Luke 21:25-36
There is something about the modern world that at times feels inextricably trapped in a doom loop. Each day carries the same stresses, each year we get older and more frail, each election cycle rehashes the same arguments, and each war repeats the same intractable problems. Finally, to top it off, physics tells us that eventually entropy will rob the universe of anything interesting. Known as heat death or the big chill, there will be no galaxies, no stars, no planets, and nothing interesting. It can be enough to lead one to agree with Macbeth:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. (Macbeth, Act V, Scene V)
Without ignoring the real problems of despair, the Bible gives us a different lens. In our text this morning, Jesus addresses a time of cataclysm: distressed nations, roaring seas, a sense of foreboding that leads people to collapse, and the powers of heaven being shaken.
There is considerable scholarly debate as to what Jesus is referring to. Some believe it’s the fall of Jerusalem that came about 40 years after Jesus’ death, others that it refers to the Second Coming, and finally there’s a group of people that believe it’s His ascension into heaven after the resurrection. It is impossible for us to truly recover the precise events to which Jesus refers, but it is clear that it’s a time of apocalyptic dread for the world.
This is the point at which the detractors of the Bible and faith in general observe that Jesus was wrong (the world did not end), the Bible is overly superstitious, and it is filled with outdated values and strange stories.
Admittedly, there are some confounding texts. Take, for example, this set of observations about the time of Noah:
A logical mind can find itself in a bog. … If Noah sacrificed two of all the animals, and had taken on two of each (Genesis 6:19), how were there any left? But in the very next chapter, God specifies that Noah take with him seven pairs, male and female, of the clean animals, with the unclean ones (non-cud-chewers) still two. So Mr. and Mrs. Pig were on board but escaped the holocaust on Mount Ararat. Still, how do you slaughter and burn two elephants? Two Tyrannosaurus rex?
It is precisely through such analyses of these biblical stories that we realize the Bible has a different way of embedding truth into our hearts and minds than that of the modern world, and it gives us a means to reinterpret the apparent doom loop of existence.
Rather than plainly stated prose filled with facts and dry history, like a master author,scripture uses story, metaphor, and symbolism to drive fundamental truths not accessible by mere intellectual prowess. It is something like Dr. Seuss:
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.
Perhaps nonsense is not the word I would use for the Bible, but the way Dr. Seuss is using it, it’s not too far off. Sometimes the Bible is meant to break our brain! Take, for example,God’s action of hardening Pharaoh’s heart so that he won’t let Israel go. How can that possibly be Pharaoh’s fault!? Or take the command to Ezekiel: "‘See, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread thereon.’"
And then, in today’s passage, Jesus tells us that moments of distress, collapsing, and the world shaking are not a sign of doom but hope. These are times, as Jesus tells us, to lift our heads, for that is when God will appear. Strife and enmity for the Christian are not signs of despair but rather a sign that God is right around the corner, and it is time to get busy!
In this way, like Dr. Seuss, Christians weave a layer of mystery, wonder, and story over a flat reality to discover something deeper. So that we can discover there is more to this world than sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell reveal, and the endless cycle we feel trapped in.
Gary Eberle, in Sacred Time and the Search for Meaning wrote, (he wrote this before iPhones!):
People treat their daily planners the way monks and nuns used to treat their prayer books. They keep them close at all times. They clasp them with missionary zeal as they head from meeting to meeting. …Like medieval displays of conspicuous piety, the planner announces to the world that you are one whose life and time are worth something.
When life is run by iPhones and calendars, we can easily spiral in the midst of what feels like the proverbial gerbil wheel, peddling fast, going nowhere, and then suddenly tragedies are thrown into the midst of it; even the wheel comes to a screeching halt.
To counter the sense of meaninglessness and despair, people of faith have used imagination and art to help us look through the wrong end of the telescope. Eberle continues,offering insight by explaining an alternative path to setting your clock by your calendar:
…the intricate Celtic knots of the Book of Kells invited us to contemplate the interrelationship between the world of time and the world of eternity.
The Bible is no mere history book, it explains the meaning of life, and ancient monks illuminated scripture with symbolism of eternity to help our minds and our souls feel the rhythm of the divine.
Listen to this explanation of the Celtic Knot, ubiquitous in this book:
The knot is composed of a single strand in a closed loop, an endless knot. These knots are studied not just by mathematicians but also by illusionist artists like Escher. The strand of the endless knot interlaces a path to pass above and below itself until it returns to the starting point. Irish people saw the constant interlacing as the physical and the spiritual crossing of paths, expressing permanence, and the endurance of life, love and faith.
This is the gift of faith and scripture. Like those Celtic knots, the Bible ushers us back into Kairos time, time filled with meaning, especially the stories of Christmas, whereas iPhones add structure without underlying meaning, just tasks to complete. The time does not add up to fulfillment or purpose, just endless tasks from one to the next, and it may lead us to feel as if Shakespeare was right!
Jesus’ command to lift our heads and look to the heavens is a gift, for it reminds us there is a purpose and plan, and if we keep our eyes peeled, we will echo Elizabeth Barrett Browning:
Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware.
Each December, we reweave the Christmas story to remind us that earth is crammed with heaven, and life is a fire with God.
But we must be prepared. Jesus tells us people will faint from fear. Fainting is Jesus’ way of telling us that if we just look at this world through its horizontal lens, we could be overwhelmed by what is broken—in our own lives and in the world. But if we look at it through the wrong end of the telescope, we can find meaning in every corner. This is not a facile optimism but a bold-faced resolve, and rather than weakening our spirit, such times redouble our tenacity, reminding us of where our hope lies.
When God became human in a time of great persecution, the vision of the infant child isthe hope that one life can be enough to fix all of us. Lift your heads! See the star and follow it all the way to the manger.
Amen.
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