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Who We Are - Sermon, December 30, 2003 "First Sunday in Advent"
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Luke 21:28-36 as follows —
"When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." He told them this parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."
"Be careful!" she says to her husband as he heads out the door to go snowmachining in the backcountry. "Be careful!" they tell their teenage son as he leaves for a camping trip with his buddies. "Be careful!" he urges his co-worker, as she gets in the car to head home on a dark, icy evening. "Be careful!" mom says to her 8th-grader, who's about to walk to the mall. "Be careful!" is often-heard advice, usually good advice, almost always a healthy, loving reminder. You might not always feel that you need that reminder; I think that some of us just by nature tend to be more careful than others. Yet it remains good advice for anybody, because there are just so many dangers around us, even if we're not snowmachining in the mountains or driving a dark and slippery highway. "Be careful!" we tell each other. "Keep your eyes open." "Don't do anything foolish." "Pay attention to what you're doing and be aware of what's going on around you."
As we step once again into the season of Advent, BE CAREFUL! is also healthy spiritual advice for us. As you know, the next few weeks will be a time of anticipation and preparation. What people are anticipating and for which they are preparing is, of course, a known date: Christmas. We'll be busy with that, too, getting ready to celebrate not just a holiday but a holy day — the advent, the arrival, of Jesus the Son of God into this world.
"Be careful" may seem like somewhat strange Advent advice. Outside of the danger of being trampled at Wal Mart, this is a time of fun and excitement and good will, isn't it? Why would we need a special reminder to be careful? Well, that warning is not out of place at all for God's people. Believers in Christ, the Son of God born in Bethlehem, know that there will be a second advent. "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." That day of our Lord's return will indeed come, and in light of that, he says, "Be careful!" He wants us to carefully anticipate and prepare for his arrival, realizing that what appears to be permanent isn't, and what could trap us shouldn't, and what ought to terrify us doesn't.
"Look at the fig tree," Jesus said to his disciples. Don't you think that if Jesus would have been born in Alaska in the 20th century rather than in Judea 2000 years ago, he would've used a different parable? Instead of talking about how the fig tree puts out new green leaves, he might have talked about break-up. He might've said, "When you see the sun high in the sky at 6:00 pm, and everywhere you go during the day there's water and mud and potholes, you know that summer is on its way." The point is, there are signs that tell us what's coming, that spring and summer are on the way, welcome signs after the months of dark and cold. No matter how much you enjoy winter, the signs of spring are usually quite welcome. They tell us that the time of light and warmth and sunshine is on its way.
So, Jesus tells us, "When you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near." "These things" are all the signs that he spoke about that afternoon — wars and revolutions, natural disasters, false Christs, persecution of believers and all the rest. They all announce the approach of the kingdom of God, that is, Christ's kingdom of glory. It's coming, they tell us; the cold, dark winter of this sin-cursed world is coming to an end; the bright endless summer of glory is near.
Don't be fooled by appearances. Our Lord reminds us here that what appears to be permanent isn't. Sure, we admit that there really aren't many things that are permanent in this world, although we might wish that they would be. A permanent job? permanent home? Even "permanents" aren't permanent. About the only thing that might come close to being permanent is the Permanent Fund, right? But surely the world is permanent, most people would say. What could be more permanent than the ground under our feet, the mountains outside our window, the stars in the sky?
But no, we must not be fooled. "Heaven and earth will pass away," the Son of God tells us. All these seemingly permanent things will pass away in the fire when Jesus comes again. Heaven and earth will pass away, he says, "but my words will never pass away." There's the one thing that is truly permanent. That will endure. That's the one thing we can count on. His Word is solid, unchanging, enduring, eternal.
But other than that, what seems to be permanent isn't, and in light of that our Savior says, "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap." Unexpected is surely the word for it. That day is coming; no one knows when that day is coming; it's easy to believe that it's not coming. So the potential for being caught off guard is huge.
Which brings us back to anticipation and preparation. As we anticipate and prepare for Christmas, we know when the deadline is: Wednesday, December 24, 2003. We even know how many shopping days there are till Christmas. But we do not know how many days, or years, or hours we have until the second advent of Christ. Therefore he says, "Be careful!" The danger is that you or I could get weighed down and and not be ready and be caught as in a trap.
Our Lord mentions a couple of things that can do that to us: "hangover, drunkenness and the anxieties of life." The first two are clearly related, but note how Jesus ties them to the anxieties of life. Remember how, in one of his parables, Jesus described faith being choked off by the cares and worries of life? How easy it is to get all wrapped up in, even consumed by, the anxieties of life — and then people try to escape them or deal with them by getting drunk. But you understand, don't you, that alcohol is not the only thing people "get drunk" on. They can "get drunk" on their profession, or possessions, or pleasures, or power...or you name it.
But what could trap us shouldn't. "Be careful," Jesus says to people who have his eternal Word. "Be care-ful," he says, to those who enjoy his kingdom of grace with all its treasures now, and look forward to the kingdom of glory. "Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen." Be alert! Be aware of what's going on around you. Don't take foolish risks. Be on guard against the temptations and pressures of life and against sin in every form. With your eyes opened by the Word of God, with your mind instructed by that unchanging Word, you can evaluate everything — "this is spiritually healthy for me; that is not spiritually healthy for me." And pray, he says, pray for the strength you will need to escape. As we do these things, dear friends, what could trap us shouldn't, and it won't!
And pray also, our Lord instructs, "that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man." Finally, that's where all this is heading — to that day, that moment when time will cease to be and the heavenly bodies will be shaken and the Son of Man will come with power and glory. And men, as our Lord said, "will faint from terror." The cataclysmic events of the last day will be terrifying enough, but the ultimate terror will be for sinners who have to face the Judge and answer for themselves. You and I will have to stand before him, too, but what ought to terrify us doesn't. What did he say? "When these things begin to happen, lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near!" As we note the signs that tell us that the winter of sin is almost over and the summer of glory is just about here, we can lift up our heads with joyful eagerness.
We can anticipate Jesus' second advent even more cheerfully than we anticipate Christmas, because what ought to terrify us doesn't. His coming to judge us ought to terrify us, because we have sinned against God no less than anyone else. Yet we know that God sent his Son, born of Mary, to redeem us. We know he sent Jesus, the Christ, to bear the curse of sin in our place. We know that "whoever believes in him is not condemned." We even know what the Judge will say to us on that day, to us redeemed by his blood and dressed up in his righteousness: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world."
That day will indeed come, suddenly and unexpectedly. Now is the time for anticipation and preparation! Not just for the date that we know, Dec. 24, but for the date we don't know, our Lord's return. In view of the perils of these last days, our Savior urges us to be aware of what's going on around us, to take note of the signs, and to anticipate, to prepare, to be alert, to watch and pray. Very simply, his advent advice to us is, BE CAREFUL! Amen.