1 December 2024 Advent 1

Jeremiah 33.14-16   Psalm 25.1-10    1 Thessalonians 3.9-13    Luke 21.25-38

In our Gospel, Jesus is answering a question from the disciples about ‘when’ the destruction of the temple will be.  And the passage we have heard is just the end of that answer; he has already spoken about signs and persecutions, and about the destruction of Jerusalem.  But this part of the answer has caused many to assume they/we can ‘predict’ the ‘end times’.  It is easy to read into this passage what is currently happening in our community, in the world, and in our environment.  But rather than seeing this reading as ‘earth-denying’ visions of life, we can see in it the delight of the wonderful earth, looking at the beauty of this good earth.  We can marvel at the growth of the fig tree, being amazed at the blossoms and delicious fruit as we discover that we, and those around us, are blossoming and giving forth fruit every moment of our lives. 

Luke does not really seem to be as focused on the ‘when’ of these happenings as much as he is on the ‘how shall we live in the meantime’.  And when we shift our focus from ‘when’  to ‘how’, we can really hear the comment from Jesus  “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  So next time we become concerned about unrest or protests in our community or country – we can stand up and raise our heads, for our redemption has already drawn near in Jesus.  Next time we become apprehensive about allowing refugees and asylum seekers into our communities – we can stand up and raise our heads, for our redemption has already drawn near in Jesus (who, by the way, was also a refugee when he was a young child).

And what we will see, hopefully, is that it is not unrest and protests that are the greatest threat – it is fear.  Fear causes us to forget who we are; it causes us to see people in distress as a threat; it causes us to put securing our own safety and comfort above meeting the basic needs of those in need.  Fear is more dangerous than violence because fear leads us to forget our deepest identity and betray our cherished values.

And in the middle of this, Jesus reminds us that he is the Lord of history, and because we trust that he will bring all things to their good end in time, we can, in the meantime, stand together in courage and compassion and treat all persons with the love of God that we know for ourselves.  This is the hope that we find all through our Scriptures, and it is a message desperately needed today, because so many of our actions and decisions can so easily be driven by fear, by a lack of confidence, by an overwhelming sense of scarcity.  And in this context we, and our communities, can be places of light and hope, courage and confidence, and we can welcome those struggling with fear and darkness.  We can remind them that the light of Christ shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  And when we begin to become afraid, we can remind ourselves to ‘stand up and raise our heads’, confident that our redemption has already drawn near in Jesus’.

Advent, and Lent for the early Christians, mirrored each other as opportunities for spiritual reflection.  So, we ask – on what do I need to reflect today.  Where is God speaking in the many events of my life.  Advent spirituality does not mean or imply that we ignore the Christmas season or ban Christmas carols in our worship.  Because ‘we all need a little Christmas’.  But how intoxicated can we become on consumerism and thinking we can make someone happy just by putting a present under a tree, when the real happiness comes from our presence – listening, seeing, loving and touching.

As I said, I feel that focusing on the ‘signs’ part of today’s gospel is unhelpful because I do not think that was Luke’s focus, but we cannot deny that we do see signs in the world around us, people are confused and distressed and fearful because of what they see and hear.  But through this passage, we can hear the truth of our brokenness.  This text gives witness to our penchant for maligning others for the sake of ‘our cause’; our generalising the acts of a few as if they were the acts of ‘everyone’; our insistence on finding ‘blame’ to limit our responsibility for our own actions.  But most of all, this text gives us a vocabulary to articulate that what we see is the opposite of what God wants.

This text shows us a hope that is grounded in the truth that God knows, and a truth that we can choose to live, a truth that chooses hope instead of fear, that believes in divine righteousness instead of self-justification, that knows God is our justice and our righteousness because God shows us the way of righteousness is not for the sake of self, but for the sake of the other.  In this text Jesus is not predicting our future - but stating the truth of life as we know it, now.  God created a different life for us, which is why we have Advent.  Advent is full of the ‘present’ and the ‘not yet’ of God’s kingdom.  It speaks of the tension between our reality and God’s vision for our future.  It helps us get a sense of what it feels like to be secure in what is to yet to come, as we wait.  Advent assures us that God has secured a future for us that breaks into our present, and absolutely changes our here and now.  Let us drink deeply of the Advent spirit of ‘watching’ and ‘waiting’, and also open the windows to celebrating this day and the birth of God’s child everywhere.  Let us be those places of light and hope, courage and confidence, let us welcome those struggling with fear and darkness, and let us remember to  “stand up and raise our heads, for our redemption has already drawn near in Jesus”.