Just Keep Driving

Luke 21:25-36

“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.”

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.

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down by 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.”

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A couple of weeks ago, on our way to Ohio for a football game and a college visit, the boys and I took a little detour. After sitting for a while in some stopped and slow-moving traffic on I-70, in the dark, close to midnight, sandwiched between semis and seeing no end in sight, I decided to get off at the next exit ramp, turn on my GPS, and hit the country roads – just to keep moving – until we could find our way back to the interstate, hopefully somewhere up beyond the traffic jam.

Thankfully, as you know, detours these days, with cell phones and Global Positioning Satellites, aren’t what they used to be. We just hopped off the east-bound interstate and kept driving – for a few minutes – until the navigator stopped trying to turn us around, to re-route us, as they are inclined to do, back to the route we were following in the first place.

In other words, we had to get far enough off-track, far enough away from our original route – lost enough, if you will – before our GPS would begin to send us in a new direction and onto a different path toward our destination.

This made me think of Jesus’s words this morning, because I think it’s more than a little bit of what the season of Advent is supposed to be for us as Children of God, waiting on the coming of our salvation, in Jesus, at Christmas.

These Advent days are meant to be a season of darkness; of searching; of lost-ness; of longing; of admitting and experiencing the fullness of our need for direction, our need for salvation, our need for redemption at the hands of God in Jesus.

This morning, we hear Jesus say some pretty ominous thing. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars.” He says there will be “distress among confused nations.” He says there will be “fainting from fear and foreboding” about all that’s coming upon the world. And he says that the powers of the heavens will be shaken. It sounds scary…and like a mess…and about as lost or afraid as we might ever expect to be. And Jesus’ words seem particularly on point this time around, it seems to me.

I don’t know what the signs in the sun, the moon, or the stars might be trying to spell out, exactly, but I know NASA launched a rocket into outer space just this past Wednesday, to practice nudging an asteroid enough to change its trajectory in case we ever have to do that in the future to save our planet from an errant celestial body.

And when I think about “distressed nations, confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves,” I think about climate scientists warning that if we don’t do something to maintain or limit or lower the temperature of the planet that, among so many other things, there are islands and coastal cities and whole hosts of living things in danger of destruction when/if “the roaring of the sea and the waves” really does overtake them.

And, as a new COVID variant does its thing, there is fainting and fear and foreboding, for sure, about however it might threaten whatever progress we’ve made where the pandemic is concerned.

And with all of that in mind, Jesus gives us this strange little parable about the trees: “As soon as they sprout leaves,” he promises, “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.”

Another way to say it might be, “when you see these things take place…” “when you’re just about as lost as you think you could be…” “when it’s just about as bad as you imagine it could get…” “when there is distress and fear and fainting and foreboding … new leaves and new life are on the way.” Or, maybe, “You’re lost, but keep driving, because your redemption is drawing near and it might be just up around the next bend.”

See, it’s tempting to – and lots of people do – use this passage to make predictions about the end of times, but I’ve never wanted to go there. I take comfort in the other Gospels where Jesus explains that “neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son” – not even Jesus, himself – but only the Father knows if or how or when all of this “end times” stuff will come to pass. (He says as much in both Matthew’s Gospel and in Mark’s, too, along with very similar language about ‘this generation not passing away’ … ‘heaven and earth passing away,’ but not his words … and all the rest.)

Anyway, I’ve always figured that, if the angels and Jesus can’t make any guesses about all of that, then I surely don’t have to bother – and probably shouldn’t. And I’m suspicious of anyone who does.

So, when Jesus talked about the signs that would come; about the powers that would be shaken; about the fear and foreboding and distress among the nations; I don’t believe he was pretending to look into his crystal ball. Otherwise, I kind of, sort of believe the Son of God would have made a little more accurate of a prediction.

No, rather than predict the future, I believe Jesus’ words are meant to inspire the present. Jesus isn’t predicting destruction down the road, he’s promising salvation now. While it seems Jesus might be reporting the evening news for any given time and place, he’s really proclaiming hope for the ages. And he’s not one to pull punches or sugar-coat the reality of what swirls around us as his followers; as people on the planet; as children of God.

Wars rage. People starve. Children are abused. Injustice wins. There is cancer and Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s and more.

So, no matter how hard we plan, pretend, or pray, signs are everywhere of our need for grace, mercy, peace and salvation – from somewhere and someone more powerful than ourselves. This is the news we’re called to attend to on this first Sunday of Advent. It’s not meant simply to sadden us. It’s not meant to scare us. And it’s not meant to send us reeling into the darkness, either.

It’s meant to encourage us to keep driving; to acknowledge how lost we can be so much of the time but to not fear that lost-ness – to not let the darkness get the best of us.

I think we’re meant to keep driving because there is a new way coming; a different path is still waiting to be travelled; a light shines into this darkness and we won’t be able to miss it, if we’re paying attention.

I think we’re meant to keep driving – because God isn’t afraid of however broken or scared or lost or alone we might be from one moment to the next. In fact, I think God does God’s best work with what’s most broken, scared, lost or dying in our midst.

So, let’s let these Advent days be a reminder of and practice for us to hope and to wait with patience when we can find it – to stand up and raise our heads, even – to keep driving, no matter how lost we feel, and to trust that our redemption is always near, especially when we need it most.

Amen

Greetings, Favored One!

Luke 1:26-38

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of David forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

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“Greetings, favored ones! The Lord is with you.” 

When was the last time anyone talked to you that way? Let alone an angel of the Lord?

Mary was as perplexed about it as most of us would be, it sounds like. She wasn’t the type anyone would have thought to be “favored,” after all. Let alone an angel of the most high God, for crying out loud.

She was poor. And a girl. In a man’s world, and in a no man’s land somewhere in the middle of Galilee, from some place called Nazareth.

When we read that she “pondered what sort of greeting this might be…” in my head, that means she “wondered what in the heck this was all about?,” and “who does this guy think he is?,” and, even more, “who does he think I am?”

And after a little explaining … something about the Holy Spirit coming upon her … something about being over-shadowed by the power of the Most High God … something about conceiving a child, naming him Jesus … and something about how he would reign as the Son of God, forever from the same throne as David, the greatest king of all time…

After all of that – and a little something about her Aunt Elizabeth, too – somehow, Mary buys it. … or consents to it. … or resigns herself, perhaps, to whatever this is. “Here I am. The servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”

But it all started with those words, “Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.” 

First of all, it’s a reminder about just exactly who God favors: the least among us, remember. The poor, the outsider, the outcast. The last, the lost, the lonely. The sick, the imprisoned, the hungry and thirsty. The sinner, in need of forgiveness, mercy, hope and the love of God.

“Greetings, favored ones. The Lord is with you.” But, again, who talks like that? Who believes stuff like that – about themselves, enough of the time? And about the world and the people around them, too?

I came across an old devotional this week that my Dad wrote several years ago about a time he noticed a lonely stranger in the New Palestine McDonald’s. It seemed clear this guy was counting the change in his pockets to see if he had enough to afford, even a Senior Coffee, which isn’t something that happens often in our small town. So my dad bought him a meal, too, and sat down to eat breakfast with him, and listened to his story – things about a divorce, some estranged children, a lost job. It was all a gift and a blessing for this stranger, I’m sure. Not the coffee and the pancakes, but the conversation and someone who cared enough to engage it. The man thanked my dad and told he had sat there some days actually praying for someone to talk with. “Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.”

It made me think of a story Oprah Winfrey tells about being a poor little Black girl, in nowhere Mississippi, back in the deep – and deeply racist – South, of the 1960’s. I think it was the wife of the Governor at the time, who came to Oprah’s school or church for some assembly or event. (It’s been awhile since I’ve heard the story.) But the point is, that from among a sea of other little Black boys and little Black girls, this wealthy, powerful, well-dressed white lady bent down, looked little Oprah in the eye and told her what a beautiful girl she was.

For a poor little Black girl who thought that her nose was too wide, that her lips were too big, that her skin was too dark, and who knows what else … it mattered that someone like that thought someone like her was beautiful – and went out of her way to say so. “Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.”

I remember visiting Trinity Lutheran Seminary, across the street from Capital University, when I was just an undergrad – a long-haired, mullet-sporting, probably hungover or on-my-way-to-the-next-party kind of undergrad – when the Seminary President, Dennis Anderson, asked me – without a hint of irony, or sarcasm, or good-humor – when I thought I was going to come across the street and start studying there. I was perplexed. I laughed it off. But he suspected that the Seminary and I might be good for each other. Who knew? “Greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you.” 

Some of you have heard me talk about Angels around here before – especially during the seasons of Advent and Christmas. And I like to remind myself – and whoever will listen – that angels don’t always have wings or wear halos or sing on key or glow like the sun. “Angel” just means “messenger,” remember, nothing more and nothing less. Someone with good news to share, like that someone who showed up for Mary, way back when.

And, I guess what I’m getting at is, I hope you can think of an angel or two in your own life who has called you “favored,” and encouraged you in a meaningful way… and empowered you to do something greater than you thought you could… or loved you in ways that were surprising and made you feel worthy and worthwhile, even if you didn’t believe that yourself or know you needed it at the time.

And if you haven’t heard or felt or believed that before, hear it now: “Greetings favored one. The Lord is with you.”

You are beautiful. And loved. And called by God to be beautiful and to love the world in return for what has already been poured out for you in the gift of Jesus Christ that is on the way.

Later this afternoon, I will baptize Holden Michael Hagerty – the son of Brandi and Brady Hagerty, Grandson to Tony and Kelley Holden. We’re doing it in a small, safe, socially distanced, invitation-only kind of way because of the virus, of course. But, I want you to know about it, because baptism is our way of saying – to the world around us, as a community of believers – “Greetings favored one! The Lord is with you!” It is something that has been declared on behalf of everyone who has been baptized. And it is said, too, for those who have yet to make it to the water.

“Greetings, favored ones! The Lord is with you.” It is the message and gift and blessing and the promise of Christmas for the sake of the world.

The Lord has always been, the Lord is, and the Lord will always be on the way to find you and forgive you and encourage you and walk with you and welcome you into the good graces of the Most High God, by whom you are favored – each and every one of you, in spite of yourself, in spite of your sins, in spite of what the world has to say about it. And you are destined … each of us is destined … if we will let God’s will have God’s way with us … for eternal things on this side of heaven and beyond … because nothing is impossible with God.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.