"Facing Fear"
Sermon Presented December 3, 2006
Luke 21:25-36
First Sunday of Advent - Year C
As I was working on this sermon Wednesday afternoon, the darkness was oppressive! I survived by taking a nap, but the clouds, rain and darkening sky were ominous! I tried to rationalize by saying to myself, "Self, we're getting close to the shortest period of daylight in the year. Take heart because soon the days will begin to lengthen!" But this did very little good toward reviving my spirits!
I don't fear the darkness; I just dread the gloom. But fear of the dark is very real to the child who imagines someone climbing into his bedroom window when he's asleep or the woman who has been raped as she walks along a dark street. At first reading, our text today sounds like one that should generate fear in everyone within earshot. It's one that inspired the "Left Behind" series of novels. It's a text that we are uncomfortable with, and we aren't the generation being addressed. Hear our text: Luke 21:25-36.
This Advent season, I feel a need to pay attention to the candles being lighted on the Advent wreath - especially this first one - the Candle of Hope. I think it's only natural to look for light in uncertain times, because uncertain times tend to generate fear, and fear can cause immobility. As the text says, people will faint from fear and worry over what is to come.
In the time of the Great Depression, people feared not being able to feed their families or keep a job. In times of war, there is the fear of corrupt foreign leaders and their ideologies, loss of life and freedoms, and atomic weapons. In times of plenty, there is an underlying fear of losing what we've worked for - our retirement accounts, our homes, our independence, and our good health. We fear a stock market crash, terrorist attack, or a less than idyllic existence. When fear replaces our peace of mind, we are in turmoil!
This First Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Hope, but in order to get to the hopeful part, we must deal with what comes first and that doesn't sound very hopeful. We must first deal with our fears of both imagined and real dangers before we can come to peace.
Until recently, it was common for ministers in my tradition to use this text to frighten people into making new or renewed commitments to follow Jesus. "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven (or hell) is at hand!" It's still used by televangelists and radio preachers, as well as ministers in more conservative congregations to frighten people out of lethargy into action. But most people today aren't motivated by fear of an apocalypse as they formerly were. We continue our lifestyle even when we know it leads to pain and misery.
Our book club just finished Barbara Kingsolver's masterpiece of fiction The Poisonwood Bible. In this book, The Reverend Nathan Price uproots his family from their home in Georgia to go to the Congo to save the natives from hell. We don't ever hear his voice directly - only his words and actions as seen through the eyes and ears of his wife and four daughters. Price believes he is doing the right thing, but has no clue as to how his tyrannical actions affect his family or the Africans he wants to "save". He is motivated by a fear of God's wrath and tries unsuccessfully to motivate his family and the villagers by that same fear. The most pathetic part of the book for me is when Price's youngest daughter Ruth May dies from a snake bite and is lying in state on a table in the yard. A rain storm comes and because this missionary has had no baptisms, he goes around placing his hands on the heads of the children who have gathered as an act of baptizing them in the rain. He doesn't know what the Kingdom of God is all about, and his insensitivity to God's voice brings one catastrophe after another. As he tries to save the "natives", he loses his family, his mind and his life.
Our text begins with "signs" of the coming of the Son of Man. Looking for signs of God's coming, was what people in Palestine did in those days. They believed the Messiah would usher in the end times, and that time would be soon. But the end didn't come and hasn't come almost 2000 years later.
Today we still look for signs - probably not signs of God's appearance, but weather signs, as we did Thursday night and Friday as the blizzard dumped on us. We look for economic signs by watching Wall Street. We watch for signs of weight gain by noting the fit of our clothing, and signs of health problems through rises and falls of cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood count. We watch for signs of trouble in our relationships, finances, physical bodies, jobs, and the world, and we pay attention to some, and ignore the rest.
I think it helps to examine what we pay attention to and what we ignore. What are our obsessions? I dare say that most of us pay more attention to the economic indicators than we do to the signs that our spiritual health is in danger. We ignore what we don't want to change and we change what we can when it confronts us in mighty ways - such as a heart attack, a pending divorce, a nervous breakdown, or bankruptcy.
In the time of Jesus, the Ancients believed that if people could read the heavens, they would know what was going to happen on earth. The Roman Empire took as its symbol the sun and the empire's client kings were often depicted as moon and stars. So the sun, moon and stars could refer to the Roman Empire. The judgment depicted in verses 25 and 26 falls on the whole order of the Roman Empire. The "world" here isn't the cosmos but the inhabited world - the Roman Empire. But this understanding doesn't help us grapple with the text in ways that benefit us today.
I began by talking about fears, so how should we deal with both the real and imagined fears that we face? The text says people are to stand up; raise their heads; look for salvation; hope; guard their hearts and minds; and pray for faith to stand firm. These are all action statements - things we can do! I believe that if we deal with our fears differently, we will live more peaceful lives - individually and as nations.
When we are afraid, we often become depressed. Just think of times you have feared a medical diagnosis for yourself or a loved one, a job loss or demotion, a stock market crash, a war, an abrupt weather change like a flood or tornado, a terrorist attack, a divorce or a loss of independence. And when you think of those times, you may be able to associate depression or even physical illness with the trauma. When we fail to deal with our crises, when we don't guard our hearts and minds and look to God for sustenance during the times of turmoil, we lapse into distress and even depression.
For us, Luke's teaching isn't about a one-time series of events at the end of the age, but a prophetic lens through which to view history in a time of transition. It's a call for discernment and discipline. It's a call for discipleship. Far more important than worrying about a future calamity, is living prayerfully and carefully and lovingly before God in the present.
Today we know that winter is nigh because of the blizzard last Friday. We know that the world is far from peace because of the wars being waged on most continents. We know that God's will isn't being done because of all of the hunger and poverty everywhere. We know that global warming is a growing problem because of the massive melting of the polar icecaps. We see the signs, but sadly we do little to address solutions. We wring our hands and complain against those most responsible for the problems, but we don't get involved in the solutions. We ignore the signs of personal, national and world problems, and conditions worsen.
We may not be weighed down with drunkenness as the text suggests, but our hearts and minds are weighed down with worry and fear. We can't escape the present, but we can learn to keep our fears from overtaking us - possessing us - crippling us - robbing us of our sleep and peace of mind. And we can do this by looking to God to change our minds and hearts, to strengthen us to rise above the tragedy and be God's person in the midst of the turmoil and destruction.
On this Advent Sunday of Hope, let's remember the words of the psalmist in Psalm 23. Hear these words of hope.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me: your rod and your staff - they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies: you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
The gifts of grace, hope, peace and delight are present and abundant. The time to live and love and give thanks and rest and delight is now - this moment, this day. I invite you to have a taste of eternity.
