A Fourth Church Sermon by Victoria G. Curtiss

November 29, 2009 | 4:00 p.m.

Beginning from the End

Victoria G. Curtiss
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Jeremiah 33:14–16
Luke 21:25–36

“Are you ready for Christmas?” We may ask each other that in the days ahead. Perhaps what first crosses our minds is, Do we have the tree up? Have our cards been sent? Have we baked enough cookies? Have we completed our shopping? But we can also think about this question on a spiritual level, in terms of whether we are ready for the birth of Christ. Today is the beginning of Advent, the season when we prepare to receive the gift of God Incarnate, the Word made flesh. But how do you get ready?

Those who chose the scripture texts for this first Sunday in Advent direct us to get ready for the first coming of Jesus by focusing on the second coming of Christ. This passage from Luke is full of what Pastor Kathy Beach-Verhey describes as apocalyptic, “frightening images, confusing metaphors, and shocking admonitions” (Feasting on the Word, Year C, vol. 1, p 21). We do not encounter the sweet baby Jesus most of us are eager to begin to sing about. Instead we find a stern, adult Jesus picturing the whole universe being shaken and turned upside down.

Pastor Kathy Beach-Verhey thinks the mood of this Advent text is captured in Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting The Starry Night. There are swirling clouds in bold yellows and white on deep, dark blue and black. There is a bold and bright yellow moon and very bright stars, described by one art critic as “rockets of burning yellow.” In the background is a small town with a church steeple prominently featured. In the foreground is a foreboding flame-like image that connects earth and sky. Art historians take it to be a cypress tree, which in Van Gogh’s time would have been associated with bodily death and spiritual immortality. This famous painting elicits different responses from viewers. Some see it as a daunting image of a frightening sky. Others—like me, who has this print hanging in my bedroom—are drawn to it as something bold and beautiful, even giving us a glimpse of God.

Luke’s apocalypse, like Van Gogh’s painting, also elicits different reactions from persons. Some preachers emphasize its fearful tones. Many are swayed by that perspective, particularly when it is the turn of a century or millennium or in times of social turmoil and war. At such times, books like The Late, Great Planet Earth and the best-selling fictional series called Left Behind have been quite popular. These books depict the rapture of the saints, years of tribulation, and the Battle of Armageddon. Their descriptions of the great turmoil between the forces of good and evil in preparation for Jesus’ second coming have fostered fear, created uncertainty, and heightened anxiety.

Our denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), has taken a theological stand against such books (see “Twelve Theses” and “Eschatology: The Doctrine of Last Things,” adopted by the 1978 General Assembly). Presbyterians, along with other Christians in the Reformed tradition, approach the subject of the end times with one central affirmation: God alone is sovereign and free. All that is has been created by God. God is gracious and loving. God intends good for the whole of creation. In Jesus Christ, God has dramatically and uniquely revealed the goal of the divine purpose: reconciliation, justice, peace, wholeness, and goodness. Although there is evil in the world, evil will not finally prevail over God. Despite the realities of sin, pain, disease, oppression, and greed, the good purpose of God will finally be realized. This affirmation may sound like wishful thinking to some, but for Presbyterians, this conviction is simply the place to begin.

With that perspective, the text from the Gospel of Luke elicits hope. Jesus is saying to us that there will be times when our world seems to be completely falling apart. When that happens, don’t be surprised, and don’t lose your confidence in God. For Christ will come in all his glory. The kingdom of God will come on earth. Jesus commands us to “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” It’s like looking at Van Gogh’s Starry Night and seeing the bold and beautiful dominance of light rather than terrifying darkness.

Perhaps we reflect on the end times at the beginning of Advent so that we don’t get stuck on just a sentimental sweet baby Jesus. Maybe it’s so that what we are preparing for is not just a fun time of watching children taking delight in their presents or the wonder that can be stirred by candlelight Christmas Eve services. We are preparing for a lifelong recognition that God’s gift goes far beyond a pleasant—or lonely—holiday season. The coming of Jesus Christ attests to the fact that God really is Creator, Redeemer and Lord of all. We need not fear or despair. Even times of uncertainty need not lead to cynicism or speculation about when or how God’s purpose will finally be accomplished. As Old Testament professor Eugene March said, “It is enough to be certain that God’s purpose will be accomplished.”

A Peanuts comic strip from some years ago places this whole issue into context. It features Peppermint Patty with her friend Marcie, who frequently calls Peppermint Patty “Sir.” Peppermint Patty is in great turmoil over something she has heard about the imminent end of the world. She asks Marcie, in a trembling voice, “What if the world ends tonight?” Marcie responds, “I promise there’ll be a tomorrow, Sir. In fact, it is already tomorrow in Australia.”

It is already tomorrow—this expresses a theology of hope. The church father Tertullian put it this way: “The kingdom of God . . . is beginning to be at hand; the reward of life, and the rejoicing of eternal salvation, and the perpetual gladness and possession lately lost of paradise, are now coming, with the passing away of the world; already heavenly things are taking the place of earthly, and great things of small, and eternal things of things that fade away. What room is there here for anxiety and solicitude?” (Tertullian, The Treatises, 7: On the Mortality in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5, pp. 64, 69).

Nothing—not world crises, not natural disasters, not social turmoil, not even death—will finally thwart God’s will. Jesus will one day return to celebrate the fulfillment of God’s purpose. In that we can sustain confident hope. We place our hope not in ourselves, but in God, whose kingdom comes, on earth as it is in heaven.

As W. Eugene March has put it, “The doctrine of Christ’s second coming is not intended to terrify. Rather, it is aimed at motivating faithfulness in times of tedium as well as in times of crisis. Believing in Jesus’ certain return provides encouragement when life seems purposeless or when evil seems to be too powerful to overcome” (March, What Presbyterians Believe: The End of the World).

So how do we get ready for Christmas?

We remember that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has revealed the divine purpose of well-being for all.

We resist anxiety and pessimism.

We trust hopefully and live joyfully in what has been described as “the divine power that makes us alive in this world” (The Foundation of Hope: The Theology of Jürgen Moltmann and Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, p. 4).

We follow the agenda that Jesus clearly set for the time remaining until he returns: we join in God’s vigorous engagement with the world to feed the hungry, heal the sick, care for the suffering, free the oppressed, and preach good news to the poor and disenfranchised.

We don’t put too much stock in our own efforts.

We witness to the kingdom of God at hand.

We proclaim it is already tomorrow. Christ is coming indeed.