Live with the
End in Mind
is our worship theme for the first Sunday in Advent, December 2, 2012. Our
focus scripture is Luke 21:25-36.
The
main passion of Jesus’ life, teachings and actions is the coming of the kingdom
of God. Having just celebrated the reign of Christ on the last Sunday of the
church year, we now begin the first Sunday of the new church year with this
passage about the fulfillment of the kingdom. Although Jesus is the catalyst
who prepares the way for the kingdom to fully blossom, he does not expect it to
come with his death in Jerusalem or with the destruction of the temple. In
fact, the risen Christ makes clear in Acts 1:6-7 that it is not for his followers
to know the time that God will choose. Yet in Jesus’ life, death and
resurrection the power of God that will create the kingdom is evident and
already at work.
The
verses we have before us comprise the last part of Jesus’ teachings about the
end times in Luke. These teachings begin at 21:5 with remarks about the
destruction of the temple where Jesus has been teaching, an event that had
actually happened at the hands of the Romans by the time Luke wrote his Gospel.
As Jesus and his followers arrive at Jerusalem, he tells them the Parable of
the Pounds in order to make it clear that the time for God’s kingdom to come is
not yet here. And neither is the destruction of the temple the sign that the
kingdom is fully coming. Rather, Jesus teaches that his followers must prepare
for a time of persecution, in which even family members will turn them in for
their faith and some will be tortured and killed. Nevertheless, he tells them, “By
your endurance, you will gain your souls.” He goes on then to describe cosmic
signs that echo the prophecy of Joel 2:30-32. As Eugene Peterson translates Jesus’
words in verses 25-26: “It will seem like all hell has broken
loose—sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, in an uproar and everyone all over the
world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the
powers-that-be quaking.” These verses make it clear that the coming of
God’s kingdom is not limited to human history, but that as Paul puts it in
Romans 8:22: “The whole creation has been groaning in labor pains.”
Having predicted so many painful things,
Jesus finally comes to the great resolution to the turmoil. As we know that
summer is coming when the fig tree begins to sprout its leaves, so these signs
will eventually foretell the coming of the son of Man on clouds of glory and
with great power. Then all things on earth and in the cosmos will be put right.
And the generation of suffering will be over.
The key, Jesus stresses is not to
endlessly speculate on when the kingdom will come, but to live each day with
the end in mind. We must be careful not to let our hearts become weighed down
with the entertainments or the worries of this life. Rather, we must pray for
strength to endure the persecutions that come with following him and to live
with expectation that the kingdom will be fulfilled.
During
his earthly life Jesus cast a circle of the kingdom of God all around him.
Wherever he went, God’s love and justice and power shone like a beacon of light
and caused revolutionary things to happen. Even though the kingdom has not yet
fully come, to live with expectation means to let Jesus come to life in us.
Then we also will prepare the way by casting a circle of his love and justice
and power into the dark places of our world.
Here
is a Call to Worship based on the Church’s understanding Jeremiah’s telling of
the first coming of Jesus. Please feel free to use or adapt anything in this
post that is helpful to you.
Call to Worship From
Jeremiah 33:14-16
L:
Friends, on this first Sunday of Advent let us recall God’s promise to
Jeremiah:
“The days are surely coming when I will
fulfill my promise to my people.
P: At that time
I will make a new branch sprout from David’s tree.
He will follow my leading and will execute
justice throughout the land.
L:
In that day my people will be saved and they will live in safety.
All:
Then they will declare, ‘God has set all things right for us.’”
Thanks be to God for keeping the promise!
Let us worship God!
