Have Hope - God's Realm is Near! Sermon for Advent 1, Nov. 29, 2015.

“Have Hope - God’s Realm Is Near!”
Sermon, Year C, Advent 1, November 29, 2015
Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI
©2015 Rev. David J. Huber
Focus Scripture: Jeremiah 33:14-16  Luke 21:25-36

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This is Advent. The first day of the new year io the church calendar. We begin our church year with Advent, which is a time for waiting, for keeping alert, for staying awake, for watching, of being prepared. But for what? And for how long? How will we know when the time has come?

Jesus said, you’ll know it by the times!

He said,

“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.”

That sounds like today, doesn’t it? Nations at war, the roaring of the sea and the waves. Sea levels are going up. Tsunamis and hurricanes and typhoons. Sounds like today. Was Jesus predicting today? Was Jesus talking about 2015? “That will be the day, you will know it, in 2015.”

There are other places in the gospels, too, that Jesus does some foreboding about how we will witness nation in uproar against nation, distress, wars, famines, and natural disasters, and etc. etc. etc.

But I don’t think he’s saying that these things will only happen in some far off time, and be one particular moment in the trajectory of history. That there will be some date in the future in which all of this will be a specific happening. I don’t think he’s saying that at all. He’s not predicting a future.

And I’ll say here that this is what some of the “Biblical prophecy” folks get mixed up - taking words like these and trying to fit them into some contemporary situation. To say, “Oh! He’s talking about the attacks in Paris, or he’s talking about climate change, or he’s talking about the oil crisis back in the ‘70s, and whatnot.”

Jesus is not talking specifically about 2015, or any other time.

I’ve been interested for a long in these kinds of “biblical prophecy” books since the 70s when I as a kid. You may have read the books or seen them on TV. There was Hal Lindsey’s “The Late, Great Planet Earth.” This kind of biblical interpretation caught on in the early 1800s in the U.S. and England. But it seemed that in the 70s, when I was a kid, there was an awful lot of these kinds of biblical prophecy talk: TV preachers and Lindsey and Tim Lehaye and others saying things like, “the prophet Isaiah is predicting the oil crisis” or “Jeremiah is predicting Russia, the evil empire” and so on. It’s a misrepresentation of the prophetic words of the Old Testament to make them talk about something that they were not, and misusing the texts in a way that they were never meant to be used. They try to make the OT prophets talking about something contemporary, usually to stir people into a state of fear and trembling.

As a kid, I thought this stuff was pretty cool that there were people who had the “secret code” to figure out the Bible. I also thought it was cool that the Bible would contain a secret code that only a few special people would ever be able to understand. I really enjoyed fantasy and science fiction as a kid, and this is a trope that shows up a lot: that the universe contains secrets to its unfolding that only a few people know or understand.

I’ve been following along since then with the end-times predictors, those who want to say that “Jesus was talking about this specific time and event” or “Isaiah predicted 9-11” or whatever they come up with. I find it fascinating still, but from a psychological and intellectual viewpoint. Because you know what? They’re never right. They’ve never been right. They have been constantly forced to re-evaluate what they think Isaiah or Jesus or Ezekiel were talking about, because they (the biblical prophecy folk) are always wrong, events pass and nothing happens, and then they have to adjust their theology. They’ve been doing this at least since the early 1800s when this sort of biblical interpretation first started gaining traction, and they’re never right. They never will be, except perhaps entirely accidentally.

Jesus was not talking about a specific time, I believe, but was talking about all times in which humans live. The human condition from the beginning, at least since we first started organizing in tribes and groups, has been a time of nations at war. Famine. Natural disasters. Terrorist attacks. Mass shootings. Refugees. Climate in turmoil. And on and on.

That’s every moment in human history in one way or another. I’ve not been alive for all of human history, but so far as I can tell we have never had a moment in time that did not fit these descriptions. So to say that what’s happening is somehow more specific to some biblical prophecy is to make a mistake in how to read scripture, or to mis-hear what Jesus is saying. He’s talking, really, about all time. As though to say, “When these bad things are happening, that is when the kingdom is near. Don’t think that God is absent just because the world is in turmoil. That’s when God closest, when God is most present.”

Jesus then goes into the parable of the fig tree, in which he says,

“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.” 

These things are always taking place, and so the kingdom is always near. Or the commonwealth of God, the realm of God, whatever term you life. I think that what Jesus is saying (and part of the message for this first Sunday of Advent) to the people around him is that we aren’t waiting for the kingdom to be near, because it is already near, it is here, and it is within you. I think by saying that to the people around, he is implying a phrase that shows up constantly in the Bible, which is the words “Don’t be afraid.” Or variants like “Do not fear.” God says it, Jesus says it, prophets say it, angels say it. Do not be afraid! When you see these signs you will know that the kingdom of God is near. We have always been seeing those signs, and until some time in the future we will continue to see those signs.

But Jesus has said at other times, the Kingdom is near. The Kingdom of God is within you.

Which is to say that when everything looks like it’s out of control, when it is scary, when the world is fearful, when your life is in turmoil, when your life is filled with anxiety or fear, remember this: the realm of God is near. It is at hand. These things are not happening without God being present. These things are not happening because God absent. We are not waiting for some future time when God will be present again. It is to say that God is present through all of this. These happen not because GOd is absent. But that when these things happen, we can be sure that God is present now. When countries are at war. When things are blowing up. When sea levels are rising. When people are fighting over whether refugees deserve basic human compassion or if we ought to write a law to say that they are not welcome here because we can’t let go of a culture of fear.

God is present. Be not afraid.

Don’t be afraid. God is here. God’s realm is here. And we are part of God’s realm. We are all God’s sons and daughters. So do not be looking only to the future for some great grand time of God finally getting involved and doing something. Now, it does seem, from the scriptural witness, that there IS something extraordinary on the horizon, when the kingdom of God will be fulfilled and heaven and earth will be united… but until then, the kingdom - the realm, the commonwealth, the gathering of God’s people - is here and now and near. It surrounds us, it is in us, it can even flow through us.

As I say this I feel I sound like Yoda or Obi Wan talking about The Force: but that is what the Holy Spirit is like. Jesus is talking about something that God is doing, being present in the world. Especially in the midst of the chaos as a presence of love, a Spirit of hope and comfort, of some relief from the pain and anxiety. A presence of healing. Not to take all the chaos and the bad stuff away, but to be a loving presence with us.

So Jesus is talking about something that God is doing. He’s also talking about something that we can be doing. We don’t just wait for God to do something, because we are God’s agents. We can live as though we believe that God’s realm is here.

We lit the candle of Hope this morning. Have hope! To say “Do not fear” is also to say “Have hope!” The realm of God is near, have hope! God is with us, have hope! Things are not how God wants them, but have hope, that it will change because we can change it, we can change ourselves, we can change the way we interact with other people and the world. We can be about the business of the realm of God by having hope, and trusting in the Holy Spirit. Trusting in the candle that we lit here today.

The hope that says we CAN welcome a stranger among us. The hope that drives us to be out on the street doing ministry with and for our neighbors who are homeless, cold, hungry, alone. The hope that can drive us to make quilts for families that become homeless. The hope that leads us to donate money or clothing and so on to those who are in need. The hope that says “I have enough to give away.” The hope that drives us to change the social systems that lead to poverty, violence, homelessness, hopelessness. The hope of the many nations who are gathering in Paris this week for the UN summit on climate change.

Have hope! There are signs that the kingdom is near. Nations are at war, and the world is in turmoil, but there are people fulfilling God’s vision by being God’s agents. Just as we are fulfilling God’s vision here at Plymouth in Eau Claire.

The hope that says it’s okay to get out of bed in the morning and go through another day, even though there is bad stuff happening in the world. To get out of bed and face the world is an act of hope. To say that I will not fall into despair or let fear have control over me. The hope that compels doctors to go off and offer aid to people in violent areas, or places that suffered disaster. To put themselves at risk to help others. Or any rescue workers who go in to help others. That is a sign of hope! The hope that says let’s have a child, even though the world is what it is. Or that says let’s get married, let’s make a commitment. The hope that says let’s get a 30-year mortgage: that’s a sign of hope. That’s investing 30 years ahead. To make any kind of long-term commitment is a sign of hope. The hope that says let’s build a church, or let’s revitalize a church, or let’s go seek and help our neighbors. These are all signs of hope. You may not think it, but just in our everyday normal lives we are doing acts of hope. That’s what the church does. Trusting in God’s realm.

The hope of God is the hope that says, “Do not fear.” Go forward in hope, even when there is a little fear. I often, even though God says not to be afraid, have moments of fear when venturing into new realms. I’m not going to feel guilty for feeling the fear, for disobeying God’s command not to be afraid. But there is trust in God that, even with the fear, I can go ahead in hope and do some of these acts. To say “no” to evil, to overcome and defeat evil by having hope. By taking the light into the darkness. Only one light is needed to dispel the darkness. Evil wants us to be hopeless so that we won’t act. Evil wants us to live in fear so that we won’t have hope. So having hope is a way of saying “no” to evil. To say, “No! Because I follow Jesus, and I trust his words when he says that God’s realm is near and present. God is here.”

I will say no because I follow Jesus. I will say no to fear and hopelessness because I follow Jesus, who said “Don’t be afraid” because the realm of God is here, and the realm of God is love, and hope, and joy and peace, the other candles we will light during Advent.

And so, during this Advent time, in the coming four weeks before Christmas, rejoice because the realm of God is here. Have hope because the realm is at hand.

Amen.