The Meadows of Napa Valley

     Vespers

First Sunday of Advent
        November 29, 2009
        6:30pm in the Chapel

Scripture Reading – Luke 21:25-36

25 "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."

THE SERMON

Some of you may have heard what I had to say this morning over at the Methodist Church about story-telling.  I love stories.  I read . . . a lot.  I watch movies -- the older the better.  I write stories.  Stories are one of the best ways I know to get at the truth.

There are some wonderful story-tellers for us to enjoy and to learn from.  I’m from Missouri and one of the all-time great story-tellers  -- Mark Twain --is from my home state.  

There is a story, that as a young writer, looking to get something published, Mark Twain was fortunate enough to be  introduced to another great American writer, Bret Harte.  Harte and Twain became friends and Twain shared one of his soon-to-become-famous stories with him.  Harte thought it so funny and outrageous that he helped Twain have it published.  That story was “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

You probably know the story about a man named Jim Smiley of Calaveras County.  He collected various odd animals and placed them into competitions and he  nearly always won his bets on them.  Smiley caught a frog, named him Dan’l Webster, and proceeded to “educate” this frog in jumping.  Smiley promoted wagers on the frog and he always won.

Then, one day, a stranger shows up, intrigued by this amazing frog, and offers to bet that any other frog could beat Smiley’s.  Smiley jumps at the chance to win the bet and rushes off to find a frog for the competition. While Smiley is gone, the stranger feeds Dan’l Webster buck shot, so that when Smiley returns and the frogs compete Dan’l Webster is full of lead and can’t get off the ground.  Smiley loses his bet. The stranger skips town before Smiley figures out he’s been outsmarted.

I think it’s Twain’s “imaginative exaggeration” that truly makes him one of the great storytellers.  Whether we read about the jumping frog or about the unlikely runaway boy Huckleberry Finn who just happens to have the wit to free a slave, we are graced with Mark Twain’s imaginative exaggeration.  Someone once called him a “genial liar.”

When I think about geniality and imagination and exaggeration in storytelling, I can’t help but draw the comparison to the stories of Jesus.  Jesus’ stories weren’t mundane or ordinary; they were stories that stretched the imagination and offered hope. Like all good storytellers, Jesus was willing to offer up the shocking to lead us to the light; he was willing to exaggerate in order for us to get the point; he was willing to challenge our imaginations in order for us to face reality.

Jesus offers us stories about Samaritans that help Jews, shepherds that leave a whole flock to find one sheep, rich young rulers who cannot give it all up to follow him, and in today’s reading -- signs from the stars that remind us that the kingdom of God has come, is with us now, and is yet to be fulfilled.

Jesus takes us to the edge of imagination, and then he leaves us to use our own devices to make sense of where we find ourselves, create our own stories, and embark upon our own journeys. Yet, he leaves us with hope, that his words will ever be with us, guiding us in the stories of our lives as we anticipate the steps of our journey through the kingdom of God.

Today is the first day of the season of Advent -- a new year in the calendar of the church.  And the church invites us to set out on a great journey.  Luke’s Gospel gives us these words from Jesus who is is clearly concerned about the future as he paints a bleak picture of the end of the world. There is talk of nations in fear and of people dying in agony. Yet Jesus' advice is "Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen." In Jesus' view there is a plus side to crisis. The good news is that liberation and resurrection can come out of tragedy.

Some writers of Jesus’ time often used “end of the age” language and predicted wars, revolts, persecution, famines, earthquakes, meteors and comets, religious extremism, and injustice.  What is more, many of the people of Jesus’ time really thought they were living on the edge of doomsday, the very end of the world. In Paul’s letters, we read that he was expecting, in the near future, the final collapse of the world order.

Yet the early Christians, like Paul, were not pessimistic. They did not live in fear and dread of coming doom. They had a confidence about them that contrasted with the anxiety of those around them. They lived with hope. This hope was grounded in God.  And God was greater than all their fears and was never outwitted by any evil or calamity. Anxiety and disaster are the human condition, not the Christian condition. Jesus was and would be God’s final word.  Never did the early Christians pretend that bad things could not happen to the world or to the church, but that Jesus and his love ultimately rules this universe. 

Like the prophets before him Jesus is painting a grim view of the future in order to influence the present. He does not want to paralyze the people with fear but to energize them into action. The real purpose of speaking in such imaginative exaggeration about the last days is to affect the present ones. Be awake, look reality in the eye and then act accordingly.

Today's gospel story calls on us to do two things that can be very hard to hold together: to be realistic about how the world is going and at the same time not to lose hope in the future.

The world is indeed always in a state of chaos, always changing, always erupting, and always unpredictable, whether in huge storms, uncontrollable fires, typhoons and hurricanes— and these are just the natural disasters.  There are wars and rumors of war, domestic violence, pain and suffering evident every day.

What Jesus teaches is that the chaos and the order belong in the kingdom of God together.  It could be better, and it could be worse, but through it all, God is with us, even unto the end of the age.

Our lesson today reminds us that no matter how much we try to create our own order, living in the unexpected will always be the norm, living with crisis will be inevitable.  For centuries Christians have remained ever faithful, ever ready, because although they had no clue as to what lay ahead for them, they knew Jesus was with them.  Optimist, I think, is another name for Christian.

Jesus’ words from today’s Gospel will bring us full circle as we journey through Advent to Christmas and remind us that the kingdom did come, the kingdom is still coming, and the kingdom is yet to come to its fulfillment. We live in the meantime, the period in between, the period where we are fully aware of God’s work in the past, experience God’s presence among us this day, and live in anticipation of our future with God, whatever form that might take.

My guess is that the exaggerations of Jesus’ teachings are not meant for us to take literally. There is a lot of talk right now about the Mayan calendar and its apocalyptic message of the end of the world in December 2012.  Scholars say it means the end of the calendar -- not the end of the world -- just time to turn the page.   It’s an exciting movie though, I hear.  More story-telling.   But, we must not find ourselves consumed by watching the signs of the skies or the weather, predicting the years that lead to a supposed “end time”, or living for a future that is only constructed by our human minds.  Jesus doesn’t lead us to live future-oriented lives.  Jesus calls us to lives meaningful lives that touch people and this world on a daily basis.  We must live with the confidence expressed by Jesus, that the kingdom is indeed at hand.

We have words and images of the past, and we interpret them as best we can -- but we see through a glass darkly.  What we have is only a fragment of what we might know about all of the past of history. We have only fleeting signs of what the future might bring, and our interpretations are clouded with partial knowledge and imperfect judgment.  What we do have is today — the very today that Jesus says should concern us most.  “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.”  Jesus’ words are focused on the here and now, how we should live in this meantime God has granted us.

Jesus’ words are words of hope, words that both admonish and comfort us in the unknown nature of our future.  We have not been promised that our lives would be free of pain and trials.  But what comes our way will be lightened by our faith and made bearable by our trust in God. 

We shouldn’t need signs in the stars to tell us that tragedy and chaos surround us.  Sometimes though we do need such exaggeration to make us fully recognize what our lives should be about.  It’s much more comfortable to remain in the confines our own daily existence than it is to venture out to see the reality of a hurting world and to seek ways to comfort the afflicted, to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked. 

So, are we ready for Christ to be with us? Do we believe in Emmanuel -- God with us -- coming to us over and over again? May our prayer be, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel — for only by living in the kingdom today, will the kingdom be fulfilled for all in the future. 

Amen

(Modified/extracted from a sermon by Rev JoAnne Juett, 1st Baptist Church of Eau Claire, Wisconsin)

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