Christ Lutheran Church

1701 Arroyo Chamiso

Santa Fe, NM 87505-4775

(505) 983-9461

church@clcsantafe.com

  

 November 29, 2009

First Sunday of Advent

 

GOSPEL: Luke 21.25-36

[Jesus said:] "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. 26People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. 28Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

             29Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33Heaven 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 does not catch you unexpectedly, 35like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be 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."

Danger!

 

+ In nomine Domini.  Amen.

 

“Warning!  Danger!” exclaims The Robot in an effort to protect the Robinson Family who are Lost in Space. 

It’s the year 1997 and the United States has launched the Jupiter 2 in an effort to colonize deep Space.  Headed originally toward Alpha Centauri the family on board are in the company of a pilot, a medical doctor (who turns out to be a foreign secret agent) and a Model B-9, Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot … known simply as The Robot.

Enroute, Dr. Zachary Smith has sabotaged the craft and it crash landed on a distant planet.  For the next three years they make do, travelling to various planets and getting themselves in and out of danger always under the watchful electronic presence of The Robot who has a particular fondness for shielding the young 9 year old Robinson boy named Will.

Actually the 83 episodes of this favourite television program took place between 1965 and 1968, the “Warning!” “Danger!” … and especially the well-known and oft-quoted “Danger, Will Robinson!” were all the words of the incredible voice actor Dick Tufeld … and although most of us who watched Lost in Space every week remember it differently, that famous catch phrase “Danger, Will Robinson!” was spoken only one time, during Episode 11 of Season 3.[1]

This all came to mind as I poured over the Gospel Portion for this First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the Church New Year, the start of the four weeks of preparation and watching and waiting before the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord.

This Sunday and this Gospel Portion begins the third year of the Three Lectionary which cycles through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Now we are in the Year of Luke and will follow this Gospel Writer’s story of faith about Jesus, written (we must add) by an unknown Gentile Christian, written sometime in the 8^th decade of the 1^st Century (that is some 50 years after the life and death of Jesus), written as the first of a two-part work (the other being the Acts of the Apostles), written based upon stories he has borrowed from Mark (the earliest Gospel) as well as other stories that were in the air about Jesus, and written in a wonderful style that leaves the reader with a collection of great stories full of meaning and hope and joyfulness.[2]

There is a theme in this Gospel, and it has to do with social concern.  Luke, more than the other Gospels emphasizes the coming reign of God, a reign of peace and hope and compassion … Luke is most concerned with the plight of women, the poor, and the oppressed … Luke sees Jesus as the presence of God who brings social justice and the healing of creation.

Perhaps he tells the story this way because he writes well after the time of Jesus and all the terror and destruction that has taken place under the occupation of the Romans, not the least of which is the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE.

The more I read Luke, the more I see an author who takes the story of Jesus and the followers of Jesus and weaves it in such a way as to give hope in the moment for people who are undergoing persecution and martyrdom at the end of the 1^st Century, a persecution that would last well into the 3^rd Century.

“There will be signs,” says the Jesus of Luke’s Gospel … and indeed there were.

“People will faint from fear and foreboding,” proclaims the Saviour of the Third Gospel … and indeed they did.

“Then they will see the Son of Man coming,” shouts the Teacher from the Galilee … and indeed it was the dream, the fervent hope of people undergoing persecution.

In Luke’s telling, Jesus in a quite non-robotic stance, cries, “Danger! Warning!” as he cries, “Stand up … raise your heads … be on guard … be alert!”

Why?  Because God’s kingdom, God’s reign is coming and the way it comes is with love and justice … and the understanding is that in order for that love and that justice to take over the world and heal creation, all humanity, having been touched by that love and justice, must work fervently to make it happen.

It’s not always the way we want to read this Gospel, as a social document of radical faith and hope … especially on the First Sunday of Advent.  Often, we’d rather just start back at the beginning, in the first couple chapters, with the foretelling of the Birth of Jesus.  We would like to skip ahead to Christmas and leave out everything before it … and let our preparation and watching and hoping be held somewhere else, with some other emphasis than the plight of humanity and the cause of justice.

Well, that’s why we have the Season of Advent; that’s why we have the time of preparation in the Church, because our story is indeed a story of healing … and much as we need our economic revival, healing comes rarely, if ever, in the form of buying and selling, rarely, if ever in the form of greed and overabundance … Luke reminds us over and over again that it is in the weak that strength comes, it is in the gentleness that truth appears, and it is in the baby that righteousness, true righteousness shines forth … and all that quite unexpectedly.

The liturgical Season of Advent lets us slow down and partake carefully of the Gospel, the real Good News, the Announcement of Hope that comes in a Divine way so that we can look up and take notice and pay attention and know that the words will not pass away and that our life is to stand in the presence of the Holy One with hands joined to all humanity so that all humanity may become one and at peace. 

Luke, the Gospel, is above all else, a Gospel of Peace, hoped for in a time of turmoil.  Reading it this year is perhaps the best thing we can do … reading it carefully, perusing its pages, taking our time to absorb its meaning.  That cannot be rushed, or skipped over … and Advent is for us the means by which we spend our time carefully within the Gospel, letting ourselves be bathed in its goodness.

It’s why we give out the Anachronistic Awards each year in this parish.  Anachronistic … coming from the two Greek words … ana (against) and chronos (time).  We award them in recognition of the untimely discovery of the earliest Christmas advertisement/decorations/or other Yuletide Items … far too much in advance of the Christmas Season. 

We hand these out so as to remind ourselves that this time of Advent, and in face all that precedes it, is a time we must spend carefully and lovingly, and that to omit it is to do grave injustice to the story, let alone our lives.

The highly coveted Anachronistic Awards will be announced at the conclusion of the Service.

But for now, in all that lies before us in these weeks let us remember to “Stand up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near.”

The Lord be with you.  And also with you.
Let us pray. O God of all the prophets, you herald the coming of the Son of Man by wondrous signs in the heavens and on earth. Guard our hearts from despair so that we, in the company of the faithful and by the power of your Holy Spirit, may be found ready to raise our heads at the coming near of our redemption, the day of Jesus Christ. Amen.