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First Sunday in Advent, 12/02/2012
Sermon on Luke 21:25-36, by Walter W. Harms
First Sunday in Advent, 11/02/2012 Sermon on Luke 21:25-36, by Walter W. Harms [Jesus said:] 25 "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26 people 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, straighten 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 until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 34 "But watch 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 trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
Time to Watch out for the Traps
Have you ever set a trap? Perhaps to catch mice, rats or some larger rodents. Now in general rodents just are not that curious that they will go over and step into the trap. You have to bait the trap-perhaps with a piece of cheese or butter. With larger carnivorous rodents, I have used part of a chicken. You know the rascals just couldn't resist the bait. They had no idea that the trap would close and they would be caught or even killed.
That's the way traps are supposed to work. Catch ‘em unawares. Snare them into their own destruction. Lure ‘em into thinking it would be "good" for them, although the small creatures probably had little sense of "good" outside of the basic instinct to eat. I just have to ask this: are we any different? How are we lured? Perhaps, think about this for a moment, might it be possible that we are already trapped and don't know it?
On this, the 4th Sunday before Christmas, Christians celebrate the first coming of Jesus into this world, the very Babe of Bethlehem cautions us about the traps of this world. He talks about the signs of his coming again, of his total revealing of himself. He asks us to understand the signs correctly and respond appropriately. How we respond tells whether we will escape the traps or be caught in them to our eternal destruction.
We have seen plenty of the signs of our Lord's appearing again. It all means that the world, this world as we know it, is coming to its end. The past few years our world has experienced two devastating tsunamis. Hurricanes have caused havoc in New Orleans and now most recently on the East Coast of our country. The middle section of this country has experience drought on a scale that most of us have only heard about. The prices of most everything is rising; incomes for most people are declining. In some countries around the world, unemployment involves more than a quarter of the working population. Banks are failing, again! Wars, revolutions, uprisings have dominated the news this past year, to say nothing about the rising threats of nuclear war.
Flares on the sun threaten all kinds of communications. Glaciers are receding at an alarming rate. Fears are rising. The attitude of "live life to the fullest" (whatever that may mean) because tomorrow might well be the end is growing more widespread. Strange diseases arise; cancer is no where near its end; Alzheimer seems to have its hold on more and more people. Living longer doesn't even seem like such a wonderful prospect any more.
All of the items just mentioned are simply signs that this world is coming to (in Latin that is "advent") its end. Much more importantly Jesus will again reveal himself to us in the fullness of who he is and what will be after all of this is at its end.
Signs-just signs. Read and weep? No, read them and rejoice that Jesus is coming. If you see the trees budding in spring, do you get nervous? Are you frightened? Do you go on a binge because spring is approaching? I would think not, but then I don't know any of you that well to know for sure what you might do when you see signs in the heaven and on the earth.
They, as well as a whole bunch of other events, can really put us into a tailspin. But it's really a trap. Events can and do overwhelm us. People we counted on leave, die or betray us. That which seem so solid, whether finances, health or relationships begin to wobble out of our or anybody's control. Everything we counted on, believed we had done our best to secure and give us security and happiness suddenly, unexpectedly takes a hike and is gone! Wow! Even churches we loved and worked so hard for are closed!
What's your reaction?
What can you count on? Is there anything you can count on? Jesus says that "heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Nice words, right? But are they believable, reliable? And what words are these words that we are can always count on?
St. Luke the writer of the Gospel reading for this Sunday doesn't tell us, but St. John, the disciple whom we are told Jesus loved, tell us that Jesus himself is the Word. He was there at the beginning of this world-he made it. He will be there at the end. He lived among the people of this world. He continues to live with us, although he seems to be invisible to the human eye. His greatest expression of who he is, what he is about, and what he intends for us comes when his world came crashing down. There, outside of his city, there on that place resembling a skull, he gave it all up, so that we would not depend on anything in this world but him.
Many people believe that when you die, that's it. The end! The end of you for always. That's what those people who had followed Jesus thought. They saw him dead; they saw him prepared for burial; they saw him entombed. It was the end of Jesus, of hopes, of dreams, of possibilities. His word, however, was to be believed then as it is to be believed in our time and age. "On the third day the son of man will rise!" And he did, and so shall all people who trust in him to give them life, now and after the mortal part of us goes away.
So his words, the words of this Jesus who is Lord and Savior are forever. They won't pass away as everything in this world passes away.
In 1969 my wife and I were escorted onto the deck of the atomic powered aircraft carrier, the Enterprise. Huge! Powerful! Gigantic! A few days ago it was reported that this fearsome monster was going to be scrapped. Thousands had built it; thousands had worked on it; thousands had feared it. Now it will be turned into what?
What we fear today, tomorrow will be gone. What we think of as lasting forever all too soon departs to the landfill. All the destruction coming, all the distress we will experience, when the ghost of the Enterprise bears down on you, what are you going to do?
Cause you fear? Drive you to distraction? Cause you to give up all hope. Eat, drink and enjoy because terror is coming? In Japan after the dropping of the atomic bomb on two of their major cities, many young people knew, even though the war had ended, that at any time they could just be evaporated by another one of those devices. So they lived only for the moment. Germany after the war and two extremely bleak years when many people died from starvation, thousands believed it could happen all too soon again. Those who did not fear, hoarded and lived every moment, indulging in everything they could.
What about your life? Are you trapped? Is your use of recreational drugs to escape the reality? Is your abuse of alcohol caused by your miserable life? Is your addiction to porn or worse because even all the drugs won't help? Is your creed an attempt to hang on to that which we believe will spare us from the worst that can come?
Are we trapped and don't know it? If not there yet, is the "cheese" in the trap becoming all the more inviting?
Watch yourselves! Be alert to what you are doing! Stay awake! And pray that our gracious Lord God would give you the strength to escape all of the things and then to stand before the Son of Man when he coming in all his power and glory.
It is never too late for you. The trap is there. See it. Smell the bait. Do not be lured by it, rather give yourself to prayer for God's strength coming to you richly and fully to see the green pastures and the quiet waters of his presence, every day.
Lord God, grant this to us for Jesus' sake. Amen