Debbie Cato
Jeremiah 33:14-16 & Luke 21:25-36
Fairfield Community Church
November 28, 2021 - First Sunday of Advent

Replacing Anxiety with Hope & Anticipation

 

I remember the first time I flew when security at the airport was first implemented.  I was not a seasoned traveler, so it wasn’t something I did on a regular basis.  I was anxious about flying anyway but I had no idea what a hassle it would be.  There was a lot of waiting involved, and I am not a patient waiter.  Waiting is hard for me, and I worried about being late.

 Of course, while I waited in line at security, I had to take off my shoes and my belt.  I had to remove my coat.  Empty my pockets.  It was a business trip, so I had to take my laptop computer out of the carrying case and put it in a separate bin.  My personal hygiene items in my purse had to come out. Everyone seemed much faster than me so that just added to my anxiety.  I was holding people up.

 Then of course, I had to walk through the scanner.  And of course, I set the buzzer off.  Everyone.  I mean, EVERYONE was looking at me.  I got taken aside where I was patted down, and a wand was waved over me– I think it was a little bit like going to prison.  If I wasn’t already anxious about my trip, I was now on overload.

 Of course, then I still had to get myself dressed.  Put my shoes back on.  My belt and coat on.  Get my laptop back in the case.  My little hygiene items back in my purse.  My dignity back intact after being patted down by a strange male. 

 In our Old Testament passage from Jeremiah, God gives a very anxious 
Jeremiah a message of hope.   Jeremiah is known as the “doom and gloom”
prophet.  His ministry takes place during one of the most difficult periods for Israel – a time when anxiety levels are about as high as they can go.  God’s chosen people have been worshipping other gods and basically disobeying God in multiple ways for years and years and years. God finally has enough and decides it’s time to punish the people and the nation of Israel.  God allows their enemies to conquer them and take them into captivity.  They lose their land, their identity, and their place of worship. The temple is destroyed, and the Israelite nation ceases to exist.  Once again, God’s people find themselves slaves to their enemies.  History repeats itself.

Jeremiah is in prison.  As all good prophets do, he has been fervently praying for the redemption of his people. And it is into this anxiety, into this desolation; this hopelessness that God speaks hope and the promise of restoration to his people. “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.” 

 The days are coming.  I have not forgotten you.  I have not forgotten my promises to you, declares the LORD.   Just hold on.  Just wait.  The days are coming. 

 And "'In those days (the days that are coming) and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land.”  Elsewhere in the Old Testament, a righteous Branch is a messianic title.  God is reminding Jeremiah and the Israelite people of his promise of a Messiah. The days are coming, declares the LORD, when the messiah will come.  The Savior of the world.  And when he comes, he will bring justice and righteousness to the land.  The Messiah will bring redemption to God’s people.

God is sending a message to the Israelites that following his punishment of their wickedness, he will bring healing to Judah and Israel.  He will fulfill his promises to them.  In the midst of tumultuous times; times of hopelessness and anxiety and fear, God declares to Jeremiah that the One he has promised; this Messiah who will execute justice and righteousness in all the land will come.  The days are coming. And because the Messiah is the LORD’s anointed representative on earth, social justice and personal righteousness will be the norm. 

 Think of the reassurance; the hope this was to Jeremiah and all the Israelites – God’s chosen, living as exiles in the land of their enemies.  God said, I have not forgotten about you.  I am still in charge.  The days are coming.  Hold on.  Wait.  Have hope.

 We are living in tumultuous times ourselves.  This has been a tough few years for our nation. Covid 19 has completely changed the way we live. 780,000 people in the U.S. have died from Covid in 2021 alone.  9,200 people, loved ones are gone, who made their homes in Washington.  We’ve had a major economic downturn with many jobs and homes lost. Our housing market is through the roof.  Ordinary people cannot afford housing in Spokane.  Businesses cannot hire employees.  Businesses have closed their doors.  We are all living with lots of anxiety.  We’re stressed about our personal lives and we’re stressed about the world.  Can anyone relate?  Anyone feeling anxious?   Worried?  Hopeless?

 God’s promise to the Israelites so many years ago stands true for us.  Today is the first Sunday of Advent – the season of waiting and anticipation and preparation for the coming of the righteous Branch – the Christ.  It’s no different for us today. God’s promise of hope and restoration is spoken to us.  Hold on.  Just wait, He says.  It’s a message of love, joy, hope and peace to us – today. Thousands of years later, God’s message to his exiled people is a promise to us.

 We have to remember that Jesus also warns us there would be days like this.  In the passage I read this morning from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus speaks about the anxiety in the world.  Jesus is talking about the kind of anxiety – distractions really, that cause people to miss the signs of his glorious arrival.  When we are anxious, when we are worried, when we are afraid, we aren’t focused on God.  We lose sight of his promises.

 This passage in Luke is also found in the gospels of Matthew and Mark.  Little apocalypses.  Warnings of the end times.  It seems like a sobering and grim way to welcome us into a season that in the Christian tradition is a time of expectation and celebration.  Yet in greeting us as we cross the threshold into Advent, this miniature apocalypse reminds us that this season bids us not only to remember and celebrate the Christ who has already come to us, but also to anticipate and look toward the fullness of time when he will bring about the redemption of the world. 

That’s what Jesus is really getting at in this passage. After all, he is not offering these apocalyptic images in order to scare the pants off people, but rather to assure his listeners that the healing of the world is at hand, and that we need to stay awake – stay alert, and learn to read the signs of what is ahead.  He is calling us to stand up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near.  Jesus urges us to engage in activities that help us to stay grounded and centered in our daily lives so that we won’t be caught unaware in the days to come.

 Jesus’ message of the end days is a message of preparation – preparation for the scrutiny and challenges to come.  For Jesus, this means paying attention and approaching life with faith rather than fear.  Jesus urges us to “stand up and raise our heads,” because our redemption is drawing near.  The parable of the fig tree reminds us to vigilantly look around for the signs of the kingdom and Jesus’ own eternal words instead of constantly focusing on the daily stress-producing news of calamity and disaster.

 But beyond being alert, Jesus encourages us to pray for the strength to “escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”  Amid impending disaster and anxiety, Jesus urges us to keep our heads up and our knees down, praying for the strength to weather the storm and stand firm in his presence; trusting in his promises.

 If our anxiety is setting off alarms everywhere we go, it might be time for us to step back, take a deep breath and offer prayer to the Lord who will make “all things new.”  There’s no better way to lower your heart rate, your blood pressure and your body temperature, as well as your anxious spirit, than slowing down and communing with Christ.  Jesus reminds us that he is ultimately in charge.  The journey, though tough, will end well, and everything will be as good in the end as it was in the beginning of creation.

 And so, this is where we find ourselves as we enter Advent – this season of anticipation and hope and preparation.  This is the message that the lectionary gives us each year as we enter into this time of waiting.  This time of expectation.   Again and again, we are called to circle back around the apocalypse, to revisit its landscape, to take in its terrain.  The season of Advent begins with the apocalypse each year so that we might recognize it, should it come, but also – perhaps especially – that we might enter more mindfully into our present landscape and perceive the signs of how God is working out God’s longing in the world here and now.  The root meaning of the word apocalypse is revelation.  And God is, in every time and season, about the work of revealing God’s presence.  The one who came to us two millennia ago as Emmanuel, God-with-us, and who spoke of a time when he would come again in fullness, reveals himself even now in our midst, calling us to see all the guises in which he goes about in this world. 

 Advent reminds us, year in and year out, that although we are to keep an eye out for cosmic signs, we must – like the fig tree that Jesus evokes in this passage, be rooted in the life of the earth.  In the rhythm of our daily lives here on earth, Christ bids us to practice the apocalypse.  He calls us in each day and in each moment to do the things that will stir up our courage and keep us grounded in God; not only so that we will perceive Christ when he comes, but also so that we will recognize him here and now.  There is a sense, after all, in which we as Christians live the apocalypse on a daily basis.  Amid the destruction and devastation that is continually taking place in the world, Christ beckons us to perceive and to participate in the ways that he is already seeking to bring redemption and healing for the whole of creation.

 Just as he has done in the past, God will continue to watch over, anticipate, and be involved in the progression of human affairs, especially those things that impact his people. Today’s scripture passages remind us that we are not to become disheartened or think that all is lost and life is hopeless.

 As we enter the season of Advent, how might Christ be inviting you to practice the apocalypse?  What are the habits that keep you centered in God, that sharpen your vision and that help you recognize the presence of Christ in this world? How will you prepare this Advent?  How will you turn your anxiety into anticipation – anticipation for the coming Christ – the Savior of the world?

 

Lord God,  only you can see into our hearts and know  that under all the busy-ness of our lives, there is a deep longing to make this Advent one that welcomes you more deeply into our own life.  Our hearts desire the warmth of your love and our minds search for your Light  in the midst of the darkness.

All-powerful God,  increase our strength of will for doing good that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming and call us to his side in the
kingdom of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.