People are fascinated by the frightening and the scary. And fear can consume. Storms are a time to be careful but they are also a time to act. How do we navigate through the gloom? Sometimes the secret is to lifting our eyes and finding the candle that is call us home.

People like being scared

We read on a few verses after where the lectionary ends. Everyday he was teaching … and people would get up early to listen. You leave early when you’re expecting a line out the door and around the block. Star Wars generated lines like that. Some of the Harry Potter movies. Enough buzz and a bagel shop or country store becomes a destination. People stand in line for wonderful and amazing … but here it’s for a teacher talking about when the world around is roaring and people are scared and confused. 

I’m not a horror fan so it seems, to me, it seems strange that people pay to be get good and scarred. I remember seeing a musician, one of the members of Earth Wind and Fire, talk about meeting his wife. She would get all excited as she talked about how the monster bit their heads off…. and she get so scared… and she loved it. Jesus is talking scary stuff and people would get up early to listen.

You’ll know it when you see it coming

The passage doesn’t spend much time describing the things it warns about it. We usually have a pretty good sense when things are getting bad. Folks who live in Florida long enough don’t need the news to know a huricane is coming. People know something is coming, they learn to watch for the canaries in the coal mine. Here, one of the give-aways will be the fear and confusion that people will see. Sometimes those canaries are all around us.

But when will it happen

Be on guard … so that day doesn’t catch you like a trap. That point when things actually snap. It’s always easy to spot in hindsight. But it’s hard to tell when it will get really bad. When it happens, Jesus’ advise is to pray that you will have strength. The caution here isn’t about avoiding what is coming but about how you live during these times. No matter how many huricanes people live through in Florida, no matter how many snow storms we live through here, Jesus isn’t challenging us to stop the storm that’s already coming. Be alert, be careful, precisely because you can’t prevent what’s coming. 

What’s the Call to action?!?

Being careful may mold what we do but it isn’t actually a good framework for deciding what we’re up to, how we should actually live. Because if all you’re doing is being careful, being prepared for what you think is coming, you’re life can become about fear. Even as you’re keeping an eye on things and making sure the pantry is stocked, what are you actually doing? When these things begin, stand up.. stand up straight… hold your head up… hold it up high… because your redemption is drawing hear. 

Your Redemption is Nigh

Whenever we talk about redemption, we focus on the big stories. Freeing the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. The person who’s always been a mean drunk who is now the most loving person in town. The hope from Freedom from Roman Occupation. Freeing people from the things that trapped them. Opening the door to becoming fully who we are called to be.

The road of redemption is not just the big events but the small ones, too. The strange little note here that Jesus spent his days teaching and his night sleeping on the Mount of Olives. Did he think of leaving the temple where he was spending day after day teaching as a taste of redemption: sleeping on the side of Mount Olives, looking up at big waxen leaves and the lights in the night sky, the candles flickering in the heavens?

Reading from (the midst of our troubles) 

When this passages words were first shared, they were heard as the story of someone who had already left them. They were between what had happened and what would become. Did they compare Jesus’ warnings and recognize the world they found themselves in? When Jesus warned of a trap springing, did they wonder about what distant rulers would do and whether it would land in their lives like a storm?  In the midst of all those fears, Luke points forward to the time when the Son of Man would bring justice.

We read this passage in a very different way in this season, the season of advent. This is when we look forward to the birth of the Jesus as a baby. This is the moment when the son of man is born as a baby in a manager, born as one who is defenseless, born as one who does not have a sword to lift against the far away rulers in distant cities and can not change the world by taking that path.

But here in the middle of the passage is this glow, like a candle. When Jesus talks about coming in glory was that like putting a light in the window in a long dark storm?

Candles in the Window during colonial storms

In this part of the country, some tied a rope by the front door so they could find their way back from the outhouse in blizzard. Before the colonies because this country, people would put a candle in the window, especially during inclement weather, as a beacon to help family member could find their way home. That candle signaled that redemption from the storm was near. I suspect when they spotted that candle and felt relief, they may have stood up a little straighter. 

Candles in the Window during occupation

During war and occupation, candles have been used to signal a home is a safe place for those the regime persecuted. The candle signaled that someone was near to a particular kind of redemption, a small redemption, a time free of fear, a coming freedom. There is a candle in the window, stand up straight and hold your heads up high.

Call to Action: Stand up and hold your head up high

Even as a reasonable read on the world around us is to be afraid, even when the situation seems bleak, even when the darkness thickens, know that the storm is not the only thing that’s coming. Light a chandle, stand up straight and hold your heads up high.

Hold you head up High

Stand up straight, hold your heads high. Even when your work is to warn people, like Jesus, or you don’t know when the trap will spring, or how you will make it through, there is dignity and knowing that a candle has been lit. There is dignity and strength in spotting the candle in the window, giving thanks,  and letting it guide your way. 

Conclusion

Jesus would tell stories about coming storms and people would get up early to listen. We have a fascination with the frightening and the scary. The surprise, the adrenaline rush, the fear drawing us in.  But, Jesus’ point is not adding to the fear. Instead, the question is how will you choose to act in the midst of storms and darkness? Yes, be careful. Learn from the storms you’ve lived through but that will never stop storms from coming. The story is written in how we navigate through. Even when things seem darkest, the light of a single candle can become a north star. It can help us find our way to that which can save us. Sometimes, hope is the candle in the window guiding us home, showing us that there are safe places in the worst of times. Keep your eye on to the candle glowing in the window and let it guide your through.

Benediction

    the One bless you
            and keep you;
    the One make her face shine on you
            and be gracious to you;
    the One turn her face toward you   
            and give you peace

    May you see the candles she has lit
    May you light a candle
    May you hold the light of hope