Fear and Hope

Happy Church New Year everyone! What a beautiful grim Advent reading to get us going. I can’t believe I preached on the first half of this passage in Mark’s version two weeks ago and then Richard gets to preach on something else and then I get the second half again, this time in Luke!

I can’t remember whether I’ve told you this story or not, but I’m quite a nervous flyer and once went to a Fear of Flying course run at the airport. One thing the instructor said stuck in my mind – I’m not sure if it’s true or not but has been helpful. He said that our minds often mix up the things that are scary with the things we are excited about – fear and excitement come from a similar place and create similar effects in our bodies:

For example, when we are afraid and excited, our hearts race. We breathe faster. Adrenaline gets pumping and we feel it in our stomachs as feeling sick.

When you’re at an airport, you’re often about to go on holiday and have exciting adventures. But sometimes people’s minds and bodies mix up that sense of excitement with fear. So, the idea that this psychologist explained for those afraid of something, when we notice those feelings and call them fear, why not try and reframe them as excitement, anticipation or joy. It takes a bit of practice, but it is possible.

This first week in Advent is traditionally associated with the theme of hope. We’re looking ahead in hope for the birth of Jesus, the promised Messiah, the start of God’s plan of making all things right; and we’re looking ahead to the end of God’s plan when all things will be made right.

If you’re of a naturally more pessimistic than optimistic nature, it can be way easier to associate the reading we’ve just heard with fear of Jesus’ return rather than hopeful anticipation of the fulfilment of God’s really good purposes. Because it sounds scary: the roaring of the seas and the shaking of the heavens.

So here’s the first thing I want us to chew on as we tackle the reading:

Don’t get too hung up on the visual imagery

When we read this we need to bear in mind that Jesus is using a particular type of prophetic, symbolic language found in other books of the Bible such as Daniel,

and he’s probably using the rich metaphors here to talk about social upheaval which is to come – such as the destruction of the temple in AD70 which I talked about 2 weeks ago. And he’s talking about the social upheaval that every generation sees around us too.

Across Christian history lots of energy has been put in to looking out for signs within the physical world or human history that Jesus might be on his way back, but I’m not sure that’s always entirely helpful if it causes us to live in fear: as we read in 1 John 4: “there is no fear in love.”

One thing remains true: our broken and hurting world and ourselves really need Jesus to come.

Optimistic vs. Pessimistic: Finding the good

How we feel about this reading depends on how our brains are wired. Some of us with perhaps a more pessimistic outlook will see the fear; the more optimistic or positive ones among us will see the excitement. I’m a doom-y type person so I find it easier to be afraid, so I know whenever I read anything hard I need to look deeper to find the joy.

So here are the places where I found the hope and joy for me:

Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory – God is powerful. He will deal with the things that are not right.

stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near – [I am scared. I stand up. Colin McCahon.] E tu. Be proud. Be tall. Kia kaha. O Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion: ‘Lift up thy voice with strength / lift it up, be not afraid.’

When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Waiting for summer is exciting. It feels joyful.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. We can trust God’s promises.

It’s a good practice for anything that we find hard or makes us anxious: where can I see good in this situation? The more we do this, the easier it becomes, and our brain chemistry actually changes.

I think the second half of the reading is a reminder for our optimists. If you’re an anxious pessimist you’re very good at finding all the possible dangers around you. We need healthy pessimists around us to help us stay focussed and remind the optimists when they get out of balance to focus more on the future. And us pessimists need healthy optimists to remind us when we get out of balance to focus more on working with God to live whole-hearted lives in the present.

Ultimately Jesus is describing something that will be so, so good: what will the kingdom of God be like (ask)? E.g. no more fear, no more war, no more crying, no more death, no more ecological disaster, no more division. Being with God face to face – no more doubt, confusion – just pure truth.

So good eh? It really is good news.

But wait.

Advent is important because it reminds us that we live in this time of waiting that Jesus describes. In the Old Testament, there are two main Hebrew words translated as hope – and they both mean to wait. The first is yakhal, which means simply “to wait for.”

The other Hebrew word is qavah, which also means to wait. It’s related to the Hebrew word qav, which means cord. When you pull a qav tight, you produce a state of tension until there’s release. That’s qavah, the feeling of tension and expectation while you wait for something to happen.

You might have seen the short Advent poems on screen at the start of the service. Here’s a few now, and some that I wrote too. They all describe the feeling of Advent. The waiting in anticipation for something that makes your heart skip. Have a go writing your own this week.

+ ringing of the school bell at the end of the day – it’s home time!

+ someone’s shouting that dinner’s ready

+ Waiting for your friend to walk down the plane corridor so you can see her face because you’re dressed in a chicken suit.

+ At the top of the swing. My tummy drops. Let’s go!

+ The ref calls penalty shot. Palmer’s up. 50,000 people hold their breath.

So how do we live now?

What happens when you hold your breath, or doing shallow anxiety breathing? You faint! You get dizzy and it’s hard to concentrate. So don’t hold your breath!

This is the tension, the gavah, of our life with Jesus, which is both ‘now’ and ‘not yet’. We wait in hope for Jesus to come back, but while we wait, we are called to love right now. How do we do this? By looking out for the ‘signs’ of God’s invitation to join in with what God’s up to. Like the spring buds on a tree.

We’ve talked before about the idea of a ‘kairos’ moment - that idea of time - different to linear or chronological time - when God breaks through and we have an opportunity to learn and grow and be transformed and transform others in turn.

‌The awesome thing about these signs, and about being in relationship with God too is that we are not sitting around waiting for Jesus to come back so our real lives can begin. God asks us to join in his adventure right in this moment and partner with God is seeing his kingdom come now. That’s why I think in this passage we’re encouraged to be alert all the time - those opportunities are all around us.

‌In our hearts, let’s ask God if there’s anything we can partner with God with this week to bring God’s kingdom of hope here on earth as we wait for Jesus.

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[And what about that confusing line “‘this generation will not pass away’? We’re 2,000 years on now. Was Jesus wrong? But if we think about it from a prophecy about the immediate destruction of Jerusalem - then the generation hadn’t passed away. Jesus was right, all along, and Luke’s readers could see this.]

‌‘This generation will not pass away’ – he might be saying – the people who oppose Christianity will not pass away’.