Stand Up and Raise your Heads - Advent Devotional

"People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken..... Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:26, 28, NRSV)

Daily Scripture Reading – Luke 21:25-36

  If you are one of the many baby boomers, you might remember going to school, particularly, elementary school participating in periodic safety drills known as “duck and cover.”

  During the early years of the Cold War, when Americans feared a missile attack from the Soviet Union, it was common for teachers to instruct students on what to do in the event of a nuclear war. If the air-raid sirens ever went off, the teachers advised the students, they were to immediately duck down under their desks, pull their knees up to their chins and cover their heads with their hands.

  We look back on those days and view them as silly. A school desk would provide little protection, if a nuclear war burst forth upon the earth. Schools eventually stopped these “duck and cover” drills because they were pointless and only served to increase everyone’s fear and anxiety level.

  In the today's scripture, Jesus speaks in response to comments of the disciples on the beauty of the temple. Jesus describes a coming time of disruption and turbulence. Things which have the appearance of durability, like the temple, will begin to disintegrate. For many people this description of chaos, defines a fearful time, a time to duck and cover. But note what Jesus says, "When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads,” otherwise don't duck and cover! Something good is about to happen!

  When something good is about to happen we watch eagerly. If we are expecting the arrival of a friend we haven't seen for a long time, we check frequently to see if they have arrived. We watch down the street. We don't leave home or go where we can't hear the doorbell or the phone. When our friend arrives we know immediately, because we are watching, we are prepared to receive them.

  Jesus is recommending we need to stay alert. Don't become distracted. "Weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life," is how Jesus phrased it. The world is filled with chaotic activities and events that can make us anxious and fearful. But in all this there are signs of God's presence. God continues to come into our lives. If we are "on our feet looking up," we will see and be encouraged.

  In this season of Advent, of “coming,” of expectation and anticipation, we remember how a birth began to brighten a dark world. We prepare to recognize the start of a revolution that does not involve fighting or fear as we recognize our continued longing for the dazzling peace of Christ.

  As disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to view history and our future in the long view of eternity. Harry Emerson Fosdick, tells of having a conversation with the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr was convinced of the universal tendency for humans to abuse power that he was pessimistic about the possibility of society becoming moral. Though, he took a long view of the ultimate hope in God and believed that individual acts could be conducted on a higher moral level than that of the society in which the individual lived. Fosdick, however, had more confidence in humankind’s ability to progress, and thus, he urged Niebuhr to be more optimistic.

  Niebuhr responded, “If you will be pessimistic with me decade by decade, I will be optimistic with you aeon by aeon.”

  Niebuhr believed it was possible for us to “stand up and raise our heads” even in the midst of conflict, troubles and threat, for it calls for us to see the good news behind the bad news. Niebuhr believed, Good News is the gospel of Jesus proclaimed and this is where our hope lies. As Niebuhr put it elsewhere:

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.”

  Thus, if we believe Jesus, then we should not view Advent as merely a preparation season for Christmas. It is a time to remind ourselves not to misread the calamitous signs in our world as reasons to despair. Rather they are signals to stand up and raise your heads, because our redemption is drawing near.