November 30, 2025 – First Sunday of Advent
Psalm 24
Matthew 24, selected verses
The Beginning of the End
First Sunday of Advent
Last Sunday after the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service at Congregation Beth Shalom – and by the way, it was a wonderful service; as you read on Friday, there were more than 160 souls and eleven clergy in attendance; it was great, and it is one of my favorite services of the year. After the service Debbie and I stopped by Marker 37 on our way home. Has any of you been to Marker 37 in the past week? It is festooned with Christmas decorations: before you even walk in the door you are greeted by an eight foot tall growling Bumble, the snow monster from the animated Rudolph Christmas special, looming out front. A stationary Santa stands at the front desk, the dining room dazzles with countless red and green shining balls hanging from the ceiling in tidy rows, and you may enjoy the libation of your choice in ceramic mugs with the likenesses of Santa, one of his elves or reindeer, or a festive church mouse. All of this, mind you, the week before Thanksgiving.
In my earlier days, this is the point in the sermon where I would pivot toward a subtle but certain takedown of celebrating Christmas more than a month before it occurs. Ah, I was so much older then, but I’m younger than that now. The entire spectacle at Marker 37 – which I have to admit is very tastefully done – brought a quiet smile to my heart. While Dean Martin, Perry Como and Ella Fitzgerald crooned merrily through the restaurant, I felt strangely at ease. And I know the reason why. I know the reason why. With so much that is disruptive, distasteful, disillusioning and downright mean happening in our nation, with a new outrage every other day, I will take all the joy I can get. And forgive my telling you what you should do, but you too should take all the joy you can get whenever and wherever you can find it. I told you that the musical groups I perform with began rehearsing Christmas and holiday music more than three weeks ago; our choir has been rehearsing their Christmas Cantata at least as long, because you can’t wait until Advent to start practicing. And that’s OK – that’s OK. If the world is heading south in a handbasket, I want to be singing Silent Night and Joy to the World all the way down.
It certainly seemed to Jesus’ hearers that the world was heading south, if not worse, as he spoke the words of doom and destruction in Matthew 24. And these must be pretty important words, because they are recorded in three out of the four gospels, sometimes verbatim. The following is from Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, nearly word for word:
“Jesus answered them, ‘Beware that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Mesiah!’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs. So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.’”
Matthew’s vision of desolation is 51 verses long, Mark’s is 37 (hmm, Mark’s is 37, Marker 37…) and Luke’s is 71. By comparison, Matthew’s story of the nativity is but 23 verses long and Luke’s is 21. Clearly, this is an important point in Jesus’ ministry. Many writers believe he is talking about the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, the center of Jewish religious, civil and cultural veneration. If there is any contemporary comparison to the importance of the Jerusalem temple, it might be the Vatican, but even this pales next to what and how much that temple meant to the Jews of Jesus’ day. This is what he means by the words desolating sacrilege – “So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.” What we don’t know is if Jesus is speaking about the coming destruction of the temple, which took place in the year 70 CE, or if he is reacting to its already having taken place. In other words, is it a prediction or a reaction? This is difficult to say. Many writers believe Mark was composed before 70, or before the temple was destroyed, which would make it a prediction, while Matthew and Luke were composed ten to fifteen years later, which would make it a reaction. But in the long view it probably doesn’t matter that much, because the disruption of the vision is clear. Things are about to get really hairy around here, Jesus is saying, and we need to be ready for it.
Things are already pretty hairy around here, aren’t they! We don’t have a temple that represents who we are as a people of faith and as a culture at the same time. We love our church, but if it were to be somehow destroyed, it would not be the end of our reverence or our identity as the temple was to the first century Jews. We would be shaken and grief-stricken to be certain, but we would find a way to go on. But even if there is not a parallel between temple and local church meetinghouse, there is still something in here for us, something important.
While the Jerusalem temple gave the Jews of Jesus’ day their identity as both citizens and as people of faith, this is not what our church does for us. It is not about a building, as we know, rather it is about the values you and I hold as the body of Christ. The values of compassion, of hospitality, of justice, of equality, of caring for one another, of peacemaking, of love. And as we look around at our current culture, it is not our buildings we see being torn down –the East wing of the White House notwithstanding. And like Jesus’ world, we look around the globe and we see wars – Ukraine – and we hear rumors of wars – Venezuela – and we begin to resonate with Jesus’ words. And what about those enduring values we treasure: compassion and hospitality, justice, equality, caring for one another, peacemaking and love – are they as secure as we once believed, or are they too in peril of being torn apart and destroyed? Maybe Jesus’ words are not so long ago and far away as we imagine. He is warning his hearers to stay awake and be ready for disruption and disaster; we need to have the same ears as his hearers.
Now I know I may be getting deep into the exegetical weeds here, but I’m doing it in part as a way of inviting you to this morning’s sermon talk-back which will take place during coffee hour right after church – we’ll gather around a table or just circle some chairs in the lower hall. Last week a couple of you asked me, What is a sermon talk-back? It is really just an opportunity to go a little deeper with the morning’s Bible reading and to talk about some of the issues we’re raising in the sermon. And this morning’s lesson from Matthew is a perfect place to begin, because it is so rich and dense. You and I read this vision of Jesus – often called “the little apocalypse,” in order to differentiate it from the book of Revelation, which is the Bible’s big apocalypse – read this vision of Jesus because of its warning of danger, doom and destruction. And one of the questions you hear me struggle with every year is, Why Now? Why does the lectionary, the collection of recommended Bible readings for the church year, always, always prescribe this disorienting vision for the first Sunday of Advent, less than four weeks before Christmas? Why, when the rest of the world is getting jolly and decking the halls and enjoying cocktails from cheery ceramic mugs are we prepping for the apocalypse?
And my reply – my reply for this year, anyway – is that this is a vision of the beginning of the end, though not the one we might expect. An apocalypse is on the way. There is going to be an earth-shaking change in human history, and nothing will look or feel the same once it is upon us. “Immediately after the suffering of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken.” From the perspective of Jesus’ day, it could well be looking ahead to Good Friday and the crucifixion, when the skies turned darkened and it seemed to Jesus’ followers as though his entire life and purpose were crushed, snuffed out by the Roman occupiers.
But from our perspective, maybe not; maybe Jesus is pointing to something else. Maybe it is not the temple or Jesus or the church or any part of the human faith experience that is about to be destroyed, but instead those very powers of darkness, of war, of oppression, of injustice, of division, of malice and of cruelty that are about to be obliterated. Yes, today is the first Sunday of Advent, And yes, our focus is drawn to this vision on this morning every year. Because for what is Advent preparing us? It is preparing us for something that has never happened before nor happened since: it is preparing us for the birth of a savior. The life of one who did not simply teach about light and peace and liberation and justice and kindness and compassion and love, but who empowers you and me with these tools of virtue and faith and more. The season of Advent is a season of beginnings: of new life, of new ways of caring for each other, of new tools to defeat the world’s darkness, of a new vision for seeing God’s world and a new understanding of the ways the body of Christ can bring all of this to life. Negatively put, the start of Advent is the beginning of the end of the world’s dark ways; positively put, the start of Advent is the beginning of a new season and a new reality and a new way of living together. Because when Jesus is born to the world – when God enters creation as a fragile, helpless baby – the walls of darkness and the temples of hatred and malice will crumble to the ground in his presence. Jesus himself said “these are the beginnings of the birth pangs;” something, or someone, radical, transformative and downright revolutionary is about to be born into our reality, and this is the start of it – the start of Advent, the start of a new way of looking at and being in the world.
On your mark, get set – Advent!