On the first Sunday in Advent, the gospel of Luke has Jesus describe a series of global crises, political and ecological, that signify the end of the world. Far from disastrous,however, they represent redemption and peace for God's people. These were people who experienced the dark side of these disasters. They were the vulnerable ones, like the Haitians in Hurricane Sandy. They were the ones already beaten down, acquainted with suffering. But Jesus insists that life may get worse before it gets better. Ah, good news for the new year. We, on the other hand, disregard the tragic news we see. We have come to believe that the end is no nearer now than it was then. Signs? Not really. Just more of the same on planet earth.
We have seen natural disasters and floods, tsunamis
and super storms. We have witnessed
nations at war. We have experienced
terrorist attacks, hijacked planes, suicide bombers, death squads, drone
strikes, covert operations, and all manner of violence. Israel is still at war with its
neighbors. For thousands of years. What we see every day: These are not signs for us of an impending
global theological crisis. We do not
wait expectantly for divine intervention.
We seriously doubt the Mayan prophecy or any prophecy about a coming
end. We have seen catastrophe on the
nightly news. Jesus was not as well informed as we are. They did not have mass media attention to
every daily crisis that occurs on planet earth.
Now there are climate scientists, Bill McKibbon and others, who believe
that global warming is fundamentally altering ecology. Polar ice melt, record heat waves, droughts,
floods, etc…all signs of a human caused disaster. More doom and gloom. And yet, we are still here.
That first generation of Christians expected Jesus
to come and usher in the final judgment, the end of the age, the new
creation. They expected divine
intervention, a miracle of biblical proportions, salvation, rescue. When those first Christians experienced the
destruction of the temple, and the death of the first generation, a new crisis
emerged. The crisis of when? The previous crisis, the identity of the Messiah,
had been resolved by Jesus. But then
they had to address his absence and the delay in his return. They had the
stories of Exodus and exile to give them consolation and courage. Those stories told them they had forty to
seventy years. That’s how long their
ancestors had waited. But even longer
still: Between the Exodus and reign of
David—five hundred years. Between David
and the Exile, about five hundred more.
Between the exile and Jesus about five hundred more. The Jews were not unaccustomed to
waiting. Much scripture commends them to
wait. From one crisis to the next, from
generation to generation, they wait for the Lord. They wait with hope. Hope that God’s promises will be
fulfilled. Promises to end hunger,
thirst, suffering, and death. Promises
to bring an end to violence and war.
Promises to bring peace and justice for the least and the greatest. The promise of a Kingdom ruled by God’s
anointed Son. The Promise to be fully
present, visible, accessible, real. The
promises of order, beauty, abundant provision, work and rest, friendship and
love---promises made in the beginning and affirmed again and again. The days
are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel. I think the Jews
brought the gift of patience and an unyielding hope in God to the earth. They brought the possibility of divine/human
relationship, through prayer and the written word, to life. They survive because they wait with hope in a
day that is yet to come. So, too, the Christian people continue in hopes of a
coming day of salvation, of peace, of new life. But I fear we grow weary and
weak with time.
We do not wait.
We do not hope. We fear. We
demand and we expect, but do not trust.
We want what we want when we want it and we want it now. We try to
secure ourselves against the threats of the world. And when we fail to do so,
we despair. We are anxious, in an age of worry. We shop to acquire things to
fill our restlessness. We toil away at trivial things. We make much ado about nothing. We major in minor things. We protect
ourselves. We fear dying and death,
because we do not trust what is yet to come.
We must begin to hope again. We
must begin to hear and trust God’s promises again. Christ will come to us. Christ will raise the dead. Christ will end the wars. Christ will feed all people at a banquet that
never ends. If death and destruction
must come first, let them come. For God
will finally act. God will save us.
So, what shall we do? Wait. Practice patience. Pray. Give and share, forgive and right
wrongs because these are kingdom of God activities. Boldly bless people by your
words and by your works. But mostly, I invite you, I challenge you to
wait. Wait for God. Expect God to show up in your life, in your
days, in your ordinary and extraordinary moments. Pause. Breathe. Enjoy silence. It is enough that you are chosen and loved by
the creator. It is enough that God waits on you, waits for you. Jesus is waiting
for us.
