“Waiting and Watching”

Luke 21:25-36

November 27 and 30^th, 2003

Saint Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

I still remember the year that the Christmas season scared me half to death. Let me set the scene up for you. I was traveling home from a youth convention in Nashville, Tennessee with a couple of friends of mine, back in the days when I was the volunteer youth coordinator for the Little Rock Annual Conference. The convention ended around lunch time and so if you can imagine this, there were two thousand or so youth workers trying to find a place to eat on their way out of town. The three of us decided that we would drive a while and then stop for lunch. So, near Dickson, Tennessee, we stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. Even if you have not traveled much, you probably have come across a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. They are strategically placed on the outskirts of towns near exit ramps. If you know Cracker Barrel Restaurants, then you know that there is a front porch where you can rock while you wait for your table. In fact, those of you sitting in the back of the sanctuary this morning are sitting in Cracker Barrel rocking chairs. Just inside the door, there is a store where you can buy anything from a scented candle to a beanie baby. And then, at the very rear of the store, is the restaurant itself. So if you want to eat, you have to wade and wander through the store and the stuff. And if you have children, then going through the store with them is worse than going through the toy section at Wal-Mart with them.

Well, that is the scene. Can you imagine being there? I even remember the year, it was 1998. Go ahead and join us, me and my three friends as we made our way towards the front door of the Cracker Barrel in Dickson, Tennessee. Watch us as we walk across the parking lot on our way to the front door. I think that you will recognize me. I am leading the three of us. We went through both sets of double doors and that’s when it happened to me. Out of nowhere, a loud voice yelled out at me, “Merry Christmas.” Then a small Christmas tree that could not have been more than three or four inches tall started singing it’s best rendition of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. It scared me half to death. I was not expecting it. And so when my heart started beating again and when I pulled my fingers out of the ceiling tiles, I saw the tree. On the top of his branches, he was wearing the smallest of a Santa Claus hat. His eyebrows, branches themselves, moved up and down as he sang and his mouth, of course, moved to. I looked back at my two friends who were behind me. They were oblivious to what had just happened. When they saw the look on my face, they asked, “John, what happened?” I remember saying this, “I think that I was just ambushed by the Christmas season!”

Church, can I ask you, have you ever felt that way? Nearly every year I make myself a promise. It is a promise that I always break. Here is the promise. I vow that I will finish all of my shopping before Thanksgiving. I have never done it. And if it were not for my wonderful wife, none of our shopping would be done. She has bought presents for her side of our family, and my side of the family still has presents to be purchased. Some of you, I know, spent some of Friday and most of Saturday either shopping or getting your houses ready for Christmas. Some of you pulled out the plastic tubs that contain all of your Christmas doo-dads. There is a family

on Pine Valley Road, whose decorations went up at least a couple of weekends ago. Every morning, as I make my way to the church, with Annie Grace sitting in her car seat in the back, we come to the house. Annie Grace says as loud as she can, “Look, daddy, Christmas.” If she were older, I would tell her that I don’t need reminding. I went into Wal-Mart the other evening. It was a huge mistake. There were people everywhere. The guy who greeted me said this, “There are only thirty-two more shopping days until Christmas.” I smiled, but secretly I wanted to say, “Thanks bud, but I don’t need the pressure!” Can I ask you friends, are you ready for all of this? Are you prepared for the season?” Now you know, as a preacher, what I am talking about here is not just decorations, Christmas parties, and presents to be placed under your trees. This morning, I would like to talk about another kind of being scared to death by the season and another way of preparing for Jesus.

Today starts what we have come to call in the church, the season of Advent, a journey of four Sundays before Christmas morning arrives. Originally, which means that it was this way a long time ago, the church set aside these days for two purposes. First, it was a time when people were asked to prepare for the birth of Jesus Christ, again, in their lives. You know, to go in their hearts to Bethlehem, to the manger, and to peek at the savior. That was the season’s first purpose. It’s second purpose was to get people to thinking not about the first coming of Jesus, but His second coming. And so the first Sunday of Advent, always has an end time scripture lesson.

I found another Peanuts comic strip that you might like. Charlie Brown and Lucy are talking one day when Charlie asks Lucy, “Lucy, do you think that the end f the world will happen in our lifetimes? “Good old Charlie Brown, he is going to worry about everything.” Lucy answers, “I try not to think about such things.” Charlie Brown counters, “Well, now that I’ve brought it to your attention, what do you think, will the end of the world happen in our lifetimes?”

And Lucy answers, “When things that I try not to think about are brought to my attention, I try not to think about them.” Which, I guess is the way that a lot of people think about the second coming and scripture lessons like our’s for this morning. Listen to it again. It speaks of a different kind of getting ready for Jesus, “There will be signs in the sun and moon and the stars, and on earth distress from the roaring of the seas, and fear from the shaking of the heavens. And the Son of Man will appear on a cloud. When these things take place, stand up, and raise your heads, for your redemption is near.

Let me lead us through this lesson. This whole twenty-first chapter is the record of Jesus predicting the destruction of the Temple and the city of Jerusalem. Both were destroyed in 70 A.D. and Luke wrote these words shortly after that to churches who had heard what had happened. They undoubtedly believed that because these things happened that the end of the world was near. It was obvious. These were the last days. There will be earthquakes and roaring seas. I want you to see this, these words were written to Luke’s church to give them the assurance that even though Jerusalem has been destroyed, God is still in charge. It is going to happen, Luke says. And so when these things take place, stand up, lift up your heads, for God’s new world is very near. It is a great message, especially if you were a member of Luke’s church, back in 80 A.D. Powerful things were happening, but there will be a new heaven and a new earth. There may be a lot of anxiety all around you, but God is still in charge.

It is a great message, don’t you think. All of us want to believe it. All of us want to believe that life can be better than it now is. Maybe that is the reason that those who pick these lessons for the season, pick this one to go first, in the real belief that with Jesus being born again in our lives, in twenty-five more days, that our lives can be better. How does Luke put it? “Now when these things are about to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Luke says that you can see it, that you can sense it. That is why he puts that parable in there about the fig tree. His world knew about fig trees and what they knew is that when the buds began to break out, spring was not far away. If Jesus were telling this parable in Arkansas, he might not use the example of a fig tree. Probably, He would use the illustration of a Bradford Pear tree. “When the white blossoms begin, Jesus might say, prepare, for spring is almost here.” Can’t you see it coming toward you? You have thought, haven’t you, “This has been one of my hardest years, I am ready for it to be over.” Maybe you have prayed, “Jesus, this year, place make a difference in my life.” This is a passage about hope, friends. There is a great line in the greater movie, The Shawshank Redemption. Have you seen the movie? It is on television all the time. If you have, they maybe you will remember Andy Dufrane writing these words to his friend, Red. “Hope is a good thing, perhaps the best of things, and a good thing never dies.” That is what this passage is about. When the Son of Man comes on the cloud, you can lift up your head, because your redemption is near.

I heard the story that a mother told about a trip that she was going to take. She went into her sons’ room the night before she was scheduled to leave. She asked both of her boys if they wanted to pray for her on her trip. Her six year old son said that he didn’t. But her four year old prayed this prayer, “Dear God, if buffaloes or bears or other mean animals come near my mommy, can you handle it? If you can’t, just call on Jesus.” Since Christmas, there is the promise, “Lo, I am with you always.” We have to hold on to that promise. Maybe we have come to expect too little out of Jesus these days.

There is something else here that we need to think about before we go back out into the world. That something is this, we cannot just sit back and wait for the coming again of Jesus. We must work while we wait. I can remember being in the ninth grade and a big test that I was to take. I would like to tell you that I went home to study. I did not. You see, snow was in the forecast. There was a eight percent chance of snow and significant accumulations for the following day, the day of the test. So I did not study. You know what happened the next morning, don’t you? I woke up, wiped the sleep from my eyes, and on the ground, there was not even a hint of snow. Ugh! Luke says that we are to wait, expecting Jesus to return, but there is something that we must do while we wait. Listen to his words, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation, dissipation means waste, and drunkenness. Well, so far so good, “...and the worries of this life.” That one gets me every time. “...so that the day will not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.” Jesus talks about this in other places in the Bible. He says that the return will happen like a thief in the night and like the birth pangs of a woman. It will happen suddenly with very little notice. So, says Luke and others, be alert at all times. Luke says that until Jesus comes again, we are to wait and the watch. But how are we to wait? Luke says that we are not to wait passively, but we are to carefully wait and to watch.

Maybe this kind of waiting can be found in the heart of Texas. I just heard about this a couple of days ago. Now let me go on record as saying that I am not a Texas A&M fan, but a strange thing happens at all Aggie home football games. The student body remains standing during the entire game, every game. And the reason that they do is legendary. As the story goes, in a far distant contest, a critical game, really, a rash of injuries devastated the team, leaving only ten players on the field. So, as to keep the Aggies from a loss, a student jumped from the stands, dashed onto the field, went into the huddle, was handed the ball, and he ran for a touchdown. And the Aggies, of course, won the game. Otherwise this story would not make sense. So, ever since then, the entire Aggie student body stands during the course of every game in readiness to dash from the stands and onto the field. What about you? Are you ready? Are the presents bought? Have you done all that you need to do before Christmas morning arrives? And what about your hearts? Are they ready? Are they weighed down? I hope not and that’s my prayer for you this Advent season. Let us pray.