Looking for the Fig Tree (November 28, 2021)

Well, we have made it through another year. You might be thinking that we have another full month to go before we can say that we have made it through the year and you would be correct in a sense. But what I am talking about is the church year. Last Sunday was the end of the liturgical year known as year B. Today begins year C of the liturgical calendar. It is also (if you have not already figured it out) the first Sunday of Advent. Now, there are many who have been in church long enough to know what Advent is, but are still confused as to why it is not a part of the Christmas season. Let me take a moment to explain the differences.

Advent comes from the Latin word meaning “coming” or “arrival”. The color for Advent is usually purple signifying the royalty of Christ and his kingdom. It is a time of preparation for the Christmas season that begins with Christmas day and goes through the twelve days of Christmas that ends in Epiphany. Advent is a time of reflection and penitence similar to Lent, a time when we reflect on the coming of Jesus as the Christ child but also as the coming king. Donald Wilson Stake says this about Advent: “Advent is a time to remember that we wait also for Christ to come again. We are still sinners in need of redemption. The whole world longs for peace and justice We continue to look for Jesus Christ to come and save us” (The ABCs of Worship, pg. 6). Fleming Rutledge subtitled her book Adventas The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. We can get so caught up in the holiday season that we forget about Advent and the season of reflection. We can be so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the “season of giving” (as if one can only give during the time between Thanksgiving and the end of the year) that we miss the time to slow down and remember why we are celebrating. Oh, I know that we remember that Jesus came as a baby. No, I am talking about the coming of Jesus as the king and what that means to all of us.

Our text for today takes that head on. Here we do not find any story of angels, of Mary sweetly smiling, of shepherds running to tell the story of the angels or of a baby quietly lying in a manger. No, what we have this time is an adult Jesus telling his disciples what to be on the look out for as the kingdom is coming. There will be signs that make people tremble and be in fear. There will be the raging of the seas and the land. As other gospels tell the same story there will be wars and rumors of wars, there will be famines and other bad things happen to the world around them. Then, Jesus says, they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds. When all of this is happening, there is hope. The disciples are to look to the sky with the other followers of Jesus because their redemption is coming. The one whom they are looking for will be coming back to rule in the place that he told them that he would.

Then Jesus tells them a parable that they are to watch the fig trees and the other trees around them. When they bud and the leaves begin to come on the trees then one knows that summer is just around the corner. That warmer weather and longer days are approaching, a sign of good things to come. When they see these signs, they will know that the kingdom is near. Then he gives them a word of hope. He says “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place[1]”. “This generation will not pass away” would have given the disciples a thrill. They would see the things taking place, they would be a part of it all. What a time to be alive.

But then something happens. There is no return of Jesus as soon as those in the audience were expecting. There was no coming of the kingdom in the time anticipated. Those who were there were waiting and watching always in preparation for the return of Jesus. Doing the work of the kingdom and keeping alert for the coming of the king.

N.T. Wright in his book Advent for Everyone: A Journey through Luke has the reader go back in time to 58 CE and see how the Christians were doing. He tells of the concerns that they would have had and the trials that they were going through. How the news of the spread of the gospel was going by the work of Paul and others. But he also tells of the weariness of those waiting. Here are his own words for this passage of scripture:

How easy it was for Jerusalem Christians to become weary! If the gospel was producing exciting results, it was doing so across the sea, and they only heard about it every once in a while, and didn’t always like what they heard (Gentiles claiming to worship Jesus but not keeping the law of Moses—that sort of thing). Their lives dragged on day by day. Friends asked them, sometimes unkindly, when this Messiah of theirs was going to reappear, and could he please hurry up because much more of these Romans banging around would bring on a world war, and anyway look what’s happened to the price of bread, and if Jesus had really been the Messiah, why has nothing much happened since? Not much use to say that when you met for worship the sense of Jesus’ presence and love was so real you could almost reach out and touch him. Not much of an answer to say that you had been told to be patient. Thirty years is a long time. All you could do would be to retell the stories, including the sayings of Jesus such as you find in this passage. Hang on. Be alert. Prop your eyes open—physically, perhaps, spiritually for sure. Pray for strength to meet whatever comes. The son of man will be vindicated, and when he is you want to be on your feet.[2]

Wright then takes us back to the present day and has us look at various other places in the world: New York, San Francisco, Bujumbura, San Salvador, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, or any place where Christians are meeting or might be meeting. He asks us to think about how they may be feeling when people ask why they still believe. After all, things are as bad as they were when the early Christians were looking for Jesus. And here we are still looking for him today. Those who ask why want us to become like the world, to be more like them. Wright says, “They want to load you with the cares of this life; and, as Jesus warned, with dissipation and drunkenness, literal and metaphorical.[3]” And through it all we continue to look and wait. Sometimes it feels like we have to prop our eyes open like they did in the old cartoons with toothpicks to make sure that we do not fall asleep. Wright again says this: “This is what it’s about: not an exciting battle, with adrenalin flowing and banners flying, but the steady tread, of prayer and hope and scripture and sacrament and witness, day by day and week by week. This is what counts; this is why patience is a fruit of the spirit. Read the story again. Remind one another of what Jesus said. Encourage one another. And keep awake.[4]”

Fleming Rutledge has said in several of her sermons on Advent that Advent is dark. Not only is it a time of waiting and waiting and waiting when it seems that nothing will be happening, a time when all the bad things around us are continuing, but it also occurs in the darkest time of the year. As we begin Advent the days get shorter and the nights get longer. We want to crawl into bed and not get out until spring. It is a dark time. It seems that it will go on forever.

But there is hope. Today we lit the first candle and though the world is dark and the times are dark, we are reminded of the one who it is said that the darkness would not overcome it. In the dark is one light no matter how small. That is the light that keeps us going. That is the light that keeps us doing the things of the kingdom. That is the light that drives us to do justice for those who are oppressed and the needy. It is the light that tells us to care for others in a world where we are told to live only for ourselves, that we should only look out for old number one. It is the light of hope. The hope that we are not alone. The hope that Jesus will come back. The hope that things will be better not because of anything that we do, but because of what God has done, is doing and will do.

There is hope in the scripture for today. Let me read it again: Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.[5]

This world will pass away but the words of Jesus will not. Look for the leaves on the fig tree. Look with hope in this time of darkness because the light will overcome it. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]Wright, Tom. Advent for Everyone: A Journey through Luke. London: SPCK, 2018. Print. [3]Wright, Tom. Advent for Everyone: A Journey through Luke. London: SPCK, 2018. Print. [4]Wright, Tom. Advent for Everyone: A Journey through Luke. London: SPCK, 2018. Print. [5] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.