November 29, 2009
Advent Freedom - Luke 21:25-36
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadBefore I say anything else, I have a disclaimer to make. I need to be totally honest with you about this. I do not like apocalypses. Actually, apocalypse simply means to uncover or reveal, which of course leads to knowledge and wisdom. So in the literal sense of the word, it’s fine. But way that we have used that word is my problem. Apocalypse is almost always another word for the end of the world, and I have never liked that subject. I never have. I never have seen the movie Apocalypse Now, and I’ve never read Tim LaHaye’s book series, Left Behind. I just cannot stomach it. And now for the real confession, I’ve never liked Luke 21, or Mark 13, or Matthew 24, or John’s Revelation. I’ve just never really known what to do with it. There’s so much sensation and drama and violence. And it seems to me that it puts us against them, believers against unbelievers, Christians against non-Christians. The whole idea of all of us just getting along never seemed to catch hold with the apocalyptic writers.
And even if it did, my biggest beef is that I, for one, don’t want the world to end. I like the world. I like my life. I will admit that we read these texts from privileged positions, unlike the first readers would and even unlike many current readers who live on the other side of the world. Be that as it may, I want the same opportunities that many of you have had. I want to raise my children and watch them grow up. I want to see them find their callings in life. I want to see them get married and give me a few grandbabies who I can play with until I get tired and send them back. I like my job, and I want to preach for as long as I can. I want to be with my wife. I want to retire one day and walk the Appalachian Trail with her, and I promise not to use that as a front for seeing someone else in Argentina. I want to run a few more marathons. I want to ride my bike more. I want to live and enjoy God’s earth and the life that he has given me. So even if the Apocalypse was not at all violent, and even if we could just all get along in it, it necessarily means that the world as we know it will end. That idea honestly breaks my heart. I like this world. Don’t you? Maybe that great theologian, Kenny Chesney, said it best: “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now.”
I am preaching a sermon series on Revelation over the Easter season. We will also be welcoming a baby into the world about that time. My wife is a CPA, so the timing for her is not good with tax season ending on April 15th, but I’ll have to say, at least as far as preaching Revelation goes, it works out great for me. The end of the world is not a very pretty sight, according to Luke here. According to all the biblical writers, the end is a hard time, with lots of weeping, and loss, and anxiety, and war, and famine, and drought. All those things that we fear from our lesser instincts and even from mother-nature happen. Also, for Luke at least, Christians don’t get to opt out of it. There is no rapture before the hard times. We have all read that bumper sticker, “in case of rapture, this car will be unmanned.” I heard about one the other day that said, “in case of rapture, can I have your car?” There is no need to worry about any of that, at least according to Luke here, because Christians will be there suffering with everybody else. In fact, Christians may suffer more than anybody else. I had a seminary professor tell me that, according to Jesus, if we are faithful, our churches should not be growing. “You will be hated by everybody,” Jesus tells us in verse 17, “because of my name.” Try that for a church growth strategy. It’s going to be cosmic, too, Jesus said. It’s not just that people go haywire. Everything goes haywire. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the seas and the waves.” You may want to change for vacations to the mountains when the end comes.
Yet, amidst all this anxiety and death and destruction, Luke records Jesus as saying not to stress out over it. In fact, if anything, celebrate, or “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” I had another seminary professor tell me that this passage is a very freeing passage. We stand up and hold our heads high, not because the whole world is in utter chaos. We stand up and hold our heads high because redemption is drawing near. Our redemption is what drives us as Christians. Our redemption in Jesus Christ is our hope. That redemption is not fully realized now, obviously, but it will be one day. We live the way we do because we know that day is coming. Imagine if there really was justice in the world, and everything was as it should be. That’s going to happen one day, maybe not before a whole lot of weeping, but it will happen. In fact, as Luke presents it, the Kingdom is coming here, heaven is coming to earth. We’re going to be back in Eden, which is a wonderful thought.
I preached at McClintock this past Wednesday night and I said there that my alarm clock wakes me up every morning, and if that doesn’t then my children do, and if they don’t, then worry does. After reflecting on that some more, I should have put that in the opposite order. I wake up more with worries even than with alarm clocks ringing in my ear. I am almost certain that the same is true for you. I am also certain that many of our worries do not amount to very much. Whether or not you get that promotion, for example, is not going to be a determining factor in the Kingdom. Some of our worries, of course, are big deals now, but they are all temporary.
So, Jesus is telling us to stand up and raise our heads because our redemption is drawing near. If nothing else, keep working for the world as it should be, because that’s the way it will be one day. I had the misfortune of watching that horrible Clemson game yesterday. South Caroline killed us, even though Clemson should have won. Imagine if Steve Spurrier had known that he was going to win. Those guys could have had a great time. Well we know that we, through Christ, will win. So we, too, can do that. And, by the way, Luke Romance needs us to do that. That’s a part of what we promise him today, that we’ll live like the Kingdom’s coming. It is coming, you know, not because of my incredible vision for the Church. It’s coming because Jesus is coming back. Our hope, Luke’s hope, is not in ourselves and all the often perishable things that we work so hard to achieve. Our hope is in Jesus, specifically that one day, soon and very soon, he is coming back.
That’s good news. That’s freedom if you think about it. All the brokenness, all the injustice, all the war and famine and drought, all of our sin and its terrible effects, we don’t escape any of that in the short term. Luke Romance’s baptism is not an escape. In fact, if anything, when Luke accepts his baptism, he will walk squarely into the world’s pain because he will know that pain is temporary. Far more importantly, Luke has a Savior who alone has promised us that he’s coming back to finish what he started. If that’s not true, then there’s not much I can do for Luke Romance, and not even Luke Maybry, or my own children. But the Savior is coming, you see.
I heard about a cartoon a few years ago that had a bird in a cage on one side, and the caption said “I would really like to be free.” On the other side was a picture of a guy stuck in his car in rush hour traffic saying “man, am I glad to be free.” If Jesus is coming back, then we are free from so much that enslaves us now. That’s how this otherwise painful and weird passage frees us. Our social class, and our money, our looks, and everything else that we work so hard to achieve, does not in the long run have a great effect. I have thought somewhat about getting a doctorate at some point, for two reasons. I first want to learn more, and secondly (I hate to say) the Dr has a great ring in front of my name. In the Kingdom, the Dr will not matter. It’s what God has done for us in Jesus Christ that matters, which is why today is the most important day in Luke Romance’s life. So we are free from all the worries that wake us up in the middle of the night. With the whole Church, we can stand up and hold our heads high. Redemption is just around the corner.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
