SKYFALL

A Sermon Based Upon Luke 21: 25-36

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

First Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2012

“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”.  (v. 27)

Clouds aren’t what they used to be.   Today we don’t just talk about “clouds” in the sky but we also speak about ‘iclouds’.  These “iclouds” are those places in cyberspace where you can store personal information about yourself, your work, your music or your movies, all safely stored away somewhere out there in appledom (who invented the icloud), where it will be protected from any evil, earthly virus that makes your computer come crashing down.  It can also store all your stuff until you want to download it to a new computer, cell-phone, or laptop.  No matter where you are or when you need it you can access all your stuff.  One major concern about all the gathering information in cyberspace is that we will die, but all that “cyberstuff” will live on in an “cloud” until somebody finds it and pushes “delete”.   All your stuff survives, even when its owners don’t.       

Our text for this Advent also speaks of a “cloud”.   The picture Jesus gives us is not about a computer that comes crashing down, but of a world that comes crashing down.  The only thing that survives and brings any hope is that the “Son of Man” will survive and come “in a cloud with great power and glory”.   When the world crumbles so that “one stone is not left upon another; and all is thrown down” and when even the “heavens will be shaken” the only power and glory remaining comes from this “cloud” which holds all human hope for redemption.  Of course, all this “cloud” talk, is metaphoric “end of the world” talk.   It’s strange talk, but it’s true.  Like the advent of “iclouds” or “Son of Man clouds”, the truth can be stranger than fiction.  

THE END THAT ALREADY CAME

When Jesus speaks about the “Son of Man coming in a cloud” he is talking apocalyptic.  He is talking about an an “end” that has already came in “his world”.   The clues about this are all around in this mysterious text.   When Jesus says, “not one stone will be left upon another” he is speaking specifically about the destruction of the temple.  Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans about 40 years after Jesus spoke these words.  Jesus saw the end coming sooner, rather than later and said: “This generation will not pass away, until this is fulfilled”.  That is exactly how it happened.  

Another clue of when this all happened comes  when Jesus says, “but before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you…”   By the time Luke’s gospel was written, all kinds of Christians had been arrested, persecuted and killed.  Stephen was stoned.  James was shot with an arrow.  Peter was hung upside down.  Paul was beheaded…and the list goes on.  The whole history of the early church is filled with the blood of the martyrs which, as we all know, became the seed of the church.   “You will be hated by all, but not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your souls” (v. 18-19). 

Those who followed Jesus had hardships.  Many who were his disciples, died.  But the church didn’t die. Nor did the church lose its soul.  With the promised and predicted persecution, the church only got stronger and stronger, and grew more and more.  This is one of the true “wonders” of the ancient world; how the church was built around a crucified, defeated Jesus, who was worshipped by a people who were constantly hated, attacked, ridiculed and even killed for their faith.  It sounds impossible that the message or mission of the church could have survived, but it did. 

Yet another indication of 'when' this happened is understood from Jesus’ military warning: “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you’ll know…..” (vs. 20).  He’s speaking directly about the Roman invasion of Jerusalem in 70 AD which gave us Masada and the diaspora---the tragic death of the last Jewish hold-outs and the scattering of the Jewish people over the whole earth.   This is how the Jewish people became a people without a country for most of their history, at least until 1948.   The descriptions Jesus gave are utterly realistic about the terrors of war, invasion and the chaos that always follows: “Those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it….for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment…. Woe to those who are pregnant….there will be great distress….they will fall by the edge of the sword…they will be taken away captive among all nations….(remember two will be a mill, and one will be taken, the other left).  Those who live and die will be random and  unpredictable.   It will all seem so meaningless, but this is what will happen when “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles….until the time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled” (v. 24).

“That is how the world will end, that is how the world will end, said the poet, T.S. Elliot, not with a bang, but with a whimper.”   Well, it all depends how who you are.  For some people, especially the rich, there is a very big bang when their world falls apart.  But for others, especially the poor, the end often comes like a fading recording, as life becomes fainter until the end whimpers----everything unwinds unnoticed, just as their lives always are, until everything is gone never to return.  Things will never be the same.   Even though some survive, everything is different.  And as Jesus described their feelings.  It wasn’t just that earth that was shaking, but it was also the “heavens” that shook (26).  When describing the end that came, Jesus hit the proverbial nail right on the head.

THE END THAT IS STILL COMING

I guess many might read this passage and say, who cares? That’s how it was, but that’s not how it is now, and has nothing to do with today or our future, right?  Oh, how we wish, the end would never come, right?   

We wish for all kinds of things in life.   Remember as a child how you were asked, if you found a Genie in a bottle what 3 things would you wish for?  If you were smart, your last wish was always for 3 more wishes.  We wish life itself did not have an ending---and could go on, and on, and on forever.  Eternity seems to be in our “hearts”.  We wish worlds, nations, and other human projects and dreams would not end.   But the Bible tells us the truth about life, not what we wish or deny to be true.  What happened then, can happen again today also, and will.  History has a funny way of repeating itself, doesn't it.   Dejavu happens.   Stuff happens.  Life happens.  Death happens.  Way too much in this passage is exactly how things always happen when “worlds” falls apart.   Wars.  Disasters.  Intolerance.  Persecution.  Marching Armies.  Trampled cities.  People fleeing as refugees.  People fainting for fear.  We haven’t known much of this here it here in America, at least not yet, but Europe has, Asia has, Africa has, South and Central America has, and still do.  We can also add that we haven't or hadn't known much poverty and hunger right in our own neighborhoods too, but  now we do.  Things do fall apart.  Who would have figured the Arab spring, or who would have thought about the Halloween Hurricane?  It’s not so hard to imagine “what” might happen, but it’s much harder to imagine “when” or “who” it will happen to next, but it will happen.  “You can bet your bottom dollar, it will,” my mother used to say.   How did she know?   The end comes, it will always come.

When people run websites and write books about the coming end, which sell like hot cakes, the fear is there---it’s always there.   Much of the predictions are ridiculous.  Much of the books, even the interpretations of the Bible are just plain ludicrous.  Imaginations and predictions can run wild, very wild.  What is even more frightening is to know that the end can even become a self-fulfilling prophecy for us.  If we think too much about it, we can even make it so.   This is why Jesus also warns us:  “Beware that you not be led astray…. the end will not come immediately…..Nation will rise up against nation…You will be hated because of my name….  the Son of Man will come….Heaven and earth will pass away….   Jesus speaks with caution, but he still speaks very plainly that end of life will happen to all of us, as he says: “For it will come upon all who live upon the face of the whole earth.”

A few years ago, most of us could who are over 50 would never have imagined that the end was right under our noses when we were children, and we didn't even realize it.   It wasn't long after the great victory of World War II, and then came all these close calls such as the Vietnam War or the Cuban Missile crisis.  I was alive then, but too young to realize just how near the end we all were.   On a recent News Documentary about the Cuban Missile Crisis, they told how Bobby Kennedy knew how close we were to the end and he asked his children if they wanted to leave Washington and go to California, but they all refused.  We were just that close to oblivion   Right after that, who could have imagined a President murdered in cold blood.   Just like none of us could have imagined 911 on such a crystal clear September morning.  Neither could we have imagined the crash on Wall Street—a second time, or maybe still, a third.  Most are deep into denial, and most have trouble imagining that the end might come, not just to the world, but also to us.  I could have never imagined being seriously injured in a car wreck at 17 and having to suffer the results all my life.  Who can imagine that an end will come to us?  But it can---no, it will.  And this is this is exactly where Jesus is going with all this.  “For it will come upon all who live….”  

Are you alive?  Does your life have a beginning?  It will also have an end.  You, as a physical, breathing, living human being will have an end, no matter how hard this is to face or imagine.  Now I know, that I sound a lot like “chicken little” running around calling out that the sky is falling, the sky is falling, when it’s not hitting us on the head, at least not yet.  But it could.  The sky may not fall anytime soon, but it can and some day it will.   We live is a physical, energy expending, endlessly expanding, and constantly changing universe that does not remain the same, though it may appear differently.  The only only true constant we never want to admit is change; changes are happening all the time.  We all have beginnings which will have endings.   

ALWAYS HAVING THE END IN VIEW

Facing reality is difficult for busy or very “distracted” people to get our heads or our hearts around, but we  must.  Jesus does not tell his disciples all this simply to make them afraid, but he is helping them face reality---their reality---the world’s reality---life’s reality.  Jesus tells them this to get them ready, mentally, physically and spiritually.   He does not want to scare them.  Fear is already present.  But Jesus wants to warn them, and to prepare them so they can save both their lives and their souls.  

Listen, to what Jesus prepares them, when he says, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded….you must flee to the mountains….leave the city.”  Can you hear what Jesus is saying?   He is saying: Don’t fight against it.   When the end comes, this is not a time to fight, to hold on, or to defend, but this is a time to “give up” and to go and “run for your life”.  We don’t like to hear that kind of talk.  Jews didn’t like to hear it either.  Many of them held out on Masada and died.   To mimic Kenny Rogers Gambler song: "They knew when to hold them, but not when to fold them, when to walk away or when to run."  They could have run and lived.   Sometimes things in the world fall apart.  And you have to learn to let go.   You have to stop fighting against everything.  Sometimes you have to find somewhere to go and to give up.   In a ending situation, this will be the best resort and not the worst thing that will happen.  When the end comes, you have to “let go” and 'let God'!

Most of us have been there when someone is terminally ill and is near death.  We’ve been there when some have held on and even other family members have begged their loved one, selfishly, “Don’t leave, Don’t leave me!  We understand such feelings, but it’s often not in the dying person’s best interest.  Sometimes we have to tell our loved ones it’s O.K. to let go---that we are going to be O.K., and that they are O.K., and that everything is in God’s hands.  We give them permission and they give us permission to “let go and let God”.  That can be a blessing.  What is a curse, is to hold on, and on, unless there is a specific purpose.  I remember how a lady had a heart attack and was lying in the cardiac unit in Charlotte.  They called me.  I got there first.  She was still holding on.   Then, not long after me, her daughter got there.  We went in to say goodbye to her mother together.  Right as we were exiting the door, I heard the flat-line alarm go off.  I had worked in a hospital, and had been around it often.  The daughter had not.  We set down in the waiting room, and it wasn’t but just a couple of minutes they came and told us she was gone.  She was holding on, and there was a purpose.  When she knew her daughter had come, she let go.  

One day we will have to let go too.   They say that 90 percent of health care costs, come in the last year of life.  Do you know why?  We want to finance immortality.  But this can't be done.  Sometime or other, we all have to let go and let God.  And isn't this what Jesus is getting at?  Whether it be letting go of loved ones, letting go of dreams, letting go of worlds or ideas---they will have their rise and their growth, but they will also have their decline and their fall.  This is not at all 'fun' or 'pleasant' to think about, but the surprise of our text is that right here when “things” are falling apart, end, and come crumbling down something good, great, powerful and even more glorious is taking place.  This “ending” is not a time to bow or bury your head and die, but Jesus says, that with God, even endings can be times of new beginnings:  “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not.”   “For the powers of the heavens, will be shaken.. But “then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory”.   “Now when these begin to take place, raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Who would have thought, that when things fall apart, new things can come together—be renewed, reborn, or made new?  Who would have thought it, but this is exactly the new world the Bible invites us to enter and to prepare ourselves for.  The Bible calls us to trust in a God that allows worlds to come and go, but he is also the same God who builds new ones and shows us how to save ourselves for them.  But these new worlds that God can bring to us are not automatic.  They don’t come on their own.   They only come when we prepare for them and ready ourselves for them.   If we hold on, or if we don’t anticipate this new world, we can be find ourselves “trapped” in the old one, when the new one has arrived.

One of the terms we hear a lot these days, is the title of a T.V. show, called “The New Normal”.  Now, there’s a lot of me that would protest to the this idea of “The New Normal.”  I’m sure I’m showing my age and my own personal prejudices when I share with you how much I despise that idea.   The whole concept frightens me.  But these new “normals” do come, don’t they?  When we lose a loved one, or spouse, there is a “new normal”.   When we recover from surgery, things are not the same, but there is a “new normal”.   When elections are lost or won, there is a “new normal”.   But even this “new normal” might not last that long until it also quickly becomes an “old normal”.   The “new normal” of our time, can last about as long as a new cell phone or computer.   It is quickly outdated.  

What Jesus wants his disciples to understand is that when things fall apart, there is not simply a “new normal” but there is a new chance to get “near” and close to God’s Kingdom, which is still always coming, but not yet here.  God’s kingdom is not a new normal, but the absolutely new “abnormal”.   It is the very ‘odd’, surprising, coming completely new world, we can 'only imagine', but we do have glimpes of when it ‘peaks” through the endings we face in our own lives or worlds.     

Lately, there have been several new claims, even by medical doctors about the afterlife.  Several doctors have claimed to have died and visited a “world” beyond this world.  There messages are reassuring to many, but they are not new.  Such visions are as old as the Bible and even before.  Humans have always been able to get glimpses of new beginnings, new worlds, and new normals or abnormals, if you want to call them that.  When we allow God to give us those visions, or when we stay alert,  we humans have a way of finding hope, seeing, lifting up our heads, and finding redemption, even in the midst of crumbling, falling, and dying worlds. 

But Jesus reminds his listeners, that this redemption is not ever automatic.   We must prepare ourselves for what might come.  We have to learn to read the signs.   We have to be “on guard” with our hearts.   We can’t let the worries of this life, “weigh us down” and make us hold on to the very things that are falling apart.   To hold on, we can get trapped, and end up waiting to what is going down, to snag us and take us down with it.  No, you need learn to “let go”, “flee”, to “stay alert”, keep praying, and “to find the strength to escape all these things”.  

Amazingly, but not accidentally, yet intentionally and deliberately, we can “escape” these things that are ending, dying, or falling apart, by getting ourselves ready to “stand before the Son of Man”.   We must prepare hearts to be with Jesus, the eternal one, when any of the temporary worlds of our life, even the world of our own life, comes to end.   Nothing in this world is forever, and neither are we.  Nothing is forever, except the eternal “words” of God and the “world” of the kingdom that comes near in Jesus. 

When we stay close to Jesus, we keep this end in view and we keep seeing the coming new world, which can’t help but break through when our worlds end, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of Our LORD, and of his Christ.   This kingdom is always just around the corner, for both me and for you.  “Be on guard”.  “Stay alert.”  “The Son of Man is coming in a cloud with power and with great glory.”  “Raise up your heads, redemption is near.”  Amen.