Today Jesus talks about \u201cSigns in the sun, the moon, the\nstars, and on the earth\u2026\u201d, and so on. Sounds\nmysterious, scary, intimidating, fearful and so ominous. It certainly gets our attention, doesn\u2019t it? And it begs the question, \u201cwhat does it all\nreally mean\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then comes the punch line: Because Jesus tells us that when we see\nthese things coming, we should: \u201cStand erect and raise your heads because your\nredemption is at hand\u201d. Well, rather\nthan try to explain the end of the world with this passage, let\u2019s narrow the\nscope a little, and just consider what could happen at the end of our own\nworld. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But first, let me tell you a little story. I was coming home from Seattle last week and\nfelt just fine when I got on the plane. \nShortly after the plane took off, I started to shake like a leaf, break\nout with a fever and sweat, and felt sore all over. I was coming down with an infection, a UTI\nto be exact. I put on my winter jacket,\nwhich had come to good use in Seattle. But\neven that didn\u2019t keep me warm. And I\nwas forced to make six or seven painful trips to the lavatory. Suddenly, there it was, I was facing a miserable\ntrip of 6 straight hours on a plane. It\nfelt like the sun and the moon and the stars and the whole earth were falling\non me for all six hours. I\u2019m not sure\nhow I ever made it through the flight. It\ncould well have been the end to my world. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, it has taken me almost a week of bedrest to feel\nbetter. And I was actually checked into\nthe hospital at one point. It seems the\ninfection caused me to gain massive quantities of water weight in my limbs and\nit was taxing my heart; a life-threatening condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This incident reminded me of just how fragile life is. At any time, everything can close in on top\nof you, just like the opening words in our Gospel today described. At any time, life can be taken from us. So, maybe these words of Jesus are a signal\nfor all of us to consider our own journey. and to recognize when our own worlds\nare caving in on us, with seemingly everything going out of our control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So now, let us then ask the question that Jesus poses. Will we be ready to stand erect before God\nwhen that happens? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus says we should \u201cbeware that our hearts do not become\ndrowsy\u201d. I had never really thought\nabout that before- drowsy hearts. But\nour hearts, the seat of our emotions, our commitment to the Lord, and our\nspiritual awareness; they can become drowsy by preoccupation with the things of\nthe world. Things like \u201canxieties of\ndaily life\u201d- illnesses, food, our daily routine, our leisure; or \u201cdrunkenness\u201d-\nreally any kind of addiction, like TV or the internet, or gossip. When our hearts are drowsy, then our\nsensitivity to the love of God and others becomes dulled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If our whole world were to fall apart suddenly then and we\nfind ourselves face to face with God, we won\u2019t be ready, we will be scared of\nstanding before the Lord. But we are\nthe fortunate ones, aren\u2019t we? Because\nwe are God\u2019s holy people, his Church. We\nhave followed the advice of Paul to the Thesallonians. We have increased and abound in the love for\none another. And we are committed to\nconduct ourselves in such a way to please God. \nThat is what is on our minds, now, and going forward; even in the midst\nof the \u201ctribulations that are imminent\u201d in each life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we can do this, keep our hearts alive in Christ, then\nwe can stand before the Lord when he comes to us no matter how suddenly or\ndramatically it happens because we have maintained our focus. We know what our hearts are seeking. They are seeking to rest forever in the\nLord. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First Sunday of Advent Jer 33: 14-16; 1 Thes 3: 12 \u2013 4:2; Luke 21: 25-28, 34-36 Deacon Larry Brockman Today Jesus talks about \u201cSigns in the sun, the moon, the stars, and on the earth\u2026\u201d, and so on. Sounds mysterious, scary, intimidating, fearful and so ominous. It certainly gets our attention, doesn\u2019t it? And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1084,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions\/1084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}