Hope, a sermon based no Jeremiah 31: 31-34 and Luke 21: 25-36, preached on December 1, 2024

There’s a history quiz that comes out every Saturday. My wife, Sara, does it first, and then I try to beat her score. Yesterday, she beat me pretty badly, and one that I missed was the year that Jane Fonda popularized the phrase “Feel the burn!” It was 1982. I won’t forget it again. In fact, I’ve been thinking a lot about that phrase, “Feel the burn.” It is an interesting one because it’s counterintuitive. When it comes to exercise, you want to feel that burn in your muscles. The burn means that the exercise is doing something. You’re getting stronger and more physically fit. You’re burning calories, losing weight, and toning your figure. To “feel the burn” is a good thing, and it was wise for Jane Fonda to point that out and celebrate that feeling because a newcomer to exercise might misinterpret that sign, thinking that the unpleasant feeling means that you should quit. In our second Scripture lesson, Jesus is doing essentially the same thing. He is helping us to understand the signs. We just read that: There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among the nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. The nations will be confused because signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars sound like bad things. They’ll be confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves because most people think that a calm sea is good and that a roaring sea is bad. When it happens, some will faint from the fear and foreboding, but not you. “Do not fear,” Jesus says, “stand up and raise your heads” when these things begin to take place because these signs mean that your redemption is drawing near. Don’t misinterpret the signs. Don’t be afraid. Don’t panic, for fools misinterpret the signs to their own detriment. For example, my friend Tom Clarke works for a company that manages investments, and often, he must help clients understand that when the stock market slumps, that’s not the best time to sell. That’s when some people want to sell, however. When the market fluctuates, sometimes their clients will call the office nervous or afraid. They’ll say, “But I’m losing money. Get rid of those stocks! Make it stop before I lose more.” The calm response of the company is always the same: Don’t panic. “Wait,” they’ll say. “The market does this from time to time. Don’t be afraid. Let’s talk next week. Allow me to interpret what you’re seeing.” All that is good advice, and it’s not just good investment advice, although it is very good investment advice. In 2008, we owned two homes in Decatur, Georgia. We bought one before the bubble burst, then a second with plans to sell the first, only once the bottom fell out of the housing market, we could sell neither. Then, we moved to Tennessee and needed to sell them both. Unable to sell the two in Decatur for anything close to what we’d paid for them, we bought a third in Tennessee. That was a terrifying situation in which to be; however, do you have any idea what those homes would be worth today? My point is that in fear, sometimes we panic. We lose faith. We lose hope. We don’t make good decisions when we’re running around like chickens with our heads cut off. When we’re in such a panic, we just want to do something, even if it’s the wrong thing. Therefore, the best advice can be to wait. Don’t panic. Hold on. Fear not. Such advice isn’t just practical, it’s also faithful, so when you see the signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, the roaring of the sea and the waves, while many people will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, don’t misinterpret the signs. Consider how the leaves change color. When the leaves change, no one responds as though the tree were dying, yet when the stocks go down, we rush to sell as though they’ll never go back up again, or when criticism comes our way, so many of us crumble. Don’t misinterpret the signs. Stocks fall then rise again, as leaves change their color. Likewise, criticism may feel like failure. It may feel like rejection. Yet, no one takes the time to criticize people who don’t matter. Don’t misinterpret the signs. Criticism is the sign that you matter, that you can be better, and yet, how many look at the scoreboard and quit before time has run out? The Yellow Jackets and the Bulldogs lasted how many overtimes? Eight overtimes. My friends, we lose when we quit. We lose when we panic. We lose when our hope runs out. We lose when we’ve misinterpreted the signs. Don’t misinterpret the signs. This old world will fall away to be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. Don’t be weighed down by the worries of this life, for each step we take is one step closer to the gates of Heaven. All our pain is like pain of childbirth. It is not punishment, for from our struggle comes new life, a new life far better than what was before. I’m talking about hope here. As the waves roar and the heavens shake, get ready for the new thing. Go out into the world today expectant, for our best days are not behind us, but before us. Christ Jesus, who will come again, comes not to judge us or condemn us, but to set us free. Don’t misinterpret the signs. I’ve been watching this TV show about the world’s greatest soccer player. He left his hometown to play in Europe where he rose to celebrity status, only then, at the very height of his career, his heart began to trouble him. His doctors told him he could never play again, and so he returned to his hometown, this tiny Mexican village on the ocean, and he began to drink himself to death, believing that his life was over. My friends, he had misinterpreted the signs, for his best days were still ahead of him. Each day in this small town brings with it new life. He starts to grow and mature. While celebrity had given him fans, in his hometown, he discovered his family. While Europe had given him a mansion to live in, this village gave him a home. So it will be with us, so don’t misinterpret the signs. Do not be weighed down with the worries of this life. Hope. “The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” says the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” That’s the sign of what’s to come. Not condemnation, but salvation. Thanks be to God. Amen.