Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

One of the most creative a cappella Christmas medleys I've ever heard. Enjoy!

O (II)

O Antiphon for December 18.

O Adonai and Ruler of the house of Israel, you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush, and on Mount Sinai gave him your law. Come, and with an outstretched arm redeem us.

Quoted in: Johnson, Maxwell. Benedictine Daily Prayer. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2005, as quoted on p. 1365.

Are You The One Who Is To Come?

Are You The One Who Is To Come?
Matthew 11:2-11
December 16, 2007
3rd Sunday in Advent

© 2007 by Christopher D. Drew

Sermon Focus: John the Baptist seems to be disappointed. Last week, we heard him proclaim the message that the kingdom has come, and that another would be coming who would baptize with the Holy Spirit, and with fire. These week, John finds himself in prison. Ultimately, he will be put to death. While there, be asks a profound question of Jesus – are you the one to come, or should we wait for another? We should reexamine Jesus’ answer this Advent season, when we have keen expectations for a certain kind of savior that conforms his role to our expectation.

Sermon Function: To remind listeners that the Messiah and his Kingdom are not what we might expect or envision. God’s vision for His creation is demonstrated by what Jesus does in obedience to the Father. We are also expected to act in obedience to God’s will for us and for His kingdom.

[Click to Show/Hide Sermon Text]

Introduction

This is the third week of Advent, and our thematic progression continues. During the first week of Advent, the overarching theme was proclaimed – that we, living in the post-resurrection world, are now waiting on the second coming of Jesus, which we anticipate with hope, and which gives us reason to celebrate the incarnation of the Christ from December 25th through January 6th.

The second week of Advent in the lectionary tells us about the ministry of John the Baptist, and relates to us his proclamation that the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated on Earth.

In this third week of Advent, John the Baptist again plays an important role. In each of the years of the lectionary, the theme for this third week has John the Baptist pointing to the Jesus as the Christ. And that is what John does in this week’s text, although his pointing is potentially clouded in confusion, for reasons that will become apparent.

Let us now listen to God’s word to us this day.

[Read Scripture - Matthew 11:2-11]

Opening Illustration

Back when I was a boy, there occurred a funny spectacle in my family that still gets discussed to this day, particularly as we approach the season of the great gift exchange. It seems that my parents wanted to give my sister and me a tremendous gift, one that we were told we would receive within a few weeks. We were promised a gift of amazing wonder and spectacular joy. It would be a gift that exceeded all of our expectations. It’s been so long now that I cannot remember what I imagined the gift to be. At that age, I might have been thinking of Lincoln Logs or Legos or some such thing. I don’t think my sister has ever shared with me what she was expecting, but I know that she was experiencing the same feelings of deep anxiety and anticipation while we awaited our tremendous, spectacular, stunning, gold-plated, ultra-cool, gift, one that hopefully none of my friends’ parents would have been able to match.

In the two or three weeks following the initial promise of the gift, our parents would remind us that it was coming, and that it would be a surprise; such a surprise, in fact, that they could not commit to a day when the gift would be given. It would come to us soon, but at an unexpected day and hour.

Each day, my sister and I would tingle with anticipation. Is this the day? Are we getting our phenomenal new surprise thing today? We can hardly wait! “How much longer?” we would ask. “A bit longer,” they would reply. “You’re going to love it,” they said.

The day FINALLY ARRIVED. It was late in the afternoon, and my folks loaded us up in the back of my dad’s good ol’ VW Rabbit (the original model). We drove around in the waning light of the day until we arrived at a house I didn’t recognize somewhere on the East bench of the Salt Lake Valley. My dad ran to the house, leaving us in the car with mom. After what seemed liked an hour, my dad emerged from the home, holding something in his hands. By now, it was so late that we couldn’t really see what he was holding. Then he arrived at the side of the car, the back door was opened, the overhead light came on, and dad set between us the gift which, we were promised, would be the most wonderful gift of ALL TIME.

He set it down between Bethany and I. At first, I couldn’t figure out what the all-black hair poof was doing in the car, until I started to see it move around a bit on its own.

It was a small puppy dog.

My sister and I looked at it for a bit, then looked at each other, then at our parents.

We started bawling with grief and disappointment. We were inconsolable! “You told us this would be something absolutely amazing!” We cried. “What is this thing? Is this it??”

“It’s a brand new puppy,” my folks explained, “Don’t you like it?” Our bawling only intensified with the question. I couldn’t see my parent’s face through the tears, but I would guess they were utterly crestfallen and confused. How on Earth could we have screwed this up? My expectations hadn’t been met, my sister’s expectations hadn’t been met, and, certainly, not even my parents’ expectations had been met. It was true disappointment all around.

Well, there was no turning back. Our parents encouraged us to try being affectionate with the furball-of-crushed-expectations, and for awhile I think they were really worried that we actually hated the dog. We drove to the local K-Mart, put the puppy in the shopping card, and started stocking up on pet supplies.

This was how my sister and I greeted the arrival of Duffy, the dog that, despite our initially wailing, quickly became the loyal and loving companion of my family for the next 15 plus years.

But boy, the initial disappointment we felt!

Disappointment – When Things Don’t Go As Expected

We have all experienced disappointments in life, times when things just don’t go as expected. A young man in the prime of his high school athletic years is unexpectedly injured and missed the entire basketball season. A small business owner can’t get things turned around, and the dream devolves into a failure and the need to start over. A politician loses a close election, one he or she felt certain of victory. A disease strikes suddenly, a marriage promise is broken. The list goes on. Life can be filled with disappointment when things don’t go as we expect.

In our scripture today, John the Baptist, who just last week appeared in the dessert proclaiming the inauguration of God’s kingdom, this week points to the Christ from a prison cell. He was put there by King Herod for having pointed out Herod’s, uh, indiscretions with a certain member of the royal family. Having been the one fired up with excitement that the kingdom had come, John now sits and waits in prison. Now, Matthew doesn’t try to tell us John’s mental state while in prison, but the overarching narrative in Matthew causes the reader, you and me, to wonder if he wasn’t disappointed with his situation, and wondering if he had had it right back there at the river Jordan. Things weren’t going as expected for John. There was no political revolution, but a man ministering to the people.

In this midst of these confounded expectations, John asks, through his disciples, one of the more profound questions of the entire bible: “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another” (Matt 11:3 NRSV)? The question itself implies that John might not be sure of the answer, or simply wants confirmation on his deepest question.

Jesus, you will notice, doesn’t give John a yes or no answer. In fact, one could also imagine, as one writer put it, that “it might have hurt” a little for Jesus to hear John’s question – one that might be framed with a bit of doubt as to Jesus’ identity. Instead, Jesus replies in a away that fulfills the prophetic words of Isaiah:¹

Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” (Matt 11:4-6 NRSV)

Tell John what you hear and see. The Word comes first, and John gets to hear Jesus’ words through John’s disciples, just as we have received Jesus’ Word through the gospels of our Bible. Jesus couples healing with the good news that is brought to the poor. Verse five is particularly important, because it has the specific intent of identifying Jesus’ actions with the inauguration of God’s kingdom.²

So, Jesus’ answer to John is, in essence, “I am the one coming, but not in the way you had likely anticipated.”

What Does This Mean for Us?

And in this Advent season, when so much of the world is in chaos and disorder, as it was in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, what does Jesus’ words mean for us? Each of us is confronted with the question. Each of us likely comes to the table, even this communion table, with some preconceived idea for what we want our Jesus to be. Some of us, like John the Baptist, want Jesus to overthrow the existing order. Others want a Jesus who will be best friends who will happen to overlook this or that or the other sin that keeps us from knowing Him. Others want a Jesus who will richly bless them with the things they have always wanted. We all have this propensity as sinful humans, the propensity to define God in terms we can understand and cleave to.

But today’s scripture makes it clear that Jesus generally doesn’t accommodate our expectations for his ministry. So this might explain why he doesn’t give a simple “yes” answer to John’s question. Instead, Jesus testifies to the prophetical fulfillment being actualized right in front of anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see.

These acts, these healing and miraculous acts, are not accomplished by Jesus to necessarily convince people that he is the Messiah. Jesus does these things out of radical obedience to the will of his Father in Heaven, as exemplified by the servant theme of the prophet Isaiah, whom Jesus quotes.

We Are Called

And as disciples of Jesus Christ, we also are called to bear witness to the glorious work of God through our obedience to God’s Word as well. We are called to witness to the gospel in everything we do, and not just by faithfully attending worship and other church functions. We are called to much more than that. We are also called to ministry with others, including people we may not be comfortable with, just as Jesus worked and lived with people that his contemporaries weren’t comfortable with.

Jesus shares the good news with John’s disciples and they go on their way. He then turns to the crowds and addresses their expectation regarding John. “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at?” “What then did you go out to see?” Again he asks, “What then did you go out to see? A prophet?” Yes, a prophet, one who promised profound, revolutionary change. Such change wasn’t forthcoming, so the crowds were likely wondering a bit about John the Baptist, just as John the Baptist wondered about what Jesus was doing.

Answering his own rhetorical questions, Jesus announces that John the Baptist was the greatest of those born of women. Hidden in this single verse is a promise, a promise that includes you and me. You see, John was a great man, a great prophet, and more than a prophet. But the children of the world who believe in Jesus will have equal, even greater standing that this mighty biblical prophet. For us, that means that through our faithful response to God’s grace, that we too might attain this prize.

This great promise is particularly important for those who are lonely, or sick, or suffering pain or the loss of a loved one. All of these, the least of these, are the once promised the place of honor at the table. This is likely not what many people, including many of us, would expect. Life is full of unfulfilled expectations and disappointments. But for those who are filled with faith, there is the promise of great wonder in the kingdom of heaven. And remember, that kingdom has already come, and it continues to come, until the time when all with be renewed and transformed by God’s glory. Friends, Jesus is the Lord of all, even the Lord of our disappointments. In the midst of what might cause us to suffer, Jesus has saved a place at the banquet table. And that is our hope and the source of our joy this Advent season. Praise be to God.

Let us pray.

Eternal God, you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for the coming of your Son. Grant us the wisdom to see your purpose and openness to hear your will, that we too may prepare the way for Christ who is coming in power and glory to establish his kingdom of peace and justice; through Jesus Christ our Judge and Redeemer, the one who saves a place for us at the banquet table of your Kingdom, and the one who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever. Amen.³

Given at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Texas.

¹Hare, Douglas. Matthew. Richmond: John Knox Press, 1993, p. 121. ↩

²Ibid. ↩

³Theology and Worship Ministry Unit. Book of Common Worship. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993, adapted from Prayer of the Day 1, p. 175 (adapted). ↩

Technorati Tags: Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, Sermon, Matthew 11:2-11, Year A, Advent, Kingdom

O (I)

O Antiphon for December 17.

O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and reaching from the beginning to end, you ordered all things mightily and sweetly. Come, and teach us the way of prudence.

Quoted in: Johnson, Maxwell. Benedictine Daily Prayer. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2005, as quoted on p. 1365.

The Kingdom Has Come Near

The Kingdom Has Come Near
Matthew 3:1-12
December 9, 2007
2nd Sunday in Advent

© 2007 by Christopher D. Drew

Sermon Focus: John is called the precursor, the one proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near. The implications of John’s statement ought to cause us much discomfort, because we are closer to the final culmination of John’s proclamation that anyone who has come before us. The time of waiting continues, but we should be living as if that Kingdom has already come into existence. The present realities of our lives must reflect this reality, if we truly accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Sermon Function: To proclaim John’s message for the contemporary listener, who is otherwise distracted by the forthcoming secular form of the Christmas holiday. Are we really ready for Christ’s return? This is the question that ought to dominate our thoughts.

[Click to Show/Hide Sermon Text]

Introduction

We’re now into our second week of exploration of not just the first coming of the baby Jesus, but the second coming of Jesus the Christ. Luke records that Jesus and John where related due to the family relationship between Elizabeth, John’s mother, and Mary, Jesus’ mother. They were cousins.

John gives us words of warning in our text; words that, to our ears, might sound strange and even a bit off-putting. Imagine what it might be like to hear this strange man who, walking from the fields, comes into, say, the HEB, his words booming through aisles. To say that we would be surprised and shocked would likely be an understatement.

As we continue our preparations for Christ’s return, let’s listen to God’s Word and what it is saying to us know.

[Read Scripture - Matthew 3:1-12]

Opening Illustration – The Kingdom is Near

I have learned that it is possible to get at least a glimpse into what those of us in Portland are reading by examining the book and magazine sales racks at Wall-Mart. It is an interesting experience to see what is selling. I take it that Wall-Mart wouldn’t have what they have unless there was some prospect of selling a few copies.

Behind such titles as “Your Best Life Now,” multiple books by Beth Moore, and three of four books by Joyce Meyer – incidentally, how to these people have the time to write so many books? – are a few bibles (hooray!). Also in the mix is one of those “Left-Behind” novels that give a very dispensationalist interpretation to the end times to come and the arrival of Christ’s kingdom on earth.

I paused in front of that book and thought for a moment about our text this week, a text in which this wild preacher named John comes proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near. The Greek word ἤγγικεν, the verb translated as “come near,” is a perfect verb. In the Greek language, perfect verbs describe actions that have already taken place and which have continuing, full effect – a change of state that persists.

And as I sat there looking at the book from the “Left Behind” series, the one that purports to tell the story of the forthcoming arrival of Christ’s kingdom on earth, I realized that indeed, they have likely gotten it wrong. The kingdom of God has come near with continuing full effect. It might come as a surprise to you, but Christ’s kingdom has already come into the world. It’s here already! We live, right now, in a world in a condition where the Kingdom of God has come near to us. Right now.

Surprise

We forget this fact – the fact that we live in a “now and not yet” Kingdom of God. We miss the boat if we think that the kingdom isn’t here yet, but is promised to us at some point in the future. If we believe that, then I think we run the risk of living in some pie in the sky world, so that we might be manipulated into thinking that if we don’t fix everything right now, well hey, that’s okay! The kingdom will come and set everything aright.

But that’s not what John is saying, nor is it what Matthew says. One of the things that distinguishes the Gospel according to Matthew from the other gospels is that Matthew seems keenly interested in the intersection between faith and ethics.¹ Faith, our faith that God will ultimately set things right in final judgment is somehow merged with the need to do something in response to this good news NOW. That is, in fact, what John is preaching here. He is saying that God’s kingdom has been inaugurated already, and accordingly we need to, as he says, repent! This prophet, who materializes almost out of nowhere in the wilderness of Judea, dressed remarkably like the great prophet Elijah the Tishbite in 2 Kings 1:8, is telling us that we need to do something right now in response to the news that the Kingdom has been inaugurated on earth. For John, that process of doing something NOW takes the form of repentance and baptism.

The Nature of Repentance

Repentance is an interesting word. To the modern ear, to repent means, in some way, that we are called upon to apologize for a wrong committed against God or our neighbor. The New Oxford American Dictionary says as much. “Repent” is defined as the need to “feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin.”² And we should feel sorry for abrogating the covenant God has made with us. But John’s call to repent here is much larger than that. Again, we have to understand what the Greek word means in order to get the full gist of what John is asking us to do. The Greek word for “repent” is μετανοέω, which mean much more than just saying, “I’m sorry, Lord.” “Though in English a focal component of repent is the sorrow or contrition that a person experiences because of sin, the emphasis in μετανοέω … seems to be more specifically the total change, both in thought and behavior, with respect to how one should both think and act.³ Total change. In thought and behavior. John uses the imperative form of the verb, a decision that puts a sense of urgency on the action. Well, that makes more sense now, doesn’t it? If the Kingdom is already here, in some fashion that we usually don’t remember or see, then there is HUGE emphasis on responding to that reality now, with our thoughts and our actions – reforming our ways, and becoming new people.

Last week, we were talking about watching and waiting. And part of watching and waiting is responding to God’s wonderful work now by fundamentally rearchitecting our thoughts and actions so that we become proper reflections of Jesus Christ in the world. Paul rights to the Galatians and says “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Gal 3:27 NRSV). We don’t belong to ourselves anymore – we belong to Jesus.

So, Now What?

Advent is a time of watching, of waiting, and now we see it is also an opportunity ripe for transformation, for putting our faith into practice in our lives.

Reverend Billy Graham was recently asked what he thinks the greatest need is in our churches today. Is it better preaching? More youth work? What is it? The writer asking the question is on the board of a church, and they are debating this subject recently.

Billy Graham’s answer is illuminating and motivating and encapsulates our response today to John’s imperative to repent by transforming our lives in the knowledge that God’s Kingdom has come near and is currently near. Here’s Billy Graham’s response to the concerned church board member:

I'm convinced that the single greatest need in most churches today is spiritual revival - for a renewed commitment to Jesus Christ and a greater desire to do His will, regardless of the cost.

How does this happen? It must begin with an awareness of our spiritual poverty - an acknowledgment of our sin and our emptiness before God. It is no accident that Jesus' first words in the Sermon on the Mount dealt with this truth: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). This must lead us to confession and repentance, asking God to forgive us and turn our hearts toward Him.

Spiritual revival also means seeing the world the way God sees it, with all of its brokenness and rebellion and heartache - and then asking God to use us to touch it for Christ. When we are concerned only for ourselves, our lives and our churches will grow cold and stagnate - but when we become burdened over a world that has lost its way, then God can begin to use us.

Spiritual revival cannot be manufactured or created by our own efforts; only the Holy Spirit can bring true revival to our hearts. But we can pray for revival, and we can ask God to remove anything in our lives that would create a barrier to God's work. May the ancient prayer of Habakkuk become yours: "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years" (Habakkuk 3:2, KJV)⁴

The Surprise of Advent

This is the surprise of Advent – The Kingdom of God has come near and remains near to us, even as we watch and wait. We are called to fundamentally change our focus, to shape our thoughts and our actions in response to this great thing that has happened. John, the firebrand, warned the Pharisees and Sadducees of “the wrath to come” as they stood there awaiting baptism. John implores them to bear fruit worthy of repentance – the fruit of repentance is personal transformation. Again, Matthew point to the ethical implications of personal transformation. The Pharisees and Sadducees through that claiming Abraham as their ancestor would be enough to absolve them for their sinfulness. But it wasn’t enough. The fruit of repentance was missing. I think we run a similar risk if we think that we can sort of coast by as a body of faithful believers who claim Christ as their ancestor.⁵ We know that God works through us and calls us to discipleship before we are even aware of it. But if our lives do not reflect that reality, then of what use are we to God? We become as useless as that tree which no longer bears fruit. If you have such a plant in your own garden, you don’t keep it around, you cut it out and replace it with one that is productive, and fully lives into its function of bearing fruit. Similarly, we are called by God to live our lives in the reality that the Kingdom of God is here.

Implications

How are we called to bear fruit? Matthew 28 gives us a clue.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:19-20 NRSV)

We are to extend the message of the Gospel to the entire world. This church is called to extend the mission of the Gospel to the entire world. And we should ask ourselves if we could be doing more? Does our church budget reflect the reality that the kingdom has been inaugurated and is awaiting fulfillment with the return of Christ? Are we doing enough mission and evangelism in our community? How is my own budget a reflection of the reality of God’s kingdom? How do my relationships with other need to change to reflect the reality of the kingdom? Do I need to seek reconciliation with a friend or a family member? Do I need to cut back on a luxury so I can buy a family a meal, or giving gifts to children in need through the Angel Tree program? I implore you to reflect this Advent on your own spiritual life and the spiritual life of this church! Are we bearing fruit worthy of repentance? And if we are not, what must we do to be transformed? Are there hungry people in Portland that we need to feed? Are we using our land and our money appropriately? We’re going to need to work together to discern that answer as we get close to the end of the calendar year. The Kingdom is here, and Christ is coming. And we need to get on with being the people God has created us to be, not just to look busy, and we need to get on with the task of bearing fruit worthy of repentance, worth of that calling and ministry into which we have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Let us pray.

Merciful God, you sent your servant John to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation. Give us grace to heed his warning, and to forsake our sins and transform our lives, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.⁶

Given at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Texas.

¹Hare, Douglas. Matthew. Richmond: John Knox Press, 1993, p. 2. ↩

²New Oxford American Dictionary (2nd Edition) entry for “repent.” ↩

³Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Eds. “μετανοέω.” Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies, 1989. ↩

⁴Graham, Billy. “My Answer: Spiritual Revival.” Christian Post. Nov. 30, 2007. Online here. ↩

⁵Hare, p. 20. ↩

⁶Theology and Worship Ministry Unit. Book of Common Worship. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993, adapted from Prayer of the Day 1, p. 174. ↩

Technorati Tags: Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, Sermon, Matthew 3:1-12, Year A, Advent, Kingdom, Ethics

If You've Been Called...

... Then you will appreciate this paragraph, taken from the Declaration of Faith by St. John of Damascus (whose memorial is observed today by our Roman Catholic friends):

Now you have called me, Lord, through your bishop, to serve your children. Why should you do this? I do not know; the secret is yours. Lighten, then, the heavy load of my sins; cleanse my mind and heart; be a light to my feet. Open my lips and give me speech. Let the fiery tongues of your Spirit penetrate my being and make me walk every day in your presence. Feed me, Lord, so that my heart may not stray. Let your good Spirit guide me on the right path and teach me to act as you wish.¹

¹Johnson, Maxwell. Benedictine Daily Prayer. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2005, as quoted on p. 1682. ↩

Technorati Tags: St. John of Damascus, Declaration of Faith, Call

Wait Just a Minute

Wait Just a Minute
Matthew 24:36-44
December 2, 2007
1st Sunday in Advent

© 2007 by Christopher D. Drew

Sermon Focus: Thematically, the Sundays in Advent are all about the second coming of the Son of Man. Despite our clamoring for his appearance right here and right now, Jesus makes it crystal clear that no one knows the day or the hour when he will return. And when he does, the results will be astonishing. Some will be “taken up along,” but others will be left behind. The chaff will finally be separated from the wheat. Divine justice is in the offing. Are we waiting and watching?

Sermon Function: To illustrate how those in our society, including many in the church, want Christmas now. We already think we are in the Christmas season, but the 12 Days of Christmastide do not being until Christmas Day. Why the rush? And are we anxiously rushing toward the right thing? How do we recover the wonder of this season?

[Click to Show/Hide Sermon Text]

Introduction

Happy Advent! You may remember that we changed out the color of our paraments last Sunday to mark the beginning of the change of the church season and the start of a new church year. This week, you can see that we’ve augmented that change with a few others.

Part of the change in the year means that the lectionary, the source for our weekly biblical readings, also changes. There are three years in the lectionary cycle, denoted A, B, and C. Last year, we were in year C, and the gospel readings for most weeks of the year came from the gospel of Luke. This year, we start over with year A, and Matthew is the gospel of emphasis. The theme of today’s reading is not the forthcoming birth of the Christ child, but of Jesus’ return – a return that promises to be sudden, swift, and unpredictable.

Let’s listen now to God’s word.

[Read Scripture - Matthew 24:36-44]

Introductory Story

I learned a very important lesson this week, and I’d like to share it with you.

Each Thursday, your intrepid pastor leads a short “children’s chapel” for the students enrolled in our Presbyterian Children’s Enrichment Center. We usually gather at the front of the church, and I sit with them on the floor as we pray together and sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” This week, however, I gave them a bit of a test. I asked the children if they had a great Thanksgiving. “Yes! Yes!” could be heard, along with the response “I’m five” and “look at me.” Then I asked them this question, “What season comes after Thanksgiving?”

To the child, the answer came flooding forth, “Christmas! Christmas! It’s Christmas!”

“Well, we’re getting close to Christmas, but Christmas doesn’t begin until late in the month, on December 25th. What season, then, are we in?”

Silence.

“Advent,” I said, “We’re in the season of Advent.”

I then gave them the oversimplified answer about Advent being a time of waiting and watching. One of the girls in our group told me her birthday was coming up on December 10th. I asked her if she got excited for her birthday, in the days leading up to it. “You can hardly wait for your birthday, right?” “Yes!” she answered. “But you have to wait for your birthday, don’t you?” “Yes,” she replied. “Well, during the season of Advent, we wait for Christmas like you wait for your birthday.”

Now, it’s generally beyond the competence of very young children to understand the concept of waiting for Jesus’ return, which is the subject of today’s gospel text. But that is what we are called to do.

But will we?

Advent: The Forgotten Season

The fact of the matter is this: Just like the kids in the PCEC, many of us think and act like Christmas has come already. The day after our Thanksgiving in Luverne, Minnesota, someone obligingly put on a CD containing Christmas music. Our society has more or less secularized Christmas, and the Church runs the significant risk of following suit.

So this Sunday’s sermon is a reminder of what the season of Advent is and how, by reclaiming the season, we just might be able to regenerate the sense of hope and wonder that ought to play a role in our faith lives.

I mentioned that Advent is a time of waiting. The concept of waiting for something is an increasingly hard sell in a culture where just about anything can be acquired with a few mouse clicks at Amazon.com. But waiting has some value for us, because waiting is, for Christians, a spiritual discipline based upon our Hope for the certain future that awaits us.

The big task for us, as we celebrate this time of waiting, is remembering that without our hope of Jesus’ return, there really is little reason to celebrate the birth of a boy in a Bethlehem manger. Jesus cannot be a figure of ultimate hope for us if we reduce who He is to a well-meaning philosopher who had some nice things to say. The claims that Jesus makes about himself and about the Father are such that we either accept that He is the Son, or we accept that he was a complete maniac.

Immediately before our text begins today, Jesus is talking to the disciples about the coming of the Son of Man. He anticipates the question about when this will happen when Matthew quotes him as follows:

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matt 24:36 NRSV). Only the Father knows when history as we know it will we wrapped up, reformed, and reborn into a new heaven and a new earth. No special codes are available to render a definitive few about when these events will happen, despite what we made read in the pages of the successful popular serial fictional novels about the second coming.

So, we know he’s coming, but we don’t know when. Jesus then tells us something important – that when the time comes, we will be preoccupied with our earthly lives, just as the people were at the time of Noah and the flood.

And we are preoccupied. With our families, with our work, with buying the right gifts for the right people, by making the right connections at work, by doing all that we think we need to do to ensure our security and success in this life. As in Noah time, we eat and we drink. We marry and are given in marriage. None of these things are morally suspect or questionable. On the contrary, we need to eat and drink. We rely on families to sustain us and to afford the best possible environment for the care of children, the children that guarantee that humanity as a species won’t drift off into a distant memory. No, we are engaged, as those in Noah’s generation, with the tasks we are called to by virtue of the fact that we are created beings.

And yet, while we are preoccupied with those things that make us human, we are nonetheless called upon to keep watch. Because just as the flood suddenly came and took life, in a similar way people will be “taken” when the Son of Man comes. This is not something to dread – this is our hope! The hope that a final, full, completely fair and inarguable judgment will come at the time of the renewal of the world and the coming of God’s Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven. This is the certain future hope we have that gives us the real reason we will celebrate the 12 days Christmastide starting on December 25th. We anxiously await this time because we know that the ordinary things of this life, like the ordinary tasks of life at the time of Noah, are not the end. This future promise is what drives us now to remember that birth event two millennia ago.

It is very important for us to remember this fact. Advent is a time of great anticipation, a time when we should refocus our efforts to keep watch, not just for the big day of Christmas when, due to the cultural secularization of the holiday, we find ourselves all to often saying “That God that’s over.” Rather, we look forward to the very incarnation of the future Hope of justice, mercy, and the coming of God’s Kingdom in the person of Jesus, that baby of wonder, who enters into our condition to redeem us, once and for all, from the sinfulness that separates us from the Father.

I find that prospect very exciting, and I want to join with you in our watching. But how can we keep watch with all of the business of our lives? How do we keep plowing the fields, taking care of the kids, pay the bills, mow the lawn, balance the checkbook, prepare dinner for the family, suffer the commute to work, sweat through our labors, and keep our eye out for Jesus? Is it even possible?

Advent the Discipline

It is possible, if we remember that Advent isn’t just a season. It’s a gift, and a discipline. I’ll talk about the second item first.

Advent is a discipline. What does that mean? It means refocusing our efforts to reclaim the hope we have in Advent now, because we know that Jesus wasn’t just a nice man who said nice things. We know he is everything to us, and the key to our salvation. If we truly believe that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate, then nothing in our lives ought to remain the same. Instead, we need to do things differently. And doing things differently is difficult, time-consuming, and requires effort. That’s what I mean by Advent being a discipline.

If you, like me, want to reclaim the meaning and wonder of Advent for the church, then an examination of your life will, I think, quickly reveal what you can do to refocus your efforts on anticipating Christmas. Here’s something I’m going to do. Many of you know that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool capitalist. I like buying things just like anything else. But I’ve committed this Christmas to avoid the shopping mall. I will not, in fact, enter a mall between now and Epiphany in early January. Now, I’m not some Luddite who wants to live a horse-and-buggy existence. The reason I’m going to avoid the mall if very practical – I want to avoid the blaring Christmas music and the shopping hints that have caused Christmas in our culture to overwhelm the anticipation of Advent. Instead, I’m going to shop online, in the quiet of our apartment here in Portland. Quick, efficient, and back to anticipating. I hope to up my time in quiet reflection and prayer with the time I might otherwise have spent mall shopping. I’m also going to avoid FM Christmas music spectaculars until December 25th, and I’m doing that because I like the music so much. I would rather wait with some longing and start playing the music over the 12 days of Christmas. It’s not much, I know, but I hope that focusing on a few small things might help me reclaim the wonder of anticipation that I remember when I was a kid.

Second, I hope we can all remember that Advent is a gift, a time of reclaiming wonder.

Years ago, I purchased a small book from a discount rack called Wonder Tales. The book is a compilation of fairy tales written for adults during the reign of Louis XIV of France. The book was edited by Marina Warner. This is one of these books that looked interesting, but which I’ve never actually read, alas. But I spied the book on my shelf as I was preparing the sermon, and because it had the word “Wonder” in the title, I pulled it off and perused the introduction.

Here’s the first sentence of the introduction:

Wonder has no opposite; it springs up already double in itself, compounded of dread and desire at once, attraction and recoil, producing a thrill, the shudder of pleasure and of fear. It names the marvel, the prodigy, the surprise as well as the responses they excite, of fascination and inquiry; it conveys the active motion towards experience and the passive state of enrapturement.¹

That is about the best description of wonder as I’ve ever read, and it is the gift of Advent. Through deliberate, disciplined waiting we can reclaim that moment of wonder, the wonder of God Almighty, the Alpha and the Omega, the great I AM, the steadfast Rock and the Giver of Life, who, even now enfolding us with His Holy Spirit, through the incarnation was born into life in a broken world, THIS world, to be WITH us, so that he could SAVE us. Can you imagine that? How amazing! And it is through Jesus that ALL of creation will be renewed at the Second Advent of this coming. That same child, born on that same night, is the same Savior who will come again. The same person of the same Triune God. What a wonder filled miracle that is! And what wonder we will experience on December 25th, if we will just wait a minute first.

Let us pray.

Eternal God, you taught us that the night is far spent and the day is at hand. Keep us awake and alert, watching for your kingdom, and make us strong in faith, so that when Christ comes in glory to judge the earth, we may joyfully give him praise; who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.²

Given at First Presbyterian Church, Portland, Texas.

¹Warner, Marina et.al. Wonder Tales. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 1. ↩

²Theology and Worship Ministry Unit. Book of Common Worship. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993, p. 173. ↩

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