Look Up

I can’t help but see the parallels between the opening lines of today’s Gospel  and a lot of what’s going on in our world.   

“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…” 

There is no shortage of news that earth is in distress and that the seas and waves are rising up against us  scientist tell us ocean levels are rising, the earth’s temperatures is heating up.

We are in the midst of some sort of climate change which is causing changes to our weather patterns…the patterns leave us we are more susceptible to  the deadly wildfires we’ve seen in California and the volatile hurricane and floods that seems to be on the increase.

In other places of the world,  there are incredible famines and wars caused by famines as people fight over food to eat and water to drink.  

I read this week that Yemen is in the midst of a great civil war caused by famine.   17 million people in Yemen are at risk of not having enough to eat.    

Today  you may have noticed that things look a bit different in here –purple vestments—this candle—a creche but one with only  animals today as no one has arrived yet. 

We begin the season of  Advent and Advent usually begins with a Gospel lesson that is apocalyptic in nature.   

And Usually there is a reading about Jesus is return in some great second coming.  Today he speaks about a day when he will come riding in on the clouds. These apocalyptic readings remind us that this time of year isn’t just about celebrating Jesus birth, but that Jesus continues to come into our lives and will someday come in fully to make all things right.

As I read these words and thought about the words of the scriptures  it’s almost as if Jesus in talking about our times. Now I’m not ready to get a plackard and go stand on the corner  and call out that the end is near,   but I wonder about  how  these apocalyptic readings speak to us and our situation today.  

If it’s not the weather, there is no shortage of difficult things that face us as a nation… again and again violence and shootings.  We have a incredible deep divides  in our country political—racial and socio-economic.

And of course even our personal lives bad things still happen  tragedy and illness still strike out.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that there is a huge disconnect between God’s vision for us  and God’s vision for our neighbors and  for our world and the reality that is our lives and world.

We don’t live in the Garden of Eden do we?

Jesus says that when these things start to happen… we shouldn’t scatter to the hills or find a bunker we don’t need to run around like Chicken little screaming that the sky is falling, but simply he says when these things happen look up your redemption is drawing near.  to look up because Jesus is close by…

I love that in this reading  Jesus says when you get bogged down,  when we get beat down, when fear and foreboding start to take over,  when it seems like everything is failing… he says look up… reorient your gaze to the heavens… because  Jesus is close by — because redemption and healing are near..  That in the most difficult of times Jesus might actually be at his closest.

Apocalyptic scripture  on the surface seems very scary, plagues and famines and the four horseman of the apocalypse.    

But you know what it’s is really about hope… that God is at his closest in the midst of difficulty and it’s meant to remind us that there will be a day down the line when God makes everything right.  

Some of the most beautiful hope filled images we find in scripture come from the Apocalyptic parts of the bible.

In fact, many of the readings that are recommended for funerals come from the book of revelation.  Reading that tell us that their will be a time when God will knit everything back together when he

makes all things new or that their will be a time when pain and death will be no more and  God will wipe away the tears that stain our eyes.  

One of the calls for Christians during Advent  is to do something counter cultural to  slow down to stop…  when everything speeds up, we are invited to slow down… to stop.

 How will you this advent stop busyness and reorient your gaze… to look up?  Can you find five minute every day… to simply stop and look up.  Five minutes before your feet hit the floor? Five minutes in front of your Christmas tree in silent meditation, Five minutes before you close your eyes.  A few moments as you light your advent candles each night at dinner.   

What might you do differently during this lead up to Christmas to look up heavenward.   Because  when we do we might see that our redemption is drawing near and we might find  a bit of hope.

AMEN