It’s that time of year again. Christmas decorations sparkle along main streets, store windows, and front yards. The wreaths are out, Christmas trees are being sold. Black Friday is heading into Cyber Monday. The church is beautiful with decorations to remind us that Christmas is on the way.
All of the signs of Christmas might make us think about going home. College students are finishing up the semester and preparing to head home for a few weeks off around Christmas. My family has finally nailed down exactly when we’re driving down to Florida. And others are arranging flights, perhaps having just seen family this weekend, but preparing to head home once more.
And then there are others who are preparing to be the place where family comes home to. And whichever it is, there are preparations. Floors to be swept, meals to order or prepare, presents to be purchased and wrapped. There are preparations to be made when it’s time to go home, even when there doesn’t seem to be time to do everything that’s already scheduled.
It’s time to prepare for going home… but this home isn’t the one you travel to each year. It’s more than that. Our home is the coming kingdom, where we will study war no more, where people will walk in the light, where joy will be found, and where love will be the tie that binds us together. Advent is about longing for this home- the kind of home that will complete us and will transform the world.
Luke’s gospel message makes me a little nervous, though. We hear of signs “in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations.” Signs that cause people to “faint from fear.” Signs which “when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” But Luke never tells us specifically what the signs will be. These signs are general. It’s more about how we should respond as we wait. When these things happen, instead of despairing Jesus says to “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” In his Feasting on the Word commentary, Wesley Avram paraphrases Jesus’ words as “The world’s a scary place, but don’t let your hearts be troubled. I have overcome the world. So wait in the midst of it all, just before the dawn, for in the midst of the night there are strange and redeeming events afoot.”
We live in an age of fear. Fear that there won’t be enough for us and for others. Fear of being alone, fear of losing a loved one. As Rev. Dr. David Lose noted in his commentary, fear has become more of a threat to us today than violence is because it is “Fear that drives us to forget who we are, to see people in need as the enemy…. Fear …can lead us to forget our deepest identity and betray our most cherished values.” Jesus calls us to be on guard so that our hearts might not be weighed down.
And when we are weighed down with fear, “Jesus reminds us that he is the Lord of history and, because we trust that he will in time bring all things to a good end, we can in the meantime stand together in courage and compassion and treat all persons with the love of God we have known in him.”
There is our hope. There may be signs- signs that cause people to “faint from fear,” but instead of giving into the fear that others give into, we are to look at the trees for signs of growth, to “Stand up and raise [our] heads.” “It is our natural instinct when things are going badly, when there is a difficult moment, that we want to keep our heads down. But Jesus tells us to raise our heads, to look up, to trust, to have confidence. He is telling us to pay attention, to head home – to the home we long for, the home we hope for, the home we live for. It’s time to go home.”
“Jeremiah says it simply. The days are surely coming, says the LORD . . . I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up . . . (33:14-15). …Not just any branch. …It’s not the dead branch of the past we cling to, we hope for. It is the new growth. God will cause …a Branch to spring up. There is more to come, more hope to be revealed, more justice to be executed, more righteousness to cover the land.”
It’s time to prepare for going home to the coming kingdom, where we will study war no more, where people will walk in the light, where joy will be found, and where love will be the tie that binds us together. Advent is about longing for this home and preparing for this home, for we are people who see God at work in this world, and we are partners in that remaking. So let us prepare for this home as we welcome all who enter. As we go out to Friendship Park on December 15 through our Cookies with Santa. As we invite and prepare our annual Christmas Dinner, and provide warm socks and gloves for our guests. As we welcome all who join us this afternoon for an incredible concert. Let us prepare to go home to the kind of home that will complete us and will transform the world. The kingdom of God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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