Heads Up! Don't Miss the Good Stuff

Full disclosure: Many of you who read Question Marks know that I’m a retired United Methodist pastor, ordained years ago as an elder- doing the usual preaching and teaching, weddings and funerals, presiding at the sacraments of baptism and eucharist, and nudging people out of the sanctuary and into the community to serve others.

[* And, just to be clear, if you’re not comfortable with “God language”, that’s fine; sometimes I’m not either. Maybe we both trust a bigger-than-ourselves power of love that’s impossible to name? That’s what I mean when I write God.]

What matters most to me is this: if you say you follow Jesus, the real calling is to try to live and love like Jesus. That’s a lot harder than it sounds, isn’t it?

It gets messy because plenty of people who claim the label “Christian” sidestep that love, while plenty who’d never use the label pour out healing, hope-filled love every day.

And that’s how love works.

In the Christian tradition, today is first Sunday of Advent, the first of four Sundays leading up to Christmas. The word advent means “to come” and the season of advent is a holy season in the life of the church. And even for many non-believers and skeptics it’s a special time. It’s a season of nostalgia, of course, and it’s a season of festivities and gatherings, and gift-giving and celebration.

But it’s more than that - it’s a season of anticipation. It’s a practice of holy anticipation, of watching and waiting, because God/ Love/ Goodness/ Light/ The Holy Fabulosity is doing something spectacular. And if we don’t pay attention, we might miss it.

When that infant whose birth we celebrate at Christmas - the baby born in a barn to young unwed unhoused parents - when that infant grows to adulthood, he challenges the religious and political structures, which leads to his execution.

And still, his life is all about hope:

This is Jesus, talking to his followers – and this comes late in his ministry. This is, in fact, the final teaching moment before the chief priests and Judas hatch their plot to kill Jesus. And when you read through this passage, really all of Chapter 21 in Luke’s gospel, you sense the urgency, the immediacy. We feel the foreboding, this sense that something big is about to happen. The stories that he tells become more dramatic, and there seems to be more at stake, and you can really feel the energy rising, and then, according to this account written by Luke, Jesus just puts it all out there, and says, Listen, there will be a time when everything seems chaotic and unhinged.

This is what he said then, and this is what he says now:

“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 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.”

~ Luke 21:25-36

Jesus spoke these words 2000 years ago. But they’re as relevant today as they were then.

There will be signs, he says, 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. Does that sound familiar?

^“People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.” Does that sound familiar?

And then he says the most amazing thing. In the face of all this distress and confusion and foreboding and fainting in fear, Jesus doesn’t say, Lay low.

He doesn’t say, Hunker down.

He doesn’t say, Build a fortress and stockpile your guns.

He doesn’t say, Brace yourselves for the worst.

No. He says: Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

Stand up. Stand tall. Raise your heads. Lift your gaze. Help is on the way. Salvation is near. Heads up!

And then, to really make the point in the most ironic way, he says, Look at the fig tree. Y’all, it’s not like the fig tree was rare, or majestic, or magical. It’s just a common little tree.

Look at the fig tree. Look at all the trees. When the leaves change, you know a new season is coming.

I think if Jesus were here in the lowcountry, he’d say, When the pollen covers everything, and your eyes are watering and your head aches, stand up and take a deep breath because a new season is coming, new life is on the horizon.

Stand up. Look up. Look around. Look at the trees. Pay attention.

Attention taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.
It presupposes faith and love.
Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.
~ Simon Weil

I don’t know about you, but I need to hear this word today. I need to hear this word every day. Because I have a tendency to focus on the hard stuff, the scary stuff, the sad stuff. Sometimes I get a little tunnel visiony and all I can see are the challenges and the threats and the losses and the storm clouds.

Sometimes we let the the hard stuff get the lion’s share of our attention.

So look up. Look up from your scrolling, look up from your shopping list, look up from your spreadsheets and your calendar. Look up from your absolutely legitimate concerns about everything.

Thank goodness for the reminder to get up, and look around, and pay attention.

Thank goodness for a heads-up. Because right in the thick of the distress – personal distress or shared distress, in the grip of fear and foreboding, in the chaos and uncertainty of life – for any of us – for all of us – this is exactly when we need a heads up.

This is exactly the moment we need to lift our heads and lift our eyes, and lift our hearts and watch for the presence of the holy in every moment.

Advent is a season of anticipation – and it helps if we pay attention.

And we need reminding – or at least I do – because distractions are everywhere.

And so Jesus tells us to pay attention. Stand up! Lift up your heads! Pay attention!

HEADS UP! he says.

Heads up! Because your redemption is near: Love has come, and Love is coming. In all of this, Love is with you. Love is among us. We are not alone. And Love prevails.

Look. Look at that scrappy old fig tree. Look at all the trees. Life is unfolding in the very trees, and in the birds of the air. Don’t miss that.

Look around. Pay attention to the people in your life. Maybe God is loving you through them. Don’t miss that.

Maybe God is loving them through you. Don’t miss that either. Heads up!

Look at – and look for - the power of courage and compassion. Heads up! Don’t miss the chance to be brave and kind and encouraging.

Look at – and look for - the work of forgiveness – that stunning and impossible and miraculous work of God’s love – for all of us, again and again. Oh, hey, heads up! Don’t miss that.

And look within yourself. Pay attention to the ways you attend to your spirit and your soul. You are made in the image of Love – don’t neglect that. Pay attention.

When life is hard and the world is a mess, Jesus says Heads up, Love is on the way, Love is here and now.

This is an extraordinary claim of hope when the world seems to be sliding into hopelessness.

This is a word of hope for any of us, for all of us, who struggle sometimes with the state of the world around us – or the shape of the heart within us.

And more than ever, we need this gift of hope.

We’ve had years of unsettling chaos - a pandemic, an insurrection, economic instability, wars, fires, hurricanes, division and fear. So much fear. We’ve lost dreams and jobs, and we’ve lost people we love. Lots of them. We’re anxious about our health and the climate and the justice system and human rights. And sometimes hope seems out of reach, out of sight.

Author Anne Lamott says Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.

Now is the time, Jesus says, to raise your head and look around. This is the time – our redemption is on the way. Heads up.

I hope today, wherever you are on your journey, and whatever you believe or don’t believe or question about how God/Love/ Holy Fabulosity works in the world, I hope you choose to stand up and look up and know that Love has the last word.