Stand Up and Raise Your Heads!

Advent 1

Fr. Tim Nunez

For many years, decades, we took our acolytes to the Acolyte Festival. That always began with a service in our cathedral followed by an afternoon and evening at Wet ‘n Wild, a water park in Orlando that is now closed. And as each of our four children hit about age 7, I would take them up to the Mach 5 Alpha Flight. It had, by far, the longest slides in the park. There were three tracks, so you could race, and you went down on a foam mat with handles on it. While it started pretty high, it wasn’t very steep and it wound a long, long way down until at the end it sent you skittering across a pool.

All four of our kids went through the same process. We’d go up the long set of ramps and steps with them to the top. They would be in a detached fog. Then, when it came time to go, they’d get scared, protest, maybe cry a little. I’d encourage them, tell them how much they would love it. I’d point out the smaller kids who were doing it. Eventually just tell them to hang on and shove them down the track.  Then I’d go on another track, knowing I’d get to the bottom first because, well, gravity.

And when we met at the bottom, they would invariably say, “I want to do that again.” I tell you that story because it’s a very small example of building courage. Kids need that. We all need that. Life is uncertain, stressful and scary, and it’s often painful. In those moments, among the most encouraging words we can hear is, “You’ll get through this,” from someone who truly knows.

Leading into this passage, Jesus has talked about the destruction of the Temple. Then he widens the scope to talk about wars and rumors of wars, conflicts that would cause great distress to everyone in the region. Here he is widening the scope further to include signs in the sun, moon and stars and distress akin to a tsunami plus pandemic plus major storms. This is global and more. “The heavens will be shaken,” he says. What does this mean? He could be talking metaphorically just about the Temple; which Rome would destroy in 70AD in response to a Jewish uprising. He could be talking just about the End Times. He could be talking about all of that and much more, perhaps everything. And perhaps, at heart, he’s talking about his own death and Resurrection and ours.

I think it’s all of that. The thing is, Jesus’ description works at every level. We can narrow the scope to our own lives and/or expand it to our community, the nation and the world – even the universe as we know it. The metaphorical language has different applications to the particulars where it applies, but it applies in the same way.

The truth is that chaos – or chaotic convulsions – are always close at hand. This is personally true, of course. Most people are a missed paycheck or two or three away from financial crisis. Any of us could suffer an accident or sudden illness to ourselves or a loved one. Natural disasters like earthquakes, wildfires, floods, tsunamis or violent storms happen regularly.

In communities across the nation and around the world we see protests and riots on all manner of issues. Whether the COVID virus escaped from a lab or was passed to humans through a dead bat in a “wet market,” look at all the ways it has caused chaotic convulsions medically, economically and politically around the world. And we can be sure that any and every tragedy will be brought to our immediate attention, 24/7.

There’s a challenge in that. Whatever we set our minds and hearts on manifests itself in the moment. Fearful things could tend to make us respond in a lot of ways, fight, flight, anger, anxiety, depression, headaches, sore neck, acid reflux – or submission to fate.

But whenever we are looking at roaring signs of distress and foreboding, Our Lord’s command is clear. “Now when these things take place, stand up and raise your heads. Because your redemption is drawing near.” Stand up. Raise your heads.

Remember that every time you hear some Chicken Little voice proclaiming as the sky is falling. Usually they are just trying boost ratings or to sell you something. The sky isn’t falling, but even if it was, Jesus says, “Good!” These signs are not portents of disaster, they are like new, sprouting leaves in spring, harbingers of new life. When we see these things taking place we are to remember the Kingdom of God is near and getting nearer. Every moment it is getting closer.

Stand up! Raise your heads!

Jesus put this promise in the strongest terms. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. What can we note about that? So far as we can see, Jesus’ words have endured all manner of wars, rumors of wars, intellectual and philosophical and religious challenges from every angle. Further, they have endured humanity’s maddening inability to follow them. They have endured all manner of failures within the life of the Church, and I mean every denomination and all the ways we have fallen short. The Church has been corrupted by politics, money, sex, drugs, moral failure of its leaders and corruption in its structures.

Yet, no matter how much we fail, we find no fault with Him. His words do not pass away. On the contrary, his words drive creation and renewal of our hearts, souls and minds.

This is in stark contrast to the negative ways people can react to fearful signs. Dissipation is being paralyzed so that nothing gets done. Drunkenness implies all the ways people might try to deaden the stress through drugs, alcohol, etc. Don’t be eaten up with worries of this life. It’s a trap. All of these things will come to all of us. We are to respond with courage in faith.

When we are faced with challenges at every level, we are to face them with courage borne out of our confidence in Christ’s promises. Our Lord has already told us that when we get to the bottom of the slide we are going to love it! There’s no point arguing or whining. Hang on and trust that he’s with you and he will be waiting to receive you and love you at the end. Forever.

AMEN