3 December 2006

Luke 21:25-36

A lot has been written about the end times. In fact, a whole series of extremely popular books, Left Behind, has been written about the apocalypse. I can’t say that I have read them. But I have heard enough about them to know they instill fear; fear about not being on the right side of the end times. There are tales, I hear, of war and of people disappearing into nothingness. Of course, I’m sure, I would be on the wrong side when the end times come according to the author. The right side of the end times is reserved for a very few, according to some.

Of course this is tied to Christ’s second coming; or his final coming as I prefer to think of it. Christ is coming to us on a daily basis. So we await his final coming at the end times, I would suggest.

Things needn’t be so frightening though. There doesn’t need to be all this fear instilled in people. Certainly the early church, the original hearers of our gospel passage this morning, were eagerly awaiting this final coming. It’s clear from the Luke passage that these final days are something to be watched for.

Luke’s gospel was written in the 8th or 9th decade of the 1st century: several decades after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Certainly by then, people were ready for Jesus to come back in glory. In fact, our gospel reading this morning states that it will happen within “this generation,” putting those words in Jesus’ mouth. Clearly, if it’s 60 years after the event of the crucifixion and resurrection and Jesus is quoted as saying these things will happen soon, then the hearers and author of this writing would be most expectant of Jesus showing up to take over the world.

And taking over the world was what was needed. The Roman Empire was typically fierce and oppressive. People lived in the hope that someone would come along and knock them off their high perch. Someone who would rule with justice and righteousness. Someone like Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.

Perhaps this is why Christianity, this early break off of Judaism, spread so rapidly throughout the Roman Empire. It instilled hope for a peaceful takeover of the beast that was the Roman Empire. It brought the expectation that soon, very soon, something would happen to break the oppressive yoke of the tyranny.

Christianity offered hope: hope for a better world. Its teacher was about love and grace and justice. The early writings all pointed to Christ returning shortly. 1 & 2 Thessalonians, from which we also heard this morning, are among the oldest writings in the New Testament. They are filled with the same expectation of which Luke’s gospel spoke: that Jesus would be coming back soon.

So what are we to do, some 2,000 years later? We are not part of the generations of which Luke and Paul wrote. We aren’t just a few short decades away from Jesus’ ministry. Indeed, much water has flowed under the ecclesiastical bridge since Jesus walked the earth. What do we do with the predictions that Christ’s coming is soon? Ignore them? Say they didn’t happen then and they’re not going to come true now? Or do we go in the other direction and take the current events of the world as signs that the world is ending?

Indeed, the world may be ending, but I think that its demise will be more of a humanly-made event, brought about by our greed and ignorance rather than a triumphant return of Christ. Perhaps those two events will be simultaneous. I don’t know.

And that’s the point: none of us know. And that’s the point of Advent: reminding us that we live in expectation and hope. We truly are people living in darkness and looking for the light of Christ. But we’re called to the darkness right now.

For us in the northern hemisphere, of course, Advent comes at a time of lessening light. As Advent progresses, our light declines. The darkest time in our world arrives as Advent comes to a climax. And appropriately, we live in this darkness progressively lighting candles seeking the true light of our world.

But we stumble along, expecting that…well, expecting what? What do you really expect this Advent? Do you expect Christ to come for the final time to reign in triumph. Do you expect wars to cease and diseases to be cured? Is this a time to expect prisoners to be set free and oppression to end? Or are you just expecting to make it through Christmas?

In the darkness of our life, we are comfortable surrounded by God’s velvety darkness; a darkness in which we see little but know God’s presence and love. We may feel like we are groping our way through our faith at times in this darkness but we keep searching for the light of the Christ.

The waiting of Advent is waiting for justice and righteousness to prevail. But what are we to do in the meantime? Just sit and wait in expectation? I think we are called to work so that justice and righteousness will occur. We can’t just sit back and hope that things will get better. If we want wars to cease and oppression to end, there are things we can do. We can be involved in the work of justice. We can seek the end to oppressions such as racism and homophobia.

Our call is clear. This is Advent. A time of lengthening shadows and growing darkness. Out of the Advent darkness and shadows should be growing the light that we shine of Christ, coming again and again to renew our world.