The Coming of the Son of Man
“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. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
Then he told them a parable: “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. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Exhortation to Watch
“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. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 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 Man.
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My wife Laura and I had a film night a couple of years ago with some friends of ours Ian and Layna, They came over for an enjoyable evening. And indeed we did have one; but unfortunately we did spend an inordinate amount of time deciding what film to watch!
And as stereotypes go, we fulfilled them completely. The ladies wanted a bit of a romance and Ian and I wanted something a bit more action-y. So we scrolled through Netflix and Amazon Prime and couldn’t find anything. Finally, Ian found a film called ‘seeking a friend for the end of the world.’ He said that the ladies would like it because it’s a rom-com, and he said I would like it because everybody dies at the end, (I guess that tells you what kind of films I watch!).
The plot is this, an asteroid is about to hit earth - an extinction level event; if it hits, then nothing will survive - and the film opens with an announcement that the mission to destroy it has failed. The asteroid will hit in three weeks.
What would we do if we knew it was all going to end? In the film the protagonists Dodge and Penny who were neighbours are lonely as their closest relationships have fallen apart. So, they begin to get romantically involved. That’s how they decided spend their last three weeks on earth.
In our reading this morning, Jesus speaks about there being signs in the sun, moon and stars; distress among the nations, the roaring of the sea and the waves, and people will grow faint from a sense of foreboding of what is to come, the powers of heaven will be shaken. Very apocalyptic language in the way that we would understand the word. But apocalypse doesn’t mean ‘the end of the world.’ Rather it means ‘taking away the veil’ or ‘unveiling of things hidden.’ Another word for it is ‘revelation.’ Where have we heard that before? The book of revelation of course. Another name for it is ‘the apocalypse of John’ as it was written by John the apostle who had visions of, ‘the state we are in’ if you like. In it he uses all kinds of lurid language about how the times that his contemporaries were in and about where things were going. This is a specific genre of Jewish literature. And it’s purpose is not to say that the end of the world is coming in the way that we would understand it, but rather ‘things are to be revealed that were previously hidden.’
Revelation.
Let’s have a look again at the language that Jesus uses. Signs in the heavens, chaos on the waters, anxiety and fear and doubt. The Sun, the Moon and the Stars were how you would navigate on the seas and know what time of day it is. Remember also that there was barely any light pollution remember in those days so gazing up at the heavens would have given you such a sense of how small we are and how glorious and how beautiful the cosmos is. If things happened up there, you would take notice, (remember the Christmas star and the journey of the wise men, something new was happening there). The waters that Jesus says will rage echo back to the creation of the world in genesis where the ‘Spirit of God’ hovers over the raging waters, in that narrative God creates order out of the chaos, that’s one of the motifs of the story. So if the waters are raging again, it means that chaos is coming back to swallow things up.
Jesus is saying that the the time is coming where everything that makes you secure, will be undone, chaos is on its way. So in a sense it is the end of the world; it is the end of the world that they can understand because all of their points of reference for making sense of it, physical, social and political, have become undone.
And Jesus wants them to be ready for it. Hence the warning at the end of the passage. ‘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’ In other words, Jesus is telling the people to ‘wake up’ and ‘pay attention’ to what is happening. To see the signs of what is to come.
An asteroid is coming, something so monumental that it will shake the foundations of the earth. The people in Jesus’ time didn’t listen, and his prediction was proved true as in AD70. Jesus preached ‘love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you;’ he preached ‘turn the other cheek,’ he preached generosity, and love and forgiveness. But rather than listening to Jesus and pursuing the ways of peace, they rose up against their oppressors and the Romans invaded, and the temple is destroyed. We don’t have anything equivalent in our own culture but if you imagined a building that combined Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster, and it was the centre of your nation’s life, and then it being destroyed. This is the level of disaster we are talking about here, society destroyed in an instant, if not physically then spiritually and politically.
It’s earth-shattering!
At the end of the film, Dodge and Penny are lying down in bed looking into each others eyes, Penny is talking about her childhood. They hear the asteroid impact; and Penny says to Dodge, ‘I wish I’d met you a long time ago.’ Dodge says, ‘Penny, I’m really glad I got to know you.’ And you see her smiling, and the image fades to white.
The time of advent is a time of preparation ‘wake up’ ‘pay attention’ to the earth shattering event of the Birth of Jesus. Something monumental is happening, something has changed, and that change will change everything. God has acted, and he has acted decisively in the coming of Jesus to change all things. Bringing us salvation, bringing us from freedom from slavery and death. ‘
Now in church, you will see that we are all in blue/purple, and this symbolises fasting, patience, preparation, it means ‘waking up’ to what is about to come, it means preparing our hearts and minds for the most earth-shattering event ever; not an asteroid hitting earth, but the birth of a baby. The Baby Jesus.
Let’s wake up, and come close to him, let’s get to know him better together, as we prepare for his arrival, this advent season. As Jesus says, ‘Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads,’ (in other words, wake up), ‘because your redemption is drawing near’
Amen.
