First Sunday of Advent - What the Fig Tree Knows

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

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The Return of Christ

We have been preaching the end of the world for almost 2000 years. Maybe a lot longer if you add in those times we read about in the prophets of the Old Testament. We either side with Peter, who says God is patient and is taking His time so that everyone has an opportunity to be saved, or we side with John of Patmos who forgets everyone else and simply says "Come Lord Jesus". For us, it probably depends upon the day.

But I have a bigger question than “When is Jesus coming back?”. My question is, “What do we do when we find out?”. If you knew for sure that Jesus was coming back three weeks from this Tuesday, 24 days away from today, what would you do? Would you go to work the next day? Would I, as your pastor, pack my bags and spend my last days with friends and family back home? Would we pull out our bucket lists and try to experience and do as many things as possible before this world ended?

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I don't like cult leaders or Christian leaders who build churches around their own image and personalities. However, cult leaders are so much better than us at helping people figure out what to do at the end of the world. They have checklists.

1. Cash out all your resources and put your money in a communal bank account run by the leader.

2. Make travel plans to go to our sacred place of worship, and bring a couple of changes of clothes because we are going to be here for a while.

3. Say your goodbyes to those who are not coming with you.

The lists usually get longer and weirder, but you understand what the expectations are. There are specific plans of orchestrating an event for the end, when Jesus comes back, or some other result happens, we are all going to be huddled together singing a particular song, and everyone will feel very spiritual. All this while the world burns around them full of lost souls. Vulnerable people will fall for this.

Some go on an evangelism crusade, telling everyone they find to "Turn or burn", trying to goad them into the Kingdom of God by fear. It works for a moment or two. Again, vulnerable people will jump into the water, pray whatever prayer you ask them to, sign any commitment, stand up and testify that they are saved, speak in tongues, dance in the aisle, yell, and shout, and faint, and do whatever they have to do to not be frightened anymore. And for a few of them, that will be their introduction to a relationship with Jesus. The rest will slowly wander away as the fear and excitement subside, and they realize the church doesn't know who they are. They won't feel vulnerable anymore and will walk away from a church and a God they don't feel they need.

Those cult kinds of responses are very practical and they gather people together who feel spiritually weak. We hear about those responses and sometimes wish that we had that kind of excitement in our own congregations, maybe with a few less weird things involved. If we could get people anxious and afraid enough, maybe we would all feel more spiritual. I wonder what that says about us.

Advent is the season that we remember both the beginning and the end. Every end makes way for a new beginning. The end of this world makes way for the New Creation. The end of our lives in this world allows us to step into eternal life with God. As one harvest ends, another planting season begins.

We prepare for the advent of Christ by growing closer in our relationship with Him.

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Jesus and the End

The apostles Peter, John, and Paul all wrote about the end. Luke did as well. None of them led like cult leaders. They did not have specific instructions about what to do at the end of the world. Even as we read their words they received from Jesus, the instructions are not a checklist of things to do to prepare or to respond when the end comes. Instead, Jesus teaches that we should be aware of what is going on at all times, as if He expects us to somehow know what to do.

That can be frustrating and confusing. Jesus points to signs in the sky, among the sun, moon, and stars. Wise men from the East, scholars of those heavenly bodies followed a star to Israel, but none of the Jewish scholars had or used that knowledge. Nowhere in the scripture does God teach or command us to learn astronomy or astrology, and for all the pseudo-science that those wise men used, it came down to seeing a star out of place and on the move. So they followed it.

The seas rage and the heavens shake, waking everybody up from their normal routines, and then the Son of man comes in a cloud with power and glory. These words tickle our imaginations, and thousands of books have been written, movies made, to try to elaborate on exactly how this could look. This is the part you have heard described as the end of the world, the part we try to figure out when things are happening. When we do figure out the timeline though, we don't know what to do about it. There is not a checklist with instructions for the end of the world.

What does Jesus tell us? He just tells us, when we notice these things happening, our response is to "Look up."

That's not much to go by. I suppose it is hard to look up to the sky from a basement bunker, or hiding under a desk somewhere, but beyond that, Jesus doesn't give us much to work with here.

The Fig Tree

Then He takes a different approach and tells a parable about a fig tree.

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For most of my life, I have been perplexed about the connection between a fig tree and knowing when the end of the world will come. I don't get it. Jesus doesn't tell us to watch the fig trees. He tells us that they just know themselves when different seasons arrive, and we should too. This is not the ""behold, I come as a thief in the night"" kind of motif. Jesus says, there willl be a lot of commotion. You will be able to tell when the time is near.

And that's the trick. Those who don't know Jesus, won't see Him because they will be distracted by all the commotion going on around them. They will know the world is on its way out, but they will miss the Savior. And really, is that any different from the first time Jesus came into this world? The wise men knew. The angels told some shepherds, and Joseph and Mary. But the rest of the world was too busy grumbling about travels for a census and paying taxes to a ruler they did not want. They missed Jesus altogether.

But the fig tree wouldn't miss Jesus. He tells us the fig tree would get it right. Why?

A fig tree, and most other plants, have a relationship with the sun. It is their source of light, food, warmth, and life. The sun gives them life and they bear fruit in their seasons as the heavens provide that light and rain. The fig tree responds to the weather gradually getting warmer and wetter. It responds by opening up its leaves and lifting them up toward the sunlight. And then it takes that sunlight and begins the process of bearing fruit.

It does it every year, because that is what it is made to do. It responds not because it has secret knowledge but because it has a singular purpose. It knows the source of its life and it knows what it is supposed to do with that life it is given. That is what the fig tree knows.

Watching and Growing

Do you know the source of your life? Do you know what it means to bear fruit for Jesus?

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When God enters into our broken world, there is almost an allergic reaction to Him. While we know and some days desire to come present ourselves before Him, like the servants with the ten talents, showing Jesus what we have done with the life He gave to us, sometimes our fear and worry kicks in and we just want to run and hide.

Whether that means literally hiding away, or covering our lives with busyness, drunkenness, dissipation - filling our lives with fruitless spending, that is not following the example of the fig tree. Our worries about what could happen keep God at a distance for us, something that is for someone else who has more knowledge or ability. What could you and I, just ordinary people possibly do to help God, especially in this crazy world we live in today?

Then I think of that basketball trophy I won in 8th grade. Most improved player. That took a lot of hard work. I may still be the worst basketball player in the room here today, but you should have seen where I came from. Knowledge is not the key here. Perseverance is. We have to keep growing toward God, and there is no one that can do that for us. Our disciple-makers can model and encourage and give practical advice, but they cannot do it for us. We have to have our own relationship with God. We need others around us to model and encourage us, but it is our choice to receive the light and bear fruit, or to stay dug down deep, asleep in our roots.

Brothers and Sisters, the light of Christ has come into our world. Will you stand up and receive Him? Are you preparing to grow and bear fruit for Jesus?"

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