November 29, 2015 – Luke 21:25-36
Luke 21:25-36
The Wonder Babies
First Sunday of Advent – November 29, 2015
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
This Gospel reading is often used to predict the end of the world.
In chapter 21 Jesus begins by inviting the disciples to take a good look at the widow who
puts in her two tiny coins in the temple treasury.
And then he says that every stone of the temple will be thrown down.
And that nation will rise against nation and the powers of the heavens shaken.
There will be earthquakes and famines.
Naturally the disciples want to know when all this will be.
Jesus never tells them.
To him it is not the important thing.
As I said a couple of weeks ago, Jesus is smart – he knows the way the wind is blowing.
He knows the inevitable outcome of the Jewish uprising against their Roman occupiers:
violence and destruction – and it happens to Jerusalem about 40 years after he dies.
We, too, want to know: when?
When will these things happen?
Well, when aren’t they happening?
They are happening all the time.
When, since Jesus, have nations not risen against other nations?
When has the environment not been under stress because of human greed?
When has there not been distress?
When has there not been wars and insurrections and famines and plagues?
They had them in Jesus’ time and they have them in our time.
Jesus never answers the question “When?” because, I think, it is a dumb question.
Because we have never been without these things.
It’s pretty clear this reading can’t be used to predict when, although many have tried and failed.
But in any case, that is not its purpose.
Its purpose is consolation in times of suffering.
Its purpose is not to talk about the end of the world but about what to do in the midst of our
personal and communal turmoil.
Its purpose is to give hope and consolation in times of stress and difficulty and suffering.
In the midst of turmoil and stress and difficulty is when “the Son of Man” will appear,
that figure that will usher in God’s reign of peace and justice and well-being,
God’s reign of mercy for all and manna for all.
One day that reign will come in all of its fullness.
But even now it comes, bit by bit, if we pay attention to its signs.
Even as Jesus and his love and grace came to the awful place of a cross and suffering,
even now, in the midst of turmoil and difficulty is where Jesus prefers to show up.
And bring life, and grace, and joy.
And consolation in times of suffering and stress.
And so Jesus invites not the question “When” but “what do we do in the meantime?”
Between the time Christ came in the flesh and the time that Christ will come again to
usher in God’s fully realized intentions for this world in grace and peace?
What do we do and how do we live in the meantime?
In Luke’s Gospel Jesus says: stand up! Raise your heads! Look around! Be alert!
Look for the signs around you,
like the leaves on the trees coming out telling you it soon will be summer.
Look for the signs of life around you in the midst of the distress.
Look for the signs that God is at work.
Look for the signs of hope.
Today we are baptizing the wonder babies.
I call them the wonder babies because they are amazing. And full of wonder.
They really are amazing.
Jackson and Carter were born 3 and a half months premature.
They were so tiny!
I went to see them in the first week of their lives.
It was something I will never forget.
Krystelle and Kaycee were there and I looked at these tiny twins born so early.
First: they were just so small! Still not fully developed! How could they possibly live?
But there is lots to be learned from them.
Life is fragile, that much we know.
And yet life is also robust – with the right care, Carter and Jackson have thriven.
Yes: they were tiny and fragile and came out of the womb when maybe they shouldn’t have –
yet they were also very strong in their way with a strong will to live.
But they needed help.
At the St Boniface Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit they received amazing care,
with loving parents and caregivers and medical professionals who knew exactly
what these premature twins would need and when they would need it.
The lesson is there for all of us: yes, we often find ourselves in distressing situations,
personally and communally, but God wants life – God wants life and love to thrive.
Each of us is much more fragile than we often think,
life is often much more fragile than we think, but when we look after one another
and tend and care for each other our lives can flourish like Jackson and
Carter’s in the way God intends.
Do not give into despair – there is good reason for hope.
When Krystelle first told me that she was going to have twins it was shortly after she
found out, I think.
It was with a little dismay! She and Kaycee had a very active 2 year old –
and now twins were coming into their household!
But there is so much hope in the birth of these twins and in the way they have been cared for
and in the way they have flourished.
And now, a year later, I discovered when I went for a visit a few weeks ago that
they are developmentally totally on track – which is just amazing to me.
And reason to give thanks.
It’s true that the first thing you might think of when you hear the Gospel today is
about the end of the world with ISIS and terrorism and threat seemingly all round.
But Jesus invites us instead to pay attention to what God is doing
in the midst of stress and upheaval.
Pay attention to the widow who puts in her last two coins – her whole life – out of love for
an institution that she loves but that is far from perfect.
Pay attention to the Jewish peasant who gives his whole life to a world and
its peoples who are from perfect – but whom he loves anyway.
Pay attention to these twins, a miracle of life and the love their parents and brother and
families have for them.
Pay attention to the universal health care system of our country that
ensures equal access to medical care for all people.
Pay attention to the trees and their leaves:
Summer is not far off. Spring will come. So join in the work of springtime.
Do not despair. Do not let your hearts be weighed down with the worries of this life.
Instead, stand up, and raise your heads, and sing a song of life –
because your redemption is near – and because finally,
finally God will bring all things to a good and loving end.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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