Sermon Tone Analysis
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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...
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