Prepare for Christ's return!

What “Season” are we in?   Depends on context!   But I call this the “Commercial Season of Christmas”!    I have to say, over the years I’ve grown less and less enchanted by this season; the crowds, the traffic, the crowds, the buying frenzies…  did I say crowds?   Ahh, “stuff”… the reason for the season.     The “stuff” makers and sellers know us!   They know our habits, they know how we think, they know what we like and don’t like, what we buy, and when we buy it, and more importantly why we buy it!   And they know how to get to us; to us, and our families – and more and more efficiently to our kids!        

Just recently Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of Face Book, has said he plans to give away about 99% of all his wealth.    What a nice gesture, to actually make something useful out of all that money!  And even giving away 99% of it all, that still leaves him with just a few sheckels to live off of because.. he has so many of them!    To change up some words from an old musical, “Don’t cry for him America!”  He’ll be doing just fine!    Of course no one really is crying for him.    But my point in bringing up all this is… Face Book is free to users – how did he collect such a huge pile of $$$???    Well, it’s because you and I, the users, aren’t the true customers of FB.   The advertisers are!     That’s where the money is!     The advertisers aren’t just paying for the privilege of sending you ads while you “visit” with friends on FB, they’re really buying information about you that FB has collected; your habits, and interests, etc.     Capitalism in the 21^st century… ain’t it great?          

And we come to the Advent theme of our little church… “Simplicity”.   Seems like a theme we’ve all been ready for for a while now – at least I have.   Simplicity.    Who isn’t looking for a little simplification in life?   For me it starts with not falling too hard into the “Season of Stuff” world.   It starts with being conscious and aware of what we buy and why.     Advent – a whole other Season.  The beginning of the church year.   Historically this has been heralded by a call to prepare, an expectant waiting.     In this congregations case, simplifying… making space – in our hearts and minds… in our lives!      Making Room!  

Theologically, this is making room for Christ’s coming, Christ’s “birth” into the world.    In this season, in our church and many others like ours, we talk about this, we sing about this, we read about this… Christ is coming!   Prepare the way of the Lord!   Make straight his paths!    It’s part of our informing “Story”.   It informs our beliefs, it informs how we engage with the world around us, how we understand our place in it.   We are waiting for the return of the Christ – we celebrate the Story of Advent of the coming of this Christ.     Christ has left, but he did not abandon us!   Christ – the healer, the bringer of God’s word, will return!  

Will this return be literal?   As in, a return in bodily form?    Or is the idea of Christ’s return metaphoric?    A hoped-for event that pulls us into a new future, one that changes us by virtue of our belief?   Here’s where I can insert a very expensive theological word… Proleptic…  a future reality made present now!      

The early church thought this was for real!    Paul makes it very clear!   The new day is coming where Christ will return.    He advised people to prepare – if you were married stay married, if you were single, stay single.  A slave or free… stay that way.  It didn’t matter since Christs return was imminent!     As in, any day it would happen –heralded by trumpets, or earthquakes or something.    This return was, if not days then weeks away.    And those weeks turned into months.  And those months turned into years.  And those years turned into decades.  And those decades turned into centuries.   And those centuries collected themselves into millennia.  And we’re into the second millennia now.    Two thousand years later… still waiting.   

And in these last 2 thousand years I have to believe there were some pretty good times for Christ to return.  I’ll just pick a few events in world history, knowing there are many more than what I’ll mention here.  Let’s start with the early persecutions of believers in the first, second and third centuries.   People were persecuted, harassed, and/or killed for their beliefs, and from separating themselves from the existing society/culture.   They believed they didn’t belong to the kingdom of Caesar.  They belonged to the Kingdom of God.   They were perceived as a threat to the system; the religious one for sure, but also the political system and the cultural one!    This would have been a great time for a return of Christ.

Maybe another good possible time for Christs return would have been during the Dark Ages, after the series of bubonic plague pandemics wiped out around a third of the European population.    Imagine the anxiety and fear the survivors would have had, not knowing what to do.   Imagine what parents must have felt, worrying for their children and spouses.    They could have used a physical return of Christ.   I’m sure they could have used Christ’s reassurance and healing.

Or maybe during the Middle Ages when the West began its expansion into Africa and the Americas and other parts of the world, where they wittingly or otherwise, heralded the end of a huge portion of cultures and peoples.    This was a time where slavery was officially sanctioned, and not only normal, but necessary!    Considering our present view of slavery, and our perception of what Christ’s opinion of slavery must be, a return of Christ would certainly have changed the cultural perspectives of the dominant forces.                          

Or the beginning of the second third of the last century when the Nazis took over not only Germany, but almost all of Europe, and Imperial Japan took over almost all of Asia in the grip of tyranny and violence.   This would have also been a great time for Christ’s return bringing with him true peace and justice with him.

Or our own era, where the effects of fossil fuels have polluted and are polluting still our air, water, and soil.    There was a Climate Change conference just this past week in Paris to focus the worlds governments on this problem that affects our planet home.   There are some attentions needed here or we risk more damage to it. 

Our life-styles give us wonderful gifts!   We have heating in the winter, and air conditioning in the summer.  We have some pretty amazing forms of transportation – you can get to the other side of the world in less than a day!    When in the history of the world has this been possible?    Heck, we’ve sent people to the moon!!   And we’re talking about Mars now!     Our technology has made farm lands more productive, not just in terms of water distribution, but in yield capacity!  

But that same system that produces enough food for most of the 7.3 billion people on this planet, also has made the soil harder to grow food without additives and chemicals!   The soils are more and more depleted.   We have acidified (more than they should be) the oceans, we’ve over-harvested the seas, and rising sea levels are putting economies and peoples at risk.  These are not notional, they are real, measurable.     Why do we inject chemical cocktails into the ground in Texas, Pennsylvania, and other states (which is a very expensive process) to access hard to reach natural gas and oil?   Because we need it!    All the cheap stuff has been accessed and used already so we’re forced to go for the harder to reach, and thus more expensive, stuff.     We need oil and natural gas to maintain this life we’re so used to – and can’t imagine living without.    We do this knowing that it’s continuing to put our ground water, land and soil further at risk.     Almost every ecosystem on the planet is at risk.    Now would be a great time for Christ to return.     

And yet we still speak of the return of Christ!   Cultures and peoples across the world over shared this same idea of a national/cultural and/or religious hero that will return some day in a time of need to help, protect,  and/or save them.   The story of King Arthur is such a story – that he will someday return when needed to help the people of England.    These are usually indigenous “heroes”.  This word is Greek meaning “protector”.  For Christians, Christ’s returning fulfills that role of cosmic protector.  

These stories might seem fanciful at best and empty lies at worst.  But they serve a role.  They help bring hope in times of need.    Here’s that word again – Proleptic – a future reality made present now.  It helps sustain help in times of darkness.  But it is for real; this can pull us into a called-for future!   

Will Christ literally return?  Probably not.  But we must still prepare his way – as John the Baptist said.    We must still make room!    

In the face of persecution, the early Christians were called to stand strong in their faiths!   And they had an example of Jesus – and they lived out that faith!     There were people in the Dark Ages guided more by love and compassion than fear and anxiety during the bubonic plagues, and helped others through such a dark time!   Their faiths guided them to live as if Christ were here already!     We take for granted today that slavery is wrong.  But that perspective was earned and struggled for through the work of people like William Wilberforce who in the late 1770’s spoke out against slavery!    And he’s just one of many who’s heart was changed through their faiths in a living Christ, and who wanted to change others hearts as well.    During World War II, individuals across the world risked their lives to help persecuted peoples; hiding them, transporting them, saving them from death or imprisonment.   And they did this because their faiths – faiths founded in the belief that Christ is alive – called them to take these risks.    Today we have the same challenges, to live as if Christ were coming!    Sometimes it’s hard to believe this in the face of challenges; societal, cultural, and structural!                   

Will Jesus return?   Probably not.   But can we live with the reality of the story as reality in our lives?   Can the power of the “story” inform our lives enough to change our view of life and the world?   Can the power of the story of Christ’s return lead us to act and live as if Christ were already here?   Absolutely!  

So, yes!   Let’s prepare the way of the Lord!   Let’s make straight his paths!   Let us prepare our lives!  Let us simplify… and see more clearly!    Amen!