Malachi 4:1-6; Romans 15:4-13; St Luke 21:25-36
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
From within the Temple, having just observed the widow who not only put in all she had to live on, but contributed her bios, her very life, Jesus speaks about the coming of the end and the destruction of all these things. The one who loses her life for the sake of Christ and His Gospel, and shall therefore keep it unto eternal life (Lk 9:24) is contrasted with the generation who attempts to save their lives in this world, but loses it for eternity. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul (Mt 16:26).
Like the rest of the world, the entire universe, this Temple would not last. Some marveled at its beauty - and truly is was - but they had evidently forgotten that this was the third sanctuary of the Lord. The Lord rejected Shiloh. Cast down the Temple of Solomon. Even the foundation of this Temple met with grief, since it was the sin of the fathers which had caused the Lord to cast down the previous one (Ezra 3:10-13).
Trusting in the building itself missed the point. Clinging to the things of this world, temporal satisfaction, misses the point. This Temple would be pulled down, so that not one stone would be left upon another. This world will be rolled up like a moth-eaten garment and consumed with fire.
And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves. We enter this Second Sunday in Advent, in the middle of Jesus’ prophecy. These signs will be the breaking of the field order of the world at the advent of the Son of Man. The nations will be in perplexity with no way out. People will be gripped with fear at the very breaking of the world.
It was the Lord God of creation who established the boundaries of the earth, set it upon the seas. He commanded the waves to stop, shutting them (Job 38; Jer 5:22). He set the boundaries they shall not pass (Ps 104). And though He gave the everlasting promise to never again destroy the world with a flood (Gen 9:11), those ignorant of His word shall faint with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world.
For fear is the only response for the godless. They will faint away as though dead, just as the soldiers did at the tomb of Jesus (Mt 28:4). A sense of dread will overtake them, even before the Son of Man appears, because the heavens will rot away and the skies will roll up like a scroll, says Isaiah. All the stars shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leave falling from the fig tree (Is 34:4). They will try to hide, but in vain. All the heavens, which seemed so firm and immovable, will be shaken, and nothing will be left upon anything else.
In that hour they shall see Christ, the Son of Man, returning in power and majesty, with the clouds under His feet, and the earth as His footstool, the same Jesus whom they pierced, still bearing the scars of your redemption, coming in the fullness of His glory.
To all of this, which strikes terror in the heart and sheer dread in both body and soul, our Lord Jesus Christ exhorts you, Straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. For in the midst of such catastrophe and ruin, emerges what JRR Tolkien called the “eucatastrophe” of man’s redemption. He wrote:
The Gospels contain a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy- stories. They contain many marvels - peculiarly artistic, beautiful and moving; “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and at the same time powerful symbolic and allegorical; and among the marvels, the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. [The Parousia, the Return of Christ, is the eucatastrophe of of the Ascension and bodily resurrection of all men.] This story begins and ends in joy. (Tolkien, On Fairy Stories, p83-84; quoted from Parton, Religion on Trial, p101).
Though you view this event from the perspective of the pit of this life, the despair of your sin and works, you can look up in joy and fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the shame of the Cross and now, in His glorious return, is the very joy of the faithful. For He is your redemption, your ransom, from sin and death, from fear and dismay, from damnation and all the forces of evil.
The parable of the fig tree illustrates this further. The fig tree bears fruit twice a year. In late spring/early summer. This is sign that the heat of summer is coming near. Likewise the signs in the sky and sea are not the end, but are a herald of the coming end. The dry season is approaching when the wheat and the tares shall be gathered in and separated. The wheat into the barn and the tares burned. The Judgment and Redemption in the same event.
So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Thus do you watch for them, wait for them, even hasten their coming by praying for God’s kingdom to come to you now, in time, through the preaching of His Word and the giving of His holy Spirit, so that you may be prepared to meet Him when He comes again with His kingdom of glory with great power.
For though everything else shall pass away, nations will rise and fall, generations shall perish, the earth shall melt and the heavens be dissolved, the Word of the Lord shall never pass away. This alone remains and endures forever. St Peter, in quoting the prophet Isaiah, said it this way: All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever (1 Pt 1:24).
That enduring and unfailing Word, dear ones, has been joined to you and you to Him, that you may abide in Him unto the end. For His Word, in and with the water of Holy Baptism, establishes you in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare” (SC IV).
His Word, placed into the mouth of His called and ordained servants, forgives all your sins with such validity and certainty, “even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with you Himself” (SC V).
His Word, joined to bread and wine, effecting His Body and Blood in and under these elements, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, “shows you that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given you through these words” (SC VI).
By faith in His Word you have fellowship in Him and He in you, that you endure and abide in these gifts and promises unto the very end. Watch yourself. Do not let your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life. Rather lift them up unto the Lord in the joy and confidence of His salvation.
Thus does He who enables you to stand in that great day by His Word and gifts, also place upon the holy cross and troubles, by which He exercises you in body and soul, and in true faith and sincere repentance, you put to death the flesh (Ap XV 45-47) and stay awake in a living faith active in love and good works, as St Paul exhorts the Christians in Rome to live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, and to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
And by His grace alone shall you be made to stand on that Day before the Son of Man, as beloved of the Father, welcomed into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
From within the Temple, having just observed the widow who not only put in all she had to live on, but contributed her bios, her very life, Jesus speaks about the coming of the end and the destruction of all these things. The one who loses her life for the sake of Christ and His Gospel, and shall therefore keep it unto eternal life (Lk 9:24) is contrasted with the generation who attempts to save their lives in this world, but loses it for eternity. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul (Mt 16:26).
Like the rest of the world, the entire universe, this Temple would not last. Some marveled at its beauty - and truly is was - but they had evidently forgotten that this was the third sanctuary of the Lord. The Lord rejected Shiloh. Cast down the Temple of Solomon. Even the foundation of this Temple met with grief, since it was the sin of the fathers which had caused the Lord to cast down the previous one (Ezra 3:10-13).
Trusting in the building itself missed the point. Clinging to the things of this world, temporal satisfaction, misses the point. This Temple would be pulled down, so that not one stone would be left upon another. This world will be rolled up like a moth-eaten garment and consumed with fire.
And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves. We enter this Second Sunday in Advent, in the middle of Jesus’ prophecy. These signs will be the breaking of the field order of the world at the advent of the Son of Man. The nations will be in perplexity with no way out. People will be gripped with fear at the very breaking of the world.
It was the Lord God of creation who established the boundaries of the earth, set it upon the seas. He commanded the waves to stop, shutting them (Job 38; Jer 5:22). He set the boundaries they shall not pass (Ps 104). And though He gave the everlasting promise to never again destroy the world with a flood (Gen 9:11), those ignorant of His word shall faint with fear and foreboding of what is coming on the world.
For fear is the only response for the godless. They will faint away as though dead, just as the soldiers did at the tomb of Jesus (Mt 28:4). A sense of dread will overtake them, even before the Son of Man appears, because the heavens will rot away and the skies will roll up like a scroll, says Isaiah. All the stars shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leave falling from the fig tree (Is 34:4). They will try to hide, but in vain. All the heavens, which seemed so firm and immovable, will be shaken, and nothing will be left upon anything else.
In that hour they shall see Christ, the Son of Man, returning in power and majesty, with the clouds under His feet, and the earth as His footstool, the same Jesus whom they pierced, still bearing the scars of your redemption, coming in the fullness of His glory.
To all of this, which strikes terror in the heart and sheer dread in both body and soul, our Lord Jesus Christ exhorts you, Straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. For in the midst of such catastrophe and ruin, emerges what JRR Tolkien called the “eucatastrophe” of man’s redemption. He wrote:
The Gospels contain a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy- stories. They contain many marvels - peculiarly artistic, beautiful and moving; “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and at the same time powerful symbolic and allegorical; and among the marvels, the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. [The Parousia, the Return of Christ, is the eucatastrophe of of the Ascension and bodily resurrection of all men.] This story begins and ends in joy. (Tolkien, On Fairy Stories, p83-84; quoted from Parton, Religion on Trial, p101).
Though you view this event from the perspective of the pit of this life, the despair of your sin and works, you can look up in joy and fix your eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the shame of the Cross and now, in His glorious return, is the very joy of the faithful. For He is your redemption, your ransom, from sin and death, from fear and dismay, from damnation and all the forces of evil.
The parable of the fig tree illustrates this further. The fig tree bears fruit twice a year. In late spring/early summer. This is sign that the heat of summer is coming near. Likewise the signs in the sky and sea are not the end, but are a herald of the coming end. The dry season is approaching when the wheat and the tares shall be gathered in and separated. The wheat into the barn and the tares burned. The Judgment and Redemption in the same event.
So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Thus do you watch for them, wait for them, even hasten their coming by praying for God’s kingdom to come to you now, in time, through the preaching of His Word and the giving of His holy Spirit, so that you may be prepared to meet Him when He comes again with His kingdom of glory with great power.
For though everything else shall pass away, nations will rise and fall, generations shall perish, the earth shall melt and the heavens be dissolved, the Word of the Lord shall never pass away. This alone remains and endures forever. St Peter, in quoting the prophet Isaiah, said it this way: All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever (1 Pt 1:24).
That enduring and unfailing Word, dear ones, has been joined to you and you to Him, that you may abide in Him unto the end. For His Word, in and with the water of Holy Baptism, establishes you in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. “It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare” (SC IV).
His Word, placed into the mouth of His called and ordained servants, forgives all your sins with such validity and certainty, “even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with you Himself” (SC V).
His Word, joined to bread and wine, effecting His Body and Blood in and under these elements, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, “shows you that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given you through these words” (SC VI).
By faith in His Word you have fellowship in Him and He in you, that you endure and abide in these gifts and promises unto the very end. Watch yourself. Do not let your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life. Rather lift them up unto the Lord in the joy and confidence of His salvation.
Thus does He who enables you to stand in that great day by His Word and gifts, also place upon the holy cross and troubles, by which He exercises you in body and soul, and in true faith and sincere repentance, you put to death the flesh (Ap XV 45-47) and stay awake in a living faith active in love and good works, as St Paul exhorts the Christians in Rome to live in harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, and to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
And by His grace alone shall you be made to stand on that Day before the Son of Man, as beloved of the Father, welcomed into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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