Image: Fig tree, Mirrung Garden, 2024 (photo by Andrew Collis).
‘Look at the fig tree’
Andrew Collis
Advent 1, Year C
Psalm 25; Luke 21:25-36
“Look at the fig tree, or any other tree” – the reign of God is about how we look … at trees, at one another. It has to do with how the world appears in the light of a Promised One.
“Signs will appear,” says Jesus. And we can learn to read the signs through the eyes of those in anguish and need.
Lutheran theologian Jurgen Moltmann wrote an essay entitled, “Why am I a Christian?” Moltmann talks about his experience of coming to faith as a German soldier in a British prisoner of war camp at the end of the second world war. He talks about utter desolation … and finding hope there.
Not the sort of hope that lulls us into a relaxed comfort, but the sort of hope that leaves us with a profound restlessness as we anguish over the suffering of life and as we yearn for the coming of salvation and as we offer our lives in order to embrace God’s future.
It’s the sort of hope we might feel this week at news of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah …
It’s the sort of hope expressed by climate activists in Newcastle last weekend … amid moves by the government and police to stop the Rising Tide protest … amid a crackdown on protesting across the country …
It’s the sort of hope expressed by Act for Peace staff and partners … regarding projects in Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Gaza and the Holy Land; regarding Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, Sri Lankan returnees …
The sort of hope expressed – if only we can hear it – in prophetic texts of Judaism and Islam.
An Abrahamic hope founded on respect for fellow “people of the book”, people of earlier and other revelations (Qu’ran 29:46).
Hope founded on gender equality (the Qu’ran gave women rights of inheritance and divorce centuries before Western women were accorded such status) (Qu’ran 33:35).
Hope founded on egalitarian desires for justice, care for the most vulnerable – belief that war is a catastrophe, peace an imperative (Qu’ran 8:16-17).
“Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being …” says the Sufi poet Rumi.
Jesus says: “Nations will be in anguish. The powers will be shaken …” Perhaps we respond by wanting to run away.
Jesus says: “When these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your ransom/redemption is near at hand.”
Stand tall, stick your necks out, seize the opportunity for creativity and service. Understand the signs and the seasons – God does not come as the abuser, the oppressor, the invader, the terror. God comes as light and colour amid the darkness.
Advent beckons us to be a people who can read the signs of the times. To proclaim that we are all beloved – bearers of love and love’s embodiment – and to offer hospitality and the hope of new life to those at risk of confusion, fear, one or other death.
“Look at the fig tree, or any other tree” – the reign of God is about how we look … at trees, at one another. It has to do with how the world appears in the light of a Promised One. Amen.
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