An updated version of the Advent 1 sermon I preached in 2012. Why a repeat? Because it's still true and, in my bones, I feel it is what needed to be heard.
+Advent gets short shrift. Most folks want to zoom by it and go right into Christmas. Other people are so maniacal about adhering to Advent that they refuse to listen to a Christmas carol until Christmas Eve. I’m here to tell you, blaring Christmas carols in your car is fine, setting up your Christmas tree is fine, wishing people a Merry Christmas is fine. We can celebrate Advent even though the secular world is all about Christmas. It’s all ok. What’s not ok is just considering Advent to be a countdown to Christmas, because that short-changes Advent. And Advent deserves better than that. So let’s take some time to consider what Advent is…
Advent is:
expectant waiting. You know that kind of waiting when waiting for someone you love very much. It’s standing at the airport craning your neck to catch the first glimpse of your beloved. That’s expectant waiting.
Advent is:
hopeful anticipation. You know when you’re opening a present and you think you know what it is, you hope you know what it is….that’s hopeful anticipation.
Advent is:
cheerful preparation. It’s one thing to clean the house because it NEEDS to be cleaned. It’s a whole other thing to clean the house because you’re getting ready for a grand meal, or a big party, or a family reunion. When we’re getting ready for something good, for a special guest? That’s cheerful preparation.
In Advent we expectantly wait, in hopeful anticipation, with cheerful preparation, for God to break into our lives. Big time.
You see, God taking on flesh and plopping smack dab into our lives is a REALLY BIG DEAL.
Because when God becomes human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, EVERYTHING CHANGES--
Every moment, every place, every thing…
Jesus changed everything when he came the first time, Jesus will change everything when he arrives the second time and today, on this first day of Advent 2015, Jesus is going to change everything again.
That is, if we let him. See that’s the wondrous and miraculous thing about the incarnation of God in Christ: it only turns our world inside out and upside down if we allow it to. It only changes everything if we welcome God here and now—Emmanuel--- into our hearts, our minds and our souls. Again and again and again.
That’s why we have a “church year,” why we go through the cycle of Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension each and every year. Because the redeeming work of God through Christ is a process. It’s not an event.
It’s a dynamic, alive, “always revealing more” process of bringing Jesus’ message of Loving everyone, everywhere, no exceptions to fruition.
Advent is a lot of things.
It’s looking ahead and it’s also looking behind.
On the one hand Advent is about preparing us for the coming of the Christ child, but on the other hand, Advent is about us looking at all the work that remains unfinished and getting busy with the work we’ve already been given to do.
Work that, frankly, isn’t all that easy. Work that, frankly, a lot of you may wish I’d stop talking about.
The world is a mess. Paris, Beirut, Syria, Iraq.
Racism, Intolerance.
Out of control gun violence, the most recent of which included a gang hit on a 9 yr old boy in Chicago and a madman entering a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. People who think the only way to deal with their personal issues of intolerance and fear is to lash out in violence against innocents.
On a more personal level I know that each and everyone of you has a whole host of worries and concerns on your plate. Job troubles, family issues, relationship problems, health concerns.
Life is challenging, life is scary, life is fragile.
We all deal with these issues differently—sometimes we deny them, sometimes we tackle them, sometimes we avoid them, sometimes we just plain worry about them.
But, and here’s where our readings for today come into play. When everything seems to be at it’s worst, when everything seems to be at it’s darkest, when the “signs in the sun, the moon and the stars…cause people to faint from fear,” when we can’t seem to find our way out of whatever mess we find ourselves in …
lo and behold, God appears. God always appears.
Advent is about having hope. Having hope even when the days are dark and the world feels cold and the future seems precarious.
Advent is about trusting that the light will always follow the dark.
Advent is about knowing---deep down in our gut—that a leaf will sprout from the righteous branch of David.
Advent is about remembering that God isn’t finished: not with us and not with the world.
Creation and redemption are not once and for all,
over and done with acts of God.
In and through us, God keeps creating and creating and creating.
God in Christ acted to redeem the world and God in Christ keeps on actively redeeming it.
As Jeremiah says “. . . [The Lord] will execute justice and righteousness in the land,” and until that’s done,
God’s not done.
So as we step into these four weeks of preparation, of waiting, of hoping we must prayerfully open ourselves up to this plain and certain fact:
As long as God isn’t finished, neither are we.
As long as the redeeming work of God through Christ is still working in this world, we must keep working here---in Buffalo New York, at the CGS and the COA---~~working to bring the light of Christ to all we encounter.
~~Working to BE the light of Christ in this world. ~~Working to make sure that we, in expectant waiting, in hopeful anticipation and in cheerful preparation remain the instruments of the Loving, Redeeming, and still working God who came to be among us over 2000 years ago.
Advent is a process for us and a process for God. You see, God becoming human only works if we accept God into our lives---wholly, fully and totally.
That’s what we’re getting ready for, my friends. We’re getting ready to welcome, to accept and to embrace the best guest. Ever.
So let’s get moving. Not one of four short weeks but a journey for all time, ending when that righteous branch of David returns, joyously announcing that there is, once and for all and forever, Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward and for All.
Amen
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