Homily
2nd Sunday
of Advent
Text: Luke 21:25-33
X In the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, one God. Amen.
And the sign said long haired freaky people need not apply
So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why
He said you look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do
So I took off my hat I said imagine that, huh, me working for you
woah!
Chorus:
Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign
For you Rock & Roll historians, you will remember
that as THE song of the one-hit wonder group from
But like almost everything else, signs can be completely misunderstood.
A priest and pastor from the local parishes were standing by the side of the road holding up a sign that read, "The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!"
They planned to hold up the sign to each passing car. As the first driver sped past, he yelled, "Leave us alone you religious nuts!" From around the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash.
One clergy said to the other, "Do you think we should just put up a sign that says, 'Bridge Out' instead?"
With this being the Second Sunday of the new Church year, we re-present how
Jesus came to us in His First Advent and we start thinking about how we will prepare
ourselves for His Second Advent. Last
week, we heard about the triumphal entry of Jesus into
It’s easy for all of us to be caught off-guard because of
the routine way that life always happen.
Babies are born; the elderly die.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down – every day. We sit and watch tv
and wonder what’s happened to the time.
That’s why I reminded you last week of what
Paul and Malachi’s words are not child’s play. They are dealing with eternal life and death. When we fall asleep at the wheel of life and find ourselves burdened with cares and concerns of this life rather than watching and waiting vigilantly for Christ’s second coming, we will be burned alive in the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his followers. Living happily ever after in sin is not child’s play. It’s not something that should be ignored or glossed over until a later date. That later date may never happen. Jesus could come ready to judge the world before I finish this sentence. It’s not as if Jesus didn’t warn us! Malachi prophecies Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. John the Baptizer has come and gone, yet the world thinks him a liar and a crackpot as they did of Jesus.
In our Gospel lesson for today, Jesus tells his disciples that “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring: Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken….” I think we can identify with all of those signs. Especially with the shape of our national economy; the threat of the Big 3 automakers going out of business, everyone is looking for the signs of a global economic collapse. That leads to “men’s hearts failing them for fear…”
Why is it that when there’s gloom and doom on the world scene; whether it involves natural disasters, massive deaths caused by terrorism, etc. then people start to wonder out loud, “I think the end of the world is near. Surely, Jesus is coming back any day.” Did you notice the rather strange parable Jesus told his disciples? He said “Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your selves that summer is now nigh at hand….”
Few people regard the beauty of spring and summer as a foreshadowing of Judgment Day. We think of fire, brimstone, lightning, thunder, clouds, and otherworldly spectacle when we think of how Christ will visibly return in judgment. Only Jesus could come up with a comparison as striking as the budding of trees to the end of the world. His parable puts our focus where it should be: constant vigilance for the Last Day.
Now let me take a slight detour here and explain that Jesus
was not referring to the end of the world as in the end of history. Rather, it was the end of the world as they knew it. It was the end of the age, the end of the
For us today, what more do we need than the written Word of
God as our sign of the times? Our opening collect of the day starts out by
asking, “Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy
Scriptures to be written for our learning…
which was taken directly from St. Paul’s letter to
the Romans, which we heard a few minutes ago….”Brethren:
Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we
might through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
We need to know the Word of
God. Now there’s a statement that should
have to go without saying. But the truth
is that we don’t know it as well as we should.
That’s one reason that our collect goes on to request…..
grant that we may in such wise hear
them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them: that by patience, and
comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope
of everlasting life…”
hear: listen without looking
mark: doesn’t mean to underline verses in your
Bible (you can) but it means to pay attention
Inwardly digest: to eat “the words” as did Ezekiel…
Eze 3:1 Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that
thou findest; eat this scroll, and go speak unto the
house of
Eze 3:2 So I
opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that scroll.
Eze 3:3 And he
said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this
scroll that I give thee. Then did I eat it;
and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
Having digested the Word of God,
both written
Whether there is economic disasters around us, wars taking place, and the whole world as we know it coming apart at the seams or we are experiencing good fruit in our lives, the message is the same. We must be vigilant and prepared as we (a) await the Second Advent of our Lord or (b) prepare for the end of our mortal life, whichever comes first.
Vigilance comes with a price. We may lose friends and family members because they could care less about Christ’s final judgment. We may not have time for all those creature comforts we think we need. Those who live of the world rather than in it might think we are foolish to wait with patience and hope for Jesus’ return with clouds descending. The price paid is worth it. When Christ triumphantly returns we will see our eternal hope face-to-face. We will see those nail-scarred hands and wounded side with our own eyes. The Words of Sacred Scripture will be proven to the world to be true. For some it will come as a shock and surprise. For those who trust in Jesus as their Savior from the bitter pains of death it will be far from surprising to see Him return.
X In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, one God. Amen.