Reboot

‘…stand up and raise your heads.’ (Luke 21:28)

                                                   The fig tree is budding

Luke 21:25-36 (Year C: The First Sunday of Advent, 2^nd December, 2018)

None of us knows what lies ahead. But of three things we can be certain:

• Ageing
• Illness
• Death

The questions of when and how are beyond our knowing. The question of why must be approached through a humble mind and open heart. The question of what might lie beyond the horizons of this small world and life is for God alone to show us in his time and in his way.

During this Advent season the Church invites us to watch and pray. The lines of Luke read as follows:

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, like a trap

This is hardly compatible with the ‘festive’ season of frenetic shopping, partying and Ho Ho!  But, the truth is that much of this Northern Hemisphere mid-winter Ho Ho is about sub-consciously putting away some of our all-year winter demons. What are they? They concern our worries – our very real worries about:

• Getting old (eventually)
• Facing ill-health of mind or body now or in the future
• Having lost or possibly losing income or employment in the future (it happens to people who retire for example)
• Relationships past or present where wounds may run deep
• Facing some external dangers to body, mind or person (not untypical for many millions of people across the globe).

And, the list is not exhaustive ....

We find distraction in sundry indulgences from substance attachment to constant affirmation-seeking on social media to projects that demand our all and we wonder why we are still missing something. But, in the midst of all this clamour and un-ease (or should we say dis-ease?) we are reminded of what Jesus said according to verse 28 of Luke:

stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

When faced with uncertainty and, perhaps, a load of concerns and worries, we do well to:

• Stay calmly grounded in the here and now
• Remain steadfast in love because this is the only thing that matters
• Keep moving forward towards some goal or destination no matter how dim it seems.

Staying calm meanings trusting that God has a plan for this world and our lives in it just as He did for the Prophet Jeremiah 6 centuries before the birth of Christ.

Remaining steadfast means living our lives to the full in the here and now that we may ‘increase and abound in love for one another’ (1 Thessalonians 3:12). The best way to prepare for death is to live life to the full now and to live it well so that we leave a good memory and example and find our well-being in this thought.

As Chiara Lubich of the Focolare movement once said:

Precisely because we do not know the day nor the hour of His coming, we can concentrate more easily on living one day at a time, on the troubles of today, on what Providence offers to us now.  Some time ago I spontaneously uttered this prayer to God.  - Jesus, make me always speak as if it were the last word I say. Make me always act as if it were the last action I take. Make me always suffer as if it were the last suffering I had to offer you. Make me always pray as if it were the last opportunity I have here on earth to converse with you

580 words (above)

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Further reading: notes and questions, verse by verse

Preliminaries

This is the first Sunday in the new liturgical or Church calendar year. On this blog page I follow the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) used in the Church of Ireland as well as in many other Christian churches. The cycle of readings may be found here.  Typically, the Gospel reading is the same, each Sunday, whether you are using the RCL or the cycle used in the Roman Catholic Church. The first and second reading (Old and New Testament, respectively) sometimes vary as does the appointed Psalm of the day. To complicate (or enrich?) matters, the Church of Ireland offers a cycle of reading according to ‘continuous’ or ‘paired’ cycle. I prefer to follow the latter, on this site, as it pairs thematically the first reading (from the Old Testament) and the Gospel. In addition, I follow the ‘principal service’ of the day rather than the ‘second service’ (the latter being typically used for an evening service).

This Sunday’s reading is from Luke 21:25-36.  Throughout this coming year (from December 2018 to 30^th November 2019), the Gospel reading is usually from the Gospel of Saint Luke. As many readers of this blog are from the Roman Catholic tradition, I signal any differences in readings that may occur between Cycles.  On this Sunday, the choice of other readings is not the same as between the RCL and that used in the Roman Catholic Church.  The RCL readings in addition to the Gospel are: Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25(24):1-9; and 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13.  Directly parallel Gospel readings to this particular Gospel reading from Luke may be found in Matthew 24:43-44 and in Matthew 6:25-34.

In the liturgical cycle of the Roman Catholic Church, for this coming Sunday, the choice of readings is as follows: Jeremiah 33:14-16 and 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 plus two additional verses in 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2. The Gospel is from Luke 21:25-28,34-36.

12:25-28:  The coming of the Son of Man

‘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. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’

There are strong echoes, here, of the prophecies of Isaiah (13:10), Joel (2:30-31), Daniel (12:1)and Ezechiel (32:7-8).  Could some of this be a warning about impending environmental disaster for humanity in the 21^st Century?!

The context in which Luke writes for his community in the 80’s is fraught. Disaster, war, insurrection, destruction and the gathering of an intense persecution of the disciples of Jesus is underway. It has salience then as it does now for us as a community and, also, as individuals faced with ageing, death and resurrection. In the here and now we must be of good courage and ‘stand up and raise’ our heads because our ‘redemption is drawing near’. This passage which follows a somewhat apocalyptic series of warnings and predictions leads us into the next and final phase of Jesus’s earthly ministry in the days or weeks before his passion. The early disciples wait and watch for ‘signs’ of God’s coming reign. It is a time of terror and it is a time of great hope and expectation. As often is the case in the drama of human and personal history: it is the worst of times and it is the best of times.

Our ‘redemption’ (apolytrōsis) is near at hand. This ‘redemption’ literally means a ‘buying back’ and is rooted in Old Testament ideas. It can also be found in many of the letters of St Paul. However, only in the gospels does the word appear here in Luke.

12:29-33    The Lesson of the Fig Tree

Then he told them a parable: ‘Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Luke inserts this parable to reinforce the narrative. Jesus points – as he typically does – to growth and ‘signs’ in nature about the listeners. The fig tree in Palestine is as dead a looking plant as you can get. Yet, it bursts into life in the spring. Very likely, the saying of Jesus coincides with spring time before the Passover.

The saying ‘my words will not pass away’ gives us comfort and reassurance today just as it did nearly 2,000 years ago. It says to us that Jesus is every bit as alive and relevant today as then and the final victory is God’s even if we might be tempted to think that nearly everything is lost in this corrupt society in which we live.

12:34-36          Exhortation to Watch

‘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, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 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.’

Timely for this time of year, we are reminded to be Mind-full, Prayer-full and Ready.  Only trusting and praying can open us to a gift of serenity and calm in the face of whatever confronts us in life and in the world.

The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from And what can we do right now in this time of darkness as the fig trees are withered? We may take courage from the words of the Psalmist (97:10-12):

The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked. Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!