Read the Signs
Populus Zion, the Second Sunday of Advent – 12/8/2024
Luke 21:25-36
Rev. Christopher W. Brademeyer
That portion of God’s holy Word for consideration this morning is our Gospel lesson from St. Luke’s twenty-first chapter with special emphasis on verses twenty-nine through thirty-one which read as follows:
“And he [Jesus] told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”[1]
Thus far the Scriptures.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Reading the signs of the times is an interesting thing. There is something of an art to it. That is to say, some of us spend our lives blissfully unaware of the things going on around us. Some of us are more attuned to the things of our times than others. And the more common a thing is, the easier it is to observe these signs.
Let me give an example: I am fairly certain that we all know some old guy or gal who can, just by observing a sunset, the grass, their knees, or some other thing unreadable to the rest of us, accurately predict the weather the next day. Sadly, as an aside, such people are becoming rarer given our reliance on the news and apps to do such things, but I digress.
In a broad sense, we all do this sort of thing. When the spring comes, we notice the trees bud up and the grass start to grow, we realize we should start getting our gardens and fields ready for the spring planting. In other words, though we do not have on average a sensitivity to reading the signs and seasons like our ancestors did due to necessity, we all still are able to rightly see the movement of seasons, the passage of days, and then draw obvious conclusions about how we should act in light of this information. Grain ripening and turning brown in the fall is a sign of harvest. A frost means that the garden needs to be cleaned up and the lawn does not need to be mowed. This is so common that we do not even realize that we are, in fact, reading the signs of the times and seasons.
So why does Jesus draw our attention to these obvious things? Fig trees, like all other deciduous trees outside of tropical areas, grow buds and leaves in the spring, set fruit later in the growing season, then go dormant for the winter. This is a simple thing to observe. One does not have to have a PhD in botany to realize that the passage of the seasons is noticeable on trees. At the risk of belaboring the point, we all know that apple trees are dormant this time of year here in the northern hemisphere. They will bud in a few months, set fruit later on which will grow through the summer, and ripen in fall. Then they will lose their leaves as winter approaches just like every other year. And seeing this would be to observe something, as we have already noted, that is plain and obvious.
This is the point our Lord makes: the signs of the Kingdom of God are as plain and obvious as the seasons showing in the life of a tree. And here lies the problem: do we really see the signs of the seasons and the times as plainly as we see leaves growing on a tree? The point Jesus makes is plain: you do see these signs. He is teaching us to interpret them rightly.
What makes these signs pointed to by Jesus interesting, however, is that they are not the usual signs of a positive change. Tree buds and new leaves are optimistic in our estimation because they signal the coming of spring and the anticipation of a new year’s growth and, especially for you farmers, the promise of success and reward. But the signs Jesus talks about are not so obviously optimistic: nations in anguish and perplexity, roaring seas of great waves, shaking of the sun and moon and stars in the very heavens. I do not know about you, but such things do not intuitively give me peace or cause me to feel secure and safe. Instead, they cause me great alarm and distress. But this is because I misread the signs. When we see these things, when disasters and hardships of these sorts come on us, we must remember that they are the birth pangs of the Kingdom of God.[2]
They signal that Christ is victorious, that His Kingdom of grace, which is already present in the outposts that are our local, faithful, Christian congregations, will soon sweep away the last remnants of opposition against Him. We should not be discouraged when we see decline and suffering in our churches, in our nations, in our world. Instead, these are signs that God is indeed doing what He promised, that our Lord’s salvation and victory of sin, death, and the grave are assured, and that His day, the day of His return, is coming as the Lord has promised.
So lift up your hearts! We have no reason to be discouraged: our Lord has given His life to give you a way through death to the resurrection to come.
And so, as we anticipate these things, we must not, as our Lord Jesus teaches us, let our selves fall into dissipation and drunkenness. Drunkenness is relatively easy to understand, but its usage here is broader than simply overconsuming alcohol. It refers to any substance, thing, or person that would leave us in a haze or stupor, that would distract us, that would dull our senses, that would take our eyes off the prize of the everlasting life that comes in the salvation of Jesus Christ. This is why we Christians not only teach against overconsuming alcohol, but also the use of drugs. I know that this is a bit off topic, but such a thing needs to be reiterated plainly in our permissive culture that seeks to legalize all manner of mild-altering and mind-numbing substances: taking anything in order to be in a haze, high, or stupor is against the command of Jesus here.
Dissipation is a bit more difficult of a thing, mostly because we do not commonly use this word in our everyday speech. The dictionary notes that dissipation is being wasteful in your consumption, to be totally wrapped up in sensual pleasures. The Greek word that we translate here typically refers to a hangover. If you do not know what that is, a hangover is the miserable state that comes after overconsuming alcohol. And the reason that this has something to do with being totally wrapped up in sensual, fleshly pleasures is that a common hangover help is to consume some more alcohol, which can easily set a person up for a hangover of even greater proportions the next day.
In other words, the things of this world can easily distract us from Christ and His Word and His Church. These are so numerous that it is difficult to relay them all in a sermon, but do we not all know people who have abandoned the Christian Church for work, family, school, laziness, love of worldly things, greed, and the like? There are as many pitfalls of temptations in this world are there are people and things in it. So our Lord would have us be on watch, be aware of these things and how they can ensnare and lead astray.
And, though we should be on guard against temptation and sin, we must not lose sight of Christ and His Kingdom. We should not fret or fear in our watchfulness. Christ will return again to bring this age to a close and to deliver us the full reward of faith in His work: the resurrection of our bodies and everlasting, immortal life. And in the meantime, His Word will sustain us, hold us secure, and give us strength to meet the challenges of these temptations and sins. Watch the signs of the times, they show us that Christ is coming, indeed, that He is on His way. And, while waiting for the inevitable return of Christ, hold fast to faith in Him. Look not to the things of this world, its cares or its temptations to grant us peace and hope. Instead, remember what He has promised us, how He has given Himself into death for you, and has promised to come again to set all things right in the final Judgement. After all, even the signs of the times point to this.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Luke 21:29-31 English Standard Version
[2] Matthew 24:8
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