we wait for the return of the King. Yes, we will celebrate the birth of the Child four weeks from now, but Advent is when we wait with bated breath for the return of the Christ to earth - the end of days. This year, with fires and floods and famines and wars and refugees all over the earth - it even kind of feels like the end times to me, and I am not much of a “repent, for the end is near” kind of person. I’m more of a “Try to live every day as if it was your last day on earth” kind of person.
And I believe that is what Jesus is saying in this passage. Not so much “get busy preparing for the end of time because it’s coming next week.” But “stay vigilant in every season. Whether you are in a season of celebration or a season of despair, know that I am near. Know that I will be there, no matter what is going on. And that all you have to do is keep the faith, and you will make it through.”
My article in The Caller this month was about a package I had ordered and how it seemed like it was never going to arrive. It left Oregon November 6, went to LA, then San Francisco, where it languished for a week, then to Chicago! Then Elk Grove Village, IL for a few days, and then to San Jose. I had emailed the company and a woman named Jill kept encouraging me to be patient, that surely the package would arrive. (It did, by the way. On Thursday.) I had to think how appropriate her words are to this time of year, when we are waiting both for the birth of the Child and the return of the King. How appropriate to this time in history, when it “ … seem[s] like all hell has broken loose—sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking.” It would be so easy to give in to despair, to decide that the world is going to hell in a hand basket and there is nothing we can do about it.
But Jesus says, “Help is on the way.” And I say, help is already here. Because even if it is not the end of days, Jesus is with us. Isaiah 9:6 tells us that “authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” And because he is all those things to us, he is always here with us. His words are in front of us every day. His teachings are in our hearts every day. His example on how to live through every situation is right here - in this book, and also in our minds and hearts. Because we know the stories. And we know that he was fully divine but also fully human - that he laughed and ate and drank, and suffered and bled and cried, just as we do. And therefore we can get through any situation, as he did. Because even when he could have given in to despair, even when he knew that the end of his time on earth was near, he had faith that God, his father, would be with him no matter what happened. So he kept doing the things he knew needed to be done - feeding the hungry, casting out evil spirits, healing the sick, comforting the comfortless - for as long as he could. And then he passed the baton to his disciples, to us. And so we go on doing the work he left us, pouring Christ’s love out on our neighbors, walking forward in hope, working to make our world a better place, a more loving place, a place where Jesus lives.
Have faith, for he is coming. Do not despair, for he is with us. Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God, is Emmanuel - God with us.
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