“Sacramental Time” on Luke 21:25-36 by Joe Ellis – December 1, 2024

Today is the first day of Advent, so I would like reflect a bit together on what we are doing when we are participating in the seasons of the church — because doing so invites us into a different relationship with time itself — it moves us into “Sacramental Time.”

Now, it is absolutely understandable if when I say, “sacramental time”, you respond with: “What in the world are you talking about?”  Sacramental Time is not something almost anyone talks about — but Sacramental Time invites us into a different relationship with time itself. In Sacramental time, we don’t keep time with a watch or a phone, but that may tells us when the Advent Service begins. We don’t even keep time with a wall calendar — although those calendars sometimes tell us when Advent begins. In Sacramental Time we don’t even keep time based on what the weather is doing outside (after all, Advent happens during summertime in Australia). Instead, time is kept by the Church in observing seasons like Advent, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time. Each season invites us into a different way of relating to God, to each other, and to the world.

Advent, means arrival. In Advent we are invited to wait for the Messiah’s return with each other, amidst the chaos of the world. Advent is the season where the whole people of God wait together for the arrival of the Messiah, and we keep this posture together even through earth shattering events like the ones Jesus describes in Luke 21. So we orient ourselves to this posture of waiting as we retell stories from Scripture of God’s people waiting. We tell stories of the prophets waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. We tell the story of Mary waiting for the arrival of her child. And we always begin Advent, as we did this morning, hearing of when Jesus instructed his disciples of how to wait for his arrival in heaven. Advent situates all the people of God in a shared time of waiting — waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. 

In Sacramental Time we are waiting together. Sacramental Time brings together the past, the present and the future in a singular time of all of us waiting together. Followers of Christ inhabited this first day in Advent 500 years ago, as we do so today, as we will do so 500 years from now, if the Lord doesn’t return before then. For the Church, today is not December 1, 2024. For the church, it is the First Day of Advent. On the first day of Advent, Christians are drawn together across time and cultures. We say Advent prayers, light an Advent candle, we read the Advent Scripture passages — it is a mystery, but Sacramental Time draws Christians across time closer together. We inhabit the same Sacramental Time on the first day of Advent. That means we are in the same sacramental moment as St. Augustine was on that particular first day of Advent in the year 425; or Julian of Norwich was on that particular first day of Advent in 1410; or Teresa of Avilla in 1570; or J.R.R. Tolkien in 1970. Try to develop a sacramental imagination to picture the first day of Advent taking place simultaneously across centuries — that’s what Sacramental Time is getting at.

Now those Christians I mentioned would have had an even greater mystical sense that they were actually inhabiting the same moment of Sacramental Time because their Advent worship services would have had the same Latin words, they would have said the same call and responses, the same prayers, had the same practice of breaking bread, and heard the same Scripture passages. They would have a much stronger sense than we do that Sacramental Time draws the past closer and bends the future near. As modern Christians, we have lost much of this sacramental sense of time. Yet, we remind each other of sacramental time when we sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” with that beautiful line “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” The song reminds us that with the coming of the Messiah — that the past and the future come together in this singular moment of the Messiah’s arrival. That’s the way we inhabit time in the church. Yet, many of today’s Christians have a stronger sense of it being December 1, 2024 than it being the first day of Advent which we inhabit together across time.

In Advent we are invited to wait for the Messiah’s return, with each other, amidst the chaos of the world. Amidst the Chaos of the world? Of course, living in Sacramental time does not mean we cut ourselves off from the world’s sense of time (let’s call that secular time). Of course, what Advent invites us into impacts how we live in December 2024.

Although the faithful people of God have lived this in Sacramental moment across centuries, we have all lived in very different secular times. The prophets secular time involved navigating what it meant for Israel to have been conquered by Assyria or Babylon. Mary’s secular time involved living under Caesar’s rule, which forced her and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem for the census. In today’s passage, Jesus frames his disciple’s secular time as watching and waiting for the overthrow of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. Augustine’s secular time involved watching in horror as the Visigoth’s came and sacked Rome. Julian of Norwich lived out her secular time as the Bubonic plague swept through England. Teresa of Avilla’s secular time entailed seeing her family torn apart by the Spanish Inquisition. Tolkien’s secular time entailed serving in the army in World War I and later looking on with horror as World War II erupted.

Each of these saints inhabit with us the same moment of Sacramental time on this first day of Advent. Yet, each of us lives in very different secular times, each with very different hopes and fears.  Our congregation inhabits a different secular time than those who have gone before. As we wait with them for the arrival of Christ, we wait in Canada, amidst economic fears, environmental threats and other pressures. We wait with our own health struggles and strengths, relationship struggles and strengths, career aspirations and setbacks. We wait as wars happen around the world, and foreign rulers utter threats.  Yet, we gather with the communion of the saints to hear Jesus speak to us on this first day of Advent, and he call us to wait together for him amongst all our hopes and fears.

In the passage we heard this morning, Jesus is framing the events of his disciple’s secular time within the bigger picture of God’s purposes. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple will be sign of what is unfolding in God’s Sacramental time — the Messiah arriving at the Father’s right hand to take up His rule and authority. In this passage, Jesus’ own challenge to the disciples is clear. In my own words he is saying, “Do not let the events of your secular time overwhelm your sense of what God is doing in Sacramental times. Do not forget your primary call during Advent is to watch and wait — even if the world is falling apart around you. Do not lose hope in what God is doing and so let what’s happening in the world cause you to lose hope and give up in partying, drunkenness, and pressures of life. Keep the faith, watch and wait.” 

In secular time, Christ followers have many reasons to lose hope. Yet God calls our primary orientation to be in Sacramental Time — where there is always hope. In the Sacramental Time of Advent, our one call is to watch and wait: anticipating the arrival of our Messiah who will set all things New. Jesus says in Luke 21:36, “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.” Jesus calls us to live in our particular moment of history held by God’s time which is perpetually declaring, “watch and wait, Jesus is coming.” We do this with all those who believe and have gone before us.