Luke
21:25-36
It was Halloween night and I saw the
sign. This sweet toddler, no more than a year and a half old, dressed up as ice
cream came to my door. Her parents, dressed as ice cream scoopers, were
enthusiastically standing behind her. (Clearly they were first time parents!)
It was all very cute.
After the appropriate oohing and aahing,
I bent down with my bowl of candy and dropped in the little girl’s bucket a
chocolate bar. But as I did she spied all the other chocolates in my bowl and
innocently reached for more. “Oh no, all done,” her father said as he twisted
his hand back and forth. The little girl saw it, stepped back, and did the same
thing with her and. It wasn’t obvious, but I saw it. It was a sign. It was sign
language for “All done.” So to reinforce what her father was saying I did it
too. “All done,” I said as I made the sign, smiling as she toddled off with her
parents in tow towards the next house. No doubt in hopes of more candy.
That brief encounter got me thinking
about signs - whether they be sign language signs, literal signs, or symbolic
signs - and how funny they are because in and of themselves they are
meaningless. Nothing really is a sign unless someone interprets it as such. The
twisting of the hand could have just been seen as a twitch or nothing at all.
And take the Advent wreath. For those of us in the Church it’s a clear sign
that we have just begun a new church year along with starting a new season in
the Church, Advent. Because there is one candle lit we know that we are in the
first of the four weeks of that season, and most importantly it signals to us
the coming of Christ into our lives. But to someone outside the Church, it
probably just looks like a fire hazard waiting to ignite. Which suggests that
just like beauty, when it comes to signs, meaning is in the eye of the
beholder.
In our reading from the gospel of Luke,
Jesus speaks of signs in the sun, moon, and stars. Picking up from two Sundays
ago, he has just told the disciples that the Jewish temple will fall. And in
response the disciples ask for a sign. A sign, they say, so they will know when
this is about to take place. But really, I suspect, they want a sign so that
they will know that even in the midst of the coming chaos God is present and
that ultimately things will be OK. Because isn’t that what we all want? When
the unexpected and unwelcome happens, when what we thought we could count on
falls apart, when we are afraid about what the future might hold, isn’t what we
want to know, what we need to know, is that we are not alone, that God is with
us, and it will all be OK?
But why, you may be wondering, am I
talking about such things? I mean it’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving which
launches us into a month of holiday glitz and glitter. Now is the time in our
culture to paper over life’s imperfections, to put the most positive of spins
on our family stories, to act as if there is no darkness in the world as we
sing about it being the most wonderful time of the year. Why bring up anything
negative? Why? Well, because one of the gifts we always receive on the first
Sunday in Advent is a grounding in real life. Jesus’ words reject the false
advertising of our culture by naming the truth that life is hardly ever that
perfect nor smooth - giving us permission that we don’t have to pretend
otherwise. The truth is that life always holds richness and blessings while at
the same time presenting us with challenges and difficulties. Advent reminds us
that in the midst of that complexity, Christ is always coming into our lives,
God is present, and ultimately, everything will be OK.
But how do we know this? Because Jesus
reveals it in word and in deed. And because it’s a message that always needs to
go deeper we are given signs. Like, as Jesus says, in the sun, moon, and stars;
in the distress among nations; in the roaring of the sea and its waves.
Although some may say so, these signs are not of warning or threat rather they
are signs of hope and reassurance if only we know how to read them. So Jesus
teaches us how to do just that in the parable of the fig tree. When we see the
leaves - now for us it may not be on a fig tree, it really could be any tree -
but when we see spouting leaves we naturally give it meaning. We understand it
as a sign that something is happening even though we can’t fully see it yet. It
signals that a new season is coming, that summer is already near, bringing with
it new life, new growth, new hope.
So what are the signs that God is putting
in your life right now? Do you see them and understand their meaning? Remember
the signs are often as common and ordinary as sprouting leaves like a blue sky
day or an encouraging word or a warm embrace. We are given these signs so that
we may not become weighed down by the worries of this life, but instead are
able to “Stand up,” as Jesus says, “and raise [our] heads, because [our]
redemption is drawing near." But make no mistake, this is not simply an
admonition to “Chin up!” and be superficially cheerful for no particular reason
except that it makes everyone else around us feel better. No, standing up and
raising our heads is rooted in the faith that, as Jesus says, the kingdom of
God is near. That Christ is coming in new ways. And that, in the end, all will
be well - everything will be OK. But this faith is not something we do alone,
on our own. We don’t raise our heads all by ourselves. We do it in community.
It is together that we proclaim the faith. We hold the hope. We see the signs.
We stand up and raise our heads believing that no matter the time or the
circumstance our redemption is drawing near.
As we enter into a new season where
cultural signs abound sending the signal that life is supposed to be all shiny
and bright, pay attention to the signs that really matter. The ordinary and
common signs from God that tell a fuller and lasting truth. Something is
happening even if we can’t fully see it yet - new life, new growth, new hope.
See the signs. Christ is coming. God is with you. Everything will be OK.
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