Advent 1
December 1, 2024
Year C
Welcome to the New year! Isn’t it a bit early you might be saying, but I am not talking about the new Calendar year. I am talking about Advent being the start of the new Church liturgical year. That’s right, the church has a calendar that starts new each year 4 Sunday’s before the Celebration of Christmas. Each Sunday a celebratory step towards the Great celebration of Christ’s birth.
So first things first, let me make a quick review of the calendar year of the church and about the Lectionary, and then we can get on to discussing this week's reading. The church calendar is broken up into the following phases.
Advent - The 4 Sundays before Christmas
Christmas - One of the 7 principal feasts in celebration of Christs birth
Epiphany - The celebration of Christs manifestation, his baptism and his Miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, followed by ordinary time until Lent
Lent - The season of penitence leading up to Easter
Easter - The resurrection of Jesus and the 40 days that follow
Pentecost - The Day to remember to coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples, and all believers
Ordinary Time - The time after the major celebrations of the life of Jesus, when we are called to walk out our Journey
I know, that is a lot to take in if you have not ever heard about the Liturgical calendar before. The thing to remember is that the point of the calendar is to organize the scriptures around the significant events each year, to remind us of the roots of our faith, and then spend the remainder of the year helping us to grow into those roots. The Liturgy is not to tie us down nor is it to drag us along. It is there to be a guide to keep us grounded in scripture and to grow us in the kingdom of God.
So that brings us to this first reading of the new year. To make sure we don’t get bored with the Liturgy, or think we already know everything that God has to teach us, there are actually 4 unique years of Liturgy. They are called, cleverly, Year A, Year B track 1, Year B track 2, and Year C. If you are asking why year B repeats with just a minor change, that is a great question and maybe in two years when we get to Year B track 1 we can explore that in detail. But since today we are starting Year C, I think we will just gloss over Year B for now. Why am I talking about all this stuff instead of just writing about this weeks reading? Simple, I want to set the groundwork for what will be a 156 week investment. Each week for the next 156, I plan to publish a short article every Sunday morning discussion the Liturgy for the day. So if you find this remotely interesting, check back and I promise to get to it a little faster next time.
Here we are, week 1 of year C. If you would like to have a look at all the scripture for today here is a link https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/advent-1c/. Otherwise just keep reading along and I will bring out the points that I am going to cover as we go.
The Gospel reading to today comes from Luke chapter 21, verses 25 - 36. Luke chapter 20 is during the week between Jesus’ grand entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his Crucifixion on Friday. The entirety of chapter 20 is a collection of small interactions Jesus is having with his disciples or a larger crowd. The first interaction in our reading, verse 25 - 28 has a mystical ring to it. Jesus begins this short section by talking about the signs in the sun, the moon and the stars. He goes on to speak about fear and foreboding and the “powers of heaven” being shaken. Seems to be a short passage charged with symbolism. We will come back and unpack a little of the symbolism in a bit.
The next passage, verses 29 - 36, seem to be speaking in more practical terms. He is speaking about the trees and how the people are familiar with the leaves. He reminds them how everyone, when they see the leaves, are able to know the season of the year is changing. This doesn’t seem nearly as magical as signs in the sun and the moon. However the very first sentence states “Then he told them a parable:”. Why would the Bible be so quick to point out this was a parable, when the meaning seems so clear. A parable is a short story that illustrates a lesson. The passage goes on to say “as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourself and know that summer is already near.”. This does not seem to be a very deep lesson.
Can we look a little deeper? What does it mean to say that summer is already near? Where has summer been before now? We tend to look at the world as a very small place. We may think when the heat begins to fade and the leaves turn colors and autum arrives that Summer ends. From our perspective summer is no more, we have come to fall and will soon face winter. But as this passage says, we see the leaves returning and we know summer is near. In our mind we think nearness means that summer will soon start. But this isn’t exactly true. Summer never stopped, it never came to an end, it just moved passed our small view of the world. In reality summer never ends. Summer just makes it’s way around the earth. While we are welcoming in the new leaves and thinking summer is about to arrive, someone else far away is seeing the leaves in their trees change colors and fall away.
I think that is a the deeper lesson we can take from this parable. Simply put Summer is not beginning, it is just arriving from another part of the world. The difference between seeing the seasons starting and ending, based on our position on the earth and what we can witness, vs the idea that summer and winter always exist on the earth, just not at the same place that we find ourselves. The very next verse, verse 31, ties pack to the symbolic events from verses 25 - 36 and compares them to seeing the leaves. It says “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near”. These things are the singes and events he was talking about, and instead of being like leaves pointing to the arrival of summer these more mystical things point to the arrival of the “kingdom of God”.
I think most people when they read this they get a vision of Jesus’ grand return. The end of the earthly kingdoms of man. It is a great vision of streets of gold and pearly gates. But is that the only thing it can mean? Before we try to answer that question let’s take just a minute to look at another question.
What is “the kingdom of God”. This is something that Jesus has been speaking about since his ministry began. What is this kingdom? Does it exist now or is it coming in the future? How do we know? I would say that long before there was man, there was God. God created the universe and then brough man into it. God’s kingdom was in the universe long before the first kingdom of man ever took shape.
We live in a time when our lives are ruled by a multitude of overlapping kingdoms. We are faced with political kingdoms, economic kingdoms, and social kingdoms, the list is endless, but we may not think of them as kingdoms. Each of them are areas of life that we have to deal with. There are people or groups who hold power in each of these kingdoms. We may be amongst the powerful in one area of our life, but feel like a peasant in another. We may be so busy in our work life that we don’t even realize there are social and political battles raging around us. Or, perhaps we are so focussed on our family that we hardly notice what going on with our friends, something that may have dominated our thinking earlier in life.
All these different kingdoms are going on around us all the time, and the kingdom of God is no different. From the time of creation God’s kingdom has been in motion and we may spend much of our time never even noticing. Much like our tiny view of the seasons stopping and starting based on our experiences, the kingdom of God is Much larger than our own experiences.
That is why I believe we should not sit back waiting for a future “kingdom of God” to begin. We need not look to the sky expecting a triumphant and mystical return of Jesus, but instead we are to look at every sign around us. Just as the leaves indicate the return of summer to our area, so miracles and blessings of life indicate the presence of God, and his kingdom in our lives. The kingdom of God does not mean the end of man or the end of earth. It is right here with us and we can choose to make it out highest priority.
Now let's go back to the more mystical, less practical, first party of the reading. Verse 28 reads “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near”. As a reminder “these things” refers to signs in the stars, shaking in heaven, and Jesus “coming on Clouds”, all pretty mystical stuff. But can these things “happen” in a practical way in our lives, that we can see and react to? Can the signs in the stars be us becoming aware of the kingdom of God around us instead of living in one of the many earthly kingdoms that compete for our attention? Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near, may be a much more personal directive then we understand it to be. It may not be saying that the world is ending and Christ is returning at all. It may be saying that we are to stand up and notice the kingdom of God as it passes us by yet again and when we do our redemption begins. The kingdom does not start when we see it, but our participation in it can start or be renewed, when we take notice of the kingdom.
Today may be the day, not that Christ returns and the world ends, but that we have an encounter with the kingdom that causes us to take notice. It is in the noticing of God’s spirit that we are shaken to our core. That shaking does not mean the world is ending, but it may mean that we are able to step out of the everyday human kingdoms that are so eager to occupy our minds and step into God’s kingdom. It is where we came from, it is where we have been invited to live, and according to Jesus in Luke 17:21 “The kingdom of God is within you”. Right here where we are, even more than that, right inside of what we are is where the kingdom of God can be found. We just have to stop noticing the signs of the kingdoms of man and look for the signs of the kingdom of God.
Thanks for reading.
David
Want to know why I am writing these articles? Look here.
You can find all of the readings for today at this link.
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/lectionary/advent-1c/
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