Jeremiah 33:14-16 November 29, 2015 Luke 21:25-36 Pastor Lori Broschat
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DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
Once when he was vacationing in Denver, President Dwight Eisenhower was reading the local newspaper. His eyes fell on an open letter that told of a six-year-old boy living there named Paul Haley who was dying of cancer. The letter said he had one wish before he died; he wanted to meet the president of the United States. Spontaneously, in one of those gracious gestures he was known for, President Eisenhower decided to grant the boy’s request. So on a Sunday morning in August, a big limousine pulled up in front of the Haley home, and out stepped the president.
He walked up to the door and knocked. Dale Haley, the boy’s father, in his old blue jeans, a faded shirt, unshaven and half-awake, came to the door. What a shock! There was the president standing on his doorstep! The chief executive came in, shook hands with Paul, talked to him for a while, took him out to show him the presidential limousine, and then left. In the weeks that followed, the Haleys and their neighbors often talked about what a kind and thoughtful thing Eisenhower did.
But there was one person who wasn’t entirely happy about it. “Those jeans, the old shirt, the unshaven face,” bemoaned Paul’s father. “What a way to meet the President of the United States.” He regretted that he didn’t get up earlier and shave sooner that morning, but because the president showed up unannounced, he was not prepared!1
A surprise visit from the president would be an occasion, but imagine the day when Jesus returns. The New Testament speaks of that day 300 times, directly or indirectly. The readiness factor cannot be overemphasized. There will be only one return of Christ, or as the Macy’s ads always proclaim “One day!”
Jeremiah wrote of a righteous branch from David’s line who would come and deliver His people. That would be a long time coming for those who heard those words. Jesus told of the end of days when He would come and redeem His people. That would be an even longer time; indeed, we don’t know the day.
Behold the days are coming, and so we wait, and wait . . . and wait. But we wait in anticipation, we have to look past the celebration of Christ’s birth to the day of His return if we would be completely prepared. Oddly enough, we celebrate or at least observe the season of Advent because it’s hard to celebrate themes like fear and trembling, death and destruction, signs and warnings.
They don’t really scream “Rejoice! Who wants eggnog?” It’s a waiting game and if there’s anything Christmas has become, it’s not a season of waiting. Each year the shopping season
1 Seamands, Stephen, Give Them Christ: Preaching His Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurr3ection, Ascension, and Return, pg. 158159
Jeremiah 33:14-16 November 29, 2015 Luke 21:25-36 Pastor Lori Broschat
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gets bumped up into October. Someday they’ll just hang the Halloween decorations on the actual Christmas trees in the stores.
As much as we want to we can rush the season, but it’s going to have no effect on what Advent is all about and that’s watching and waiting. You think kids get antsy waiting for Santa? Try a whole nation of exiled or persecuted people waiting for their redeemer. Actually, we are witnessing something very much like that right now with the Syrian refugees. These people are in limbo, living in fear and waiting for help.
The days are surely coming. A promise is a promise, so God will fulfill His word. He would raise up a righteous branch, a branch of David’s family line. This leader will execute justice and righteousness. His name means righteousness, our righteousness, so if we struggle to find our own we will always be disappointed. We identify Jesus with this promise, although no descendant of David would ever sit on an earthly throne again, Jesus is a descendant, even born in the city of David – Bethlehem.
If you’re thinking the covenant is only partially fulfilled you’re right. The second half is yet to come, which is what Jesus wanted His followers to know. We know what to expect, but not when; although there are indications, we need to live prepared. Not in a bunker-building, water-hoarding, Doomsday preppers kind of way, but in a way that honors God.
Christ 2.0. The next installment. He will be back, and we shouldn’t fear what is happening, because if not for the signs we wouldn’t know. When we see the things that cause us to panic and wonder, we should look up because it means our redemption is coming. We can’t bury our heads in the sand. This will come upon the whole world at one time, instantaneously, unmistakably, so we best be ready.
We live in a similar time of fear and hopelessness as did the Israelites. A world in unrest, threats, racism, fear of the stranger or foreigner, economic struggle and inequality. But God’s promises will be fulfilled and they will not be derailed by our fear, selfishness or skepticism. God’s love is still reaching out to exiles. We are called to live in such a way that our lives draw others into an encounter with God. God is working His purposes out.
Advent messes with our concept of linear time because it speaks of the end times, yet we are moving toward the celebration of Christ’s birth. Prophets tell us of events that have already taken place, and yet we are told to prepare for what is coming. One could conceive that the days of the future as presented in Scripture are in the past.
We live in the two great times of God’s intervention in the world; Christ’s death and His coming in glory. It’s an in-between time fraught with tension, yet characterized by hope. No wonder nonbelievers think Christians are hopelessly deluding themselves. Our narrative does not make logical sense to those without faith.
Jeremiah 33:14-16 November 29, 2015 Luke 21:25-36 Pastor Lori Broschat
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Prophecy is hard for us to relate to or comprehend because what we’re reading has already happened; well, at least in part. We think we know the end of the story, but the story’s not over yet. As we say in our communion liturgy; “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”
There are some truths about His return that we can hold onto, that we can trust in. His return will be personal. The same Lord Jesus – He Himself and no other – who lived, died, rose and ascended, will come again. The favorite term of the New Testament writers to describe His return is presence, as opposed to absence, which is exactly how the disciples felt when He left them.
His return will also be visible. Having disappeared from sight at His ascension, He will reappear at His return. The same word is used in relation to the first coming of Jesus. Just as Jesus appeared visibly the first time when He became flesh and assumed a human body, He will appear visibly a second time.
His return will be glorious and powerful. As Jesus Himself describes it, “And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out His angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather His angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather His chosen ones from all over the world.” Everyone will take notice. It will be a public, universal, earth-shaking event of biblical proportions.
His return is certain to happen, but uncertain as to when it will happen. As sure as we are about the fact of Christ’s return, we are unsure of its time. Scripture seems to deliberately leave us with an unresolved tension, what one author calls a “purposeful uncertainty.”2
Who is this message of redemption for? The sick, the imprisoned, the depressed, the guilty, the desperate. He is coming to rescue us from our prisons, in whatever form they appear. If we don’t wait to be delivered, don’t want to be delivered, then Advent is simply a sentimental time.
The message of Christ’s return makes two demands on us. Look up. Raise your head. Advent makes people whole. We can also become new people in Advent. Stand up, look up, your view is too much down towards the earth, fixed upon the superficial changes and happenings of this earth. Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who mourn that the earth has snatched everything from you.
When you look up, things look quite different from what y0u have seen day by day, more real, far greater, and more powerful. Be patient. Wait for a little while longer. Wait and something quite new will come over you. God will come. Jesus comes and takes up his abode with you and you become a redeemed people.
2 Ibid, pg. 163-166.
Jeremiah 33:14-16 November 29, 2015 Luke 21:25-36 Pastor Lori Broschat
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When will it happen? If we knew that it would be tomorrow, how would we prepare ourselves? Jesus said that the signs are there that should happen in your lifetime; therefore prepare yourselves and be ready! If He had left us time, we would remain unchanged.3
Patience is a key element in this whole waiting game, this endeavor to imagine a world changed in an instant by the appearance of Christ. One commentator writes, “Pray for the strength to keep on your feet. There are times when your eyes will be shutting with tiredness, spiritual, mental, emotional and physical, and when you will have to prop them open. This is what it’s about; not an exciting battle, with adrenalin flowing and banners flying, but the steady tread, of prayer and hope and scripture and sacrament and witness, day by day and week by week.”4
Patience, married with readiness, is the only thing that will keep us alert to the changes in the world, to the signs Christ spoke of. Faith is the only thing that will keep us certain of His return, of His promise, of His ability to redeem a very broken world. Hope is the only thing that will prevent us from abandoning Him in favor of a defeatism born of the conditions in this very broken world.
C. S. Lewis said he found it difficult to keep from laughing “when he found people worrying about some kind of future destruction or another. Didn’t they know they were going to die anyway? Apparently not.”
That’s a slight twist on the belief that we will be perfectly fine when Christ returns, even if at the moment we fear the events to come. We shouldn’t fear what we cannot control. And Lewis was right; all of us will die at some point. There is, after all, a 100% chance of not living forever, at least in our present state.
What the future holds may be uncertain for us, but what’s coming at the end of our pain and suffering, frustration and grief, anger and sorrow is so much greater than anything we can imagine. We just have to be alert, keen, tuned in and looking up. There is nothing to fear from Christ’s appearance if we are ready, which means living by faith, demonstrating our willingness to become mature Christians who show the world the reason for the hope that we have.
His name is Jesus and He’s coming back.
3 Robertson, Edwin, Editor and Translator, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons, pg. 94-95, 133 4 Wright, N. T., Luke for Everyone, pg. 260
