Advent 1 C

Jeremiah 33:14-16, Psalm 25:1-10, 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13, Luke 21:25-36

Isn’t it nice to finish up a long holiday weekend, and the unofficial beginning of the winter holiday season, by going to church and hearing a nice reading from scripture about the end of the world? Distress, confusion, and fainting from fear and foreboding?

Actually, it doesn’t matter when — it’s never easy to hear these apocalyptic texts from the Bible that talk about the end of the world. It just seems so — weird. Why did they talk about that so much?

It’s ironic, because as modern humans, we actually do have the ability and amount of firepower to end all life on the planet. We’re just a few nuclear codes away from actually bringing about the end of the world — but we don’t go around talking about it like some of these biblical authors do. In fact, for the most part, we try not to even think about.

I’d guess most of you were not thinking about the End of Days as you took your place in the pews this morning. But then right as we start gearing up for a nice Christmas season with familiar sights and Silent Nights, we get Jesus talking about the roaring of the sea, the heavens being shaken, and the end of the world.

Yikes. One thing that comforts me as I try to deal with these jarring biblical texts is to remember a quote often attributed to Martin Luther:

“If I knew that tomorrow was the end of the world, I would plant an apple tree today.”

This is an amazing thing to say for a couple reasons:

• no fear or anxiety
• not “what to be afraid of tomorrow” but “how to live today”
• this world matters
• what we do in this world matters to God who so loves the cosmos

But then again, you might wonder about even that when Jesus says:

“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.” (Luke 21.32–33 NRSV)

Why care for the earth or the people on it when it’s all going to pass away some day anyways? And more troubling…Jesus seemed to think the end was coming in that very same generation.

Well, in a sense, every generation faces the end of the world. Everything that we buy, we will someday lose. Everything that we practice, we will someday forget. Everything that we build will someday break down. And that includes ourselves. Everything that has ever come together, in heaven or on earth, will someday come apart — except for the word of God…but that’s it, Jesus says. Nothing else will last.

Why plant a tree if everything passes away? Why do anything? There’s no point.

Unless…what we do and who we are is planted in the word of God which does stand forever. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” If we are joined to the Word of God, we can be a part of something that doesn’t ever break down or expire. And in Jesus — in the One who says, ‘be alert. Pay attention’ — we are invited to join ourselves to the Word.

With everything that comes and goes in this life, it’s a good thing to have roots. It’s a good thing to be tied to something that lasts. Not something of our doing, but of God’s doing. It is good to be planted in the promise of God who makes all things new, even as the world is crashing down around us.

With roots like that, there is a freedom not to be afraid. And even if the world was ending tomorrow, you could afford to plant a tree today.

What does planting trees look like for us?

• guess it could be planting a literal tree
• it looks like sitting and praying beside the dying even at the very end
• it looks like standing up for things and people that the rest of the world says do not matter
• it looks like caring for our neighbors, even if they have nothing to offer in return

Some of the trees we plant will last longer than we will. The children we bless will outlive us, too. As a congregation, together, we have a chance to bless children, families, adults, our community. We have a mission to connect ourselves and others to the Gospel that does not pass away.

So despite the changing world around us, and despite our own failings, we can be about the business of hearing and doing God’s Word. And our responses to the Word will be the trees that we plant.

So when Jesus tells us to be alert for the end of the world, I say we hear it like Martin Luther did: without fear or anxiety. Without running away or giving up. But believing in God’s Word and then planting ourselves in it, so that everything we do can be filled with the grace of God.

Let’s start planting trees like there is no tomorrow.