The First Sunday in Advent | 1 December 2024 | A Sermon on Luke 21:25-36 | by Paul Bieber |

Luke 21:25-36 Revised Standard Version

         ²⁵ Jesus said, “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

         ²⁹ And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; ³⁰ as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. ³¹ So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. ³² Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

         ³⁴ “But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; ³⁵ for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man.”

also

Jeremiah 33:14-16

Psalm 25:1-9

I Thessalonians 3:9-13

WHEN THESE THINGS TAKE PLACE

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

Advent is the season of preparation for Christmas as is Lent for Easter. Lent is the return to our baptism into the death and rising of Jesus Christ, God offering himself for us. Advent is the return to our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, God coming to abide with us. In Advent we prepare for his coming: “Advent” means “drawing near,” “arrival.” Over the four Sundays in Advent we draw nearer to the annual celebration of Jesus’ coming among us as the babe of Bethlehem.

But on this First Sunday in Advent we focus our attention on a very different Advent: the Son of man coming with the clouds in power and great glory with all his saints. These themes of the end of the Church Year appear again at the beginning of a new year of grace—why? The Church Year moves like the earth around the sun; its times of fasting and feasting recur like celestial clockwork marking the seasons of our lives of faith.

But the chronological trajectory of our faith is not finally circular. It is linear. It has a goal: the last things, culminating in the final Advent of Jesus Christ in glory. But we have no advent calendar to mark our preparation for “when these things take place.” They happen in God’s own time. Advent begins by reminding us that our preparation for the coming of Christ is fundamentally awaiting God’s own time.

As the secular world is ramping up the celebrations, activities, obligations, stresses, and demands of the holiday season, we are called to peer beyond all these things and use this season to prepare not only for keeping Christmas holy but also—actually, first and foremost—for the fulfillment of God’s promise, the Advent that comes in God’s own time. Our psalm today says, “To you I lift up my soul”; “as the liturgy of the Eucharistic meal begins, the celebrant beckons the congregation to “lift up your hearts”; and in today’s gospel, Jesus says that when “these things” begin to take place, we are to look up and raise our heads—our redemption is drawing near.

“These things” are the things that bring fear and foreboding upon the world. There is no shortage of things that bring distress and perplexity, and it has ever been so. But people of faith can meet “these things” with faith rather than fear, confidence rather than perplexity, because we trust God’s promise. “These things” that mark the advent of the final fulfillment of God’s promises are not different from the deep patterns of holy history: promise and fulfillment, sin and forgiveness, failure and triumph, despair and hope—death and resurrection.

The hopes and longings of ancient Israel and Judah are noted in the prophet Jeremiah’s book of consolation: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise,” the promise of great David’s greater Son, the Branch, the Messiah, the Christ. As to the coming of the Messiah, Israel awaited God’s time. As to “these things,” the Church awaits God’s time. The promise began to be fulfilled at Christmas, Christ’s first coming. We live between the two Advents, in the already-and-not-yet Advent life.

The One who came to abide with us, who offered himself for us, is the One whose words will not pass away. In those very words the kingdom draws near, like a seed growing, bread rising, a treasure found, a pearl acquired. Advent people raise our heads, our hearts, our souls, to discern this kingdom drawing near in the promised Messiah of whom at every Eucharist we proclaim that he has died, is risen, and will come again.

Our recurrent weekly celebration of the day of his rising and our recurrent annual celebration of the day of his birth move us along the trajectory of holy history’s promise and fulfillment, drawing nearer to the final Advent. We lift up our hearts every Sunday so that he may strengthen our hearts in holiness as we watch and pray for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

So “when these things take place,” we meet them not with fear and foreboding, nor with distress and perplexity. The crazy things that happen in the world, from signs that shake the powers to the frustration of the frenetic “holiday season”—we can meet anything with faith rather than fear, because the one who has promised can be trusted. Advent is God’s gift of time to prepare. Abounding in love, our hearts strengthened in holiness, we can prepare to keep a holy Christmas, and we can prepare to meet the Lord when he comes again, when we watch and pray. This is the Advent life.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

—

The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber, STS

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net

All Saints Lutheran Church

San Diego, California, USA