The First Sunday of Advent
Luke 21:25–36
“Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, you know that God’s kingdom is near.” God’s kingdom is near. What does that mean?
When you think of that phrase, “The kingdom of God is near,” who do think of? My mind goes immediately to a street preacher, with wild hair, wearing a sandwich board, and a booming voice, “The kingdom of God is near!” And what do they mean when they say that? They probably mean something very similar to another common religious phrase, “The End is Near!” To say that the kingdom of God is near is also to say that the end is near, right? The second coming, Armageddon, the Apocalypse. If we want to get really fancy and theological, we might even use the word eschaton, which is just a fancy Greek word that means the end, or the end times. That is what Christians, at least certain Christians, mean when they talk about the kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God is near, then that also means that the end of earth is near.
So here we are on the first day of the Christian year. It’s the first Sunday of Advent. Why on earth are we talking about the end of the world? The Austrian governess always taught us to “start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” So as we start this first day of the new Christian year, why are we starting at the very end?
“There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth, there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. Then they will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.”
If the kingdom of God means the end of the world, then how do we prepare for it? Should we become doomsday preppers? Are we expecting that Jesus is going to show up any day and throw everything into chaos. So what we really need is stockpiles of food and water, weapons to keep us safe from other people, tools and devices that will help us when all of the utilities and infrastructure are shut down, a hoard of gold for when the monetary system collapses? Is that how we should be preparing for God’s kingdom? Should we be preparing for a time of anarchy? That’s the way many Christians have interpreted the coming of God’s kingdom.
Or maybe it will be different than that. When God’s kingdom comes, maybe there will be an immediate transformation into pure goodness. Maybe with the suddenness of a clap of thunder, the earth will be wiped away and we will all be transported to the time of judgement, where God will say whether we are destined for heaven or destined for hell. If that’s the case, then how should we prepare? Maybe we need to spend all of our time making sure that we are pure, making sure that we are right with God before the time of judgment?
That’s how many Christians have interpreted the coming of God’s kingdom. We cannot even count the number of times that someone has looked at the bible and done the calculations and determined exactly when the end of the world was going to be. Sometimes people were so convinced that they left their fields unplanted, because it would be a waste of time. Jesus was coming soon, and so it was so much more important to prepare oneself spiritually for the end than to plant crops for a harvest that would never happen.
Paul seems to have believed something like this. He seems to have been quite sure that Jesus would return within his lifetime. In 1 Corinthians 7 he suggests that all Christians should refrain from marrying and raising children because they would be too distracted from doing the work of God. And I didn’t say that wrong: Paul’s idea of family values was: don’t get married, don’t have children, spend all your time preparing for Jesus’s immediate return.
And we can tell now, it appears that Paul was wrong. And we know he wasn’t the only one. Countless prophets have predicted the end of the world and been proved wrong by history. There’s even a wikipedia page dedicated to the subject. It’s titled: “List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events.” F. Kenton, Beshore, pastor of the 41st largest church in the country predicted it would happen in 2021. The famous televangelist, John Hagee, predicted that it would happen by September of 2015,. Then there were all those predictions about the Mayan calendar on Dec 21st, 2012. Pat Robertson said it would happen on my 28th birthday, in 2007. Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye both said it would be Y2K: the year 2000. Nostradamus said July of 1999. Pat Robertson again in 1982. Jehovah’s Witnesses said 1941. The Millerites, who later became Seventh Day Adventists, predicted three different dates between 1843 and 1844, and were disappointed each time. John Wesley suggested 1836 would be the year. Martin Luther said no later than 1600. And back and back, Melchior Hoffman, Joachim of Fiore, Pope Innocent III, St. Martin of Tours, and on and on. They all predicted the end of the world and the coming of God’s Kingdom. And they were all wrong.
In the generations just after Jesus, Christians were quite convinced that the end was coming soon. I mentioned that Paul thought so. And then in 66 CE, war broke out in Judea. It’s usually called the First Jewish Revolt. For nearly four years, Jewish revolutionaries were able to break free from the mighty Roman Empire. They declared the redemption of Israel. They minted coins which they dated “Year One.” They were sure that they were ushering in a new age. And Christians seem to have been convinced that this was the time. When the revolutionaries were defeated by Rome four years later in 70 CE, and when the temple was utterly destroyed, again, everyone was convinced that the end was very near. That’s right about the time that the Gospel of Mark was written. But of course, time did not stop. The world did not end.
In theology, we have a special name for this sort of view. It’s called imminent eschatology. Imminent, meaning immediately, and eschaton, meaning the end. Imminent eschatology is the view that the end is just around the corner. It has been very important in Christian preaching and teaching. If you’re trying to stir people up, to get them fired up about their religion, then convincing people that the end of the world is coming soon, well, it’s a really good tool for revival. But of course, as we know, all such predictions have been wrong. From Kenton Beshore all the way back to Paul, none of them got it right. Although, you never know. Messiah Foundation International is predicting the end of the world in 2026. There’s always a chance.
During this year, the lectionary will be focusing on the Gospel of Luke. And the Gospel of Luke was probably written in the 80’s CE. A few generations after Jesus’s death around 30 CE. A decade or two after the First Jewish Revolt and its catastrophic end. By Luke’s time, Christians are starting to look around and really notice that Jesus doesn’t seem to be returning quite as soon as they expected. Jesus seems to have been delayed.
And in Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus talks about the end, this is what he says, “When you hear of wars and rebellions, don’t be alarmed. These things must happen first, but the end won’t happen immediately.” The end won’t happen immediately.
Luke has a somewhat different idea about the end. Some people call it delayed eschatology. Delayed eschatology means that the end won’t be for a while. And what that means practically is that people don’t have to be nearly so anxious. Yes, the end could happen at any time, you don’t know when, and you should be prepared. But on the other hand, the end might not be for a very long time, and so it doesn’t make sense to live like the world is going to end tomorrow. One should still have an eye toward the future.
And that is a big difference. If we as Christians are convinced that Jesus is going to return in judgment almost immediately, then the most important thing to do is to drop everything and try to evangelize as many people as quickly as possible, before Jesus comes. There is no need to think about the future or coming generations. There is no need to spend time growing in faith, because there is no time. There is no need to think about how we care for God’s creation, because it’s all going to be destroyed soon anyway. There is no need to think about how to treat other people ethically, or how to raise children, or anything else at all that has to do with the future. Right? There is no point in planting a pear tree today if you think that the orchard is going to burned tomorrow. It can be a very destructive way to live. That’s imminent eschatology.
If we think it might still be a few years, though, or a few generations, or a few centuries, or a few millennia, then we have to think about the future in a very different way. We have to think about the consequences of our actions, not just for tomorrow, but for generations into the future. We have to think about how we are treating the earth. We have to think about how sustainable our farming and energy and business practices are. We have to think about how to raise our children. We have to think about ethics and justice and society because we might be stuck with them for a while.
So far as we can tell, Paul was against slavery. But because he thought Jesus was returning soon, there was no point in launching a campaign to end slavery. But if we have a delayed eschatology, if we think we’re going to be around for a while, then we have to think about how we might change things in our world to make them better while we’re waiting.
But there is also a third option. Imminent eschatology: the end is near. Delayed eschatology: the end is a way off. The third option is realized eschatology. That means that the end has already started to happen. It’s a bit of a contradiction in terms. If we talk about God’s kingdom instead of the end, it makes more sense.
The kingdom of God is near. What does this mean? Does it mean that very soon the kingdom of God will come and destroy the earth? Does it mean that, yes, God’s kingdom is coming, but God’s idea of near is a lot farther away than our idea of near? Or could it mean something else? Could it mean that God’s kingdom is already breaking in to our world? That is realized eschatology. Yes, it might be a while before God’s kingdom comes in its fullness, but it is already starting to come now.
And that makes a tremendous difference. It is one thing to work for a better world because we think it’s going to be a while before Jesus shows up to fix things, so in the mean time we’d better do the best we can on our own. It is quite a different thing to work for a better world because God is already at work in our world, bringing it into conformity with God’s kingdom. It is quite a different thing if God is calling us to help build the kingdom right here, right now.
Melissa recently reminded me of one of Jesus’s parables. God’s kingdom is like a mustard seed that grows into a large plant. It’s paired with another. God’s kingdom is like yeast that works its way through a whole batch of dough. What does this mean? That God’s kingdom starts small and gets bigger? That God’s kingdom takes time to do it’s work? Maybe both of those. But also this: God’s kingdom is insidious. God’s kingdom is like mustard, like a weed. No matter how hard you try to get rid of it, it’s going to keep coming back. It’s going to keep spreading. God’s kingdom is going to keep moving. The same with the yeast. Once it’s in the dough, it’s going to keep growing, keep moving, keep spreading.
God’s kingdom is insidious. We’re not just talking about God sitting on a throne in heaven separated from us here on earth. God’s kingdom is an insurgency. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God’s kingdom has broken into our world, and it is on the move. It is an insurrection. It is coming, not just sometime off in the future. It is coming right now.
That’s what Advent is about. Advent comes from the Latin adventus, and it means coming. Jesus is coming. And we celebrate not just one advent, we celebrate three. We celebrate the first advent, when Jesus came into the world as a little baby, born to Mary, in a town called Bethlehem. And we celebrate the third advent, when Christ will come in power and bring all things into conformity with God’s kingdom.
But in the mean time, we celebrate the second advent. We celebrate that Christ is coming into our world right now, that the kingdom of God is coming into our world right now. We celebrate that Christ breaks into our hard hearts and brings hope, peace, joy, and love. We celebrate that Christ comes into our world and leads the way towards justice, leads the way towards freedom. We can see the evidence of it all around us. Every time someone gives up privilege so that someone else can have justice, that is God’s kingdom. Every time someone decides to forgive instead of holding a grudge, that is God’s kingdom. Every time we share with our neighbors, every time we pray for our enemies, every time we are spurred from apathy into action, that is God’s kingdom. We pray it at least once every week. “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The prayer Jesus taught doesn’t ask God to rescue us from earth and take us away to heaven. It asks God to bring the kingdom here on earth, to bring it day by day, as the Spirit works within us to make a transformation. Christ gave his life to make a difference, to make a change. And Christ is calling us to do the same.
So this advent, let’s keep our eyes open for the coming of God’s kingdom. If you want to look for signs in the sun and moon and stars, that’s alright. I think it’s a lot easier to spot God’s kingdom in acts of service, in care for God’s creation, in forgiveness and reconciliation, in hospitality and mercy, in kindness and grace. The kingdom of God is near. The kingdom of God is near.