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First Sunday of Advent

Luke 21
29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”


Looking around, I think all the generations are here.

The G.I. Generation, you know who you are, you stormed across Europe, defeated tyranny, and laid the groundwork for modern Canada. Your quote is from Marshall McLuhan, who said “on spaceship earth, there are no passengers, only crew.”

The Silent Generation, you know who you are, you remember the Dirty Thirties, you watched your older brothers and sisters go off to war, and you came of age when no was was embarrassed to have a V8 under the hood. Your quote is from Bobby Kennedy, who said “I was the seventh of nine children. When you come from that far down you have to struggle to survive.”

Baby Boomers, you know who you are. You were going to change the world, and for a time it seemed you did. Then the 60’s became the 70’s and you got on like the rest. Your quote is from Timothy Leary who suggested you “turn on, tune in, drop out.”

Generation X, you know who you are. You have lived in the shadow of the outsized cohort ahead of you, and have generally made do with less: less money, less opportunity, less hype. Your quote is from Douglas Coupland: “I want to hear some small moment from your life that proves you're really alive.”

Millennials, we’re not sure who you are, yet. You seem idealistic like your Boomer parents, but the world is more complex and the stakes are higher. You will actually live with the consequences of the previous generation’s decisions. You don’t get a quote, only a cool title: “digital natives.”

And then Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Funny thing, generations. In our day, we tend to imagine that generations define us, give shape and meaning to our lives, allow us to understand ourselves in relation to others. We have a sense that generations are somehow fixed, and even as people age they simply become older versions of their caricature.

And what I’ve shared only scratches the surface. Social scientists (like Strauss and Howe) have taken this pattern of generational change and projected it backwards to the Middle Ages, arguing that the same themes (and the corresponding response) exist over the centuries. Everything old is new again.

Yet, a generation can also mean everyone alive at a certain moment. In my summary I didn’t get to Generation Z, that unnamed group born in the last decade. Some are already calling them the “Homeland Generation,” defined by the aftermath of 9/11, but I would suggest that that describes all of us. If generation means shared experience, we all seem to be having one these days.

So it seems that Jesus meant ‘alive at the same moment’ when he said “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” These things are described in some detail in the first part of Luke 21, mostly M for Mature and mostly out of sync with the yuletide mood we try to create in the weeks before the big day.

In many ways, it reaches back to the Sunday we welcomed the Cohenites, and we pondered the ‘world-ending’ nature of baptism. The new life in Christ that we celebrate with water and the Spirit is the same new life that anticipates a new age, except one happens with smiling parents standing by and one happens when the ‘heavenly bodies will be shaken’ and ‘heaven and earth will pass away.’

We have cause to be alarmed, but not for the reasons you think. Part of the alarm we feel comes from the vague sense that we already know about this, that the outline of the end is happening in our time. And even if you haven’t read the Hal Lindsey classic “The Late, Great Planet Earth” or the sequel “The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon” you know that some contend we are living in the last times.

Lindsey and others were really just a product of their generation. When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, an entire ‘end of the world’ industry was started, with all the pieces seeming to fall into place. But what they failed to mention was that is is one of those recurring themes through history, with ‘wars and rumours of wars’ being a human constant, along with the threat of an end.

What was underneath “The Late, Great Planet Earth” and the like was the same ‘old-time religion’ that defined the generation before 1948. Citing the end of the world was just a more urgent and sophisticated version of the alter-call, giving your heart to Jesus before it was too late.

And while there is nothing inherently wrong with giving your heart to Jesus before it’s too late, it does point to a worldview that is more concerned with the state of an individual’s soul and less about the Kingdom of God. If we imagine ourselves as a collection of individuals having a common experience (a generation) then we are less able to see ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom, a collective that belongs to God.

Let me explain. Before there were mainline and evangelical churches, we Protestants were mostly one—different traditions—but the same approach to the world. Our task was to reform the nations, and in doing so help bring about the Kingdom of God. The evangelicals broke away, just about a century ago, and decided that each believer was basically on their own, waiting for the final judgment. Somehow they had better PR, since this version of Christianity is better known and seems to live in the popular imagination. When you say to someone “I go to church,” this is the type of church people assume we attend.

I had occasion to hear the theologian N.T. Wright speak this week, and he made a compelling case moving beyond the Christian stereotype and reclaiming our mission to the nations, to find our voice once more and speak to this generation with all the urgency the Gospel demands.

Dr. Wright began his talk with this: “The God who made heaven and earth intends to draw them together at the last.” He argued that the Christian story was never about saved souls making their way to heaven, but the creation of a new Jerusalem here on earth. When Jesus said “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” he was expressing his entire project, that God’s realm and our realm become one.

So how does it begin? Wright argues our story unfolds in five acts. It begins with creation, then disaster as we are forced from the garden, then the call of Israel in two unlikely people—Abraham and Sarah. Next is the sending of Jesus, including his death and resurrection, and finally the time after Pentecost, the time defined by the work of the disciples. According to Wright we are in this last stage, disciples acting for God in the world, seeking to ‘put to rights’ all that is wrong.

And Jesus said: “this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Generation Disciple, then, continues down to today. We are in that last age, not in the sense that the world will end and some will get a reward, but in the sense that the ongoing project continues, where the distinction between heaven and earth will pass away, and what will emerge will be the fulfillment of God’s desire for all generations.

So we find ourselves outside of time once more. We are living in the Acts of the Apostles but we are waiting for the Christ to be born. We are Easter people, but we wait for the birth of a Saviour. We are living in the last times, but what follows will be an eternity with God, “on earth, as it is in heaven.” May God bless us as we wait. Amen.

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 6:15 AM