SCRIPTURE READING
Luke 21:25-36
REFLECTION
How alive are you in this moment? How attuned are you to the thoughts, emotions, and physical
sensations happening within you? How connected do you feel to the world around you? How
attentive are you to your loved ones? Take a minute or two and allow these questions to heighten
your awareness of yourself and of the life pulsing within you.
If you find yourself feeling vibrantly alive, to what do you attribute that sense? Most of us
associate feeling alive with feeling good, energised, inspired, and happy. We love feeling this way
and miss it when it’s gone. We may even give lots of time and energy to preserving this sense of
aliveness. But we all know what it feels like to be less than fully alive. In one sense we need times
when we feel sad, tired, or depressed in order to know what aliveness feels like. But it isn’t healthy
to remain in a perpetual state of lifelessness. We know this and that’s why we long to feel alive as
much as we can.
There is no shortage of things that can rob us of our most alive and engaged self. The last two
years have given us a close up look at many of these things: isolation, insecurity, polarisation,
financial stress, misinformation, and threats to our health, to mention a few. We tend to take it for
granted that certain events or experiences that we call ‘negative’ will leave us feeling deadened.
But does life have to work that way?
I’m not saying that we can always live in a state of bliss. No one gets through this human
experience without tragedy, suffering, and failure. But I do believe that it is possible to navigate
life, with all its joys and sorrows, in a way that keeps us alive, alert, and engaged most of the time.
And the key to sustaining our aliveness is our miraculous human capacity for hope.
When Jesus’ disciples applauded the magnificence of the Temple, they were expressing more
than amazement at great architecture. The Temple was not just a building, and it was not just the
home of their religious life. It was a symbol of their national identity and a reminder of the time
when Israel was a free and prosperous nation under King David. When the disciples praised the
Temple they were giving voice to their hope that Roman occupation would end, that a new, free
Israelite nation would be established, and that they would return to the glory days of the past.
You can imagine how shocked they must have been when Jesus started describing the
destruction of the Temple that would surely come.
The disciples must have wondered why Jesus was so callously dashing their hopes. Perhaps they
questioned his patriotism and his faith in the God who had promised to deliver God’s people
from oppression. But Jesus knew that their hope was misplaced. The Temple could not save
them. They would find no life by clinging to symbols of a glorious past. Jesus could see the trajectory the nation was on, and he knew that Rome would not deal kindly with rebellion. And so
he challenged them to see the coming struggle and to prepare for it well. He invited them to
place their hope in something that gives them a full and vibrant life event in the darkest and most
painful times.
As Jesus described the destruction and suffering that would come, he also described another
reality that would be at work even in the troubles. Using an image from Daniel’s prophecy, he
painted a picture of the victorious Messiah returning in glory to the throne room of God. He
invited his friends to become aware of God’s presence and life permeating their world, unaffected
by the machinations of human empires and conflicts.
And then he challenged them to be careful about how they would respond to their changing
world: “Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this
life.” Jesus knew that, when faced with turmoil, we have a tendency to numb ourselves out or get
overwhelmed by our anxiety. We are very good at avoiding or denying our pain and losing
ourselves in mind-altering substances or momentary experiences of pleasure. Or we allow our fear
of suffering to overwhelm us to the extent that we become paralysed. But neither of these
strategies lead us to life. And, since we all suffer, we all need to learn more effective ways to live
fully even in the midst of our pain. But Jesus didn’t just warn against letting our hearts be dulled.
He offered some simple, but effective, ways to stay engaged with life even in the face of death.
The first thing Jesus recommends is that we stay alert. It doesn’t help us to deny the difficulties we’re facing or the disruption in our world. It is useless to embrace a blind optimism that pretends everything is fine even when it clearly isn’t. What we need is to observe, listen, and take note of what is happening. We need to understand our reality in order to know how to respond well. And that takes attention and work. It requires us to avoid numbing out or freezing in fear and be intentional about staying alert so that we find the wisdom we need to navigate the chaos.
The challenge of staying alert is that it can overwhelm us when we see the truth of our situation,
especially when it is extreme. And so the second strategy that Jesus recommends is to stand and
look carefully for the other reality—the presence of God’s reign of love and the beauty, truth, and
goodness that continues to be revealed around us—in the midst of the upheaval. When we can
remember that evil, violence, corruption, chaos, and death do not have the final word in our
universe we can cling to hope even in seemingly hopeless circumstances. And we can resist the
temptation to give in to the forces of darkness and join the polarisation, hatred, anger, and selfprotectiveness that we see around us. When we stand tall and remember the Reign of Love, when
we open ourselves to experience the Divine presence and goodness in our toughest times, then
we free ourselves to choose a different way. We provide fuel for our hope and we empower
ourselves to continue to live in grace, love, and kindness.
But Jesus also knew that we can’t respond to crises in the most creative way unless we are
prepared. Tragedy almost always strikes unexpectedly and we find ourselves reacting instinctively.
In our pain-avoidant world it is unpopular to think about preparing for tragedy. We go through life
expecting the best at all times and when turmoil comes we are surprised and convinced that
something is wrong with the world. The result is that our responses to turmoil are usually
thoughtless, self-protective, and shrouded in fear and negativity. But when we recognise that
suffering is an integral and even necessary part of our human existence, we can prepare ourselves
for the worst before it happens. We can free ourselves from the false belief that pain shouldn’t happen unless something is wrong and we can teach ourselves to slow down, consider our
options, and respond with creativity, compassion, and hope.
Jesus taught that when we try to save our lives we will lose them. This is just the inevitable
consequence of allowing our anxiety and fear to keep us from living fully. This is what happens
when we become obsessed with protecting ourselves and defending ourselves against people
and events that we perceive as threatening. But when we are willing to lose our lives—to risk
living fully and releasing our self-protectiveness even when life is tough—then we remain open to
hope and love. And that’s when we discover that we are truly, vibrantly alive even when our eyes
are filled with tears and the world around us is in chaos.
This is not easy. But neither is the alternative. It takes work to stay alert, remember our hope, and
prepare well for the struggles ahead. But if we make this work part of our daily spiritual practice—
as it should be in any authentic spirituality—then we will find that our longing to be alive can be
richly satisfied. And that is a goal worth pursuing.
RESPONDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION
God, you have expressed your longing
for a world living by your Reign of Love.
Thank you for making your longings known to us.
Jesus, you knew you couldn’t avoid the pain of death,
yet you remembered the hope found in God.
Thank you for showing us how to cling to life.
Spirit, you have enlivened and empowered us to stay alert,
to keep watch for the signs of God’s Reign of Love among us,
to prepare for the worst even as we hope for the best.
Thank you for bringing us back to life.
We ask for the strength to resist the temptation
to numb ourselves out to the chaos and heartache of the world.
May we remain open hearted.
We think of those who feel overwhelmed,
and do not have the capacity to stay alert
and live fully in the face of their pain
May they feel calm and peace.
We pray for survivors of trauma,
those without adequate income and shelter,
those who suffer from mental illness,
those who grieve a life or a loved one that is now lost
May they experience love and acceptance.
We pray for our world to become increasingly a more compassionate,
just, welcoming, and loving place
May we be brave enough to make this a reality
today and every day.
Amen.
RESPONSE RITUAL
The Advent Candle is lit:
As we light this candle we express our longing for full and vibrant life
And we cling to our hope in the Presence and Life of Christ.
As the people gaze at the flame, they may be invited to close their eyes and become aware of the
life within them—the breath entering and leaving their bodies, their heartbeat pumping life-giving
blood through their veins and arteries, the synapses in their brains giving them thought and
imagination. In a few moments of silence they are invited to immerse themselves in this awareness
of their aliveness—however frail or difficult it may be.
INTEGRATING BENEDICTION
Word of blessing:
May our eyes and heart be opened more and more to see and receive God’s life-giving Spirit.
Greeting one another:
May God’s life and hope be with us and be shared among us always. Amen
SENDING RITUAL
The people are invited to pause before they leave and think of one thing they can do this week
that will make them feel more abundantly alive. After a few moments of silence, the people are
sent out with the following encouragement based on Howard Thurman’s famous words:
Whatever gives you hope, whatever brings you to life, go into this week and do that. For the
world needs people who are fully alive.
Used with permission from (An Advent and Christmas Guide for Community Worship from sacredise.com) Written by John van de Laar with Jenine Pretorius
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