Text: Luke 21:25-36, Jeremiah 33:14-16
Have you ever been at a gathering… maybe with family or with friends… and all of a sudden you didn’t really want to be there anymore?
Maybe you were tired.
Or maybe the conversation became stale.
Maybe they ran out of food or someone said something that offended you.
Or maybe you just knew that you had an early morning planned for the next day and it was time to go.
You wanted to be back home, in comfy clothes, rather than there.
Maybe you had one of those moments in these past few days!
I just hope you aren’t having one right now 😊
Friends, I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
When my husband and I are at a party, or an event, or even just hanging out with family and the time has come to go home… when it’s time to get outta there… we have a secret phrase.
“Tut-tut… looks like rain!”
When either one of us utters those words, we know it is time to start packing up our stuff.
And when I shared that with church members, I quickly learned how many other couples and families have their own secret signs… a look, a poke, a phrase.
The point is… we all know how to look and listen for the signs that it is time to go home.
This Advent at Immanuel is all about going home…
Getting back to that place that is safe and welcoming and comfortable…
Creating that kind of space in our own lives for other people…
And yet, as we dive into this Advent season, the scriptures of this particular lectionary year are far from comforting.
We get a lot of harsh words from the prophets and startling visions of the end times.
Words of judgement and challenge are going to be leaping off the pages at us.
But there are also words of comfort and promise and grace and love.
You see, Advent is a time of preparation.
It is a time of getting ready.
And it is not just about getting ready for the birth of one very special child.
It is about getting ready for how the world is about to turn!
It is about getting ready for the kin-dom that this child will usher in!
It is about how everything changes and shifts and reorients itself because Jesus has been born and because Jesus is about to come again!
And we are longing for that world and that kin-dom.
We are homesick for God’s reign.
We are waiting and yearning for a reality in which there is no more hunger, no more hatred, no more hurt.
And the truth is, we aren’t quite there yet.
But as people who follow Christ… we hold on in hope to the promise that God’s kin-dom is our true home.
Our gospel reading from Luke this morning is what is known as the “little apocalypse.”
If we glance at these words without diving into the context, they sound awfully scary.
Dismay among nations.
Surging waves.
Planets that are shaken.
Fear and foreboding.
But let’s think about these signs in context of that party or gathering that I described just a few minutes ago.
You find yourself a guest at a gathering of the world, but the tables are empty.
The conversation is heated.
The fire is going out.
And you know in your gut that this isn’t your home and it’s time to go.
You want to get out of there.
You want to get home.
But you can’t.
You don’t know how.
In that moment, Luke’s gospel tells us, when everything seems to be falling apart and lost and ruined and the party has been crashed…
That is when Christ will come…
That is when God’s kin-dom will appear…
That is when we will know that we are just about home.
So, in those moments when you are the most homesick…
the most filled with longing…
That is when we need to hang on to hope, because everything that was promised is about to burst forth in life.
We just need to pay attention.
The prophet Jeremiah knew something about being homesick.
He understood what it was like to wish that the world around him was different.
He was called to bring a word of judgment against the people of Judah for their idolatry. They had broken their covenant with God and as a result would face the consequences of their actions.
Jeremiah was called to proclaim a time of famine, defeat, and captivity.
During his prophetic ministry, he witnessed the exile of the Judean leaders, the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.
Trust me… if Jeremiah could have cried out “Tut-tut… looks like rain!” he might have gotten out of there.
But somehow in the midst of that, he didn’t abandon his job and he held on to hope.
He trusted in God’s faithfulness in spite of Judah’s sin and rebellion.
He continued to pay attention to the word of the Lord being spoken in his midst and it allowed him to trust that this place that was an absolute mess could be transformed into home once again.
A home where God’s will would reign.
A home where what is right and just would be done.
In fact, in the chapter before this, the Babylonians are at the gate of the city, attacking it, and yet Jeremiah buys a field as a sign of his hope in what God could do.
Because as God speaks through him, “the days are coming when I will fulfill my promises and a righteous Branch will sprout from David’s line.” (33:14-15 paraphrase).
Jeremiah trusts and believes that God will make a home among them yet.
Both of these passages come to us on this first Sunday of Advent.
And as people of faith, who are trying to walk in the light of Jesus, the world we experience around us surely is not what it should be.
I think about the gun violence here in Des Moines that has tragically taken the life of so many young ones this year.
In the last month, a two-year old child was struck by a stray bullet on the same night a young man named Dean Deng was shot and killed. Deng was part of the Mabaan South Sudanese United Methodist Church here in Des Moines. The week before the death of a fifteen-year old in the King Irving Neighborhood.
Or I think about the increasing food scarcity in our community.
We have a number of volunteers here at Immanuel that have started checking our little food pantry on a daily basis and they stop in my office and tell me about how every day it empties out. Not only do our neighbors need food, but they need gloves and socks for warmth.
This world is not the home that God intends for us.
And we can be so focused on what is wrong…
We can dull ourselves with all of the anxieties of life…
We can be filled with fear and foreboding…
Or… we can start to pay attention for where there is hope.
We can pay attention to where new life is sprouting…
We can stand up and raise our heads and look for where God is inviting us to invest in the kin-dom… our true home.
I am reminded of the importance of our partnership with local schools and organizations like CFUM and all of the ways we help show young people that they are loved and valued and help put them on a different kind of track – one that doesn’t involve guns and violence.
And I think of how we can do our part to fight hunger, but also how we can join with larger efforts like the work of DMARC. DMARC has seen the need grow so much in these last few years that they are moving to larger facilities to care for the needs of our community. This network is such a vital part of how we partner with our larger community in making sure that all who hunger are fed. Because of this, our Christmas Eve offering this year will go towards helping DMARC move into their new home.
Hope, you see, is not passive.
When everything feels like it is falling apart and we get homesick for a better world, that is when God is inviting us to get up and get busy for the kin-dom.
If we want a just world, then we need to admit our part in injustices, repent, and seek another way.
If we want a world where all are healed, then we can do our part in caring for the sick, creating the conditions for health, and preventing disease.
If we want a world where creeks run clean, then we can recycle and advocate for public policies.
If we want a world where all who hunger are fed, then maybe we should start setting the table and inviting others to join us.
There are signs all around us that things are not as they should be.
But rather than signs of doom, they are simply reminders of where God is tugging at your heart and calling you to be the hands and feet of Christ.
Instead of wallowing in our homesickness, we are called to use that hurt deep within as fuel for a better world.
Friends, if you think that this party is a bust and it’s time to go home… then you are right.
Tut-tut. It is time to go.
It is time to go and get to work for the kingdom of God.