[Propertalk] Quotes for Luke 21:25-36 for 1 Advent - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

The warnings in 21:34-36 easily transfer into the contemporary setting. We may not be weighed down with drunkenness and debauchery, but our self-indulgence and the vested interest in sustaining our lifestyles at the expense of peoples trapped in poverty lives itself out in equal irresponsibility - both locally and on a global scale. 

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkAdvent1.htm

William Loader
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 When we recall that the sun was the symbol of Rome itself, while the moon and the stars represented the empire's client kings clustered around it, we can better understand that, when Luke is talking about the "powers of the heavens" being shaken, it's a kind of code: "It is not the end of the cosmos, as Mark has it, but the shaking of the earthly principalities and powers that is referenced here," William Herzog writes in New Proclamation 2006.
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Richard Swanson reminds preachers that there are children in our congregations (and not there, too) who know well what it feels like for "the sun and the stars" to fall from the sky because of parental abuse and neglect; in their small worlds, their parents are the sun and the moon and the stars (Provoking the Gospel of Luke). 
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For further reflection:
Georgia O'Keeffe, 20th century: 
No one sees a flower, not really. To look at a flower takes time, like having a friend takes time.

Jürgen Moltmann, 20th century: 
I tried to present the Christian hope no longer as such an "opium of the beyond" but rather as the divine power that makes us alive in this world.

Augustine, 5th century: 
God without us will not; we without God cannot.



http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/november-29.html

Kate Huey 
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Too many preachers waste time in the pulpit trying to counter this cultural tide. Arguing against the Christmas shopping schedule or radio stations playing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" up until Christmas and then playing no Christmas songs during the actual twelve days of Christmastide is spitting into the holiday wind. Instead of either/or, preachers need to help congregations experience both/and. 
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Two types of sermon strategies that present this type of theological claim come to mind. Both begin by contrasting (not criticizing) the difference between the sounds and looks of secular Christmas in the mall and liturgical Advent in the church. In the first approach, the preacher plays up the contrast as if the mall is behind the times. The world is starting Christmas while the church is already celebrating the New Year. This twist can be used then to back up to Advent beginning at the End.

In the second use of the contrast, the preacher might even seem to favor the already-ness of the secular Christmas in the beginning but move to a "but this can't be all there is" stance to finally defining Christian hope for "more." In other words, the sermon can move from bemoaning (not too strongly) the already to celebrating the not-yet in true eschatological fashion. Hope for things given and received under the Christmas tree is nice enough, but hope that the whole world will have food to eat, clothes to wear, safe environments to live in, meaningful relationships in which to participate, and a sense of God's grace in their lives is something else altogether.

http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=28

O. Wesley Allen, Jr.
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Apocalyptic is a style of literature that tends to flourish during difficult times.  In the ancient near east, the heyday of apocalyptic was between 300 BC and AD 100, which were times of particular turbulence in Israel.  In 300 BC, Israel was dealing with the "culture war" brought on by the spread of Greek culture in the wake of Alexander's conquest.  By AD 100, a subsequent occupying army had destroyed the holy city of Jerusalem.  In between were all manner of rebellions, terrorism, and war.
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 I was once at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, held each summer in my fair city, and noticed a street preacher at the corner of 3rd and Milwaukee.  His exhortations were to get right with God because Jesus was coming soon.  An old man was walking by about this time, walking with a cane and moving slowly.  When he heard the message of the street preacher, he straightened up and said, "What in blazes are you talking about?  He's already here."
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Quote of the Day
In 1987, at a White House dinner hosted by Ronald Reagan, Miles Davis was seated next to a Washington matron who asked him what he had done that was so special.  Davis replied, "Well, I've changed music five or six times.  Now tell me, what have you done of any importance other than be white?" 

http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2009/11/lectionary-blogging-luke-21-2536.html

John Petty, 2009 
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