Be alert! Be attentive! God is Coming!
A sermon based on Luke 21:25-36
by Rev. Thomas Hall

 

Indulge me for just a moment this morning. See what you make of these words . . . Ready? Here it is:

There was a young lady of Niger,
Who smiled as she rode on the back of a tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Can you imagine Tom Brokaw opening the 6 o’clock news with There was a young lady from Niger? But why? Because those words are poetry. But what kind of poetry? A limerick, right? But how did you know this was a limerick and not the evening news? After all, I gave you no clue, no warning about what type of words these were. We know from experience don’t we, that limericks are characterized by five lines that end in rhyme on the first, second, and fifth lines. Always. Experience tells us that when that combination comes together we’re hearing a limerick.

Let me ask you one other question before we leave the lady from Niger alone. Doesn’t knowing that we’re hearing a limerick affect the way that we listen to it? Would you listen to a limerick in the same way as you have been listening to the news coming out of Florida these days? Please don’t answer that. News station 1060 AM alerts our critical listening mode by playing a brassy, percussive intro into the breaking news about the latest Florida Supreme Court ruling, or the Gore or Bush lawyers’ appeals to the court decisions. Knowing the kind of speech shapes how we listen. Limericks are silly little things that crack a smile and entertain us. That’s all.

Most of us give little thought to the worlds of meaning that just a few words can conjure up. When we hear the words "for better, for worse, in sickness and in health," our minds go to the wedding and to the couple that stand up in front mouthing those words with great courage. "Dust to dust, ashes to ashes," bring us into a very different place-the presence of sorrow and grief; we’re about to say goodbye to someone we love.

Now once again, indulge me. Listen to these words and tell me what worlds of meaning they bring to your memory:

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. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

 

What we’re hearing is a special kind of speech called apocalyptic. Jesus used this kind of speech when he wanted to shake people up and tear the door off the hinges. Jesus didn’t invent this stuff of course, had been around for a long time. But when folks heard it, they knew it just as quickly as we could identify a limerick. Apocalyptic is a language of mystery which comes from "apocalypse" which means the revealing. That’s the name given to the last book in Christian Scripture: "Revelation." Can’t miss it! You know you’re in the strange world of apocalyptic when you find yourself surrounded by mystery, strange beasts, and global catastrophes. You look up at the heavens and see a violent shaking of the stars-as if God were shaking a cosmic rug out. The heavens convulse and the stars pelt the earth with mountain-sized hailstones. You know you’re in the vicinity of apocalyptic when terrible judgments befall the nations of the earth and plagues and monsters prowl around seeking to devour God’s people. A strange way of speaking indeed.

Did you know that apocalyptic was the form of writing that emerged among Jews and Christians when they faced the worst of times? Daniel was written during the Babylonian captivity or more probably, during the Maccabean Wars; Revelation was written during one of the Christian ethnic cleansing attempts by Roman emperors. Even II Peter which sprinkles apocalyptic throughout its pages, came to people under persecution. And today, ever wonder who would welcome "tearing off the door hinges" kind of writing? My suspicion is that throughout the ages, those folks facing hopeless situations, threats on their lives or families, danger to their existence, have found a friend in Luke 21.

It gives people hope.

I remember being in a seminary class led by Dr. Bryant Kirkland, the distinguished minister of New York City’s Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He walked over to the blackboard one morning and drew a huge circle. "Every time you step behind the pulpit, remember this circle," he said. "Some folks will be sitting in the pews at the top of the circle-the promotion has come through, they just got engaged, they’ve successfully merged two corporations, just became a grandparent . . . life can’t get any better than what they’ve experienced this week . . ." Then the professor touched the bottom of the circle. "…and down here are some other folks who have just had the walls cave in on them the very same week-they got a pink slip, filed for bankruptcy, was asked for a divorce, lost a kid to drugs . . . they’re both sitting before you and they both need to hear a word from God."

It’s so easy to preach to the successful, top of the circle crowd. But Luke 21 is reserved especially for those on the bottom-it’s a word of hope and healing for them. They may be on the bottom, but God is coming, things will change; there is something more important riding on their life that what they’re experiencing at the moment.

That’s why the most difficult assignment at Princeton Seminary for many of my colleagues was about Luke 21-"select and prepare a homily on the second coming." No big deal. We had the biblical texts before us in Greek and English. We had a library of over a million books. Yet we all choked on the assignment. I heard the worst sermons America has ever heard. Most of us didn’t even pick a second coming text. Why? It’s difficult to tolerate Luke’s sayings about the End, when everything is going so well for us. Most of us students were on scholarship-someone else was paying for our education. We had brilliant futures-some of my colleagues went on to fill some of America’s most prominent pulpits. What do we want with stuff about the door been torn off its hinges, about cosmic and social upheaval. We were already on the top. Let’s not rock the boat. We just did not know what to do with a God that was coming back again to even things up. We had a lot to lose if God ever reversed things. We could understand a limerick, but we never bothered to understand apocalyptic.

So what should we do with Luke 21? Depends. If you are at the end of your rope-take great courage in these words. For those of us who’ve heard "I’m sorry, but there’s nothing we can do; it’s spread to your lymph nodes," read Luke 21 over and over prayerfully. Know that God is coming for all of us-in the longer view of eternal life: "not a hair of your head will be harmed." For those of us living in countries where we’re already living in Luke 21-great upheavals have made life very uncertain, lift up your head, because your God is coming to bring justice to violent government leaders, to judges who determine innocence by the amount of under-the-table money. Help is on the way! God is coming!

If you are on the other side of life-you’ve carved a comfortable career and life, listen to Luke 21 with different ears. Luke wants us to go about our life as if the end to life will come. We don’t know how the final act will arrive, but it will come. Someday, somewhere, sometime, someone will stand beside us and say good bye. Whether slow or fast, death will finally come at last. That will be God’s coming for us. Luke 21 reminds us to be ready. Be alert. Be about what God has commissioned us to do.

Father Beans knows life at the top and bottom. He does okay if we’re counting salary and the good life. But most days you’ll find him at the bottom-leading other top-of-the-circle folks on a tour of Cite Soleil, the fetid slum of wood and rusted-metal shacks that sprawl along the waterfront in Port-Au-Prince. He watches small children giggling, as they take a few teetering steps on a plank lying across an open sewer. Below them is a shallow stream of black industrial refuse laced with globs of human filth.

Father Beans was 80 in 1994-haven’t heard about him since-but his work lives on. He has created better conditions for hundreds of thousands of people in the slums. He has built 182 schools, a water system, a hospital and a means for delivering free hot lunches to 25,000 students each day. And you’ll never guess what he serves them most days-beans. Not exactly free beans; the students have to earn their meal by working on arithmetic and language. You’ve even heard of one of his kids that he rescued-Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the great reformer of Haiti.

Luke 21 launches us into the Advent season. That means hope-and warning! God is coming, not as the final curtain call on our life, but as the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth. God stands at the End of time. The powers of darkness do not control our tomorrows or the Final Tomorrow. God does.

Jesus ends his words with an illustration of hope-"look at the fig tree." Remember that French Carol?

In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter, long time ago.

 

To the naked eye, trees in the pre-spring dawn appear dead and useless; their gnarled branches have for months stretched skeletal fingers in to the frigid air of winter. Yet it is not the end, but the beginning, for the fig tree "and all trees" remind us that new life survives the folded cloths of death. God is in control and that God will reign supreme. So, in the midst of distress and confusion, Jesus can tell us to "stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

But our lesson also closes with a warning, too. "Be alert at all times; not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life." God is coming. Take heed. Make sure that you are doing your Mission for God this and everyday, Luke warns us. Drinking, parties, investments, comfortable salaries, 2nd homes, SUVs, are weights on us only if they keep us from our Mission. Be alert! Be attentive! And Arise! God is Coming! Amen.