“Hope for the Overwhelmed” – Luke 21:25-36 – December 3, 2006

In the late 1970’s I was involved in a bible study with a group of adults and we were studying the gospel of Matthew. When we came to chapter 24 the subject of the “end times” came up and most everyone in the group was convinced that we were in the end times and that Jesus would be coming soon. I was the only skeptic in the group since my theology didn’t resonate with the others. I didn’t know why but it just didn’t fit with my understanding of God’s love for the world.

Now, three decades later, I have moved beyond being skeptical about a point in time when Jesus will appear and take his believers to their heavenly reward. Today I am convinced that this dispensational view of the world is fantasy and to sell one’s soul to such a theology will take a person down a path that will only lead them away from the Christian faith. All one needs to do is read Luke through the remaining chapters and you will clearly note that Jesus did in fact come again. His return is historic, not futuristic.

Could God end the world as we know it? I am certain that God could make that happen, but I do not believe that God intends for that to happen. If the world ends, it will be because of humankinds’ senseless and reckless ways, such as an all-out nuclear war. Hopefully that will never occur, but what truly matters is what we should be about in the meantime.

Every year on the first Sunday in Advent the lectionary includes the one of the “end times” texts. This year we are looking at Luke. Like all scripture, this passage takes place in a context and the context is crucial to its interpretation. First, the disciples were living in a very uncertain moment.

On Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving, I was observing shoppers standing in line, waiting to pay for their bargains. The lines were long and you could see the anxiety on their faces. Some were talking on cell phones, conversing with loved ones someplace else in the shopping mall who were looking for great deals. There was some pushing and shoving and some unkind words as people pressed toward the cash registers. In addition, finding a parking place was next to impossible. People were in a hurry and I observed many near misses. It was a day that was shoulder to shoulder and bumper to bumper. Instead of kindness and cooperation, there was despair and hopelessness. I thought, if God is ready to come and end this insanity, this would be a good day to do it.

Like the disciples, we live in a time of uncertainty. The tension in the Middle East certainly has the world on edge. Some have personal wars going on. There is tension and conflict in families and relationships. We worry about our economic future and our health. We don’t have to look very far to hear “doom and gloom.” Unfortunately there are pessimistic people around us who hold us back and drag us down.

When trains were introduced in Germany people were afraid that 15mph would be too fast. That was considered a frightful speed. Experts believed people would get nose bleeds and people would suffocate when going through tunnels. In the United States experts here said that the nation would have to build insane asylums because people would go crazy at the sound and site of roaring locomotives.
Historically we know that this was not the case. You wonder how many things we never try because of faithless people who fill our lives with fear instead of hope.

Jesus, however wants us to live in faith, not fear. Catastrophic events, whether global or personal, always happen. And, much of what happens is beyond our control. Jesus, like the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah before him, warned against worrying about the future and paying no attention to the needs of the present. It may seem like the end is near at times, but that is no reason for us to quit loving our neighbors. In the very next chapter, at the Passover feast, Jesus reminded his disciples that life in the kingdom of God was equated with being a servant. (vs. 22:26)

In this chapter of Luke, the disciples had just learned that Jesus would be leaving them soon. In addition, his final teachings challenged their perception of life as a believer. For example, Jesus had just turned their world upside down by illustrating that the widow who put in her two small copper coins was more faithful than all those who had given out of their abundance. And then, he told them that their glorious temple would eventually end up in ruins. Talk about being anxious.

Suppose someone you really care about announced that they would be leaving soon. And then to add to your grief, you are told that life as you know it is different. To further add to your woes you are told that all of the things in your material world are just temporary. Wouldn’t that make you anxious? What you need is hope and assurance.

Secondly, what Jesus gave to his disciples was hope and assurance. He told them that the kingdom of God was near. He assured them that his words would never pass away. In The New Interpreters’ Bible, Volume IX, pg. 411, it reads, “The end of time or the end of life holds no terror for those who know God’s love, because they know the one who determines the reality that lies beyond what we can know here and now. Thus those who know Christ as the Son of God can approach the end with heads raised high, knowing that their redemption is near.”

In other words, Jesus does not want us to worry or be anxious about being people of faith. God is a God of hope. Just as Jesus was assuring the disciples that God would be with them during a crisis in their time, we can be assured that God will be with us during a crisis in ours.

Finally, Jesus reassured his followers that they didn’t need signs to know when God was at hand. It would be as simple as the Fig tree. “As soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.” Its common sense that when flowers and trees begin to bud in the spring, that summer is coming soon. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that.

The metaphor of the fig tree, however is very symbolic. The tree is often used as a metaphor for the peace and prosperity of Israel in the Old Testament. (see Deut. 8:7-8, Hos. 9:10 & Mic. 4:4) Advent is a season of peace. Advent is a time when the church is once again reminding the world that God is a God of peace. Just as you know that the blue paraments on the altar this morning mean that advent is here, you can be reassured that the peace of God is here also.

What anxious people need more than anything is peace, especially peace of mind. On Black Friday I went into a Fossil store that sells watches. The store was crowded and I could barely make my way to the counter. I was on a mission. I had a fossil watch that needed a battery. I was certain that the last thing any clerk wanted to do on the busiest shopping day of the year was to install a new battery in a watch. Much to my surprise the man said he would be glad to put in a new battery. I could leave it and pick it up later. When I came back, again much to my surprise, he only charged me $5. In the midst of all that craziness I experienced the reality that life goes on and the simplest of things continue in spite of all the craziness. I gratefully left the store, watch in hand, ticking along, marking time for years to come. I felt a sense of peace that God is still in the midst of all the chaos.

What this all says to me is that no matter how anxious the times we live in, God is not far away. The problem is that we are so afraid we miss God’s presence. We let those who use scare tactics mislead us. We allow doom and darkness to dominate our lives rather than hope and light. Jesus is telling us that “to understand the world’s troubles as omens of doom is to misread them. The world’s tribulations and our personal trials can be understood as reasons for us to remain faithful, hopeful and optimistic.” (Homiletics, December, 2006, pg. 33)

Rufus Jones tells the story about the great Hellgate Bridge that was being built over the East River in New York. Just when one of the central piers of the bridge was to go down to its bedrock foundation, the engineers came upon an old derelict ship, lying imbedded in the river mud that was in the way. No tugboat could be found that was able to remove the derelict ship from its ancient bed in the mud. Finally, with a sudden inspiration, one of the workers hit upon an idea. He took a large flat-boat, which had been used to bring stone down the river, and he chained it to the old sunken ship when the tide was low. Then he waited for the great tidal energies to do their work.

Slowly the rising tide, with all the forces of the ocean behind it and the moon above it, came up under the flat-boat, raising it inch by inch. And as it came up, lifted by irresistible power, the derelict ship came up with it, until it was entirely out of the mud. Then the boat, with its subterranean load, was towed out to sea where the old water-logged ship was unchained and allowed to drop forever out of sight and reach. There are greater forces than those tidal waves waiting for us to us in our daily lives. They have always been there. They are there even now.

Today is a time for us not to be pessimistic about the future but a time to rise up and be assured that the kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus is saying to the disciples at the end of his ministry exactly what he said at the beginning. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (vs. 4:18-19)

Jesus’ message is consistently about hope and the assurance of the presence of God. To live any other way is to apathetic about the reality of the kingdom of God. Advent isn’t a time to worry about all the preparations for Christmas. Advent is a time to be open to the mystery of God, the ways in which God is already here and live in constant anticipation that Jesus is not coming some time in the future but that Jesus has already come!

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio