“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 Man 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 he 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 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 Man.”I’ve thought about this for some time:
It matters how we take leave from places and communities.
We’ve all experienced a number of times, when people leave poorly, there is often significant collateral damage. . .
How about entrances?
As we enter the new year, how do we want to proceed?
The Lectionary seems to point us to hopeful expectation...
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.In his book Loving Jesus, Mark Allen Powell, says a most interesting thing. He wants to suggest that you and I should live in eager anticipation of Jesus’ return. He even speaks of “waiting for that day with breathless anticipation” and of looking to the sky when the liturgy has the congregation say “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!”
While that is a bit whacky, there is something there.
Here are a few quotes from Loving Jesus.
Recognizing the absence of Jesus arouses urgent anticipation of his return. The Bible encourages this, indeed, I think it encourages us to expect Jesus to return soon, within our own lifetimes. . . .interesting. He concludes this paragraph
I think that death, if it comes, should take us by surprise. We do not expect to die - we expect Jesus to come for us. Such an expectation is not based on doctrine or intellectual speculation. It has nothing to do with prophecies being fulfilled over in Israel. It is more an expression of attitude or hope - a matter of the heart. pg. 61Here is where this is kind of interesting for preaching:
Expecting Jesus to return soon is part of the poetry of faith. It is piety, not theology or doctrine. Poetry does no follow the rules of grammar, and piety does not always follow the rules of reason, but both make sense in ways that transcend such rules. Expecting Jesus to return soon is a matter of the heart, an expression of the poetic language of love that sustains our relationship with the one who is both present with us and absent from us. pg. 63-64There is poetry to the season of Advent, and we enter the season with this word from the Gospel of Luke. . . How do we work the poetry of this text, and proclaim the promise that gives hope?
I wonder if one might well work with Powell’s emphasis that the absence of Jesus arouses anticipation. Anticipation of what? A Merry Christmas? Or, that God is at work in this world, and “your redemption is drawing near.”
The Underminer:
Whose intro line in The Incredibles is: “I live underneath you, but nothing is underneath me!”
10 comments:
This post makes me wish I knew how to read poetry. Is it kind of like reading the labels of scotch bottles? But I am attracted to the thought of reading poetry- just not sure how to do it.
I like the discussion of anticipation, and I think it works well especially when contrasting it to being weighed down and lulled to sleep by the crap going on in the world. One of the moments when I feel the most alive is when hunting; when looking for animals to shoot at you have to be alert and anticipate there presence. It's great. 4 hours of hunting feels like 10 minutes of normal life-- it's that fun and exhilirating.
Could it be that the Gospel in this text is the promise of Jesus' return (and command to get ready, be alert!), a promise and command that free us to live in such an anticipatory way. I think I'm going to head in that direction. . .
But one last thought. The last time I went hunting I couldn't go to sleep that night. All I could see when I closed my eyes were deer popping up. It was like post-traumatic stress or something. Could this anticipation stuff kind of make you go crazy? Get caught in worship looking at the ceiling. . .
I'll try again - I kinda used someone's name, and shoulda said,
Rev. Basement, that is a great take on anticipation, and yes, it makes you crazy. This is why we don't like our kids by the time we get to Christmas gift opening.
Oh yeah, here's the thing I wanted to add, some of what you say here makes me think of this from Nuechterlein. . .
Eugene Petersen's The Message renders verse 34 as follows: "But be on your guard. Don't let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise...." Can you think of any contrast more sharp than this verse when it comes to how Advent is observed in our culture? "Parties and drinking and shopping" are a rather precise description of the activities hailed as most essential. Jesus warns against such things as activities that dull our anticipation of the times when we most need God's inbreaking of a different way to be in this world, the inbreaking of God's very different culture ("kingdom").
This from Preaching Peace - while they address the year B text from Mark, this is good "girardian" stuff...
False Readings
A. Perceiving Jesus as an end time preacher of apocalyptic judgment
B. Asserting that Jesus message contained elements of divine vengeance
C. Masking our inherent tendencies to justify our violence by projecting onto God our propensity for self-destruction
D. Failure to discern that non-violence is primarily a theological category with ethical consequences, not just an ethical high ideal.
Hmmmm. E. Peterson's "things that dull the edge of our anticipation parties, drinking & shopping" I like that. Plain old busyness in the frenetic sense. So, then, from things that dull to things that highten anticipation. I love parsonage basement's metaphor of the hunting experience. That connects. I'm reading a book by Walt Wangerin, Jr. called 'Preparing for Jesus.' In it he writes: " Finally, then, how shall we prepare? Why, by meditating on his first coming - for though the future may be hidden from us, the past is not, and the one can teach us the other. The story of the birth of Jesus is open before us. We have an account of the time when God directed preparations for the first coming of his Son into the world. Therefore, those preparations may be the perfect pattern for our own this year. The people who heard the news of the first Advent were no less human than you and I. They moved through complex stages of response: doubt, fear, questioning, the obedience of love, joy and song, despair and anger.Some concluded their preparations in faith and some in fury. In centuries that followed, folks prepared by scrubbing & cleaning their lives, by examining and repairing their souls, even as people generally prepare themselves and their homes for visitors...
I like Wangerin's pointing to the 1st coming of the Messiah. It makes me think of this quote from Luther. . .
God is in all things, in the stone, in the fire, in the water, and in the rope, but he wants us to seek him only in the Word, which is clear and plain.
Luther Sermon on the Sacraments, paraphrased in Wingren, Luther on Vocation p 122
When looking into the future, folks are tempted to say too much. . .
This is a test. It is not a real post.
In many ways, one would suggest that the test is a post. . .just not a very informative one. . .
pay no toll, don't hold back!
POST!
so here's one more thing from my reading for the first Ramble
I found this by Fr. John Kavanaugh, of Saint Louis University. This was at
http://liturgy.slu.edu/1AdvC120306/theword_engaged.html
the Center for Liturgy, St. Louis University link in textweek.
Advent is anticipation. Jeremiah thrives on it
Advent is promise and prayer. ...Thessalonians brims with desire
But the high hopes of both Jeremiah and Paul were electric with apprehension as well. They both wrote in ages of turmoil and threat...
...Life, from its beginning, bears its gloomy portents. They need not presage the end of the world or even the fall of our mightiest temples. ..
...Today's passage from Luke's Gospel, the discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem, has Jesus speaking to our hope in the midst of doom...
...And so, even with portents of the end times, there is the promise born: We will "see the Son of Man coming on a cloud. . . . When these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, for your ransom is near at hand." ...
...We slowly come to a realization that there is a deeper hope, a more profound ransom, a truer liberation.
We begin to hope that Jesus Christ's radiance will be brighter than any snow. We start to trust that his light could be more luminous than all the candles ever burned, anticipating Christmas.
My thinking on these texts at this moment is starting to take shape around a song by John Mayer that is getting a fair amount of playing time these days, "Waiting on the World to Change." It's kind of a protest song that, I think, speaks to our disatisfaction with things as they are (some folks are disatisfied!). The notion of waiting implies that there is something to wait for - that something is coming. All the texts make reference to "coming". And, while we don't just lay around on the couch half drunk while we wait (I said "just" that isn't all we do.) There is an element of our faith/spiritual outlook that is always keeping a lookout for this whatever it is that is coming. That is the Advent quality of faith. In faith we dare to yearn for more. We dare to expect that change can occur. We dare to refrain from total identification with the world as it is. "So we keep waiting waiting on the world to change. We keep on waiting waiting on the world to change."
Pay No Toll
In faith we dare to yearn for more. We dare to expect that change can occur. We dare to refrain from total identification with the world as it is.
Might it be said, that in faith, we dare not not dare?
Perhaps anticipation is an important aspedct of faith, for apart from expectancy, faith becomes something quite different than the daring endeavor God intends it to be?
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