Jeremiah 33:14-16 Psalm 25:1-9 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36
Ten years ago I was attending meetings on a regular basis preparing for Y2K. The hospital where I worked, was working with city, county, and state officials as we developed a plan to care for our area’s sick and vulnerable for weeks without the benefit of public utilities. Additional generators had been procured and arrangements had been made for tanker trucks filled with diesel to be on standby. By this time ten years ago, we had backup plan upon backup plan so that we could do our jobs. There were even plans to truck in water, if the city water tanks ran dry before power was restored to the equipment needed for purifying and pumping clean water into the city’s distribution system.
Sixteen years earlier, just after I started work at the hospital, I was about to leave at the end of the day when the power went out and I was alerted to an emergency meeting in the executive conference room. I arrived in time to hear the engineer explain that construction work next door had caused water from the flash flood we were experiencing to flow directly into the hospital’s electrical panels. One after another the circuits were being shorted out and switched over to emergency power. The problem was that the emergency circuit panels were in the same room and we didn’t know if they would short out as well. Within minutes, we had our assignments to prepare for a total loss of power and the ambulance service and other area hospitals had been alerted we would divert all emergencies. All life support equipment had their own battery backup and a team went to determine how much time we had before those patients would need to be transported to other hospitals. As a social worker, I was in the general labor pool and sent to Wal-Mart to pick up every flashlight and battery they had in stock. They would be waiting at customer service upon my arrival.
The hospital’s disaster planning demonstrated that day it was prepared to response to the unanticipated – and fortunately we never lost auxiliary power. Fortunately, too, Y2K was no more eventful than any other January 1st celebration.
Being prepared takes planning, and it also requires flexibility. Having thought about the possibilities of caring for patients when power was lost, made it possible to respond quickly – but realizing the hospital auxiliary power was also in jeopardy required the administrative staff to improvise. Plans to evacuate in the event of a tornado hitting the building were quickly modified and everyone was on standby – and by everyone I mean everybody: all the emergency personnel in a two county area and every hospital.
In our church year, Advent is our season of preparation. It is a season of anticipation. As we begin this season, our readings direct us to prepare for the second coming of Christ. A time that many refer to as the End of Time – the apocalypse, the rapture. In our reading from Jeremiah, we heard:
The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of
It was a promise of a lasting kingdom, lead by a descendant of King David. And for people in captivity, they thought of it as being restored to power in the Promised Land. Jeremiah continues,
In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days
Jeremiah’s prediction of the
Our Kingdom would be filled with good homes,
In Luke, Jesus says to his disciplines:
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.
Here, Jesus is alluding to the End Time, the time that some believe to be when Christ will come and take the righteous to heaven, leaving behind those who have failed to prepare for his second coming.
Jesus goes on to say: “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.” This verse was particularly troubling for early Christians who saw generation after generation die and yet Jesus had not descended upon a cloud. Their faith had to be flexible to survive this unexpected delay in the second coming. Perhaps Luke reported the story wrong. His eye witness sources misunderstood what Jesus said and misquoted Jesus.
Does it really matter? Is it necessary for every single verse to be factual – if so we’re in trouble with this one, the End did not come before a generation past. If, however, the truth told in the Bible is not found in the detail, then the End Time takes a back seat to what I believe to be the true message of Jesus, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with [distractions] . . . drunkenness and the worries of this life . . . Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to . . . stand before the Son of Man.”
The message could even be shortened into two words, “be prepared.” Some would add for judgment, “be prepared for judgment,” but I would not. Jesus says here not to let our hearts be weighted down with distractions and worries. If I live my life in fear for what is to come or in fear of judgment, I am distracted by worries. Yet, if I live my life in anticipation, I will be prepared to face adversity, such as a flood, power outage, or another disaster, and I will be prepared to experience joy – the immeasurable joy found only in God’s presence. It is the joy of a new creation, the joy we experience in the birth of child – the birth of the new found freedom that comes with forgiveness. The gift of God that allows us to start afresh and work to make a positive difference in this life.
As we begin this Advent season, let us understand the importance of preparing our hearts for what is to come. Let us not be “of this world” and proclaim, as I read in a headline in yesterday’s paper, “It’s now Christmas Season, Officially.” This is the season of Advent, of preparation, of anticipation. Now, to be fair to the writer of the column, Sonny Garrett, Garrett was calling our attention to the “real reason” for the holidays as something other than “selling cars, despite what the commercials say.” He said in his article, “I’m really not cynical about the Christmas season. It’s the holiday season that bugs me. Christmas is a joyous time, an occasion when we Christians can mark and honor the birth of a savior.” Garrett needed to go just a little bit further and note the actual start of Christmas. In our church year, Christmas begins December 25th and goes through January 6th.
This is the season of Advent; it is a very important time in our church year in which we must prepare ourselves. So let us use this time and do as Christ told us to do and “be on guard” that our hearts not be weighted down by all the distractions. Let us use this time to prepare ourselves to receive Christ. In the name of one God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
