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SERMON PREACHED ON ADVENT SUNDAY, 12.3.6
[Luke 21:25-33]

(snap!)  Constantly the man snapped his fingers (snap!) driving everyone crazy. 
(snap!)  Finally a co-worker asked him, ‘Why do you keep
snapping your fingers?” 
(snap!)  “To keep the elephants away.” 
(snap!)  “Stupid, there are no elephants within thousand
miles of here.” (snap!)   “Effective, isn’t it.”  That old groaner
illustrates cause and effect – or not! 

Cause and effect were linked in Jesus’ day, too, but differently than we may expect, because the heavens were understood to reflect important events on earth and reveal portents of things to come: significant births in the Old Testament, Jesus’ birth in the New.  Now-a-days when we read “there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, on earth, nations in agony, bewildered by the clamor of the ocean and its waves,” we realize just one thing: Christmas is around the corner!  But Luke is setting the stage not for the birth of Jesus, but his death.  Just five verses later Judas would betray Jesus, the disciples experience the Last Supper, his arrest, he will stand before Pilate and Herod, then Pilate, again, face Calvary and death by crucifixion.

Trouble with apocalyptic material – dealing with “end times” - is that it can sound so contemporary in every age.  Taken out of context, religious charlatans can use and abuse it: signs in the heavens, nations in agony, the clamor of the ocean waves – use your imagination, eclipses, Iraq, tsunamis, people paralyzed by fear from the menaces in the world – a scary time out there. 

As you can imagine, Jesus’ death really shook up the disciples, upsetting all their expectations. They died waiting for the end of the world to come, their nervous waiting negatively impacting the early Church as they searched everywhere for signs of Jesus return.  It may sound crazy, but it’s not unlike people who go around looking for Elvis, spotting him everywhere!   In his own way Mark was saying, “Elvis has left the building!” With only slight modification Luke quoted Mark’s gospel, as Mark tried to simmer down that kind of expectation in the early Church.  By using end-of-time images, Mark put an end to their out-of-control
speculation, their enthusiasm for trying to find signs of the end in ordinary events!   Jesus said, “No one knows when the end is coming,” so – Mark was saying - get on with your life!  Quit searching the stars and start focusing on people the way Jesus did – that’s where you’ll find him!    
           
 So Advent is not a time for guilt but for refocusing, checking out your world view, your assumptions of life, your expectations – of yourself and others, revising the ways, the places you find meaning.  Otherwise you may be looking in the wrong places and wasting a lot of energy. 

I was so taken with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that I needle-pointed it for Jill:

Some of your hurts you have cured,
and the sharpest you still have survived,
but what torments of grief you endured
from evils that never arrived.

Once in a while the Sunday scriptures are in sync with contemporary sources, as happened this week with the Gospel according to TIME Magazine and its front page article: 

“WHY WE WORRY ABOUT THE WRONG THINGS:” worrying about the things we shouldn’t, ignoring the things we should.”  

Within the context of today’s gospel, consider the following factors:“More than 10 times as many die falling out of bed as from lightning strikes” – and a friend of mine has been struck twice!“We agonize over avian flu, which to date has killed precisely no one in the U.S., but have to be cajoled into getting vaccinated for the common flu, which contributes to the deaths of 36,000 Americans each year.”“We wring our hands over the mad cow pathogen that might (but almost certainly isn’t)
in our hamburger and worry far less about the cholesterol that contributes to the heart disease that kills 700,000 of us annually.  ““Shoppers still look askance at a bag of spinach for fear of E.coli  bacteria while filling their carts with fat-sodden French fries and salt-crusted nachos.

”You get the idea!  Mark did!  Luke followed suit.  Big, catastrophic moments happen just once in a while – and it’s good to prepare for them, as we’ve done with our new Hall, built of steel. 
But the areas we can do the most good involve those plain-ol’ day-to-day moments.     Don’t try so hard to decipher the meaning in “signs” coming from inanimate objects: stars and moon, earthquakes and waves.  Pay attention to needs and opportunities right in front of you. The clue is found in Matthew right after his  own version of today’s gospel:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. . .   Then the king will say to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you. . .  For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, imprison and you came to see me.’   Lord, when did we do all that?   And the king will answer, ‘I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did it to me.’   (Matthew 25:34-40)

That’s where to look for the coming of Christ.  Opportunities like The Giving Tree, SAMA, and E.R.D. come to mind.  Then whatever happens that scares you, shakes you up, you need not worry.  In the face of any situation – even if it feels overpowering – you are in touch with the basic mystery of life: your sacred mortality, created and loved by God, and in that context see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory!”  When those overwhelming moments happen to you always remember to listen for the message of the angels which Luke uses at Jesus’ birth and resurrection: “Fear not!”   Fear not, Jim.

As Luke reminded the early Christians, when these things begin to take place stand up, hold your head high, because you’re liberation is near at hand.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but Jesus’ words will never pass away.  With that faith in our hearts we enter Advent.

Copyright: Ernest W. Cockrell              12.3.

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