Sunday, December 1st, 2024: "It's Not the End of the World"
The First United Presbyterian Church
“It’s Not the End of the World”
Rev. Amy Morgan
December 1, 2024
Jeremiah 33:14-16
14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
Luke 21:25-36
25 “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. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see ‘the Son of Humanity coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
29 Then [Jesus] told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
34 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 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 Humanity.”
Advent is a difficult season to sit with. It’s a season of waiting in a world of instant gratification. In secular culture, we’ve stopped waiting for Christmas. Christmas arrived in October, the week before Halloween. I went searching for Thanksgiving decorations several weeks ago and couldn’t find any. They’d all been replaced with Santa figurines and mistletoe. We don’t even wait for Halloween and Thanksgiving to pass before jumping straight into Christmas.
But who can blame us? Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge reminds us, Advent “is not a season for the faint of heart.” Advent isn’t the season of fluffy sheep, twinkling stars, and the sweet baby Jesus. Advent, the church’s new year, begins with the end.
But believe it or not, it isn’t the end of the world. The images Jesus describes are terrifying: environmental catastrophe, international conflict, and people fainting in fear. These images may hit a little too close to home these days.
But that’s because these are images of the world as it is. The signs Jesus says will predict his return are the things that, in one way or another, are always happening, or always on the horizon. Fear, conflict, and catastrophe are part of the reality of life in the already-but-not-yet of God’s reign on earth.
Jesus is advising us to pay attention to suffering, and not look away from it. He’s encouraging us to embrace reality, to acknowledge the world as it is, here and now. That may be more terrifying than imagining these signs as some distant future apocalypse. Advent asks us to open our eyes to the chaos and turmoil, to the signs of God turning the world upside-down, that are all around us all the time. It’s no wonder we’d rather stuff this season in a box and put a bow on it. Seeing the world for what it is, as theologian Debi Thomas writes, “gorgeous, fragile, and falling apart,” is not for the faint of heart.
And yet, this is where we begin our year as Christians. We stand up and raise our heads, we stay alert and pray, we look for our redemption, for Christ’s power and glory to bring light into our darkness. Because even though these things are not signs of the end of the world, they are signs of the end of other things.
The signs Jesus describes signal the end of complacency. We can no longer expect one day to be pretty much like the next, for life to go on as it always has, for life to not demand much of us. Several folks in our Advent reflection groups shared the sense that Advent is a season when we don’t take anything for granted. Those who follow Jesus don’t get to live in a world where we can’t imagine violence, disaster, or distress. Advent reminds us that God became human and experienced these realities first-hand. In Jesus Christ, God refused to ignore tragedy and pain. And that means we can’t ignore those realities, either. We can’t be complacent about the need and suffering of the world around us.
Jesus invites us to look, to notice, to be attentive, not just to the turmoil and terror, but also to the signs of new life all around us. “Look at the fig tree,” Jesus says. "Look at all the trees." God doesn’t exist only in our abstract theology or carefully crafted doctrines. God is not God in theory. The reign of God is near in the sprouting leaves, in the shifting light, in the majesty of the mountains and in every breath we take. If we are paying attention, the God who showed up in a manger can show up anywhere.
These signs are the end of complacency and a call to wake up and pay attention. But they also are a call to be honest about what we see. These signs are not the end of the world, but they are the end of deception.
Jesus is brutally candid about the world as it is and what it requires of us. We are tempted to live into the falsehoods of security and self-reliance, of the merry and bright of carols and commerce during the Advent season. We sell ourselves the lie that if we just do the right things, buy the right things, raise our children the right way, vote the right way, pray the right way, we can somehow insulate ourselves and our loved ones from the realities of this uncertain and volatile world.
But that is not what our faith proclaims. Particularly in Advent, Jesus followers are honest about the physical, emotional, and spiritual darkness of this moment. We tell the truth, even when it leads us straight into lament that clashes with the holly, jolly tunes playing on loop around us.
The truth we proclaim is a universal truth that also puts an end to isolationism. Jesus says that these struggles will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Our suffering is interwoven with the suffering of everyone else on the planet. We don’t get out of this by being citizens of the right country, by having enough wealth, or enough defenses or enough moral fiber. We don’t even get out of this by belonging to the right religion. We are all in this together. And we only get through it together.
The last thing these signs announce is the end of hopelessness and despair. The terror and chaos do not get the final word. In fact, only when we are willing to pay attention to the reality of suffering and vulnerability, can we see that the reign of God is operating in the midst of it, transforming these birth pangs into new life. Jesus says these are signs that God’s reign is near, even if it feels like God is absent. He invites us to lift up our heads are stare straight into the darkness with the confidence that light is coming, even if we can’t see it yet. Debi Thomas writes that “In Advent, we are called to hope creatively. To hope against the grain…to hold in tension the grief of our circumstances, and the compassion of a Messiah who comes to save us.”
The focus of our Advent devotional this week is encouragement. And reading about conflict, catastrophe, and fear may seem like a strange way to be encouraged. But real encouragement doesn’t mask the reality of suffering. Real encouragement acknowledges the darkness and leads us toward the light.
Jesus admonishes his followers to Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. Fear and grief may be natural responses to life’s realities. But Jesus encourages us to not drown in these emotions. He warns against turning to excessive indulgence and numbing behaviors to escape from pain and ease our anxiety. Instead, we are encouraged to live in the world as it is, and pray for the strength to stand alongside Jesus in the work of God’s reign that is already here and not yet complete.
The head of staff I worked with in Michigan would offer encouragement when we came to him with a problem or failure by asking, “Is this going to keep the kingdom of God from coming?” As long as the answer was “no,” he assured us we could carry on. We can be encouraged because nothing we can do, nothing anyone can do, will keep the reign of God from coming. And that’s because it’s already here.
This is not the end of the world. It’s the end of complacency, deception, and isolation. And it’s the end of hopelessness and despair.
And that means that it is the beginning, too. The beginning of a new season and a new year. The beginning of a new awareness, a deeper honesty, and a more meaningful connection. It’s the beginning of our freedom from fear and death, and the beginning of our freedom for joy and encouragement.
Welcome, friends, once again, to the season of Advent. The beginning is the end, and the end is just beginning.
To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.
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