Head in the Sand

I think we can all agree that there are things happening around the world that are concerning. All we have to do is look at the news either on TV, radio, paper or online and we see all sorts of events that cause us to despair over the state of the world. We see things like hate speech happening, maybe not more frequently, but more publicly. We see places like Hong Kong losing their freedoms they were promised. We see words like heat dome being used frequently this summer and now we are already seeing a cold burst arriving promising to bring freezing weather to parts of our country. We have seen some of the worst wildfires and flooding in the different parts of our nation.

It makes us wonder if these are the signs that Jesus in talking about in today’s text from Luke and from Mark’s text that we read just two weeks ago. This is, after all, Luke’s version of the little apocalypse that we did see in Mark’s gospel. I also think that it makes us wish for the days from when we were younger. I mean sure growing up in California we had fires and earthquakes and some of them were bad but there wasn’t this sense that things were really bad. Even when my Grandma’s beach home was destroyed by fire it was rebuilt in a few years and our family enjoyed spending time on the beach once again. I also remember droughts living in California and then things turned around and we were doing better again.

I’m not sure if that’s what your memory is like but perhaps it was my age, but things didn’t seem quite as dire as people and the news make it out to be right now. In fact something that I have heard people say for a couple of years now and probably longer is that they would like things to be back to the way that they were when they were a kid. Or they worry about young people and children these days growing up in the the world that exists and is happening now. I even remember people who were worried about people having children or getting pregnant when the pandemic first started.

What I hear when I listen to people talk this way is that they are homesick. Just like our opening confession speaks we are homesick for the things that way on us to no longer be a burden. We look for a day when parts of the world aren’t worried about drought or flooding. We are looking for a world where people speak in kindness and love to one another. We look for a world where there is peace and food to spare.

So when we hear texts like today we are not necessarily filled with comfort and hope, we are not filled with joy and happiness because it confirms what we already see happening around us. We are homesick for a world that we believed that used to be or for a world that does not exist yet.

What do we do or what do we say when things aren’t the way we remember them or the way that we believe they should be? What may seem like an odd answer is to stand up and raise our heads for our redemption is drawing near. Jesus invites us, in the midst of the turmoil, in the midst of the tragedy, in the midst of the homesickness, that we should stand up and know that redemption is coming.

The signs, though troubling are only part of the picture. They also tell us that summer is coming. Just as people in the Jerusalem would know that spring is coming when a fig tree sprouts its leaves we too know the signs that God is at work in the world. It is the sign of life that reminds us that God is at work and that there is hope in all things. Which is why even though this difficult text seems odd for our first week of Advent it reminds us that there is hope in even the darkest moments. It reminds us that even though we are homesick for something different that God is always working and we are a part of that work.

In that sign of life, in that sign of hope Jesus reminds us to be on guard. I believe that part of that being on guard is to hold on to the hope and to let the feeling of being homesick drive us into being a part of the work of God. Because we have two possible reactions to what is happening in the world around us. Jesus points them out himself. We can bury our head in the sand like the ostriches and flamingoes and all of the weight of the world drive us to to drunkenness and anxiety. Claiming that we are homesick for something that will never be or was once but will never be again.

The other option is do what Jesus said earlier. Stand up and lift up your heads. There is redemption coming. There is freedom now. The fig tree is sprouting leaves and there is new life happening around us. So instead of sticking our heads in the ground we lift them up and we vision for a world that is better than the one that exists now. We look at our world and we work together with Christ at the center and we let that homesickness that we feel and see all around us to drive us to make tomorrow a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where the news is a little less dark. A tomorrow where there is a little less hunger. A tomorrow where one more person worships God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. A tomorrow where there is more hope than there was yesterday. A tomorrow where God’s peace and justice is delivered because it is a peace and a justice that the world does not know fully.

In a homesick world there is always room and a need for hope. That hope comes from the one thing Jesus says will never pass away his words. The words of Jesus who is the Word made flesh. It is those words that we gather each week to hear. It is those words that we celebrate. It is that words made flesh that we anticipate this season of Advent. Jesus’ words offer hope and in a world that is homesick for hope we have a very important word to share. Lift up your heads for your hope, your freedom, your redemption is near.