Stand Up and Raise Your Heads (First Sunday of Advent)

Sermon Reflections

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Today, we begin the season of Advent. It’s supposed to be a time of hope. And of joy. And of peace. Traditionally, each of the Advent candles have names like these.  And yet, these are NOT the images which we usually find in our Advent Sunday readings!

Instead, today Jesus begins our season of Advent with images of chaos, confusion and uncertainty. He even speaks of a sense of fear and foreboding. These things don’t sound like “hope” or “peace” or “joy.” And honestly, our world is already filled with chaos, confusion and uncertainty. I could use a break with a little hope and peace and joy. Probably, you could, too!

We could use a break from the chaos, confusion and uncertainty because, as with the ancient people to whom Jesus first spoke, our world seems plenty filled with:

  • “distress among nations” – multiple wars are still going on, and even when a ceasefire happens, we wonder how long it’ll last! (For context, I remember I once saw the “Kadesh Treaty” in Istanbul; it’s a middle east peace treaty from 1300 BC; the museum notes that this peace lasted 7 years, which they said was almost a record for peace at that time!)  
  • “the roaring of the sea and the waves” – or the earthquakes, the wildfires, the hurricanes and whatever else seems to come along to destroy communities and cause disruption for way longer than we’ll ever see it in the news …  
  • “signs” – or at least things people think are signs of impending cosmic events. Most of these “signs” have no basis in scripture, but it’s still the case that in a few weeks, we’ll hear the story of the wise men who saw a star and understood it as a sign of God doing something new in the world; and yet, even then, the “sign” was confusing and brought with it chaos and intrigue and distress …

On the one hand, it would be great to take a break from all the chaos, confusion and uncertainty and just wrap ourselves in a warm cocoon of “peace, joy and hope.” And indeed, it’s tempting for many people to do that. And yet, that’s not the world we live in today. It’s not the way the world was, or the way the world is or the way the world is likely to be after Advent is over.

And that’s perhaps the point Jesus is making. He’s not calling us to temporarily take a break from the way the world is, but rather to see God in the midst of the world the way it is. And moreover, Jesus calls us to be people who can be signs of hope and peace and joy in the midst of the chaos and the confusion and the uncertainty.

And I think this is why Jesus says one really surprising and different thing in the context of the chaos and confusion. Instead of telling us to take a break from the world, or even to duck and cover, Jesus says this: “now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Sometimes, Christians have been tempted to hear those words as predicting an imminent end to everything.  But from the whole context, that’s not what I think Jesus means.  Rather, Jesus is calling his first followers, as he calls us, to be people who stand up and raise our heads precisely at times when chaos, confusion and fear seem to be reigning in the world. Why is that? Well, perhaps it’s because:

  • sticking your head in the sand is never a good strategy for dealing with chaos and confusion – over and over again, Jesus calls us to be people who look around and see the “signs of the time” even when the “signs” call us to live and move in a new direction; if we “duck and cover”, we may hide ourselves for a while from the chaos, but we’ll also miss out on what God’s doing in our lives, and in the life of the world around us …
  • Jesus wants us to be agents of help and care in a world in which people are “fainting from fear and foreboding” – that is, if the world is always going to be filled with chaos that causes harm to people, we’re called to be God’s agents of healing and hope; if we “duck and cover”, nobody will be left to help and show God’s love in the midst of the mess …
  • Jesus calls us to look for and expect God’s “redemption” – that is, God’s help and new life – precisely in the midst of a messy world, not in some utopian world that we’ve never seen before – it reminds us that “there’s never a good time” to do something bold – which is why Jesus calls us to stand up and raise our heads precisely at messy and difficult times …

Chaos. Confusion. Uncertainty. A sense of fear and foreboding. It’s the way it was.  It’s the way it is. And it’s the way it’s always going to be until Jesus comes.

But Jesus doesn’t advise us to “duck and cover”, and wait for better time to be God’s people.  Instead, Jesus calls us to stand up, and raise our heads, confident that even in the midst of chaos, confusion and uncertainty, God is doing new things in our lives and working in us and through us to bring hope and peace and joy to a world that needs these things now more than ever.

Amen.