Introduction

This is the sermon I preached at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28-29, 2009, the weekend of the First Sunday of Advent.

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Readings

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

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Prayer

As we hear and heed your Word, O God, may it be for us a voice crying in the wilderness of our lives, calling us to prepare the way of the Lord, your Son and our Savior. Amen. (based on Luke 3:4b, NRSV)

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Message

Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel
are strange and terrifying.
They paint disturbing pictures
in our mind’s eye.
We can easily imagine
the heavens filling with inexplicable portents.
We can envision the stars and planets aligning
and speaking some apocalyptic message.
We can hear the deafening roar
of the rising waves of the seven seas.

This is not the territory of the faith that Lutherans usually inhabit.
We do make our confession each week,
speaking of our trust in Jesus Christ
“to come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” (Nicene Creed, LBW, p. 64)
But, for the most part,
we live out our daily lives,
we make our plans for church and society,
and we dream about the future
as if this world and all that it contains will go on without end.

But Jesus tells us today
that this is not so.
He does not say that there may be signs sometime,
perhaps, maybe, if things break a certain way.
Instead, he promises us,
“There will be signs….
We will see the final and ultimate Advent,
‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’
with power and great glory.’” (Luke 21:25a, 27, NRSV)

We are not in the position of Jesus’ disciples,
who heard him speak these words
during his last and fatal visit to Jerusalem.
We stand on the resurrection side of the cross.
And so, for us, these are promises we have no reason to doubt.
Because if death could not hold Jesus in its grip,
no power in heaven, on earth, or in hell itself
can stand against his ability to keep any promise he makes.

The disciples’ questions go unspoken in Luke’s gospel.
But we can hear them in our thoughts.
When will these things happen?
How will we know where to turn?
In whom can we trust?

Jesus heard the disciples’ spoken and unvoiced doubts and worries.
And he hears us as well.
And in reply to our questions,
he turns to teaching, to a story, a parable.
You see the leaves turn the branches of trees green
when the air grows warm and the rains come.
You see these things, and you know it means Spring has arrived.

It’s the same with my Father’s Kingdom.
When you see these signs,
you can be sure the Kingdom is imminent, on its way,
breaking into your well-ordered lives,
bearing down upon the world.

That’s an answer,
but it leads us to ask more questions.
Is it coming?
How close is it?
Are these signs we see or aren’t they?
Will the kingdom come in our lifetimes?
Christians have been waiting for two millennia;
is it all waiting in vain?
Can we really trust God to keep his promise?

If we let ourselves ponder the end,
its ambiguities and uncertainties lead our minds and hearts to race,
to fill with thoughts and fears,
just as Jesus said,
“People will faint from fear and foreboding
of what is coming upon the world….” (Luke 21:26, NRSV)

We easily can feel fear grip us.
It squeezes our hearts tight,
twists our guts into a knot,
shakes our thoughts into a jumble.
Then we find ourselves cowering,
trying to hide from the world’s forces,
from the chaos and confusion they unleash upon us.

Fear of threats is our natural reaction.
We survive because fear protects us from danger and injury.
But again, because we stand together
with our Lord on the resurrection side of the cross,
fear, for us, is ultimately a sign of our doubt.

Because Christ has died and is risen,
he has broken free of death’s grip.
And so the powers of sin, death, and the devil
have no hold on him,
and in the end, no ultimate hold on us,
because we share in his death and resurrection.

Remember what St. Paul tells us in Romans 6,
“Do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
Therefore we have been buried with him
by baptism into death, so that,
just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4, NRSV)

We walk in newness of life.
This is the posture of faith, not of fear.
Fear is all about ducking and covering,
hiding and shrinking into the corners.
But faith is not at all like fear.

That’s why Jesus tells us,
“Now when these things begin to take place,
stand up and raise your heads,
because your redemption is coming near.” (Luke 21:28, NRSV)
And again he says to us,
“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down
with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life,
and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.” (Luke 21:34-35a, NRSV)
And a little after that, he says,
“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.” (Luke 21:36, NRSV)

Jesus calls us and equips us,
he gives us the strength and the resolve
that we need to face the forces
running loose in this world.
We can face them head on in faith,
and not with fear.
We can walk in that newness of life
and face this world and its sure and certain end
standing, alert, and on guard,
in the posture of faith.

And when the end comes,
even though we don’t know exactly when or how,
we will be in a position to look out ahead,
to watch, to spot the signs,
to “…see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’
with power and great glory.’” (Luke 21:27, NRSV)

And on that day,
we will witness the answer to our daily prayer,
“Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.” (LBW, p. 71)

On that day, our cry to the Son of Man—
“Come, Lord Jesus!”—(LBW, p. 70)
will be answered in full and without a doubt. Amen.