01 December 2024 - Advent 1, Year C

Theme

All of our Scripture readings this week speak about righteous living. Jeremiah reminds the Israelites of God’s promises to send a just and righteous king to rule over them. Psalm 25 is a prayer asking God to lead David in righteous ways. The Thessalonians reading contains a prayer from the apostle Paul, thanking God for the way that the Thessalonian church conducts themselves and asking God to continue strengthening their hearts with holiness. Finally, our gospel reading consists of Jesus encouraging the listeners to be prepared for the moment when they meet the son of Man.

Scriptures

Jeremiah 33:14-16 - Jeremiah reminds the Israelites of God’s promises to send them a right and just king.

Psalm 25:1-10 - A prayer for guidance and deliverance. David asks God to help him live righteously.

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 - Paul writes encouraging words to the church of Thessalonica. He has heard good things about them from Timothy and thanks God for them. He prays for the restoration of their faith where it may be lacking. He prays that their love for each other will grow. He finally prays that God will strengthen their hearts in holiness.

Luke 21:25-36 - Jesus speaks about the coming of the son of Man. He then tells them the parable of the fig tree, Just as we can notice summer coming when the leaves sprout, so to we can tell when the kingdom of God is near when the world is full of evil. Jesus tells the listeners to be prepared to stand before the coming of the son of Man.

Personal Application

How do we ensure that we are best prepared to live righteous lives? Righteous living is only possible with God’s guidance, but there are certain things we can do to ensure that we are best prepared to be led by the Spirit’s guidance in our lives: Caring for our mental and physical health, resting (taking sabbath), studying (Scripture and other), prayer (listening to God’s voice), and caring for and accepting care from those around us (fellowship).

The common understanding of the phrase, “meeting our maker” refers to the moment that our physical bodies die on this earth. We will all meet our maker at some point or another, many arguably too soon. When we pass on from this earth, will we be able to say that we honoured God’s call on our lives by living righteous lives? Did we value the things that Jesus valued and fight for the justice issues that Jesus fought for? 

As Christians, we understand that we do not only meet our maker when we die on this earth. We have already met our maker. We are living in fellowship with God every day. This is Good News. Our righteousness does not come from our own doing, but because we are carried and guided by a more generous, loving, merciful presence than is available to us in our own strength. Let us learn to live in communion with our loving Creator. This will ensure that righteous, just living will naturally flow out of our lives.

Communal Application

In a world that is ravaged every few years by conspiracy theories and crazy ideas about the end of the world, the words of Jesus here in Luke have often been misused to predict the coming apocalypse every time that there is a crisis in the world. The problem is that Jesus also said that “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” So maybe Jesus is not talking about the literal end-of-the-world in this passage. Perhaps he was observing a world that was in turmoil; a world that is always in turmoil in some way or another. Perhaps he was encouraging the listeners to not be disheartened by the turmoils in the world, but to rather focus on bringing the kingdom of God to their communities by living right and just lives.

Just as the fig tree is ripe for summer when the leaves begin changing colour and sprouting in Spring, Jesus says that we will know that the world is ripe for the kingdom of God when there is incredible amounts of evil in the world. So rather than fearing the end of the world when we notice evil in the world, when the world is seemingly overwhelmed by evil, this is a beautiful opportunity for followers of Christ to usher the kingdom of God into their communities and the world.