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Advent 1

Jeremiah 33
14 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 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. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

Psalm 25
5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD!

Luke 21
29 Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.


What’s the weather today?

Maybe I’m the only person who thinks this a strange question. Inside my head there is a little voice that shouts “look outside,” or “late autumn, I expect.” That, of course, was before Al Gore ruined the weather when he discovered global warming (and the internet, I’m told). Suddenly weather is unpredictable, we are told, and you can never know from one day to the next.

For the weather Nellies, as I like to call them, there is the Weather Channel. According to legend, the first person who thought of a 24 hour weather channel was laughed from the room. Ditto for the all news channel, and reality TV too. Now we know that in the future there will only be three types of television, and I just named all three.

Weather is unique. You can ignore most of the news, you can turn off the infernal box, but you can’t ignore the weather. You can hide indoors, you can close the drapes, but sooner or later, weather will find you. Even reading your bible:

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.

Most often this is preached as a “sign of the times” passage. The fig tree becomes a trope, a kind of symbolic shorthand for knowing something because the evidence is right before your eyes. In the traditional way of reading this, Jesus points to the green shoots (another trope) as a way to say “don’t you see?”

The traditional interpretation, then, is study the signs of the times and be ready—ready for the return of Jesus and the end of time. I have no issue with this, but I’m wanting to explore another tack.

People have way to much time on their hands. Go online, and you can find compiled lists of everything. It started with static web pages, often devoted to some topic of great interest. With the advent of the wiki, collaborative sites that people can freely edit, this phenomenon has come into it’s own. The first example, of course, is Wikipedia. Search around, however, and you will find the Muppet Wiki (a personal favourite), a NASCAR wiki, and a wiki for every topic under the sun. I’m rolling out a Central wiki this week, so stayed tuned.

Another wiki I discovered is a trope wiki. Built for writers, the site is lists of thousands of examples of words and phrases that writers use to convey something without saying it. An example: “Freud was right” is a popular trope. Rather than saying “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar” or “sometimes there is no hidden meaning.” All of this gets shortened to “Freud was right.” I know I’ve drifted from the fig tree, but bear with me.

"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.” Read the first way, it’s “as soon as they sprout you can see summer is near.” Read the second way, it’s “as soon as they sprout it’s already too late to read the weather, because summer is already here.”

I call this the Matrix interpretation, named for my favourite line in the movie.

LIEUTENANT
I sent two units. They're
bringing her down now.

AGENT SMITH
No, Lieutenant, your men are dead.

Of course they’re not quite dead, because Trinity is still getting warmed up. The line is part of a common trope called “they’re already dead” or “dead man walking.” The meaning is that sometimes we don’t know that the conclusion is so forgone that in effect it has already happened. In other words, “as soon as they sprout it’s already too late to read the weather, because summer is already here.”

So the parable of the fig tree, barely two sentences long, may be deeper than first glance. But this makes sense, when the purpose of parables is to create a world, which we enter, then the world sours, and we are left to find new meaning. So we enter with the first assumption (new leaves indicate the sign of the times), discover that “it’s already too late” (if you’re seeing leaves, it’s already summer), and need to reorient ourselves to this idea of the “signs of the times.”

Sticking with our trope, “it’s already too late,” there is little point to looking for the signs of the times. Once you see then, the times have already arrived. In other words, searching for storm clouds is no substitute for fixing the roof. What does it matter if you can spot the next big calamity, if you are unprepared for its coming.

Advent. I knew there was an Advent sermon in here somewhere. There is no point watching for Christ’s return if you are unprepared for his coming. Searching for signs, hearing of wars and rumours of wars, watching the stars: none of this is preparation for finding room in your heart for Jesus to arrive. Advent is a time when we minor in waiting and major in preparing. And one must not be confused with the other. Buying a broom is no substitute for cleaning your house. That’s metaphor.

***

While I’m in a trope mood, having fun with symbolic language, what about the tree of Jesse? Jeremiah 33 is an echo of another passage, were a righteous branch “shall come forth [as] a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” The Jesse Tree became one of the most popular symbols in the Christian tradition, from stained glass to sculpture and song. The idea that something humble or cut off could produce Israel’s greatest king had powerful control over writers and scholars, including the Gospel writers themselves. Matthew’s lengthy genealogy is an effort to make literal what was likely symbolic, that the reign of Jesus could only be understood in the context of the best king.

You’re thinking ‘best, really?” Infidelity, murder? You got the same David? I do. Mostly, I talking about David the poet. Here is today’s poem:

Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all day long.
Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD,
and of your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth
or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for your goodness' sake, O LORD!

This is the older, wiser David: asking for forgiveness, asking to be led in the way of righteousness, praying that God be merciful to him and to everyone else. See the same trope is here, called “it’s already too late.” David knows his limitations, knows his utter dependence on God’s mercy, knows that even as he prays these words he will fail again. Even though it’s already too late, he longs to be remade, to reflect the glory of God.

This leads to another “it’s already too late” idea, the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Jesse tree is also a resurrection symbol, because both David and the new David (Jesus) will spring forth from the death-like stump and save all of us. Like the shrub in my backyard that I cut to the ground only to have it grow back before I notice, the righteous branch cannot me contained: the desire and the potential for new life is limitless, in the world God made.

Ignore the weather, it’s right outside.
Ignore the signs of the times, the future is here.
Ignore the green shoots, new life is come.
Ignore the stump, the righteous branch is grown.
Ignore the branch, it’s more like a tree.
Ignore the tree, it’s really a cross.
Ignore the cross: look instead to the one willing to die for you and me.

We live in the always and the not yet. We wait for Jesus but it’s already to late. We wait with Jesus, that he may come again, and enter our hearts once more. Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 7:42 AM