Luke 21:25-36

       'Twas on a May-day of the far old year
       Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell
       Over the bloom and sweet life of the Spring
       Over the fresh earth and the heaven of noon,
       A horror of great darkness, ... The low-hung sky
       Was black with ominous clouds, save where its rim
       Was fringed with a dull glow, like that which climbs
       The crater's sides from the red hell below.
       Birds ceased to sing, and all the barnyard fowls
       Roosted; ... bats on leathern wings
       Flitted abroad; the sounds of labor died;
       Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp
       To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter
       The black sky, that the dreadful face of Christ
       Might look from the rent clouds, not as He looked
       A loving guest at Bethany, but stern
       As Justice and inexorable Law.

Pretty scary, huh? That's from a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier. It refers to an actual historical event, the great "Dark Day" of May 19, 1780, that struck much of the Northeastern US and parts of Canada. The sky went dark and everyone waited to see the "dreadful face of Christ." All the horrible things people had read about in the book of Revelation, and maybe in Luke chapter 21, they all seemed about to come true.

•[A fascinating statistic but entirely meaningless: Exactly 200 years minus one day later, the sky went dark over much of the Northwestern United States and parts of Canada. On May 18, 1980, Mt. St. Helens erupted. Again, I'm sure, people prayed and wept and birds stopped singing. But times had changed: very few people looked up in the sky for the dreadful face of Christ. We were all glued to the television screen.]•

Wasn't it only a couple weeks ago that we had a scary scripture about wars and earthquakes and signs in the sky? Well, yes, it was almost this same scripture, except that was Mark and this is Luke. But there's hardly any difference. Luke is just copying Mark, sometimes word-for-word.

You'll remember that we noticed then that Jesus was talking about labor pains, and predicting, not the end of something, but the beginning. And I made a brief mention that Mark's readers could easily have thought THEY were living through the end of time, noticing all the scary signs and happenings around them. Luke is writing fifteen or twenty years later, but HIS readers could imagine the same.

In fact people of EVERY AGE have looked around at the earthquakes and hurricanes, wars and rebellions, the snotty behavior of teenagers, and the incompetence of government,... and concluded that everything was winding down. Researching for this sermon I found an interesting statement by Cyprian, a Christian from about 250 A.D.:

       "Who cannot see that the world is already in its decline
       and no longer has the strength and vigour of former times?...
       There is less innocence in the courts, less justice in the judges,
       ... less artistic sincerity, less moral strictness."

No, Cyprian wasn't a happy camper. But neither was Socrates, and he lived 400 years BEFORE Christ. EVERYBODY has at least some moments when they look at the world around them and cry out in despair. Admit it! You've felt that way sometimes, haven't you? Maybe you're feeling that way now. They just don't preach sermons the way they used to!...

Even the happiest Pollyanna has days when the toast burns, and the bottom falls out of the coffee mug, and they get blamed for something that wasn't their fault. Everybody has some moments when it makes sense to be depressed. Or to turn this around: Every moment of every day something depressing is happening! Doesn't that just make you feel good?

A couple years ago I did a children's sermon about the book by Judith Viorst Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. You can guess how Alexander's day goes, because you yourself have also had terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days. Every time something bad happens, Alexander claims he's going to go to Australia. Even at the end of that day, Alexander's night light is burnt out, and his brother takes back the pillow he'd said Alexander could keep. So Alexander tells his mother about all the horrible events of that day, and again he says he's going to Australia. She says some days are like that, even in Australia. [Paraphrasing Nancy Bresette]

It turns out that Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is also published in Australia. But it doesn't make sense to have an Australian kid run away to Australia, so Alexander says he's going to Timbuktu. [Paraphrasing Rob Brown] Of course bad days can still be bad days, even in Timbuktu.

Every hour of every day something depressing happens. Even your birthday. Even Christmas morning. (Maybe especially your birthday and Christmas morning.) Every place in the world has its depressing events. Even Australia. Even Timbuktu.

So how does Jesus say to treat these terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days? Jesus says, "Stand up and raise up your head, because your redemption is drawing near." Did I mention Pollyanna a little bit ago? Jesus can make Pollyanna seem like a grump! When things are bad, it means things are getting better! When you're flat on your back in the gutter, it means the view is marvelous! When life can't get any worse, that's a signal that life is going to be wonderful! Pollyanna is just a piker compared to Jesus.

Stand up! Raise your head!

Then Jesus says, Stay awake! Keep alert! You don't want to miss any of this good stuff. I deliberately had Jo insert a line from a different version when she read the Gospel. That line is from Eugene Peterson's The Message and it says, "Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping." Parties and drinking and shopping, oh my! We all know these are depressing, even without watching the news and feeling the arthritis. Jesus is telling us to break ourselves out of the depression feedback loop.

There is a physical posture to depression: seated, head down, shoulders hunched. And depressed people sleep a lot. For most people whose depression is not clinical it is possible to develop a feedback loop where depression produces posture and posture furthers depression. Standing up helps jerk those endorphins into line. Walking is even better. Holding the head up improves the effectiveness of light therapy (sunlight). This is probably not enough for people who have clinical depression, but if your depression is due to terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, then waking up, standing up, lifting the chin, pulling the shoulder blades together, this can all help break that feedback loop of depression. Dr. Jesus is prescribing our cure.

Once again I need to say that the world is expecting the end of all the bad stuff. Jesus is predicting the BEGINNING of all the GOOD stuff. Stand up. Pick up your chin. Keep alert. Stay awake. Don't get distracted by all the crazy prophets of doom and gloom.

Back to that famous "Dark Day" in 1780. What happened? Whittier goes on in his poem to describe the panic in the Connecticut State House. But then he mentions one of the legislators, Abraham Davenport, who says:

                               ... "This well may be
       The Day of Judgment which the world awaits;
       But be it so or not, I only know
       My present duty, and my Lord's command
       To occupy till He come. So at the post
       Where He hast set me in His providence,
       I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face,
       No faithless servant frightened from my task,
       But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls;
       And therefore, with all reverence, I would say,
       Let God do [God's] work, we will see to ours.
       Bring in the candles."  And they brought them in....

There have always been terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, and there will always be. There have always been wars and rumors of wars, hurricanes and epidemics, starvation, crime, incompetence in government, and there will always be. Don't let the terrible days get you down. They are a sign that your redemption draws near. They are a sign things will get better.

So wake up! Stand up! Lift up your head! Be alert to notice all the signs of the good things God has in store for us.

This IS a terrible day! And that means this is a WONDERFUL day! The day that the Lord has made!

(Comments to Don at crestnch@televar.com.)

Creston Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Creston, WA, USA