Full of Emergency!

Well I am early this week with my blog and I could say I am so excited as we begin the season of Advent on Sunday. A Sunday when we remember to find hope and not to get swamped by a world that seems Full of Emergency! But I have to be honest and say that the excitement of preparing for God's entry into the world hasn't quite gripped me yet and I have still to build up my feelings of hope. I am early simply because I have time and doing the blog now means I will hopefully get rest earlier on a Friday night.

But back to this weeks reading from Luke on this first Sunday of Advent. The events Jesus describes in Luke 21 would be enough to make even the bravest souls run for cover. This chapter is “full of emergency …. it’s a whole drum roll of disaster.”  Seas surge. Planets shake. The earth groans and threatens to come undone. The world Jesus describes is full of events both terrible and terrifying. In other words, the world Jesus describes is not unlike our own. Wars? We’ve got those. Persecutions? Yes. Leaders kowtowing to vested interest of a few? Sure. Leaders who lie and cheat so that those who are poor and struggling become poorer?  Yes, they exist. Greed and Abuse that destroy innocence? We have them.

       

We’ve got all those and many locally here in Australia. Natural disasters? Yes certainly as we fail to deal with the reality of Climate Change. Why only in the last 2 weeks there has been flooding and storms in both Australia and Aotearoa (NZ) and fire storms in California and Queensland here in Australia. Have you visited News websites lately? Jesus’s predictions seem to be ripped right from the latest headlines. Are these terrible events a sign that the end is indeed near? Are they an indication that Jesus might come, in all his power and glory, next Tuesday afternoon? Perhaps. But perhaps such speculation misses the point. Perhaps the point is that it always feels like the end of the world somewhere. That somewhere might be in a Bola-stricken village in Africa or in the bombed-out streets of the Middle East.

But that somewhere might also be in the heart of the person in the pew who was laid off last week, or who was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, or who is facing their first Christmas alone. All these things can feel like the end of the world and can make us want to run for cover, to cower in a corner and quiver with fear. Yet Jesus insists that we need not be afraid. Instead, when things seem to be going from bad to worse to worse again, Jesus invites us to stand tall, to lift up our heads, and to strain our eyes toward the horizon because it is precisely at such desperate moments that he promises to come.

He may not come to us today as he will one day—riding on the clouds, with all his power and glory on full display. But he will be there by his Spirit, he still promises to come. And that is good news for today—even if the world does not end tomorrow! Sometimes we struggle to see this possibility in the depths of the problems of our lives. Often, we find it difficult as humans to believe and find the patience to await and be prepared for the promise to be fulfilled.

Patience may be a virtue. But it is not one most of us want to cultivate. Instead, we download apps on our phones that let us skip the line at the coffee place that is “in” at the moment, pay for subscriptions with on-line companies that entitle us to quick delivery of our latest purchases, and spend our Friday nights watching whatever is available on Netflix Instant. We do not like to wait for coffee or a slow Internet connection. And we do not like to wait for God. We do not want to be patient and I am on that list at times. Like many, I want my phone connection to be working right now, my lunch in five minutes not fifteen. I often have to be reminded or remind myself about patience.

As one Anne Lamott observes, believing in God is easy. It is waiting on God that is hard.  Psalm 25 and Jeremiah 33 come as encouragement to those who are tired of waiting for God and who may be ready to give up. These texts from this week’s scriptures set for reading assure us that the one for whom we wait is faithful. Because he kept the promise he made through the prophet Jeremiah in Christ’s first advent, we can trust that he has not forgotten us, but will remember us according to his unfailing love.

Someone I read but can’t remember the name of once wrote that the greatest challenge for people who believe in Christ’s second coming is to live the sort of life that reflects God’s call and Jesus’ example. It means that people will observe and say, so that’s how people are going to live when Gods call and example in Jesus takes over our world.  God’s people are called to act with love grace and righteousness. We are then assured that all such a life is not ultimately a result of our own striving but is the gift of the one who makes us “blameless in the sort of life that reveals God’s call to us. God would enable us to see a picture of holiness with a promise to “increase and enrich [our] love.” Such behaviour would be a sign to all that we are able to be  lead into paths that are “loving and faithful.”