The Talk

Luke 21:25-36

“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. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The Season of Advent has a bit of a split personality.  The first half of the season is focused, not on the baby Jesus, but on Jesus’ apocalyptic return sometime in the future!  After a few Sundays though, even Advent gives in to the pressure and looks back to the Baby Jesus.  But for this first Sunday, Advent goes full on Apocalypse!  Now, if you’ve gotten your information about the Apocalypse off the street, it’s likely to be just as good and accurate as what you got off the street in Middle School about sex.  

Because of that, I think it’s probably time for Father Erik to sit you all down and have… THE TALK… about Apocalypse.  In spite of what you learned from the kid in Middle School or a TV preacher (both of whom are more concerned about what they are wearing than passing on good information).  An apocalypse is just a word that means God breaking into our world.  There’s not a set way God HAS to break into the world.  God can do what God wants after all!  So Jesus being born?  That was an apocalypse!  That was God breaking into our world in Jesus.  Was that a violent event with supernatural multi headed beasts, horsemen with flaming skull heads, and fully automatic gun battles?  Nope.  Just some angels singing and a baby being born in a barn.  In spite of what you might hear on the street, an apocalypse does not HAVE to come with a violent dystopian hell scape.  It can come… and it actually HAS come… quietly, peacefully, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.    

For Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds, that apocalypse wasn't at all dystopian.  It was really hopeful!  Here’s what Mary had to say about that apocalypse:  “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… he has scattered the proud, brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”  However, a few miles away, that very same Apocalypse WAS seen as dystopian by someone.  King Herod.  He heard ‘scatter the proud, bring down the powerful, and send the rich away empty’ and to HIM, that sounded VERY dystopian.   

And THAT is the real truth of this and every apocalypse.  EVERY TIME God breaks into the world, the people who insist on keeping their own power and ordering the world in a way that builds them up by tearing others down, WILL indeed experience that in-breaking of God as unwelcome and disastrous.  HOWEVER, for the people on the bottom, the people who have been used and abused by those on the top, every apocalypse, whether the ones in the past or the ones coming in the future, will look like HOPE!  Same apocalypse.  Two VERY different points of view. 

The second lesson in our little “TALK” is about the futility of predicting the time, place, and character of the next apocalypse.  Jesus says in this lesson that we can do that just as accurately as we can predict the exact moment the first bud will break out next Spring.  The people who tell you they KNOW when it will be, know as much about that as they knew about girls in Middle School.  In other words… THEY DON'T KNOW NOTHIN’! 

So that’s it.  I’m glad we’ve had “THE TALK,” and I hope you are now better informed now about the mysteries of the coming apocalypse.  From now on you can be “On Guard” as Jesus says, so you don’t get sucked into an ever deepening vortex of despair and fear and hopelessness, thinking that God breaking into our world will be some horrible and frightening thing!  And now that we’ve had “THE TALK” you can also be “ALERT” as Jesus says, looking out for economic, social, political, and every other kind of injustice happening in our world and doing all you can to shift that balance… understanding, of course, that only God breaking into the world will complete that work, but encouraging each another to keep at it none the less.  

And maybe that’s the right way to end our talk... letting you know that waiting for the next Apocalypse really is better done together than all alone.  When Jesus prays that “you” may have the strength to escape all these things, the “YOU” in that passage is “Y’ALL” plural not “you” singular.  Jesus was telling us that we shouldn’t try to do “On Guard” alone and we shouldn’t try to do “Alert” alone either.  It is in this community that we do the work of justice.  It’s in this community that we take turns keeping watch.  It’s in this community that we remind one another to be hopeful when one of us inevitably starts swirling down that news-cycle-vortex of dissipation.  It is in this community that we together celebrate God’s past Apocalypse… the one that happened with a child being born in a manger… and it is in this community that we look together hopefully for the Apocalypse that will bring God's Kingdom, on earth as it is in Heaven.  An Apocalypse is nothing to fear... it's something we HOPE for!  Amen.