“The Word Fulfilled”
Second Sunday in Advent
December 6, AD 2009
St. Luke XXI: 25-33
In this season of Advent we are preparing our hearts to welcome the Christ child once again. It is well we have this season of preparation before that “Holy Night” arrives. The fact that God has chosen to humble Himself and become Incarnate in human flesh takes some getting used to. We often struggle to fully comprehend what God is doing for us by His coming into this fallen world in the person of Jesus Christ. The onslaught of commercial and secular messages at this time of year doesn’t help. Hopefully, by the Grace of God, our souls will be re-sensitized to the miracle that is Christmas. Those of us who participated in the Quiet Day here at church, attempted to make an Holy Advent by cultivating a spirit of stillness even as we participated in various activities of worship, prayer, fellowship, reflection, and appreciation of the movie The Nativity.
But there is more to Advent than preparation for the Nativity of our Lord. As we just heard from St. Luke’s gospel, God has even more wonders in store for us that we need to be prepared for. There will come another point in human history when God’s Son will burst once more into the world, not as the Babe of Bethlehem but as our resurrected Lord. When that time comes, there will be some scary things happening in our planetary system, as well as on land and sea, and among nations here on earth. The cosmic turmoil described in our lesson is a continuation of the apocalyptic imagery invoked by Jesus in the immediately preceding verses of St. Luke. There Jesus speaks of false prophets, wars, earthquakes, famine, persecution, and the destruction of Jerusalem. These are all signs of the “Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” The “Son of Man” – a term generally understood to mean Jesus when it occurs in the New Testament – will provide “redemption” for those who believe in Him. This is the “redemption of our bodies” that St. Paul refers to in Romans 8:23 when that which is mortal becomes immortal through God’s saving action through Jesus Christ. When that time comes, Jesus wants us to look to the heavens with heads lifted up in eager anticipation in the face of the strange and disconcerting signs that will occur.
Jesus is speaking of the “parousia” – that is, the coming of God’s Son once again, which will establish God’s kingdom on earth. The timing of this event, Jesus suggests, will be as obvious as buds on fig trees that indicate summer is not far away. He also states that “this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled.” Since clearly the contemporaries of Jesus died before witnessing the parousia, how are we to interpret Jesus’ words here?
In Mark 13: 32, Jesus Himself cautions against trying to pin down God’s timing of when these things will come to pass, saying: “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Therefore, within the context of this narrative, Jesus is emphasizing the speed with which the end times will happen, whenever it happens. Or, as some commentators also assert, the word “generation” can be a reference to a race. Therefore, Jesus may be stating that the Jews will maintain their existence until the end. In another sense, the contemporaries of Jesus were witness to the fulfillment of the redemptive work of Christ through His sacrificial death and ultimate victory over death by rising from the grave, reappearing in bodily form to the disciples, and sending of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. But perhaps we shouldn’t really try so hard to force our limited human chronology and understanding onto what is ultimately a transcendent spiritual mystery. The final sentence in today’s Gospel lesson reinforces the point that Jesus’ words transcend all time, despite the finiteness of the created cosmos in which planet earth currently exists. “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”
Whatever the dramatic upheavals may be that will accompany Jesus’ return to this earth, fretting and worrying about it is not particularly fruitful. Excessive worry about the end times is not consistent with our belief in Jesus Christ, who gives His peace that passes understanding and the promise of life eternal to all who open their hearts to Him. But neither should we take on a ho-hum, nonchalant attitude that ignores what God’s Word tells us. In the very next three verses of St. Luke’s gospel, Jesus says, “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” [Luke 21:34-36].
This call to prayerful self-examination and righteous living is echoed in several other passages in the New Testament. In St. Matthew, Chapters 24 & 25, Jesus compares the days of Noah to the coming again of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, and marrying – leading normal lives one might say – until the day Noah stepped into the Ark and the floods came and took them all away. “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come,” says Jesus [Matthew 24:42]. Our Lord then provides several metaphorical allusions to the Kingdom of Heaven that will come whether we are ready or not. There’s the goodman or owner of the house who wouldn’t have let the thief break into his house if he had been watching. There are the five foolish virgins who took their lamps but didn’t take any oil with them. And there’s the well known parable of the five talents. The servant who chose to hide his one talent instead of making it grow profitably like the other servants did with their talents is scolded and thrown into outer darkness. Matthew 25 concludes with Jesus speaking about the Son of Man sitting on His throne of glory, separating the sheep from the goats. The sheep, it is clear, are those who followed the Shepherd’s voice and responded to the least of their brethren as if they were interacting with Jesus Himself – by feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, tending to the stranger, the sick, the naked, the prisoner. The King says to the sheep, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” We all know what happened to the obstinate goats that didn’t do these things.
We can’t say we haven’t been warned, can we? So what do we need to do in our lives now to be fully awake to God’s Spirit and the reality of His Son who lives in His Church and in our hearts today? What tidying up do we need to do to get our house in order and keep the thief from breaking in? Maybe we need to put more oil of holiness into our lamps so the marriage of Christ with his Bride the Church is illuminated more brightly in order to lead others out of darkness. Maybe the talents we’ve been gifted with need to be invested more vigorously in service to others. Maybe we need to spend more time in prayer and in God’s Word so we can worship God more fully in Spirit and in Truth.
St. Paul had the second coming of our Lord on his mind when he wrote the 5th Chapter of his first epistle to the Thessalonians. He enumerates several things that the “children of light” can do in sober watchfulness, such as: encourage and build each other up, live in peace with each other, help the weak, exhibit patience with everyone, don’t render evil for evil, be joyful always, pray continuously, give thanks in all circumstances, test everything, hold on to the good and avoid everything evil. By doing these things, we will be reconciled with one another and with God, and we will experience the blessing that St. Paul prays: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [1Thessalonians 5:23]
Once thing is certain, the Word begotten from the very beginning of time finds tangible fulfillment in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the fulfillment of that Word doesn’t stop with the historical Jesus in first century Palestine. The Incarnate Word calls across the centuries and beckons the future into our present. “Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.” [St. Luke 25: 29-30] Are we awake and watchful for those budding fig trees, even now in the season when the nights are long and days are short? Are we ready to meet our loving and righteous Lord, Jesus Christ?
This December 2009, let us again anticipate with joy the celebration of the birth of our Lord, and also let us prepare ourselves with the spiritual virtues exemplified by His life and teachings – those of faith, hope, and love, and let’s not forget obedience and patience. By God’s Grace, these will see us through whatever the future may hold. We have God’s eternal Word through Jesus’ words that this is true. And not only His words do we have. We have Jesus Himself, given to us in the sacramental mystery of the Eucharistic feast. Yes, some preparation is required. But the rewards for truly communing with Him are out of this world.
And now unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all might, majesty, honor, and dominion, as is most justly due this day, both now and forever, Amen.