The Second Sunday in Advent

Luke 21:25–36; Romans 15:4–13

+ IN NOMINE IESU +

The signs of the end are all around us—distress of nations, people fainting with fear and foreboding, especially after this last election cycle. Consider the parable of the fig tree. When you see it in bloom, you know that summer is nigh. So also, Jesus teaches us, when you witness the distress of nations and people fainting with fear and foreboding, you know the kingdom of God, the reign of God, is at hand. There is no doubt about it: We are in the last days. So straighten up and raise your heads, for your redemption is drawing near.

Ironically, though, our Lord does not instruct us to watch and look for these signs in the world. He doesn’t tell us to keep an eye out for the signs of the end times, to look for messages in the sun, the moon, and the stars, to watch for the distress of nations, etc. He instructs us, rather, to watch ourselves, so that we are not weighed down with dissipation, that is with self-indulgence, and drunkenness and the cares of this life. In other words, our Lord instructs specifically not to get caught up in the flurry of hand-wringing in these dark and latter days so that we are ready for His return. Ready, that is, to straighten up and raise our heads because our redemption is drawing near. In other words, our Lord is warning us not to lose sight of our hope, not to lose sight of the bigger picture, not to lose sight of what the end means for those who cling by faith to Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Our God is a God of hope. He is not just the God who has done great things in the past. He is not just the God who gave His Son into death for the forgiveness of sins. He is the God who is doing great things now and will continue to do them in the future. He is the God who delivers what was won for you in His Son in the preaching of the Word, in His Body and Blood, in the waters of Holy Baptism. He is the God who is coming again to take us to Himself, to deliver us from this vale of tears to live with Him in His kingdom which has no end. And that is our hope. He is coming back. He has not left us as orphans. For that is what hope is: it is the steadfast expectation of the good things of God to come. To have hope means we have a future, no matter how bleak or broken our present might be.

Our hope is built on nothing less than the Word and promises of God. For He has already proven Himself trustworthy in that what was promised in days of old has come to pass in the day of Jesus Christ. The people of the Old Testament looked forward, trusting the promises of God given through the prophets. They longed for the Messiah to come to redeem them. And they waited with patient endurance for that day to come, they waited with hope, encouraged by the word of the prophets, for the God who is ever faithful to His promises to do what He said.

So also we, through the encouragement of the Holy Scriptures, have hope. We have a future. Because Jesus who died and rose again is coming back. So, straighten up and lift up your heads. Your redemption is drawing near.

But more than that, it isn’t just that He is coming. It is also that He continues to come even now. Amid our guilt, our fears and our sorrows, he comes to us. Lift up your heads. Your redemption is among you. He speaks in His Word. His Spirit stirs your heart and you believe. His Absolution presents you to His Father as His own dear, immaculate and holy bride. He comes now, in His Flesh, and encourages you with His risen Body and Blood, strengthening your faith, and forgiving your sins, giving you hope, reminding you of the future that is yours.

And so it is that, echoing the Lord’s words from today’s Gospel the pastor turns to us each Sunday and commands “Lift up your hearts” and we say: “We lift them up to the Lord.” What we mean by this is that we want to stop thinking about other stuff. However inattentive we’ve been to this point in the Service, whatever grudges we might have been holding, whatever lusts or fantasies we might have been indulging, let us forsake all sin now. Let us repent and come before the Lord’s risen Body and Blood with awe and joy and thanksgiving. We lift them up to the Lord, where they belong, not high in heaven, but we lift them up to the Altar, not to be sacrificed, but we lift them to the altar where He promises to be for us in order to receive the benefit and blessing of the One who Sacrificed Himself for us on the Holy Cross. We lift them up there, now, here, to receive Him with faith and confidence that His Word is true, that He is here for us and that He truly forgives our sins.

And in this way do we live in harmony with one another, as St. Paul bids us to do. For we are joined together in this holy communion by the partaking together of the body given and blood shed of the one Jesus Christ. And that partaking unites and makes us one. He has welcomed you to His table, despite your past sins against Him, and so we are called, in the same way, to welcome one another, despite past sins. It is this communion that encourages us in a common hope and a common future. So with together with one voice we encourage one another with the comfort of the Scriptures.

We have hope. We have a future. We will not be weighed down by the things of this world because the good things that God has promised are among you even now. So straighten up and lift up your heads. Your redemption is here. Now, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Amen.