A sermon based on Luke 21:25-36 and Jeremiah 33:14-16
Don Friesen
November 29, 2009
Ottawa Mennonite Church
We're on the road to Christmas, a festive occasion, but the Advent journey we take to get there always begins in darkness, much like our days become darker and darker at this time of year. The word, "gospel," means good news, but our Gospel reading this morning talks of "distress among nations" (Luke 21:25), of "fear and foreboding" (21:26), of being "weighed down with ...the worries of this life" (21:34), some people weighed down even more "with dissipation and drunkenness". (21:34) Luke asks us to pray, to pray "that (we) may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place" (21:36), all these frightening and foreboding things!
Our reading from the prophet Jeremiah has a more hopeful tone. It's part of a section called the Book of Consolation (chapters 30-33), but the reason Israel for these words of hope and consolation is that they needed assurance that God does indeed have a providential purpose. Jeremiah speaks of the fulfilment of promises and about new beginnings and about justice and righteousness and salvation and safety because they are not the present reality of his people. They were facing the destruction of the kingdom of Judah, and Jerusalem in particular, so fear seemed the more reasonable response.
Our lives may be quite comfortable, but there are many things in our world that are not right. We live in a time of war, and rumours of more wars to come! We live in a time when soldiers are more highly lauded than people that do not kill others. We live in a culture more markedly militarized than even a decade ago. Our economy is shaky, and we live in a time of fear, when we invest a lot more in security than in peace and reconciliation.
Sometimes we're not even aware of the darkness around us, because we ourselves are enveloped in darkness of a more personal kind loss of loved ones; loss of employment; serious illness; shaky marriages. There are times when darkness envelops us, and it's all we can do to put one foot in front of the other, our horizon limited, literally, to about a foot ahead! Fear has that effect. Fear is powerful. It sucks all the oxygen out of the room and causes us to panic. It causes us to hunker down, clench our fists, our eyes cast down to the ground.
The Gospel, however, suggests quite a different posture! "When these things ...take place," says Luke, "stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28) Another translation says, "Up on your feet. Stand tall with your heads high. Help is on the way!" (The Message) Or another: "Stand erect, hold your heads high, ...liberation is near at hand." (JER) It's as if the Gospel writer is trying to get us to look beyond our immediate, limited horizon to look at the far horizon, and even to stand on our tiptoes to see what hopeful sign might be just the other side of the horizon.
Astronomers speak of two horizons, the sensible horizon and the celestial horizon. The sensible horizon is the one viewed with the sense of sight. The celestial horizon is beyond sight, a great metaphor for eyes of faith. Looking beyond the horizon requires a special kind of vision, a faith vision, like that of Abraham and Sarah who travelled toward that horizon, in faith, with "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not (yet) seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
Father Alfred Delp (1907-1945) was a German Jesuit priest who was baptised as a Catholic, attended a Protestant elementary school, and was confirmed in the Lutheran Church. His ecumenical background, however, is not what made his life difficult; he lived under the darkening clouds of the Nazi era in Germany. He helped Jews escape to Switzerland, and, looking beyond the Nazi era, met regularly with a clandestine group (Kreisau Circle) to develop a model for a new social order after the Third Reich came to an end. The Nazi government dealt harshly with any opposition, and Delp, along with a bunch of other outspoken Jesuits, were arrested and sentenced to be executed. While in prison Delp wrote the following words:
It is the promise of fulfilment that we celebrate with the Lord's Supper. We dare to claim the promise, that though we may live in dark times, our redemption is drawing near.
He was killed ... but death could not hold him. Once again he walked with his companions, before he again passed beyond the horizon. We remember, and that is why we keep our eyes on the horizon, looking for that familiar silhouette. The Gospel tells us that we "will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud'" with power and great glory" (Luke 21:27), and while we wait for that glorious day, we work to make ourselves and our world ready for his coming.
I invite all who are followers of Jesus to this Holy Table in a spirit of assurance, and anticipation, for we share this meal of our Lord in remembrance of him, and in anticipation of his return to set things right. I invite you, as the bread is distributed, to reflect in silence on that shadowy, cloud-enshrouded figure on the horizon.
"The days are ...coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the ...promise I made.... I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; (and) he will do what is just and right...." (Jeremiah 33:14-15, NIV)
We share this holy meal to celebrate God's glorious gift of hope and our own deep longing for peace and goodwill on earth.
"We may ask why God has sent us into this time, why he has sent this whirlwind over the earth, why he keeps us in this chaos where all appears hopeless and dark and why there seems to be no end to this in sight."
But then he adds, "I see Advent this year with greater intensity and anticipation than ever before. Walking up and down in my cell, three paces this way and three paces that way, with my hands in irons and ahead of me an uncertain fate, I have a new and different understanding of God's promise of redemption and release. ... The gray horizons must grow light. It is only the immediate scene that shouts so loudly and insistently. Beyond these things is a different realm.... ... just beyond the horizon the eternal realities stand silent in their age-old longing. There shines on us the first mild light of the radiant fulfilment to come." (Delp, "The Shaking Reality of Advent")
The Gospel urges us "stand up and raise (our) heads"(Luke 21:28) to look to the horizon for signs of hope. We remember that a long time ago, there appeared on that distant horizon One who walked among us. He told us stories that lingered in our minds. He blessed our children. He fed the crowds. He healed the sick. He disturbed the self-righteous.
Poet Mathilde Blind (1841-1896) wrote:
"Ever I seek Thee, O evasive Presence,
So too we look to the horizon for signs of redemption, and thanks to being steeped in biblical imagery we see on the far horizon not only the familiar silhouette of the One who redeems us and our world, we can also make out some other shapes. There's a large shape, much like a lion might make, and beside the lion a calf. Alongside them the shape of a wolf, and beside the wolf a lamb. What is puzzling and exciting is they are not devouring each other! Perhaps this is what redemption will look like, as God's reconciliation and peace bridge the vast gulfs separating us, culturally, racially, nationally, religiously, and in every other way. Imagine: Israelis and Palestinians living in peace! Canadians living in peace with Afghans! The cessation of wars! The patience of people as they wait for the world's economies to adjust to peacetime purposes. The mellowing of schoolmates formerly known as bullies! The dismantling of the Ottawa Mission, Innercity Ministries, and Salvation Army hostels, because the hungry are no longer hungry, the sick are no longer sick, the lonely are no longer lonely.
Which on the far horizon's utmost verge,
Like some wild star in luminous evanescence,
Shoots o'er the surge.
Ever I seek Thy features...." ("Seeking")
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.