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Sunday November 30, 2008 "Being Advent People" Isaiah 40:1-11 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 12/1/2008 11:19 AM | Are you ready?
It’s a simple question, that we hear a lot this time of year: Are you ready for Christmas?
Ready! Are you kidding me? It’s three days past Thanksgiving…there is still so much to be done before Christmas! The planning, the buying, the cooking, the partying, the wrapping….ready? Ha! Ask me again on about December 23rd!
This is a very strange time of year for me. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love the ramp up to Christmas and all that comes along with it. But from a theological point of view, from a church point of view, something gets obscured when this season all gets identified as Christmas…or at the very least as the preparation for Christmas.
What gets obscured is the season of Advent, the beginning of the Christian year, a time of preparation to be sure, but preparation for what?
We sit in a wonderful time, in a wonderful place: we know what happened on that night in the stable in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago. We know that the messiah, the Christ child, was born that night and so we use this time to reflect on what that means to us and how we can best honor that event in our own lives. We make our plans, we point to that wonderful night of Christmas Eve, we retell the story, we stand in awe of what it all means. The fact that God came to earth, as a living human being, is absolutely unbelievable, miraculous, world changing.
Recognizing and celebrating that wondrous event is a very real and important part of this season. And there is no getting around it, for most of us, it is the main focus of the season. And that’s okay. But we must make sure that we attend to the other reasons for Advent, too.
While we celebrate the birth of the messiah that has already come, we also must be thinking about the next part of the story. Jesus came, he grew up, he lived among us, he died for us, he arose from the dead, and he promised that he would return. When? We don’t know. How? We don’t know. But if we are to take seriously the amazing events of the birth of Jesus, then we must prepare for the second coming with equal seriousness.
The season of Advent is to commemorate the first coming of the messiah, and to contemplate the second coming of the messiah. And that is why the example of the our Hebrew brothers and sisters of ancient times is so important.
In the Isaiah passage we heard read this morning, the prophet speaks God’s word to the people of Jerusalem who are in exile in Babylon. Those words ought to be watchwords for us as we prepare ourselves for the unknown future.
As this most famous Advent scripture passage opens, we are told right off the bat that these are words of comfort. God seeks to comfort his people, the people of Jerusalem, God’s holy city.
“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
It’s easy for us today to hear those words and think that Jerusalem and her people have endured great hardships and pain. Indeed, that was true. Was Jerusalem punished by God? Were it’s inhabitants sent into exile by an angry God? Is this vengeful God one that can be trusted?
We will never have the answers to all of those questions, but one thing is clear, whatever brought on Jerusalem’s suffering will come to an end. Jerusalem has stayed faithful, even in the separation of forced exile, the faithful people of Jerusalem did their best to stay true to their roots and to trust in the promises of what it means to be God’s chosen people.
It couldn’t have been easy. There surely were times of doubt and disobedience, but by and large, the people of Jerusalem held fast to the promises of God made to their ancestors.
Then, out of the blue, this pronouncement of God made through the prophet Isaiah: your suffering is going to end. Well, that’s fine and good, but maybe we could have that promise with a little more specificity God? When will it end? How will it end?
God doesn’t say anything about the particular circumstances. But God does convey a particularly important message: prepare the way of the Lord! He’s coming, so get ready. Things will be better, trust God on that. Mountains will fall, valleys will rise up, the rocky and rough will be smooth and straight. Life will be good, because God’s love and presence are everlasting. The exile will end and God’s reign will be made clear.
People may be like the grass and the flowers. They will wither and die. They will not last forever on this earth. But God’s will, God’s love, God’s grace, God’s presence is eternal, and so we need not worry about our own mortality.
And then, God’s prophetic voice is heard: “Tell the people of Judah: HERE IS YOUR GOD!...he will come with might and power, yet he will lead like a shepherd and gather the lambs in his arms and in gentleness provide care and comfort to all.
If you are the exiled citizens of Jerusalem, how do you respond? I don’t know about you, but I think my first question would be “WHEN? Just tell me when so I can prepare.”
There’s the rub. God didn’t tell them when. God didn’t give them chapter and verse about a baby being born in a manger in Bethlehem. God just said, prepare yourselves and prepare for the Lord.
So, they did.
With fits and starts throughout the years, the Hebrew people did their best to follow God’s word and will. Oh, there were glitches, but eventually, they turned back, they honored God, they lived a life in anticipation and readiness. Those glitches, those times when misguided kings led them away from God’s word, those times when they became skeptical and doubted, are testimony to just how hard it is to stay prepared, fully prepared, all the time. Especially when you don’t know exactly what it means that a savior will come.
We face much the same thing today: Jesus showed himself as the Christ, the messiah that the Hebrews waited for all those years, and left with a promise that he will return and an admonition to those left behind to be prepared.
Again, my question remains the same, “WHEN?” And again, we don’t know.
As we begin Advent, I amazed at the precision with which we plan the events of the season. We know when, what, where, how, how much, how many… It has dawned on me that we are good at planning for specific things that we know will occur at specific times. Christmas is exactly 25 days away. (I can see how that realization just struck terror in the hearts of some here!) There’s much to be done…so, let’s make a plan. There are presents to buy…so, let’s make a plan. There are meals to prepare…so let’s make a plan. There are people to visit…so let’s make a plan. And 25 days from now, it will be over. Our plans will be accomplished. And we can set our sights on something else…all because we know what happened, and we make our plans to celebrate what happened. But how do we plan for the unknown? We don’t know how Jesus will return. We don’t know when. We aren’t entirely sure of the prupose.
But hold on: there’s the difference.
The Hebrew people who heard God’s word through the prophet Isaiah weren’t told to plan for the coming of the messiah. They were told to prepare for the coming of the Lord.
We are not to plan for the second coming. We are to prepare for the second coming.
How can we adequately prepare ourselves for the return of the messiah?
Maybe we could start by re-reading the stories of our ancient Hebrew ancestors to get grounded in what it meant that God became in involved in human history.
Maybe we could re-read our own gospel stories that tell us of the life of Jesus, that leave us with wonderful instruction in how to live, that remind us once again of the depth and breadth of God’s grace and love.
Maybe we could re-read the rest of our New Testament, the books that outline how the church of Jesus Christ was first started, how it grew, what obstacles it faced and what glorious successes it celebrated. Maybe we should pay attention to the correspondence in the many epistles of Paul and James and John and the others as they seek to comfort and exhort and help people prepare for what is to come next.
Maybe we can look to the example of those that we most admire, those that have the light of Christ seemingly shooting from their fingertips. You know who I’m talking about, because we all know, or have known, some of them: those people who make a habit of giving of themselves; those people who seem so well grounded that nothing ever bothers them; those people seem to weather storms with an easy grace that belies the struggle they face.
Maybe we can recommit ourselves to a daily routine of spending time alone with God in prayer and contemplation.
Because maybe, when we do all those things, we will understand that the importance of Christmas is not in all the stuff we need to plan for, but in the preparing our hearts to be open to God’s goodness all year round.
If each of us did those things, and we promised that we would keep up those disciplines year round, I think we would fit the definition of “prepared.” I also think an added bonus would be that those tasks that too often turn into burdens as we prepare for Christmas would be kept in better perspective and we might make our plans with a little more spring in our step, a little more joy.
I had a great-uncle who lived with us the last 10 years of his life. His name was Uncle Clyde, and he was the most prepared person I have ever met. Uncle Clyde was a faithful man, but he was not an overly religious man. He didn’t spend a lot time talking about his faith, or his beliefs. He attended church regularly, but never really got involved in church activities. But in his life, he was prepared. He lived very simply, never needing much of anything.
When he was given new clothes for his birthday, or Christmas, he didn’t immediately put them on and wear them like most of us would. No, Uncle Clyde would put them a way until such a time as he actually needed them. When he finished a meal, he would wash out his cup and saucer and plate and bowl, his knife fork and spoon, and put them back in place on the table, ready for his next meal. When he sat down to do his bills, he wrote everything out at once then kept a strict filing system of when they should be mailed, thus assuring that he got to use his money for as long as possible.
And he was unflappable. Even keeled, calm. I may have shared with you before that he didn’t like me, or my brother, very much, but he never made a big deal about it. He pretty much just ignored us!
At his funeral, the minister said, “I won’t say Clyde was stubborn, because he really wasn’t. What he was, was convinced,” And I would take what the minister said that day one step further: Because he was convinced, he was prepared.
On his 90th birthday, he and I were walking back to my parents cottage after the party at the hotel that Uncle Clyde and my grandfather had built. As we walked down the road he suddenly said, “Well, I made it to 90. I’m ready. Everything is prepared.” “Ready for what?” I asked. He looked at me sort of like “that was a stupid question.” (Believe me, I knew this look well.) “I’m ready for whatever God has in store for me. I’m ready to move on.”
As we walked down the road I thought, this crazy old man will live to be 150. He’s as strong as an ox.
Yet, not a month later, I got the call from my mother. Uncle Clyde was gone.
I never thought I would use Uncle Clyde as a sermon illustration of this sort, but the truth is, he embodies for me what it means to believe, to really believe so much that you feel truly prepared for whatever comes your way. And that, it seems to me is a good thing.
As we plan for the very certain event of the coming of the messiah that we celebrate on Christmas Eve, may we use this season of Advent to prepare our hearts, our lives and our whole selves for the great uncertainty that is the promised return of our messiah. Because if we are truly prepared, if we truly are convinced that we are following God’s word and will, if we are comfortable with God’s promises, then the questions of when and where and how will hold no uneasiness for us.
And when we hear the question asked “Are you ready?” we can joyfully answer, "Yes. Yes, I am."
Let us pray.
Lord, we love this life you have given us, but sometimes we go so caught up in our own world that we forget about who you would have us be. Help us to focus on how we can best be ambassadors of your love and grace, how we can spread your good news to all we meet, how we can truly be at ease, at peace, with our faith and with your promises. Help us to be Advent people awaiting the great mystery of your return with awe and hope. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.
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