'The days are surely coming, says
the Lord, when I will fulfill
the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days
and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he
shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will
be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will
be called: "The Lord is
our righteousness."'
--Jeremiah 33: 14-16
'Now may our
God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the
Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as
we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness
that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord
Jesus with all his saints.'
--I Thessalonians 3: 11-13
'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. 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."'
--Luke 21: 25-28
During the season of Advent I am shaping my Sunday sermons and blog posts around the word of the day for the social media campaign #AdventWord. It is an online communal Advent calendar created by the folks at the Center for Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary, whereby one can contribute pictures or stories with the hashtagged word in any social media post, allowing others to search for that word and to have a bit of Advent cheer brought into their lives. This past Sunday's #AdventWord was #journey.
If he ever hurts you...
As tempted as I am to make a joke about Steve Perry or to tell y'all to don't stop believin', that would be some seriously low-hanging fruit. In truth, though, the word 'journey' is a perfect one to kick off the #AdventWord campaign, as the whole season is about journeying.
Every journey has a destination, right? In the case of Advent we have duel destinations, which means we have duel journeys. The first is Christmas itself, the obvious destination for Advent, and we are all caught up right now in the frenzy and excitement of journeying toward that silent, holy night. But Advent has another destination, a look to the future in an attitude of expectancy over what God has yet to do in the life of humankind. That future, that destination, goes by many names: the Day of the Lord, the Day of Resurrection, the Parousia, the Eschaton, the End Times, the Second Coming of Christ, to name a few. While we are most often caught up in that first journey toward Christmas, the Scriptures for the first week of Advent always focus on that second journey, the journey toward a future that is well beyond Christmas. This future is foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, is the anticipation of the early Christians in Thessalonika, and is what the people in Jesus’ time ask him to expound upon in the last days of his life. Each of these audiences from our Scriptures today is looking toward that future, toward that destination of the Day of the Lord, but it is the journey, I would suggest, that the prophet, the apostle, and the Messiah are each urging their audiences to contemplate.
Unlike prophets that preceded him—such Amos and Zephaniah, who preached doom and gloom—the prophet Jeremiah does not speak of the Day of the Lord as something to fear, but rather as good news, that God’s grace is impending, and that God will come to execute justice and righteousness, which are two things we should hope for, rather than fear. Yet the audience of Jeremiah’s prophecyis anywhere but in a state of hopefulness, as they still find themselves in the midst of exile. Thus, the good news in this prophecy is for God’s people to hold on to faith in God, even while trapped in a darkness for which there seems to be no end. They must simultaneously continue in their journey toward liberation while living in exile.
Centuries later Paul’s audience in Thessalonika believed in their hearts that Jesus’ return was imminent, that that same great day that Jeremiah spoke of was coming any second now. When that didn't happen, many folks left the community of faith out of anger and disappointment, while others stayed, having their joys and expectations seriously tempered. Paul, then, writes this letter to encourage them in their journey, to remember that everything they do is in anticipation of” the coming of our Lord Jesus with the saints.” Don’t be disappointed that it hasn’t happened yet, Paul is saying, but rather hold fast to the promise that it will happen, and love and support one another accordingly along the journey.
Then there is Jesus preaching in the Temple during Holy Week. This isn't exactly the place we would expect to find him in the first week of Advent, but here we find him unpacking what the journey toward the Day of the Lord looks like: there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, distress among the nations, the seas and waves will roar, people will faint, fear will grip the world. It’s not exactly encouraging, but even while the journey feels perilous, Jesus encourages the people to “stand up and raise their heads,” knowing that the righteousness Jeremiah foretold is coming.
For us today we may hear these stories of a far-off day, a day that some Christians long to see, that some fear to see, and that some even believe we are experiencing right now, and we, being the logical, educated, children of the Enlightenment that we Anglicans are, might scoff at them. Can’t we just skip this stuff and get to the more loving stories of the anticipation of Jesus’ birth, with characters like Mary, Elizabeth, or John the Baptist? Well, no. Because Advent invites us to ponder Jesus' second coming, not just his first, and to find ourselves on the journey. We, like the people Jeremiah prophesied to, sometimes find ourselves in a place of exile—maybe from our loved ones, maybe from ourselves by means of addiction—and yet still, the prophet gives us a message of hope along our journey, knowing that God’s righteousness will prevail because it already has. We, like Paul’s audience in Thessalonika, may throw up our hands in frustration, wondering when Jesus is going to come back and set things right, and yet the apostle offers words of encouragement for us, knowing that while we may very well not see Jesus’ return in our own lifetimes, the journey of abounding in love for one another and for all is the main point. And we, like Jesus’ audience in the Gospel, live in a world filled with fear, where so many of the same problems that plagued his society—rampant misogyny, persecution of the foreigner, corrupt religious and political authorities, and economic injustice—are still experienced in our own day (make no mistake, Jesus' words in the Gospel are not so much a prediction of the future but an assessment of the world in the present moment). Yet, the Messiah reassures us that this is part of the journey, that we will always see and experience such painful moments, all the while standing up, raising our heads, and maintaining hope in loving, liberating, and life-giving God.
The old saying goes that it is the journey that matters more so than the destination, right? This first day of Advent reminds us of that fact. It is not just the journey toward Christmas, but also the same journey as our ancestors; that is, the journey toward a world that knows the completeness of the power and love of God. While we may long for that day to come right now—just as our ancestors did in their own time—we must remember to focus on the journey itself, to love and support one another on our individual and communal journeys, in spite of the fear and treacherousness of the roads down which we travel. We must hold fast to the promise that our faith gives us, that he will come again, that his kingdom will have no end, and until that day, that he will give us what we need for our journey, namely the love of our brothers and sisters that supports us, and the bread of heaven and cup of salvation that nourish us. So over these next four weeks, embrace the journey, brothers and sisters, wherever you are on it. Know that as you travel, you do not do so alone, for we all journey with each other, with the saints, and with Christ himself. As we move toward Christmas, and toward the Lord’s promised day, we do so with hope and expectation, and we don't stop believin'! Good journey, to us all.
Sing it, Steve!!
