Abound in Love

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

November 29, 2009

Text: I Thessalonians 3: 9-13, Luke 21: 29-36

In the time of Luke,  the scattered Christian communities, were asking the apostle Paul one question frequently: “What happened to the promised new age? You came here proclaiming the gospel and now we are hemmed in on every side. Where is this reign of God you told us about? We thought Jesus Christ was returning soon!”

This feeling was further complicated by the fact that, in 70 AD, the Romans had had enough of the rebellious Jews: they laid siege to the city, eventually conquering it, and completely destroyed the temple. It was the end of the world as the Jewish people knew it. Jesus had predicted the destruction of the temple. So was this the end, when the kingdom would come in its fullness?

Obviously not!

Though Mark’s sources remembered Jesus saying that the destruction of the temple would signal the final coming of the God’s kingdom on earth, and the return of Messiah, Luke (pulling together his account some 15-20 years later than Mark did), remembers Jesus teaching that the disciples should work to survive that ordeal--- and to stand firm in the persecutions that would come. After the fall of Jerusalem, Christians would be living through “a period of indeterminate length,” waiting for second coming or, to say essentially the same thing another way, for the kingdom to come in its fullness on earth. (Caird, The Gospel According to St Luke, page 228)

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians is apparently in response to their concern about these very issues related to what scholars now call “the delayed parousia (coming).”

So how did they----and how do we---cope with the delayed
promises? Here we are all these years later, waiting for the fullness of God’s reign!

Preacher and theologian Thomas Long has written, “In a sense, the seeming absurdity of the gospel---the apparent foolishness of its hope and its victory----is what Luke 21 is all about. Using the strange language and symbols of apocalyptic, the passage warns us that Christians can expect history to mock their faith….. As theologian Gordon Kaufman puts it, ‘times are to be expected when it will seem ridiculous to believe that the real meaning of history is to be found in the purposes of the loving God manifest in Christ.’” (Word and Witness,  November 28, 1982, quoting Gordon Kaufman, Systematic Theology, page 317)

We can relate! Here we are, 2000 years later and we are claiming that Jesus “inaugurated” the kingdom of God?! Especially in this Advent season, when we await the celebration of Jesus’ birth and, at the same time, renew our hope in his coming again: what are we talking about, and what difference does this make?

It seems to me that we are caught between nostalgia and panic this time of year. Are we remembering what it was like when Jesus was born and longing for those good old days? Has Advent become only a time of looking back? Such warm and painful memories, all intertwined! There are many layers of nostalgia in the Advent and Christmas seasons, and they can bring us such joy and anguish at the same time.

At the same time as we are swimming in nostalgia, we are tempted to simply disbelieve the promise of peace on earth and live in a panic mode. What’s going on out there in the world is a mixed bag, it seems to me. We may, when our particular happy circumstances are threatened, begin to think only of doom and gloom. When we are bombarded with reports of outrageous behaviors, we can easily decide that the foundations of morality are crumbling. We can also react in panic to the very real threats to human health and even to human survival.

Apocalyptic scenarios abound in every more vivid disaster movies, TV shows and video games. Some Christian authors and preachers focus on the “end times,” using what I like to call a scissors and paste approach to prophecies, picked from here and there, coupled with their vivid imaginations. (I have never understood how Christians could get such pleasure from imagining that they would be rescued or raptured while the rest of humanity would be judged and consigned to perdition! Is this the mind of Christ? I don’t think so.)

For us now, is there a fresh word from the Lord about our circumstances? Is there anything more wise than the recent British campaign to calm their subjects fears by advertising the words: “Keep calm and carry on?” (Reported recently in The New York Times)

I believe we can learn from the messages that Jesus and Paul give us in Luke and in First Thessalonians.

Consider these exhortations:

Be on guard! (“Take heed to yourselves” is the old translation, which I prefer!)

Day to day, remain concerned with your relationships and responsibilities, especially your friends in the community of faith. Stay awake and self-disciplined. You and I are responsible to God and for neighbors who depend on us. We can stay disciplined enough not to escape into the escapisms of dissipation and drunkenness, which can take a variety of forms unique to our age (such as 24/7 communication and hurriedness in every aspect of our lives).

Be prepared for conflict!
Be realistic about the struggles ahead for the community of faith. Nothing is more irritating than a good example----and think what a good example Jesus was! Love is not always welcomed! Forgiveness of enemies goes against the grain in a world obsessed with getting even.

Trust that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega.
Trust with all your heart that Jesus of Nazareth, as shown in his work, his service and witness to others, his steadfast love of and trust in God, his courage in suffering and in his obedience unto death---- and in the reality of his “risenness”----reveals God’s active love for the whole creation. And what has happened will happen: Christ lives in us and in our neighbors in need, to redeem the world from the inside out.

That which was begun with Jesus’ birth was not ended with his death but shows us what will be. “So strange to modern ears, so distorted by [end-time writers]…..In the midst of all the endings, illnesses, injustice, pain, warfare, growing old, and loved ones dying, the world looks down, into the pit of despair. The Christian community looks up, to renew its vision of the ‘son of Man coming…..with power and great glory.’” (And if you worry about which way is up, let your poetic right brain figure it out!) “The second coming is the affirmation that …ultimately the purposes of the Father of Jesus Christ will prevail.’” And “all of our struggles for justice and peace will not be lost, but will be gathered up into the final victory of God, which makes all things new.” (Long and Kaufmann in works cited)

We do not know when. But this hope is enough to free us from despair and resignation, to free us from dwelling in panic mode.

IMMANUEL MEANS WITH US

When  God sent Jesus, he really knew how to “be” in a place!

There are different ways we have of being some place.
We can hang out, drop in, check in, drop by, touch down----among other possibilities. And one can be in a place and not really be there: we do it all the time.

In the Fall semester of 2008, I taught United Methodist Doctrine and Polity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. In my first class sessions, I was impressed that a number of students had brought lap top computers. I would begin lecturing and the students would begin typing. I though to myself, “Wow, they are really taking my lectures seriously!” It was mid semester before I caught on that not all of the lap top users were taking notes from my lectures. Apparently, some were sending and receiving e mails or other pursuits. These students were there----I saw them! But they were not really there.

I give this trivial example to say this:

In Jesus of Nazareth,  the Word became flesh and lived with us, dwelt with us, abided with us----and there is all the difference! Kairos time (time pregnant with meaning) invaded chronological time. Jesus was “eternity shut up in a span; God, incomprehensibly made man.” The Word inhabited time. This is why we must pull out the grand old Nicene Creed (from the fourth century AD) and affirm in this season that the Lord became “truly human.”

And it was not an accident, not “I just happened to be in the neighborhood,”visit. God intentionally called, equipped, created this One, Jesus of Nazareth, to be the presence of agape love among us.

God did not send a letter this time, or a tablet of laws---though we are prone to make the gospel into law again.

And God was not in the flesh among us to check up on us, to spy on us, to scold us (though there is judgment in his love). No, God indwelt this man Jesus so that we will be reconciled to God. Jesus really was and is the “bridge over troubled waters,” our mediator with God. A divine-human connection got made that was unique.

Christmas is a time to refresh this core conviction,  to keep faith fresh. Hear the prophets’ cries for newness; read poets and artists of the incarnation----those who open our eyes and touch our souls. Preparation in this season can lead to new hope for you and me, for the church and for the world.

Take the worries of your life and lift them up to God. God has come to us in the One born to Mary and Joseph. This is most certainly true. “Prepare the way of the Lord” to come and help you with your own struggles and needs.

Wait expectantly and let love abound.