A royal birth. That’s what all this advent talk is about right? That’s why we cloak the communion table in royal purple…because we remember the birth of a royal child, a prince of peace, and the coming reign he represents…a reign that began centuries ago with the birth of that prince…and will blossom into completion when he comes again. We’ve talked a lot this past year about what the Bible calls the Kingdom of God…about the Commonwealth that is coming—about a life beyond all we can imagine. That’s what this first Sunday in Advent is traditionally about as well…a time for us to contemplate not the first coming…but the second…the Kingdom Come…Jesus returns to that topic with this strange passage today…. Talking about power and glory…and Empire…

There’s an empire I read about not too long ago.…another empire with a landmark recent birth…On my birthday this past summer, another prince was born to this Empire…he was the son of the Sultan of Brunei… a small country that shares an island with Malaysia and Indonesia….the Sultan is a man whose life is also all about power and glory…and about his own Empire.

Fifteen years ago, he was the richest man in the world…worth 40 billion dollars. By the year 2000, his fortune was a paltry 11 billion dollars, largely undone by scandal and excess. Never fear…recent increases in the price of oil have restored his depleted fortunes…now said to be worth around 20 billion dollars.

The entirety of the livable land that is Brunei is just over 2000 square miles…the 6 county area of Chicagoland is over 3400 square miles…our population? 9 million… theirs? 350 thousand and change…We have Mayor Daley…They have the Sultan…and over 6 billion a year in revenue from oil…

The Sultan's palace cost almost 1 Billion dollars. It has 1,788 rooms and the home is larger than the entirety of Vatican City. When each of the Sultan’s children have turned 18, he’s purchased them their own multimillion dollar jumbo jet. His own, originally designed to carry over 400 people, sleeps 8 and has sinks made of gold. He was jealous of the prestige of Disney world…so just a few hundred miles from the equator, in one of the hottest places on earth…he built the Jerudong Park Playground… a $1 billion theme park used mostly by the royal family and their friends.

This year, two things happened in Brunei…first the Sultan turned 60…. As a part of his 60th birthday celebrations….the Sultan reiterated his position that God ordained him to rule over Brunei and as a result all of his words and actions are part of God’s will for the country. Also, as I said, this year a new prince was born to the Sultan...This little boy has 25 names…one of which means “peacemaker”…this prince will never want for anything…

To celebrate these events, civil servants in Brunei, the largest employer in the country, received a pay increase this July…their first in 22 years…it means that the starting salary for civil servants just went up…to $5.40 an hour. That same week, three men were sentenced to a year’s hard labor in Brunei’s infamous prisons…for having a cell phone conversation where they made fun of the royal family.

That is Empire in the 21st century…where it is all about power…and wealth…and oppression. It’s about maintaining wealth and power and position. And that has nothing to do with us, right?

One Empire leader recently said…”Our lifestyle is not negotiable…we will fight to preserve our way of life.” He is the leader of what some are also calling an empire…the American Empire…. And perhaps the President was correct…after all…

We have McMansions for two-person families, a road and highway system that seems to empower 6,000-pound SUVs carrying one person, we have cheap Chinese goods at Target and cheap Mexican produce in the supermarket and cheap Bangladeshi clothes at Wal-Mart…Ask around….all of this is not anything America intends to give up. We're king of the hill these days, heck, our people even make more per hour than they do in Brunei. And we intend for it to stay that way, apparently, if recent years are any example…even if it means going to war to keep it.

But today’s text is also about Empire…about a vastly different Empire than the one being exercised in Brunei…or Washington…

Jesus is talking about the coming of God’s Empire…
he talks about confusion and signs and even the heaven’s powers being shaken…and about how all of this is leading to the coming of God’s Empire…

That empire is coming…it’s so obvious Jesus says…it’s as obvious as the signs of Spring when the leaves on the fig tree are signs of the fruit to come…”Can’t you see it?” Jesus seems to be asking…after all, it will happen in this generation…That word always gives us trouble…but if you look at the Greek word…another, I think more accurate translation is “season”…this season of human existence, of human empire will not pass away until God’s Empire blooms…but it’s coming…if we can but see it’s leaves bursting out…

And did you notice…Jesus has instructions as we look for those signs of coming new life and growth…to be on guard…to be on guard against “dissipation and drunkenness” so the NRSV puts it…What odd instructions…what on earth does dissipation mean anyway…and why is drunkenness so important here?…

Dissipation…basically means…a hangover….Be on guard Jesus warns…for the dangers of over indulgence… not just of drink…for clearly Jesus is speaking metaphorically here…he warns against overindulgence of every kind…for it will weigh us down…will catch us like a trap…so that when God’s Empire dawns…it will be so foreign and surprising to us…that drunk on Human Empire…we won’t even recognize what God’s Empire looks like….That’s Jesus warning to us…that we might miss the joy of his coming again to us if we get so caught up in the indulgence of this Empire…

Could there be a more timely message for us…as we scurry around and worry about gifts and sales…as the powers that be jockey for position in the new Congress and Presidential hopefuls start the spin…as leaders wait anxiously for the recommendations of the Iraq work group this week…all the forces of human Empire can be so overwhelming that we would miss the signs of a coming royal birth that won’t involve jumbo jets with gold sinks…or door-buster sales at Macy’s…

Our theme for Advent this year is Out of Darkness….Light…Today Jesus invites us not to miss the light…not to surrender to the darkness so that we become blind to the light that is already here, breaking in…And our invitation includes a call to strip away those distractions…those things that make us so hungover from the intoxicating allure or entrancing drama of Human Empire…Our invitation is to look around…at the loving care shared in this extended family…at the needs being discovered and needs being met at places like Cool Local Shelter and Empowering Local Women’s Cooperative and Local Food Pantry…at the smiling faces of those who will be visited today by our carolers…at the promise of this table…to see in these things, in one another and in those we encounter every day…the tender leaves of hope and compassion and peace and joy…so that when they bloom and bear fruit in our lives and the lives of all—ultimately blossoming into eternal life…we are truly there…like surprised Shepherds and astounded Wise Ones…and are witnesses of Empire…God style…