Grace and Peace to you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
Have you watched the new TV series called “V” for Visitors? It’s science fiction and about a group of alien visitors who have superior technology to our own who came to the earth. Reaction among us human beings is mixed to say the least. Some are wary and suspicious, others are frightened and a significant portion welcomes them with open arms. Even in the religious community some perceive them as deliverers, as messengers, sent by God to help us humans out in our darkest hours.
Well we approach the year’s darkest hours don’t we? December 21 is the shortest day of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time when all people of our climate and space reflect on darkness and on the light that has come into the world, Jesus Christ our Lord.
These are bad times too aren’t they, here on earth? Jesus says in today’s Gospel lesson. “There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars, and on earth distress among nation confused by the roaring of the sea and of the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. for the powers of the heaven will be shaken”.
Aren’t these dark words? Fearful words about an impending doom. Next month, the nations gather in Copenhagen to discuss climate change and what we can do about it. The whole world is alarmed and fearful. Polar icecaps are melting. Polar bears die in alarming numbers because their habitat has changed so radically they cannot hunt. We have tidal waves, tsunamis and flooding on all the earth’s continents – more than ever before. My neighbor and I were joking the other day, he said to me. John you better hold on to the property, it will become waterfront before you know it, with all this global warming.
Yet, it isn’t a joke, and we also worry that we have brought this danger upon ourselves. Our prayer of the day says, “Stir up your power, O Lord and come; by your merciful protection awaken us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and keep us blameless until the coming of you new day….”
We live in a moral universe. There are consequences for our sin. Advent is a time for us to do some spiritual and ethical housecleaning. Where have we gone wrong as individuals? Where have we sinned corporately as a society? How do we address our sins? How do we re-order our lives together so that we live in harmony with God’s plan and will for us?
Today’s lesson speaks of the coming of the Son of Man. He is said to be coming on a cloud with power and great glory. Jesus tells the disciples and us to “stand up and raise our heads because our redemption is drawing near”.
The Son of Man is one of the titles used for the Messiah that Israel expected. The Son of Man was to judge the earth. We and all that lives will be judged by God. The Son of Man will bring in judgment day. We will be refined. The sin that clings so tightly to us will be expunged.
Judgment gets a lot of bad press and is often misunderstood. The minute we hear the word, we think punishment, but in the Hebrew world and context judgment had a different connotation. Judgment means to make thing right, to restore them to their original purpose.
Do you remember the story of Abraham, Sarah and the slave gift Hagar. Sarah can’t get pregnant, so she wants to have a “foster child” through Hagar. Abraham does his job and Hagar conceives a child – the boy Ishmael. Well, before long, Hagar gets uppity with Sarah, kind of holding her fertility over Sarah’s obvious barrenness. Sarah goes to Abraham and asks for judgment. She wants Hagar to apologize and take her original place. She wants things restored to normal, their proper order.
When the Son of Man comes to us, we will be restored to normal. The sin of Adam and its effects will be cleansed from all the earth. If one reads the story of creation in Genesis 1:4, humanity was intended to live forever with God in peace. We were created to be immortal beings, eternal, deathless. Yet Adam and Eve sinned and they and their descendents know death. When the Messiah comes again, the earth will be returned to its original intention. One has to ask what does this mean for us and how will it happen?
In the Nicene Creed, we will soon read the words about Jesus and his relationship with God. We say that Jesus is God from God, Light from Light, Jesus essence is light. Light is the source of energy and life. Jesus always has a halo which is not a hat – it is light that is emitted from him. Jesus will purify us by that light. How will this happen? No one knows for certain.
A couple of years ago, I took an old steel milking stool that had come from my grandfather’s farm to be sandblasted. It was rusted and gross to the eye and to the touch. I watched as it was sandblasted. The rust was removed, it looked brand new. Judgment, I feel, will be like that, only Jesus will use his concentrated love to “lightblast” us back into our original state. All sin, all destructive elements of an ego turned in on itself will fall away “lightbasted” by the love of God in Christ.
Not only will we be “lightbasted” back into shape. All creation will be lightblasted by Jesus’ love and light. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed. We will be changed. The Kingdom will have come. Old enemies will greet each other with hugs of joy and laugher about their past foolishness.
The coming day of the Lord is not something to fear – rather it is to be welcomed. It is the day long expected that we have waited for.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen
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