Lectionary for Dec. 1, 2024
First Sunday of Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16; Psalm 25:1-10;
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36
I write these reflections several weeks early so that the wonderful folks at Living Lutheran can edit them. I’m writing today on Nov. 5, election day, and I don’t know what the coming days, weeks and months will bring. You, who live in the future that I don’t know yet, will know what has happened in the intervening time. I’m a hopeful realist. I hope our conversations are more peaceful one month from now, and that calm will pervade our civic discourse. But I also know divisions will remain. And as we prepare to welcome the Newborn King into our lives yet again, I know we will certainly need to keep praying the prayer that he taught us, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.”
The lectionary passages appointed for this first Sunday of Advent are meant to soothe and console anxious people, letting them know that God is not afraid of hard times. Instead, out of love, God wants to prepare us to be ready to face difficulty.
Shortly before his crucifixion at the hands of Roman soldiers, Jesus told his followers to expect his imminent return. And he gave his disciples signs that they should look for in order to know that he would return on the clouds. There will be distress among nations. Peoples will be perplexed at the violence of the oceans (and the hurricanes they sprout, I think!). People will faint with paroxysms of fear because of what they dread will come to pass before their eyes!
We don’t want to make light of what is a very scary time to be alive for millions of people—either in Jesus’ day under the crushing sandal of Roman imperialism or today when violence and war make a sickening mockery of the Prince of Peace’s birth in Bethlehem. Jesus told folks, many of whom followed him to their deaths, that they needed to be on watch so that the horrible things to come would not sweep them up. But the goal, ultimately, was not to be swallowed up in the despair of the moment but to be able to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:36). Why? Because Jesus and his coming kingdom (and we must see it as a kingdom, rather than “kin-dom”) is administered by a good and loving king.
We are citizens in a kingdom, and the job at the top has already been filled for some time now. We insist this Advent, and all year long, that Jesus is our coming king.
Way back in Jeremiah, God spoke to people who were going through a similar experience as were the people Jesus addressed. Clouds of war gathered around Jerusalem, and anyone with eyes to see could decipher the signs. As Jesus said, when you see the fig blooms, you know summer is close. And when you see Babylonian scouts or Roman legions, you know death is coming.
And in these times of injustice and war, the answer is not another human king or a different form of government. Instead, God offers a messiah. God promises through the prophet a righteous branch of David, who will rule with justice and righteousness so that Jerusalem will be renamed “the Lord is our righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:15-16). Do you see how central God’s righteous ruler is to this vision? When violence and injustice are the problems, more violence is not God’s solution. Instead, a righteous king will lead the people into conspicuous righteousness. That is what the people in Jeremiah’s day had hoped for, and that is what the people in Jesus’ day had hoped for.
What do we hope for? Well, whatever happens tonight (in my time), we do not hope for politics to save us. According to John 19:15, Caiaphas the High Priest and his family—and only they—said they had no king but Caesar. This must not be our answer. We do have another king. We are citizens in a kingdom, and the job at the top has already been filled for some time now. We insist this Advent, and all year long, that Jesus is our coming king. We agree with the magi who came seeking a king (Matthew 2:2). We agree with Jesus who intentionally presented himself as the humble and gentle king (Matthew 21:5). And we agree with the New Testament community that prepared themselves for Jesus’ kingdom (Ephesians 5:3-5).
So, friends, whatever comes—unrest or peace, wisdom or folly, righteousness or injustice—know this: God has sent, and will send again, a righteous king, who will bring good news of justice and righteousness to the whole world.
