Straighten Up and Raise Your Heads

By Jared Warner

Willow Creek Friends Church

December 1, 2024

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Click to read in Swahili

Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili

Luke 21:25–36 (ESV)

²⁵ “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, ²⁶ people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” ²⁹ And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. ³⁰ As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. ³¹ So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. ³² Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. ³³ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. ³⁴ “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. ³⁵ For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶ But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Hopefully we have all enjoyed the season of Thanksgiving and are prepared to move forward into the next stage or season of this year. My family’s Thanksgiving was one that came together pretty much at the last moment. For the past decade, I have not really thought about what we will do for the holiday, because for most of my time here at Willow Creek I have worked in retail so I was never off during major holidays. I was usually quickly eating some turkey and stuffing and shoving some pie down my throat as I walked to the car to get ready for Black Friday.

The past couple of years this has not been the case. I have not had to go to work during the holidays. I could spend time enjoying family and remembering why we celebrate. This year was a bit more important than others. Last spring my mother had a heart attack. The type of heart attack she had is known as the widow maker in the medical community. Meaning there was no indication that there was a blockage, and the area that was blocked fed the most important areas of the heart. Not many survive that type of attack, because it comes quickly without warning.

We were able to celebrate another Thanksgiving this year, and I truly am thankful. I did not realize just how thankful I was until my dad prayed over the meal. During his prayer he praised God for the year we have had, this is usual since on a dry land farm we often thank God for the rains He provides for our crops. But then he thanked God for his wife. And as he expressed those words his voice cracked. Many of you know my dad. He is a bear of a man. When I was young I thought he had to have been the strongest man on the planet. My dad’s voice cracked as he expressed his gratitude.

I am truly thankful. I am thankful that my mom survived that heart attack with little to no lasting damage to her heart. I am thankful that I am able to minister within this meeting of Friends. I am thankful for my family. But today I am thankful most of all for a voice that cracked.

Today our passage of scripture we often associate with Jesus’s prophetic words regarding the end of days. The disciples had heard him express that the great temple to the one true God was going to be destroyed, and the ruins of which would be so scattered that not a single stone would stand upon another. This meant that it would be difficult for anyone to even recognize that the great awe inspiring building had ever existed.

The disciples were afraid. These words meant the end of everything they had ever known. They had been thinking that the messiah was with them, that everything was about to become better, that it would be beyond their wildest dreams. They were arguing among themselves as to which of them would be considered the greatest within that kingdom. But when Jesus said that the temple would be destroyed, a cloud overshadowed them.

Jesus was telling them that their nation, their culture, every aspect of their identity was going to be turned to dust.

When will this happen?

“And there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

I want us to just slow down and consider what Jesus is saying.

So often we attach these words to the second advent of Jesus. But these were said before Jesus had died. Before he had been buried. Before he had rose again on the third day. He spoke these words before his ascension. And he is speaking of that glorious day of the lord in part, but not completely. That is the thing about prophecy. We often see it as some Christian form of fortune telling. We seek words of prophecy from people that have those gifts. We want them to tell us that our way of thinking is the correct way, we want them to tell us that our business venture will lead to financial success. We want them to tell us that our relationships will thrive. Prophecy is not fortune telling. Prophecy is speaking the truth from God into a given situation. It can be positive or negative. It can be inspiring or confusing. We might hear the words and find them to be of little use, or they might change everything. But the things about biblical prophecy is that there are layers. There is something that can be understood at that moment in that epoch of time, as well as something that goes beyond. Theologians often illustrate this idea as the already and not yet.

Jesus is speaking of the great day of the lord, when all things will be restored and redeemed, but there is more. The more is what we will live through here and now.

When Jesus speaks of signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations, he is speaking of the emotions we feel when our world seems to be crashing in on itself. The sky is falling. Nothing seems to be working properly. What once was no longer seems to be. Up is down, left is right, darkness is the new light. There is hopelessness.

That is what Jesus means when he says there are signs in the sun and moon and stars. The things we see as immovable, suddenly move. This is not only something that those of us with faith notice. Jesus said that the fainting, fear and foreboding is coming to the entire world.

The disciples want to know when. They want to know what to look for, what they should expect. Jesus says you will see it and know. Everyone around you will know, they are shaken, they are in fear. But then Jesus says something I find interesting. “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

For generations, we have looked at this passage and we see eschatology. Which is the theological discipline that seeks to understand the end of the age. As I was studying this past week one of the commentators wrote this about the passage:

The misuse of eschatology—not least in contemporary America—has resulted in skepticism of eschatology among many Christians. Misuse of a doctrine usually results in its neglect, and neglect of a theological doctrine weakens the church. Without eschatology, the purpose and destiny of history fall into the hands of humanity alone. No one, I think, takes solace in that prospect. Unless history can be redeemed, the fallen greatness of human life is the final and tragic word. The longing that things ought not be as they are, and cannot be accepted in the state they are, is an eschatological longing. The Gospels proclaim that there is a sure hope for the future. This hope is grounded not in history, logic, or intuition, but in Jesus’ declaration that in the final day the Son of Man will return in glory and power to judge evil, end suffering, and gather his own to himself.¹

What does this man mean? We have misused eschatology, we have used it to manipulate the masses. We have used it to sell books, and to make movies. We have used these words and this school of thought to prove various things to be true without any real evidence and we have sown confusion and ridicule. If we go just a bit further in today’s passage, Jesus says “Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.” This adds to the confusion, it adds to the ridicule, it fuels the fires of misunderstanding.

There is a branch of theology call apologetics, where we attempt to answer the questions people may have. Many books have been written on these subjects, and oddly enough many have written books of opposition. One of my favorite books on apologetics is “A Case for Christ.” And one day while I was walking through a book store, I was walking through the Jewish studies section, because I was looking for a book about the Hebrew Holidays, when I was going through the books I found one titled, “A Case against Christ.” I grabbed this book and began to look at it. There were many things that I had anticipated in the book, but the interesting thing is that the major premise of his defense against Jesus revolved around the statement that “this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.” The reason they made that case was because in the past few generations we have misused the words of Jesus in this instance to such a degree that those outside of our faith look at those words and say well Jesus did not return within that generation so he was wrong.

But Jesus was not wrong because what he was speaking about was not his 2^nd coming but instead he was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. It was the Jewish wars that would cause fear and trembling in the world.

This takes us back to that interesting statement Jesus made. “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

When things seem to be hopeless, when it appears as if the world you know has turned upside down. We are not lost. We can stand without getting faint. We can do this because our hope is not from this world.

I was thankful this week because of a cracking voice. I was thankful because I know the faith that accompanied that crack in the voice. I know the faith because it is a faith that I have watched for over forty years being lived out before my eyes. The moment I heard that little crack, tears immediately welled in my eyes because I know the stories the shoulders that trembled at those words lived through.

I have tried to be transparent about my life as much as possible. I grew up through the farming crisis of the 1980’s. The 70’s had high commodity prices, which drove the price of land up, then in the 80’s the commodity prices plummeted followed by drought. Farmers that purchased land in the 70’s when times seemed great were now faced with large payments that consumed the vast majority of their income. Several farms, several families lost everything during that time. The cracking voice that prayed endured those hard times. It was during those years I watched my dad work full time as a mechanic while running his farm. I watched him spend nearly every waking hour at work, every hour except Sunday.

Farms were being lost all around us, everyone I knew was struggling as they were trying to get out from under debts. It seemed unimaginable that my dad who worked a job and ran a farm would not work one of the the only days he had off of his job yet he would not work on Sunday because it was for the Lord. I am not judging those that find themselves in a position where they must work on Sunday, I have been there, and have had to work too. God understands but his teaching remains true. Six days you should labor but the seventh is a sabbath to the Lord. We need that day of righteous rest, the calendar day is not as important as the discipline of resting in the Lord. And my dad taught me this. He would work hard and would worship just as passionately. Everyone around would call him foolish, and the threat of losing the farm was always looming around us, but my dad stood tall in faith.

We did not lose the farm.

Just that struggle would be enough but there was more. Farms are filled with hazards. And an accident took my grandpa’s hand. Many that had accidents like that lost more than an hand, yet God was with my grandpa. And together my dad and grandpa maintained the farm, they kept it going, through those lean years, through tragic circumstances and through years of blessing, because the rains did eventually come.

I remember the first year of plenty. My dad took a chance and he raised a specialty crop instead of our usual grains. He raised alfalfa, we usually have at least one field of alfalfa to have some hay for our cattle during the winter but that year he grew this crop for the seed instead of the hay. We harvested the seed and I remember each of us kids going out with my dad to manually sift the seeds to make sure it was a pure as possible. And because we each worked so hard my dad gave us each part of the profits. I thought we were rich. He took us to the bank to open an account and I was excited to have mail with my name on it. He taught me something else that year too. My dad reminded us of all the work we did for that money, he then told me something I will never forget. The only reason we had that money was because God created the soil the crops grew in, and God provided the rain to allow the plants to grow. Everything that we had even though we struggled and worked for it, was a blessing from God. And we should show our gratitude by giving God part of what we had earned. My sister, brother, and I went into the bank withdrew money and took that money to church the next Sunday.

I did not understand at the time what it all meant and to be honest it seemed kind of foolish to me. But I watched my parent do this. The first check they wrote after they were paid or after they sold crops or cattle was written to the church. They wrote those check when the farm was on the line, and when we had enough to give each child in the family enough to open a bank account.

And we never went hungry.

Soon after that year of plenty my little sister was born. Her birthday would be tomorrow and she would have be thirty-eight years old this year. She has spent twenty-eight of those years in heaven. To lose a sibling is hard. To me the sun and moon and stars had darkened and there were crashing waves of emotion. That loss nearly drove me away from faith, but I saw something different in my mom and dad. Their faith deepened. I watched as a tragedy that so often drives people apart and drops them into despair, gave my parents something different. They greatly mourned the loss, and still do. But they have a strength I cannot explain. They have empathy, wisdom, compassion, and grace that only comes from one that has lived through great loss.

This is what Jesus is speaking of as he teaches his disciples that day. You will soon face tragedy. You will face events within your life that would break most people. Your entire world will seemingly be turned upside down. These things are the things that would break those whose strength and identity come from the kingdoms of this world. But you are of something different. You are citizens of a kingdom not governed by the wills of men. You are citizens of the kingdom of God. You can stand straight with your head held high because those who put their trust in this world live in fear of what could be lost, but what we have cannot be lost.

Empires rise and fall. Nations come and go. We can watch it and see the changes just as we can see the change in the seasons of nature. Jesus says look at the fig tree and all the trees. When you see the buds emerging on the branches you know that spring has come and you have so many weeks until summer and harvest. We can see similar things all around us if we are willing and able to observe. This requires work. It requires wisdom and discernment. It requires that we gain knowledge of the things that drive the kingdoms of this world, and how they correspond with the teachings of Christ. We can see and observe just as things are with nature.

What can we observe today? We have fear driving many. Fear of losing something they find as valuable. Fear of losing power. Fear of losing rights. Signs in the sun, moon, and stars. We are taking our eyes away from the teachings of God when we have these fears, because his perfect love cast out fear. Fear causes us to shrink down within ourselves. It causes us to withdraw from participating in the lives of those around us. It drives us to seek rest in short sighted distractions and drunkenness because we have no hope. There is an epidemic of drug use in our nation, this epidemic in many ways is driven by hopelessness and fear. We as a culture are afraid, we are powerless so we seek comfort in a bottle.

My parents were broken often throughout my life. Yet I never saw the brokenness, all I saw was strength. I saw strength not because my parents are strong in themselves, no they would be the first to admit their weakness. I saw strength because of their faith. Strength to rest even when the world around them said they should work. Strength to give even when the world would advise them to keep it for themselves. Strength to cry and mourn openly at loss. And strength to extend grace to someone who was also hurting. I saw strength not because my parents were great but because they had faith. They were able to stand straight and raise their heads when their world was falling apart because they had faith that their God has overcome the world.

I am thankful today, because of the cracking of my dad’s voice as he prayed a blessing over our thanksgiving feast. I am thankful because they showed me a way to live that can face the most horrific trials life can offer and still have hope. I am thankful and I have faith today not because someone scared me with apocalyptic horror stories, but because the life and lifestyle my parents learned as they followed the teachings of Christ became real to me. And I hope that I can live that life so others can know the hope that I have in Christ. I have hope because I know the story behind a cracking voice. A story of struggle, of pain, of anxiety, and loss but most of all a story of faith. Faith that if God can raise from the grave he can bring us through our current situation. Faith that even if everything we know turns to dust he remains true to his word, that he will be with us even to the end of the age. We can have hope because after he rose for the grave he said he is going to prepare a place for us and that he will come to take us there.

I am thankful because my dad prayed. I have hope because my dad prayed. I have faith because my dad’s voice cracked when he prayed. He prayed.

1 Edwards, James R. The Gospel according to Luke. Edited by D. A. Carson, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015, pp. 606–07.

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