Stay Alert

Common English Bible Chapter 21

25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth, there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. 26 The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. 27 Then they will see the Human One coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.”

A lesson from the fig tree

29 Jesus told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 In the same way, when you see these things happening, you know that God’s kingdom is near. 32 I assure you that this generation won’t pass away until everything has happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away.

34 “Take care that your hearts aren’t dulled by drinking parties, drunkenness, and the anxieties of day-to-day life. Don’t let that day fall upon you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. It will come upon everyone who lives on the face of the whole earth. 36 Stay alert at all times, praying that you are strong enough to escape everything that is about to happen and to stand before the Human One.”

Introduction- The Starry Night

When I was in High School I took an art history class.

I didn’t do very well in it, but I liked the teacher, and I figured it’d be easy.

I was wrong.

But! I did learn that I loved impressionist style paintings.

These are paintings that are meant to reflect what it would look like if you looked at a scene really quickly, and then looked away.

The painting was meant to be an impression of what you were viewing, so it’s not always clear, not always easy to understand.

It turns out that my absolute favorite painting of all time is an impressionist painting, The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

I don’t know why, but this painting has always brought me such peace and relaxation.

It’s been hanging in our house for a while now, in fact now it’s in the Boy’s room in the off chance that it will help them relax and not throw pillows at each other...

Sarah and I recently got to go to the immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Pittsburgh, and one of the scenes was The Starry Night

It was like being surrounded by calmness for me!

In fact we stuck around so that we could see the show twice, and be calmed twice, because who doesn’t need that?

But then one of the commentators I was reading this week to get ready for today pointed out something that totally changed my view of this painting.

For as much as it is a calming piece for me, the picture that’s painted is really anything but calm.

Think about it, if you walked outside and looked and the sky was doing that swirly thing? You’d be freaked, right?

And then there’s this piece right in the middle and the foreground.

Art critics are conflicted on this...

Some think it’s a building, because doesn’t that kind of make sense?

But Van Gogh is actually pretty realistic in all of his paintings of buildings…so this would be really out of character for him.

It kind of looks twisty and gnarly and wavy...

It kind of looks like fire, doesn’t it?

It’s a little weird that this painting that actually represents so much chaos is a bit calming for me.

And that’s an interesting place to start our advent season together.

Because our first text for the Advent Season happens to be about the end of the world.

Bible Breakdown

The End of the World, or the End of Life as we know it?

This is a text that most folks tend to just skip over, because it sounds like Jesus is talking about the end of the world.

Though, we should note, while he might be talking about that, he might also be talking about the end of the nation of Israel.

Essentially we can’t tell if Jesus is talking about the end of the world, or the end of the way of life as people know it.

Which is why I can’t stand the phrase “Well, it’s not the end of the world!”

When a student’s team loses the game. “Well, it’s not the end of the world.”

When you loose out on that big promotion at work… “Well...”

When the entire world shut down for a little while keeping us all at home, and away from this building… “Well...”

The reality is that when our life as we know it ends, when we’re forced in to a “new normal” that we didn’t ask for, it can be so disruptive that while it’s clearly not the end of the world, it can feel like it, right?

The question then would be what our response to that situation might be.

Numbing Practices

Drinking/Drugs

America’s drinking problem is pretty well known.

88,000 people die every year from alcohol related reasons.

An estimated 623,000 people have an alcohol use disorder…between the ages of 12 and 17.

About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 25 women struggle with alcoholism.

And great news, studies suggest that we all just about double our alcohol intake during the holidays.

And to be sure, all by itself there’s nothing wrong with having a drink here or there.

But Jesus in this passage warns us against using drinking, or drugs, or whatever we might be addicted to, to dull our hearts.

Essentially, when life gets chaotic, we decide that we need to numb ourselves so that we can’t feel the pain, and Jesus was aware that this was a terribly dangerous situation to find yourself in.

Amazon Prime

This is a moment of pastoral confession…but...

We’ve hit the part of the year where there are so many Amazon Prime boxes showing up, that I don’t really know what’s inside them all...

Been there?

But the reality is that some of us use consumerism to numb the pain of our every day lives.

We even have a phrase for this: retail therapy.

And again, as someone who falls prey to this particular temptation, I know that whatever relief may come from retail therapy is short lived.

That new messenger bag? It wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

That new watch? Tells time just like the rest of them.

Those new shoes? They don’t actually make it any less painful to be on my feet all week.

In the same way, shopping in and of itself is not bad or evil.

But when we’re using it to numb ourselves to what’s going on, then we’re missing out.

Anxieties of the Season

Or maybe you’re like my family, and we are deep in the throws of the Christmas season?

We’re wrapping up all that gift buying.

We’re decorating the house

We’re trimming the tree.

We’re baking the cookies.

We’re seeing friends and family.

And it’s all exhausting!

But there are some people for whom, as Jesus says, “the anxieties of day-to-day life,” or maybe just a particular season of it…can dull our hearts a bit to what’s going on around us.

And so maybe there are some of us who throw ourselves in to our shopping lists so we don’t have to deal with our family drama.

Maybe there are some of us who decorate our houses to cover the pain of the empty chairs that will be around the table this year.

Maybe there are some of us who will eat our body weight in Christmas cookies because we don’t want to confront the uncertainty of a still on going global pandemic.

And like everything else, obviously Christmas is a good thing, I’m a big fan!

But when we’re using the anxiety of the season to dull our hearts to what we don’t want to feel, that’s where we run in to trouble.

Eyes up!

The car I drive most is my 2014 Subaru Imprezza.

This is the most basic of basic cars.

Other than power windows, it has…no features.

Sarah’s car on the other hand is the 2019 Subaru Outback, and it comes with a safety feature that might legitimately be driving me insane.

When the car detects that I am drifting out of my lane, the dashboard lights up and the alarms go off.

Now sometimes I am legitimately out of my lane...

Other times however, I find myself having an argument with an inanimate object about my own driving ability!

I mean, do you know what it feels like to be judged by your car?

But the impulse here is the right one.

My car wants me to stay alert.

One study suggests that 9 people a day are killed in an accident involving a distracted driver.

So my car is trying to keep me focused on the task at hand.

That’s what Jesus is doing in our text this morning too.

“Stay alert at all times.”

Don’t let yourself be numbed by whatever your drink of choice is.

Don’t fall asleep behind the wheel of consumerism.

Don’t let the glitz and glam of the Christmas season steal your attention from where it ought to be.

Whether it’s the end of the world, the end of life as you know it, or just a really difficult season in life, don’t fall asleep. Stay alert.

Lucky for us, Jesus offers a way to do that.

A life of prayer

Jesus is always advocating a life of prayer.

He is routinely alone on the top of mountains so that he can pray.

He uses prayer as a means to heal those he comes in contact with, to drive out demons and heal diseases.

And, by way of example for us, when Jesus is facing his darkest hour, when life as he knows it is about to end, he runs to the garden of Gethsemane for an all night prayer session.

The way to stay alert to what is going on in our world, and to gain strength to get through it, is to pray.

Application

Prioritize this Christmas Season

Part of the purpose of the Advent season is to make sure that we are prepared for the Christmas that’s coming.

One of the things I like to do at the beginning of a big project is to make sure I know what my priorities are.

So how will you prioritize this Christmas season?

Time together with family

A long time ago I was working with a troubled youth who was constantly acting out and getting in trouble in school.

I sat down and talked with his parents one day, and they were just dumbfounded.

They owned a bunch of restaurants in Pittsburgh, and a few in Chicago.

They worked as hard as they possibly could to make sure that those restaurants were succesful.

And successful they were, they turned massive profits year after year.

And so the young man I was working with had everything his heart could possibly desire.

The latest XBOX, computers, his own four wheeler, whatever the kid wanted his parents gave him.

And so they just couldn’t figure out why he was always causing so much trouble.

The next day I met with the young man and asked him what was going on.

I was a little shocked to see this usually big and burly tough guy look up at me with tears in his eyes.

He said “I just wish my parents would spend more time with me.”

The irony of that story has stuck with me ever since.

Those parents did everything they did for the young man, when the young man really only wanted their presence.

This Christmas season, I encourage us to prioritize spending time with our families.

The temptation will be there to make sure that everything on Christmas morning is perfect.

The perfect gifts, the perfect meal, the well cleaned house.

I get all of that.

But make it a priority this season to spend the most valuable resource any of us have, and be present with your family.

A moment to breathe

Or maybe you have been running on the hamster wheel for a bit too long lately.

Maybe you have been working yourself to the bone.

Maybe you have been running around to endless sporting practices and games.

Maybe you haven’t had a moment to yourself in as long as you can remember.

I can’t emphasize this enough…Jesus regularly took time out to go be by himself.

Sometimes Jesus looked at the crowds of people that were pressing in on him, hundreds and thousands of good things he could have done for good people, and his response was to say “Gotta go!”

It’s ok for you too.

It’s ok to take a day to be alone.

It’s ok to let the laundry be undone for a little bit longer.

It’s ok if that last minute gift doesn’t show up.

It’s ok if you need to take a personal day.

Take a moment in this advent season to breathe.

Be Aware of Anything that Looks Like Numbing

But by the same token, make sure that you are on the look out for numbing activities, the kinds of things that Jesus says will dull our hearts.

And this is tricky, because different activities will hit each of us differently.

I can enjoy a glass of whiskey at the end of the day without losing sight of what God’s up to all around me…others cannot.

In the same way, some folks can spend all day on Amazon and be just fine while I’m using it to escape the world.

The truth is, when we’re honest with ourselves, we know what numbing behaviors look like.

We know when we’re trying to dull our hearts.

We know when we’re trying to avoid pain.

We know when we’re running from what God has for us.

Take some time this week to name and be aware of whatever numbing behaviors are alive in your life, and set them aside.

A Prayerful Advent

Jesus reminds us today that the best way to stay awake, to avoid heart dulling behaviors, is to live a life of prayer.

So my hope is that we can prioritize our prayer this season, and have a prayerful advent.

Pray for our church- Visitors

Some pastors, and I’m even starting to notice some parishioners, tend to get a little cranky around Christmas and Easter.

You and I both know that there are people who will likely show up in the next few weeks for a service or two, and then likely won’t show up again.

And let’s be clear, I wish everyone would throw themselves in to the life of the church as fulsomely as possible, mostly because I think it’s the best way to live and that it’s a whole bunch of fun!

But...

I don’t think cranky ought to be our response to our Christmas and Easter only crowd.

I think our response is to pray for them.

There are some folks for whom this will be the one time of year they set food in a church service.

There are some folks for whom this will be the only time of year they sing songs directed toward our savior.

There are some folks for whom this will be the only time of year they actually hear the message that God loves them, just as they are, no questions asked.

I think in this season leading up to advent we ought to pray for them.

Pray that they have an experience of the Divine, even if it’s just for the night.

Pray that they meet wonderful friends, that we can be welcoming and inclusive of whoever might show up.

Pray that your pastor comes up with a halfway decent Christmas sermon!

Pray for our world

Our world is a crazy place right now!

It always is, and it always has been, but this is a new level for us I’m afraid.

We’re still digging our way out of a pandemic that won’t end.

We’re still as deeply divided as we’ve ever been as a nation.

There are still people struggling with poverty and famine and disease that we have the resources to help with.

Our world is a crazy place right now.

My encouragement in this one is to pray for someone you wouldn’t usually pray for.

We tend to pray for those who are closest to us, and that’s a good thing!

But what does it look like to pray for someone you’ve never met before in South Africa?

Don’t worry, God knows their name.

What does it look like to pray for refugees in the middle east, people who have literally lost their homes and country due to war?

What does it look like to pray for other churches, denominations we share very little in common with?

Take some time this week to pray for the world around us.

Pray to connect with who God is.

The most important prayer I think we can offer up is to ask to connect with who God is.

This season of Christmas is all about God coming to us, showing up in the flesh.

My hope and prayer this season is that we have a connection with God.

My hope and prayer this season is that we can set aside the distractions, even if just for a little bit, and have a vital encounter with our Lord Jesus.

My hope and prayer this season is that we can feel the Spirit of God stirring our souls toward compassion, and forgiveness, and generosity with our neighbors and brothers and sisters around the world.

My hope and prayer is that God will connect with you in a very real way this Advent and Christmas season.

The church at the center.

And I hope and pray that we can be that church of prayer, because as it turns out the world needs that.

Look at Starry Night one more time.

Sometimes it’s so hidden in the background, I forget it’s there.

But right in the middle of this beautiful painting, right in the middle of all this craziness and chaos that Van Gogh painted, is a church.

Calm, quiet, peaceful, prayerful, little church.

Maybe that’s why this painting always brings me such peace.

Maybe our prayerful attention can bring the world some much needed peace as well.