Advent 2 2018

Luke 21:25-36

Your Redemption is Drawing Near

December 12, 2018

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

It’s getting closer. Christmas is almost here. It has been fun to have a child, as many parents experience, relive and remember some of the excitement of childhood. The anticipation of Christmas is one of those. Putting Christmas presents under the Christmas tree is almost torturous to a child. They can see it, but they can’t open it yet.  It teaches them patience, and it teaches parents patience as they have to keep telling their child “not yet.”

Advent season also teaches patience.  About ¾ of all Christian churches around the world observe the yearly pattern of the church year, and it’s for good reason. We take the time to prepare for our yearly celebration of the incarnation, of God who became a man, that we might wait with faith for the Lord’s coming.  It teaches us to slow down and wait for Christmas to arrive. The day is coming and there is still some preparation to do.  There are signs all around us that it is on the way.  The colder days, the longer nights, the Christmas plays, and the festive lights.

But there’s more to this time of the year than this. In our Gospel reading for today from Luke 21, Jesus tells us to stay awake, to be prepared, to look for the coming Christ.  That’s the real purpose of all these preparations to celebrate Christmas, we also prepare to celebrate His final coming.  These preparations are the same.  I’m not talking about the decorating, though for Christians, our decorations ought to serve the purpose of the season itself.  Advent wreaths, nativity scenes, Christmas trees, are all Christian symbols of the Gospel.  The real preparation is the decoration of the Christian heart and life through repentance and faith in Christ, through the eager anticipation of our redemption that is drawing near. We prepare for His coming not through what we do, but in receiving what He has done for us.

We can no longer make ready for the first Advent of Christ. He came in the flesh 2000 years ago. But our Lord’s first advent is also a foreshadowing of His constant coming to His Church even now through His Word and Sacraments. When we get together as we have today, here or anywhere else, where God’s people gather around the eternal Word of God, the time between the Lord’s days on earth and His return in glory are bridged. His Kingdom comes to us. His presence comes to us. His glory comes to us. His forgiveness comes to us. His life comes to us.  And they point us to a certain future.

And so Jesus speaks in Luke 21 of signs that will accompany His coming. When the world sees these disastrous things, they will be devasted. Jesus describes the end of this world, the world full of material and commercialized things, the end of houses and gadgets, of cities and nations, of bank accounts and retirement funds, everything in this world. Those who do not believe in Jesus, who seek entertainment and worldly happiness and stress free lives rather than Christ and life under His cross will be devasted when Jesus comes to remove that cross from His church and the Lord coming with power and great glory.

The days of sin and evil, of time and the world, of heaven and earth, will pass away, and it will end in victory and restoration for the Word of the Lord will not pass away. This word has been delivered to us, written in former days for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of Scripture we might have a sure and certain hope. The Bible is a book of calm confidence. It sees the worst and assures of the best in Christ, looking toward the Kingdom of God that cannot be shaken.

Those who trust in Christ will have a different perspective on the day that is coming, the Day of the Lord, the Day of Christ’s return. This is the lesson of the fig tree. The blooming fig tree is a sign that summer is coming, that the sun is going to shine. It is a symbol of joy, of our redemption, of the coming of the Son of Righteousness.

All who receive the King as He comes to His Zion in Word and Sacrament, all who remain faithful until the end shall stand before the Son of Man in glory. Your redemption is drawing near when you will be delivered from your enemies. Your redemption is drawing near when the evils or the world will be no more. Your redemption is drawing near when Christ will come, not in lowliness and humility, but with glory and honor and Hebrews 9:28 speaks of Christ, having been offering once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly awaiting Him.

But let’s be honest. You are easily distracted. It is all too easy to choose the things of this world over Jesus, especially at this time of the year. You get distracted with all the commercial holiday season that’s already been going on for a couple months now. You get caught up in a holiday spirit that has nothing to do with Christ or the Mass in Christmas. You get overwhelmed by the busyness and the stress of the season. In attempts to find some peace, you distract yourselves further, or you go the opposite direction and you shut down and sleep.

Repent. Straighten up. Raise your heads, and look to Jesus. For our Lord doesn’t sleep nor slumber, He doesn’t get worn out or overwhelmed or stressed out. His focus is on you, on your place in His kingdom, on your escape from all these things that are going to happen. He does not get distracted from the purpose for which He comes. Not upon the cross, not in His coming out of the tomb, not in His coming now nor in the future. For He comes. And He does not keep silent. He comes and gathers to Himself His faithful ones. He comes and brings salvation near to you. He is the God of endurance and encouragement. May the Lord wake our hearts to see Him, to be prepared for His coming, and to rejoice in His salvation, to lift up our heads, for our redemption is drawing near.