Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the
Gospel, Luke 21:34-36.
We are now in the last Sundays of
the church year and you will notice that the readings become quite dark and
heavy with anticipatory warnings. They sound like the apocalyptic doom &
gloom TV shows and movies that were so popular a few years ago. Whether global flooding,
an asteroid strike, nuclear winter, or alien invasion, these shows and movies got
the attention of millions and made millions of dollars as well. But, viewers
knew that when the show or movie was over and they got off their sofas or left
the theater, it was right back to the same ol’ same ol’ routine. Life was
normal, boring, routine and safe.
Oh, sure – there are plenty of
real-world stories about war and conflict and political unrest on the evening
news. Occasionally, we hear of Christians being martyred over in the Middle
East and we pause for a moment to reflect on our ability to gather here. But these
stories catch our eye only for a moment. We see the terrible firestorms that
swept California and watch with horror at homes and livelihoods and lives that
are destroyed. It’s funny…we watch and listen to these kinds of stories and,
other than that moment or two of discomfort, we quickly change the channel,
close the webpage, fold up the paper, and head to work or to bed and with hardly
another thought, forget and move on with our own lives.
But when Jesus speaks of
wars and destruction of what we know by earthquake and fire and conquest, and
then say that those things are just the beginning, it catches our attention.
We’re not used to Him speaking this way. The idea that your parents or children
or aunts or cousins might turn against you to deliver you and other faithful
Baptized Christians to governing authorities to be arrested, tried and
convicted, that makes us uncomfortable, to say the least. To realize that
droughts and famines and other so-called “natural disasters” that we know and
experience are only the beginning, and could drive our world to a screeching
halt like we’ve never experienced, like Hollywood only can begin to imagine, we
wonder how we would survive such a thing.
These aren’t some
attention-grabbing headline you see in the grocery store tabloids. These aren’t
something on a cheesy internet channel. This isn’t a reporter trying to drum up
ratings. Jesus is speaking with full, Divine authority, prophesying what will
come.
This does cause us to pause and
reflect on our sitzenbleiben – our place in life, especially our standing
before God.
For some, these readings strike
fear into the heart, and it’s easy to understand why. We look around at our
homes, our families, our world in which we live and realize all of this can be
gone, literally in a moment. It’s frightening to think any of these things
could happen at any time. Things are beyond our control in every sense of the
word. It seems that politically and socially, everything stands against the
church and then even creation gets into the act.
For others, the response is more
dismissive. After all, Jesus spoke these words 2000 years ago. Some flippantly
comment that yes, it’s happening all around, but it’s not happening here; it
won’t happen to me. Still others offer the glib and wry comment that we can’t
do anything about it, so we may as well eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we
may all die. Les bon temp roulet – let the good times roll.
It’s no wonder that the disciples,
walking with Jesus, ask the question that Christians have wondered since Jesus
spoke these words of warning 2000 years ago. Across time and spanning
generations, the question echoes: “Teacher when will these things be and what
will be the sign when these things are about to take place?”
Jesus gives us a picture: that of
a tree. “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees,” Jesus says. He’s using the
tree to demonstrate the passing of time. As the seasons change, so does the
tree: first the leaves come out, then fruit is produced, then the leaves wither
and die.
With each passing season, so the
kingdom of God draws closer. With each sunrise and sunset, with each rolling
forward of the news cycle, whether the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, or the
arrival Hurricane Harvey in 2017, whether fires in Australia or school shooting
in California, whether social unrest in a foreign country or the foolish
political posturing of Washington, with each passing story that we hear about
or live out, Jesus’ return draws closer. Inversely, with each spin of the earth
on its axis and each revolution around the sun, the earth with all of its chaos
and loss, this world draws closer to its end. The day is coming when Jesus will
return. He will set all things right, restore creation, claim His throne, and
to rule with glory and honor.
In all those movies and shows,
have you noticed they always follow the same theme. In a moment of weakness,
someone will say “Can we do it?” and the rest, with Bob the Builder positivity,
say “Yes, we can!” With a combination of science, ingenuity and good old
fashioned muscle, the heroes muster the courage, strength and wherewithal to
survive and conquer. As we wait, Jesus would not have us look to ourselves. He
would not turn us science or wisdom, technology or muscle. These things are
good, and they are helpful, but they cannot save.
With the drawing close of the
kingdom, from the beginning of the kingdom of Israel to these gray and latter
days, there is only one response that the children of God: look at the tree. Look
to the Tree. Not a fig tree, or an oak tree, or a pomegranate tree; not a fir
or a cypress or a cedar. Look to the tree upon which the Lord of Life hung.
Look to the Tree. Jesus was
nailed to the Tree after His own betrayed Him to be arrested, tried and
convicted. Jesus was left alone to defend Himself when all His brothers fled in
fear. Look at the tree where, as Jesus breathed His last, the sun fled from the
sky and the earth shook with sorrow at His innocent death. Look to the Tree where
it seemed the fires of hell consumed the One who died. Look to the Tree,
stripped of its own leaves of life, supporting the one who had life stripped
from Him. Look to the Tree. Look to the cross. There, at the Tree, the Lord of
Life redeems the world with all of its fallenness, all of its destruction, all
of its pain. At the Tree, Jesus conquers it all for us.
So, look to the Tree. Look to the
Tree with repentance, confessing your sins. Look to the Tree with faith. With
our cries of “Lord, have mercy,” confessing in faith that Jesus will rescue and
save, look to the Tree with hope. That, even as this world falls and fails
around us, when Christ returns, this world will be recreated and restored and
renewed in the resurrection of all flesh.
As our fall season deepens, look
at the trees around you. They simply go on being trees. They don’t fear the
winter to come, and God in His grace, provides for them and He prepares them
for winter when the leaves fall and they have their season of rest. Then, after
their rest, comes new life, springtime, a season of Easter even for creation. It’s
a metaphor for our lives now as we prepare for that which is to come. Look to
the trees. But, more than that, look to the Tree for grace and strength to
endure that which is before us. “But watch yourself lest your hearts be weighed
down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come
upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face
of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times praying that you may have
strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand
before the Son of Man.”
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