I remember the first time I went to see Raiders of the Lost Ark. I say ‘went to see’ it because that’s about all that happened – oh, I got to the theater all right – got my ticket – sat down in a row about half way back – even had an empty seat in front of me so I had a clear view of the screen – but I still didn’t see the movie. I spent most of the movie with me hands over my eyes, or perhaps peeking out from between my fingers because I just couldn’t watch – it was just too exciting – too much action – the hero was always jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
It was a pretty silly thing to do. I knew this was a movie with a happy ending. I knew that everything would turn out well for the good guys – this was even a movie you could take children to see - and yet I just couldn’t bear to watch it. Why? Isn’t that what cliffhangers are all about? – Maybe because even though I said I believed it – there was still a bit of doubt so I looked away.
We all look away from things we don’t want to see – from things we are not too sure of – we procrastinate about things we don’t want to do even if we know they have to be done. We avert our attention just as we avert our eyes from scenes of car crashes – from scenes of poverty. We even avert our eyes from things that are kind of amusing – like when someone goes into the water and does a belly flop, we turn our heads away slightly, cover our eyes, cringe just a bit and say “ouch”.
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This morning’s scripture portion tells us that certainly, someday, things will happen that many may not want to see – signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, distress among the nations, roaring in the sea.
This is the season of Advent - the time when the church prepares to celebrate the coming or appearance of the Christ. As we look at the scripture today, we have to wonder, where is that cute little manger, the sheep, the wise men? But today’s scriptures point us not to an advent past - but to another advent - the Second Advent or appearing of Jesus Christ. We wait for the second coming of the messiah just as people once waited for the first one. Today’s scripture invites us to prepare for this advent.
Of course, people have been preparing for it since the middle of the first century. Christians looked at the destruction of the temple in
At the dawn of the second millennia, people shook with fear and stood on mountaintops hoping to be among the first to meet the Lord in the air – people have been doing that ever since in one way or another. Selling all their possessions and donning white robes – even in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries – of course, they were wrong about the timing and many of them went away from their mountaintops disillusioned.
But the Gift of God’s future does not hang on this one point in time – whenever it will be – of even however it will come. The gift of God’s future is here with us now.
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The gift of God’s future is that even as we face the uncertainty of each day, we do not live in fear. We wait in joyful expectation for the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.
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When my mother and I lived in
On one evening as we waited for the fireworks to begin, I looked around at the other people who were sharing the space with us. We had all prepared to come and be where we were. We were all having a good time – and there were all sorts of people there – young and old, well dressed and dressed down, couples, families, even a couple of dogs – and all the while, smiling, jovial people looked again and again at their watches. Again and again, people moved their chairs around and glanced across the waters toward where the fireworks would be starting. We waited with hopeful eyes – anticipating the joyous combination of music and color that would mark the beginning of the Christmas season.
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I looked around and thought – This is how it should be when we look forward to the coming of God – people still doing all the things they normally do – but with an air of expectancy. It is joyful preparation that marks the Christian life. We have much to celebrate and be thankful for. If heaven is a ‘prepared place for prepared people’, well here we are! And when we hear about signs in the sun, moon and stars that mark the time of the second coming, the completion of all things then like the revelers on those Wednesday nights, we look to the sky in joyful expectation – knowing that our redemption – the new creation – the new earth – the new Jerusalem is coming near – we look up to the heavens smiling, hopeful - our need for patience is ended.
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There are many who fear the second coming of Christ. But they fear not the joy of the coming, but the signs in the heavens that will precede that coming. Signs in the sun, moon and stars, distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves, the powers of the heavens shaken – the agony of the crisis before the ecstasy of joy.
All of us who are parents can understand this easily. Mothers and fathers who anticipated – and lived through – the fearful and unpleasant experience of the birthing process.
Expectant parents prepare dreamily about the coming of their new little one. They imagine what the little one will be like, how parenting will change their lives and their relationship. They look ahead to the joys of raising their little one – but what they rarely mention is the pangs of labor, the rush to the hospital, the feelings of absolute helplessness that accompany the time. They fail to mention how for several weeks that waiting affects everything in their lives as they wait not so patiently for a phone call or to be awakened in the middle of the night. They neglect to mention that during that second stage of labor women are ready to divorce their husbands for causing all this. In face, I heard recently that the time to ask a woman if she wants more children is not while she is in the middle of labor. ‘Ya think?’ J
But the joy that accompanies the birth makes all that pain and that waiting just a dim memory – nothing compared to that final joy of parenthood. And so it will be at the second coming of Christ – not the end, but a glorious beginning. Not something to fear, but something to anticipate because it is the promise of greater things to come!
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Like most of the people who have experienced parenthood or who have watched “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, when it comes to advent, to the second coming, we may be sitting on the edges of our seats in excitement and anticipation – but we will also be looking to the skies so we can get a good look at everything!
That for which we have waited so long will finally be here. This is one of God’s gifts to us – the gift of the future – not the gift of a dark and foreboding ghost of Christmas future – but the light-filled reality of a heaven on earth – not calamitous destruction – but eternal peace and safety – not just the end of this age – but the coming of the new one.
The ultimate gift of the Christmas child is the sure promise of eternity in the presence of God – this world and our time on it is not all that there is. We have the gift of the future. Amen.
