Keep your head up!

November 29, 2009
Advent 1
Luke 21:25-36
Keep your head up!

How many of you like waiting? Have you ever waited in line for a really long time?
My mother sent me Christmas presents already in the mail, but specifically instructed me NOT to open them. Do you understand what this is like? It’s like putting cookies in front of someone and saying, don’t eat them. This is torture. So I have to wait until Christmas.

We are now entering the season of Advent, which starts a new church year from B to C, from Mark to Luke. What is Advent? (means Coming, Arriving) Advent is the four weeks before Christmas, a time of waiting for Christ to come to the world as a child in a manger at Christmas; and into our daily lives and in word and sacrament; and ultimately to come in the end to bring his Kingdom.

Like we had two weeks ago, we have apocalyptic imagery of distress among nations and the roaring of the seas. We get this amid all the images of 2012 and the Left Behind books, and all the destruction. Two weeks ago, Jesus described these things as “birth pangs,” and now he is using the imagery of a fig tree. Even though it will be “the end of the world as we know it” it is the beginning of something new, Christ is bringing a new world a new way of being, a new birth, new life, a world where pain and suffering is no more. As soon as the fig tree sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near, so you will know the Kingdom of God is near.

We are waiting in eager anticipation and hope…for Christ to bring a new world. Where there is no more suffering no more pain. We can’t wait for Christ to come and bring this new world, like we can’t wait to open the gift that we have just look at until Christmas. We live in the “in-between time” between Christ’s coming as a child, and overcoming death; and the coming of Christ at the end of the world as we know it; we are in the time between the “already” and the “not yet.” How do we live in the in-between time? How do we live in this time of waiting?
Sometimes we wait with our head down.

Jesus says: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap.”
When I look around these days I see a lot of hearts weighed down, especially in these tough times. I see a lot of people whose eyes are heavy with the burdens they face. Our burdens are too much to carry. As I was walking to church a couple days ago, a man was walking with his food in a bag, and the bag broke and his food fell out of his bag.

Sometimes we’re so deep in the struggle, it brings our head down. As Jesus says, it can lead us to dissipation, drunkenness and worry. That is our struggles and our burdens can be destracting and debilitating.
Dissipation – In English it is a wasting or misuse, or in Physics “a process in which energy is used or lost without accomplishing useful work.” Stewardship is putting our time, talent and treasure to good use. Dissipation is squandering it.
Drunkenness – what happens when you get drunk? Your senses, your judgment is dulled. Maybe while we wait we just check out mentally, emotionally, physically. Maybe instead of dealing with the struggles of this life, we just check out. We don’t want to deal with it.
Worry – Worry can paralyze us. It can consume us. We’re constantly worried about the next thing on our schedule. We can be so bogged down in worry that it hinders us from living life to the fullest. Our worry also exacerbates our hope.

What is weighing your heart and your head down this Advent season? What is keep you from living your life in hope and preparation of the Advent, or the coming of Christ?

What Jesus is saying is: Don’t let your heart get weighed down, But he says “be alert at all times” “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Raise your head! … or in contemporary English “keep your head up.” The message today isn’t complicated, four words, “Keep your head up.”
If your burden is too much to carry and your bag splits, and your things are falling everywhere - “keep your head up.” If you’ve had enough, and you just want to escape – “keep your head up.” If you’ve had setbacks disappointments – “keep your head up.” If you are experiencing loss – “keep your head up.” If you have a lot of worries – “keep your head up.”

We are called to live in this period of waiting with our head up. Therefore, this is not a passive waiting during the time of Advent of Christ’s coming, but an active waiting. Author Henri Nouwen said: “Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. … We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God’s footsteps. Waiting for God is an active, alert—yes, joyful—waiting. As we wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we create a community ready to welcome him when he comes.” “It is this joyful expectation of God’s coming that offers vitality to our lives.”

This joyful expectation is what empowers us to keep our head up. “The expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promises to us is what allows us to pay full attention to the road on which we are walking.” We believe the promise: Our redemption is near. This gives us the strength to lift up our heads, and meet our struggles head on. This expectation gives us the strength to work for better world.
Moses and Martin Luther King Jr. went to the mountaintop, they saw the promised land, they saw that their redemption was near, and it gave them strengths to keep their heads up, and in the midst great adversity and struggle, they were sustained by the hope in the promise.

So, this Advent season, let us be sustained by the hope in the promise of Christ’s coming. May this hope fill us with strength to “keep our head up” and to go into a broken world and tell people to “keep their head up.” As you leave church today and go into this Advent season, tell someone to “keep your head up.” In these tough times, those are just the words we need to hear. “Keep your head up.” Amen.