A Sermon Based Upon Luke 21: 25-36
1st Sunday of Advent, Year C
November 29th, 2009
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Our text for today begins with words which describe the terrible, horrifying and dreadful experience of the absence of God in the world:
"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
How would you describe the human experience of God’s absence in the world? Words like “distress among nations,” being “confused” by the roaring of the sea and the waves”, “people fainting from fear,” and the “foreboding at what is coming”, are graphic, vivid descriptions which make God seem far away. This is our human experience sometimes, isn’t it? Can’t you remember how we all felt when we watched as the 2004 Tsunami hit the coasts of Thailand and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean? Most of us wondered “Where was God” in that terrible tidal way of terror and destruction? In the same way when the Twin Trade Towers fell in New York or when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the levies broke and flooded the entire city, weren’t we all “distressed”, “confused”, somewhat “afraid” and “shaken?” How are we feeling right now, as this economic crisis continues and who knows when it will end?
Only a couple of weeks ago in Fayetteville N.C., one of the largest Baptist Churches in North Carolina, Synder Memorial, became distressed, confused, and shaken by a murder-suicide among their membership. Without warning, 47 year-old Real Estate developer Billy Maxwell suddenly took a gun and unexpectedly took the life of his wife Kathyrn, the life of his 17 year old daughter Conner, who was a cheerleader and soon to be high-school graduate and his 15 year old son, Cameron, who was involved in sports and model student. Billy Maxwell was Cameron’s Father and his School Coach. No one in the church, the Christian school, the community or the extended family could figure out what happened to this otherwise “brilliant” businessman and wonderful husband and father. No one could make sense at all out of what happened. All were distressed, confused and shaken.
Life can be this way at times, and it can appear to any of us that the end of the world is just around the corner. But is it?
WHEN GOD SEEMS ABSENT
The 1960’s were times just about as distressing, confusing and life- shaking as any have been in recent years. Do you remember all that was going on? The Cuban missile crisis was in full swing. The president had been shot in Dallas. Martin Luther King was slain in Memphis. Then Robert Kennedy was killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Integration was Revolution. Right near the end of that time, the singing group, “The Temptations” had a song entitled “Ball of Confusion” which expresses how most everyone was feeling:
The sale of pills are at an all time high
Young folks walk around with Their heads in the sky.
Cities aflame in the summer time And, the beat goes on
Young folks walk around with Their heads in the sky.
Cities aflame in the summer time And, the beat goes on
Air pollution, revolution, gun control,
Sound of soul, Shootin' rockets to the moon
Kids growin' up too soon
Politicians say more taxes will Solve everything
And the band played on So round 'n' round 'n' round we go
Where the world's headed, nobody knows
Just a Ball of Confusion
Oh yea, that's what the world is today.
Sound of soul, Shootin' rockets to the moon
Kids growin' up too soon
Politicians say more taxes will Solve everything
And the band played on So round 'n' round 'n' round we go
Where the world's headed, nobody knows
Just a Ball of Confusion
Oh yea, that's what the world is today.
Fear in the air, tension everywhere
Unemployment rising fast,
The Beatles' new record's a gas
And the only safe place to live is on an Indian reservation
And the band played on Eve of destruction, tax deduction /City inspectors, bill collectors
Mod clothes in demand, Population out of hand
Suicide, too many bills, hippies movin'
To the hills People all over the world,
are shoutin' End the war And the band played on.
(Copyright 1970 Jobete Music Company, Inc.
at www.sing365.com .)
Unemployment rising fast,
The Beatles' new record's a gas
And the only safe place to live is on an Indian reservation
And the band played on Eve of destruction, tax deduction /City inspectors, bill collectors
Mod clothes in demand, Population out of hand
Suicide, too many bills, hippies movin'
To the hills People all over the world,
are shoutin' End the war And the band played on.
(Copyright 1970 Jobete Music Company, Inc.
at www.sing365.com .)
Among all the other things going on in the troubled 60’s was the “God is Dead” movement. Do you remember the cover of Time Magazine in 1965 which announced God’s death? In actuality God did not die, but certain theologians in America announced that most modern people were now living as if there was no God in their minds and hearts. And it is true, since that announcement, we continue to see some very real ways the “official” presence of God has been disappearing from our public square and public places--- the end of prayer in schools, attempts to take the mention of God out of the pledge of allegiance or off of money, the very seldom mention or consideration of God in a public forum. “Christianity will continue,” said the theologians but it will continue “without putting God back into modern life” and learning to live without his presence and closeness.” (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,941410,00.html).
But the death of God was much too overrated, just like the end of the world is very often over-stated. God did not die, but in our own time, God, faith, religion and belief has changed, is still changing, but it has made an amazing come-back. It was this way during the time of Luke’s writing as it has been in our own times. Do you see what he says in our text? Just when it looks like the world ends with distress, confusion, fear and just when he mentions about the “heaven’s being shaken with fear” the very next words we hear are this: “…Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
Do you grasp the implications? Just when you think the world is falling apart or that God is completely absent, the very next word is that “then, they will see the “Son of Man coming….with power and great glory.” Right when you think things are going to get worse, everything dramatically changes and God shows up.
Luke wants us know that our God is a “come-back” God! When the world is at its darkest, like the world can be right before the dawn, this is when God has the strangest, most amazing habit of showing up. As one black lady put it, “Our God is a “just in time” God. When people were about to give up, Jesus says, this is when “they will see the Son of Man coming in the cloud with power and glory. “ This is when we too should “stand up” and “raise up our heads” because it is right then, at the lowest point and at the darkest moment, “when our redemption draws near.”
But doesn’t this sound a little confusing too? How in the world can the world come together when it seems like it is falling apart? What “strange truth” is Luke trying to tell us about the human condition, about redemption and about our salvation? Why is it that when should look for God in all these, what appear to be, worse places?
WHEN THE END IS THE BEGINNING
For most all of my life, I’ve heard people predicting the “end of the world”. The first time was as a small child, during the Cuban Missile Crisis when a little known evangelistic preacher named Darrel Dunn went around the country warning us that a coming “one-world government” was about to form and the end was near. It was about the same time, when even evangelist Billy Graham joined in with a different kind of warning with his prophetic book entitled, “World Aflame”. But the end didn’t come exactly and Graham himself later changed his own views. It didn’t come in the 60’s, the 70’s, nor with the famous prediction that the world would end in 1980's by Hal Lindsey or the very famous prediction of 1988, nor did the world end with Y2K, or the expected world-wide computer glitch. And now, the very new prediction that world will end in 2012 based on the Mayan Calendar will also fail. It will fail because that Mayan Calendar did not really predict the end of the world, but the calendar just simply ran out of dates and couldn’t count any further.
Of course, with all the predicting that continues, some day somebody might get it right. The world could end. Doomsday is possible if humans keep doing stupid things to each other and to the world. It could end whether it is predicted or not. God could let down the curtain, but what would this mean? But of course, there is another truth here: the world could end for us suddenly, whether the whole world comes apart or not. This is why we are told to “be ready.” And the world might not end with the earth being completely destroyed, but it could end, just like it did in Jesus’ day. It might end because a certain way of life fades away or because a new attitude, a new perspective or a new understanding begins to prevail.
I remember when a world ended for me. It took place in 1975 when I was almost killed in an automobile accident. After that event everything changed. I began to see everything differently. Nothing remained the same. And do you know something, it was both “good news” and ‘bad news’ at the same time. My world came apart and come together at the same time. It was ‘bad news’ that I lost the perfect use of my left leg. It was ‘bad news’ that I didn’t get to go to Carolina to study Journalism. It was ‘bad news’ that I never ran again nor could I ever work a blue collar job, do hard labor, or work in a factory.
All this was bad news, but it was also “good news” It was good news that when I lost the perfect use of my leg, I started having to learn to use my brain. It was good news that I didn’t go to Carolina, but I went to a Baptist, Christian school and instead, studied religion. It was “bad news” that I never was able to run again, but it was “good news” that I did start learning how to ride a bike and that took me even further. And lastly, it was “bad news” that I couldn’t work in a factory, or work hard labor, but it was also good news that I had to finish college, I had to learn a different way to work and it has given me a lot of advantages I wouldn’t otherwise have had. One world ended, but a new world began.
It wasn’t much different in Jesus’ day. When Jesus gave us all these dire predictions, he told us how metaphorical and figurative they were when he also said, “This Generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled” (vs. 32). Most people skip over this little prediction when they are trying to interpret Jesus’ sayings about the end. But we’d better not, because this is the key to everything. It the key to other passages on prophecy just like idea of “redemption drawing near” is the key to this passage. Jesus was not predicting any sudden end to the world that was not also a new beginning. He was predicting that at the same time “this generation” would experience all these cataclysmic endings, they would remain until they experienced a new angle on God’s deliverance, redemption and salvation. Do you see how Jesus does not say drop your head nor bury your head in the sand, but Jesus says rather, “Lift up your head, for your redemption draws near!” How does redemption draw near when everything is fallen apart?
The most important, most graphic image Jesus uses here for predicting God’s comeback in the midst of an ending ‘world’ is the image of the fig tree in summer time. I like this image, because Jesus does not pick a dying tree in fall or winter for his pointer, but a blooming, flourishing, spouting, and greening tree in summer. How come every prophecy preacher misses this image or refuses to point it out? Why don’t they want you to see that right when everything is coming apart, it is also coming together?
But How can this be? How can a new day come, when an old day is passing away?
It can come because, in the end result, God is still in ultimate control. And because God is always in final control of this world, he does not allow there to be an ending unless there is also a new beginning. This is what God’s control means. It doesn’t not mean God determines everything that happens or that there are no accidents, but it means that God is there sustaining, guiding, prompting and patiently working in all things and with us as his partners to bring about his purposes for our world and for our lives, even in the worse of situations.
THERE IS NO TIME WITHOUT HOPE FOR THOSE WHO TRUST GOD
And what should this mean for us? What should it mean that with every ending there is also a new beginning? What should it mean that in everything that happens, even when the worst things happen, God is still there sustaining, guiding and patiently working in all things, so that with every ending, there can also be a new beginning?
I’ll tell you what it means. We can see it right here in this text:
More than anything else, there is a great yearning for God in this text. Do you see it? We are not to worry or wish for the end, but we are to hunger for God. When life gets empty, void, broken or filled with despair, then we are to turn to the God who will make a come-back.
Secondly, this means that we are supposed hold up our heads and find hope for salvation and redemption, no matter what is going on around us. Because we believe in God, it is not enough to believe that ‘anything is possible’, but even more we should believe that something new is coming and is not just possible, but probable, even promised. Even is a dark, sinful, dirty, and broken world, we can’t give up, because God will make a come-back and so can we who trust and wait upon him.
Finally, this text calls us to not to escape, give-in to or avoid the hard issues of the world through alcohol, drugs, and weakness, but he calls us to ‘watch and pray’ because when the world is falling apart, we are not just going to be the “last man standing” but if we hold out by faith, we will prove to be the “first person” standing in the new day which is promised to come. It will come, and it must come if we will “guard” our hearts and not let ourselves get sucked into the darkness around us. The brokenness and darkness in our world is a trap for those who give up, but it is a beacon of hope to those who don ‘t give in, but look up and expect that with every ending, there is never an ending, but simply a new beginning with begins with God and never ends.
Last week, Teresa and I saw the most amazing movie of Hope showing this advent season in movie theaters. The movie is called “The Blind Side” and stars movie queen Sandra Bullock. It’s the story of the fall and current rise of Michael Oher, current rookie right tackle for the Baltimore Ravens.
I don’t want to spoil the movie for you, so I’ll turn you to a resent New York Times article which tells the story as “The Ballad of Big Mike.” Big Mike was a big young man who’s mother was a drug addict and left Big Mike out in the cold, literally. But one day in winter, while walking to a school gym, not to play ball, but to find heat, Big Mike was picked up by a well-to-do, Christian family in Memphis, who took him in, gave him a place to sleep, taught him to play football, helped him overcome mental deficiencies, and finally adopted him as a 320 pound, 17 year old giant.
I don’t time to tell everything about the movie, but my favorite moment in his turn around, which is not fully developed in the movie, is when Big Mike is struggling in his first football game and an opposing defensive player is giving him the psychological work-over. The other player is a measly 220 pounds and Big Mike is no less than 100 pounds heavier and at least 10 times stronger. But the boy’s taunts have Big Mike confused and beaten down in his own mind play after play. Then in one moment, when the other players have moved on down the field, a commotion is taking place. When the coach, his adopted Father looks back upfield, he sees Big Mike picking this guy with a legal block and is moving him across the field, through the opposing bench, across the running track and has moved him over the chain-link fence. Referee flags start flying everywhere in the air.
“Michael, what are you doing?” His coach Father screems.
“I’m taking him to the bus! Big Mike answers. “I’ve had enough of his mouth and it is time for him to get on the bus and go back home!”
After that moment, Big Mike, whom we now know as Michael Oher, is on his way to become one of the greatest Right Tackles and highest paid Quarterback protectors in professional football.
The message of the movie goes without saying. Don’t ever give up. When you least expect it, God shows up. He did for Michael Oher. You might not make millions. You probably won’t get drafted as a professional athlete. But let me tell you this. If you will wait on God, keep up your guard, and if you will look up, even when things appear to be at their darkest, your own redemption will come near. It will come near, because, as Luke believes and we will discover for ourselves, through faith, our God is a come-back God!
With every ending, there is a new beginning. When the night gets it’s darkest, this always is how it is just before the new dawn. Yes, there will be strange signs in the skies. The earth will be distressed and nations will get confused. The seas and the waves will roar. People will faint for fear and there will be all kinds of negative, depressing feelings around and even the heavens will be shaken at times. But still, don’t dare give up, give in nor let down your guard or give up the ship, for it is right here, in the very next moment, right in this darkest moment, when God makes his come-back and your redemption finally comes. If you don’t believe me look at the fig tree or just look at any tree. Winter is indeed coming and here, but as soon as it ends, the blooms will shoot out, the leaves will turn green and you can be sure, life will make a comeback, because we have and serve a comeback God. Amen.
© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.
© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.
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