Staying Awake
Luke 21:25-36[1]
I don’t have to tell you that
speculations about the end of time have fueled a wide range of responses, from
curiosity to fear to outright paranoia. You might think this is a recent trend,
but actually it has been around almost since the beginning of the Christian
faith. Throughout the ages people have tried to put two and two together to
figure out exactly how or when the end will come. Unfortunately, their
calculations have usually resulted in two plus two equals five. We have a
notoriously flawed ability to predict the future, and I think the more
scripture verses someone gathers to try to back up their theories, the more
likely they are to be wrong![2]
And yet, the fact of the matter is
that the Bible speaks in a number of places about “the Day of the Lord.” In the
Hebrew Bible, it refers to the day when God will come to establish his rule in
our world. And that will mean righting the wrongs, comforting those who suffer
and discomforting those who are at ease. It’s a message with a double edge to
it. Although the New Testament redirects those expectations to the return of
Christ, it has no less of a dual message to it.[3]
For those who are oppressed and suffering now, the coming of Christ means
relief and restoration. For those who are complacent, or who have compromised
their faith, it has a different tone.
We heard the scripture last week
that said, “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even
those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will
wail” (Rev. 1:7). We might like to think that the “wailing” refers to
unbelievers. But if we pay close attention to the message of the Bible about
the coming “Day of the Lord,” I would say the overwhelming power of that
experience will leave no one unmoved. I think we will all be feeling something
like the prophet Isaiah felt when he saw the Lord in all his glory filling the
temple: “I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.” (Isa. 6:5). When we appear before
the Lord at his coming, we will all be wailing with repentance and remorse.[4]
It may seem a strange thing to
talk about on the first Sunday of Advent. After all, we’re supposed to be
looking forward to a “holly, jolly Christmas,” aren’t we? Why should the Scripture lesson for today
talk about things that may make us feel uncomfortable? I think the primary
reason is that the season of Advent, which precedes the season of Christmas, is
intended to lead us to reflection about our lives. It’s like the season of Lent
in relation to Easter. The whole point of Advent is to be a time for us to
prepare ourselves to welcome the coming of the Lord at Christmas.
So it is with our Gospel lesson
for today. There is definitely a note of apprehension in Jesus’ description of
the day of the Lord: “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” (Lk. 21:25). I would say that the language used here is probably
meant to be understood more symbolically than literally.[5]
But regardless, the end result is that “People will faint from fear and
foreboding of what is coming upon the world” (Lk. 21:26)! Think of it: can you
imagine the shock and awe that we will all experience when we “see ‘the Son of
Man coming …’ with power and great glory” (Lk. 21:27)?
Despite the fact that Jesus
clearly warns us that day will be overwhelming, it is also a cause for
rejoicing. In fact, Jesus said it this way: “when these things begin to take
place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near”
(Lk. 21:28).[6] He
clearly calls us to view that day as a something to celebrate. And the cause is
clear: “when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of
God is near” (Lk. 21:31).[7] It
may seem contradictory, but the reality is that the message of the Bible about
the “Day of the Lord” makes both points: it will be a day when we will all be
purged of everything that stands in the way of our relationship with God, which
may be painful, but the outcome will be our salvation.[8]
So if attempts to calculate the
coming of this astounding event prove to be fruitless, how are we to prepare
for it? Jesus answered that question as well: watch, stay awake, and pray. The
phrase “be on guard” literally means to keep watching. And the phrase “be alert
at all times” means to “stay awake.” I’m not sure these are concepts we’re
familiar with when it comes to our spiritual lives. We may know what it’s like
to stay awake because of a sick child or a deadline, but not as a spiritual
attitude. It’s just not a part of our experience. One reason for that is
watching and staying awake are something we actively seek to avoid by filling
our lives with things to distract us from having to pay attention.[9]
And that’s really all it boils down to: paying attention. Instead of going through
the motions of our lives, I think Jesus calls us to be thoughtful about where
we are and what we’re doing and why.[10]
I think that’s where prayer can
help us. That’s also not something that comes naturally to us. But as we learn
to discipline ourselves to pray day and night, as we develop the practice of
staying constantly in an attitude of prayer, we can become more thoughtful
about the way we live. We can conduct our lives in a much more watchful and
wakeful manner. I believe that is the whole purpose of a season like Advent.
Yes, there are parties to attend and plans to make, but as we go about the
“busy-ness” of this time of year, cultivating a consistent mindset of prayer
can help us “stay awake” to the meaning of it all.[11]
[1] ©2015
Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 11/29/2015 at Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. R.
Alan Culpepper, Jr., “The Gospel of Luke,” New
Interpreters Bible IX:402, where he laments the “plague of pseudo-religious
prophets claiming that the end is at hand.” He insists, to the contrary, that
“The gospel offers not a way of predicting the end of the world but the
spiritual resources to cope with adversity and hardship.”
[3] Cf. Joel
B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, 740,
where he points out the connection between the expectation of the coming “Son
of Man” (Jesus) and the “Day of the Lord” in the Hebrew Bible.
[4] It is
unfortunate that commentators are eager to emphasize the confidence and
reassurance Jesus brings out in this passage and ignore the connection with the
fact that, according to the prophets, the “Day of the Lord” would be so
overwhelming as to bring fear and foreboding on all, even (and perhaps
especially) the people of God (cf. Isa. 13:6-8a: “Wail, for the day of the Lord
is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty! Therefore all hands
will be feeble, and every human heart will melt, and they will be dismayed”;
cf. also Amos 5:18-20: “Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you
want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light; as if someone fled from a
lion, and was met by a bear; or went into the house and rested a hand against
the wall, and was bitten by a snake. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, not
light, and gloom with no brightness in it?”). Cf. Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology II:119-125, where
he recounts the theme of the Day of the Lord in the prophets, which no doubt
reflects the popular notion that it would be a day of battle for the destruction
of Israel’s enemies. However, as Von Rad points out (ibid., 124-125), some like Amos ask the people to consider the
possibility that “this day is to bring a darkness that might also be fraught
with danger for them”; in other words, they failed to consider the aspect of
judgment that day would bring upon them. Cf. similarly, Christopher R. Seitz, Isaiah 1-39, 133, says regarding Isaiah
13: “This ‘day of the Lord’ comes to put an end to all sin (13:9), and the evil
of the whole world is to be punished (13:11). All human pride and arrogance is
under assault, and even the heavens and the earth will feel the effects of
God’s awesome judgment (13:10, 13).”
[5] Cf. Fred
B. Craddock, Luke, 246, where he
rightly points out that this language is meant to indicate that the coming of
God’s kingdom will affect the entire cosmos. He says, “Redemption has a cosmic
dimension. … In fact, it was Paul who developed a Christology adequate to
embrace all creation in the act of the cross and the resurrection (Phil.
2:6-11; Col. 1:15-20). But both Matthew and Luke tell us that heaven and earth
signaled in unusual ways the birth and death of Jesus. Yet, even earlier,
prophets had spoken of the day of the Lord as shaking and altering heaven and
earth.” Cf. also Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man,
2:289, where he reminds us that the biblical view of the end times is couched
in symbols that should be taken seriously but cannot be taken literally
“because it is not possible for finite minds to comprehend that which
transcends and fulfills history. The finite mind can only use symbols and
pointers of the character of the eternal.”
[6] Cf.
Culpepper, “Gospel of Luke,” NIB
IX:411, where reminds us that “the end of time holds no terror for those who
know God’s love because they know the one who determines the reality that lies
beyond what we can know here and now.”
[7] Cf.
Green, Gospel of Luke, 742, where he
points out that Luke’s Gospel emphasizes both the presence of the kingdom of
God in Jesus’ ministry as well as its arrival “in its fullness at the end of
history.”
[8] Cf. Jürgen
Moltmann, In the End, the Beginning: The
Life of Hope, 143, where he describes the final judgment by saying that “Everything
which is, and has been, in contradiction to God will be burnt away, so that the
person who is loved by God is saved, and everything which is, and has been, in
accord with God in that person’s life is preserved.”
[9] Cf.
Moltmann, In the End, the Beginning, 82,
says it this way: “We see only our dreams, and our wishful thinking about
reality is reality itself. But this again means that we don’t live wakefully in
reality; we are asleep in the agreeable dreams of our fantasy world.” By contrast,
a life of wakefulness and praying means (ibid.,
83) that “We perceive the sighing of creation, and hear the cries of the
created victims that have fallen dumb. We also hear the song of praise of the
blossoming spring, and feel the divine love for everything that lives. So
prayer to God awakens all our senses and alerts our minds and spirits.”
[10] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics 4.2:555, where he says that Christians
are those who “those who constantly stand in need of reawakening and who depend
upon the fact that they are continually reawakened. They are thus those who, it
is to be hoped, continually waken up.”
[11] Cf.
Green, Gospel of Luke, 743 (footnote
60), where he observes “As elsewhere in Luke-Acts, prayer here would seem to
involve both discernment of the divine aim (which, in Luke, is regularly
mediated through prayer) and orientation of oneself around that purpose.”
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