Sermon101128

St. Phillip’s, Tucson

Advent 1A

Collect

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Isaiah 2:1-5

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

In days to come the mountain of the LORD’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.

Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

Psalm 122

I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the LORD.”

Now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city
that is at unity with itself;

To which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD,
the assembly of Israel, to praise the Name of the LORD.

For there are the thrones of judgment,
the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.

Peace be within your walls
and quietness within your towers.

For my brethren and companions’ sake,
I pray for your prosperity.

Because of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek to do you good.”

Romans 13:11-14

You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Matthew 24:36-44

Jesus said to the disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Sermon

What are you waiting for?

It sounds so simple to say that Advent is about waiting,

but there is more to it than that...

and less.

As we pass through the four Sundays of Advent,

We face four very different stories about waiting

and what it means.

Today’s readings speak to us about revelation – the end of days,

when the Son of Man will return in glory,

when we awake from the sleep that is this life,

when the whole world will be made new –

Judgment Day.

Next week, John the Baptist cries out in the wilderness,

speaking of new life,

and the God of Israel reaches out to the nations –

a day of reconciliation and repentance.

Advent three deals with coming to fruition.

That which was planted comes to harvest,

and that which was promised is delivered.

And on Advent four, we hear of the child Jesus,

born to Mary and Joseph.

So, I’ll ask you again.

What are you waiting for?

Is it a king you seek or a humble carpenter?

Is it a perfect judge or a perfect reconciliation?

Will it be a road to peace or conquest?

All of these things have been imagined of God,

and all of these things may come to pass in the last days,

but that’s not what Advent is about.

“What? Didn’t he just say those where the scripture readings for Advent?”

“Isn’t that what Advent is about?”

Yes and no.

Advent is about the waiting, but not, surprisingly about the outcome.

Christians are a bit of an ambivalent people,

we worship a poor carpenter executed for treason and blasphemy,

and call him the King of Kings.

We speak of a God who transcends time and space,

who is also a human, and a spirit.

Christians are ambivalent because we follow a God

more wonderfully complex and confusing than anything else in our lives.

We follow a God who dances ahead of us,

drawing us into mysterious new places.

So Advent too, is ambivalent.

It is a time when we ask ourselves

whether or not we will dance with this God

who never reveals the steps until the music starts.

It is a time when we think about what it means to follow

when God constantly draws us into new experiences,

and into dark places, that need our light.

Advent is a time to look deeply into ourselves –

into our hearts, and heads, and communities –

and ask some serious questions

about how and why and when we follow this dancing God.

What does it mean to be born of a virgin?

Or born without sin?

What does it mean to be of the tree of Jesse in the line of Kings?

What does it mean to be born in a Roman back water.

And most of all, what does it mean for Jesus Christ –

God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God,

begotten, not made, of one being with the Creator –

to be incarnate and made fully human

fully one of us?

What are you waiting for this Advent?

Who are you waiting for?

What does it all mean?

I don’t want to answer that question.

God is, after all, infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.

And yet.

And yet, I want to hint.

Hint at something profound about God,

experienced in Advent.

“Two women will be grinding meal together;

one will be taken and one will be left.

Keep awake therefore,

for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But understand this:

if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming,

he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

Therefore you also must be ready,

for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

For some reason, this has become one of the key scriptures for the doctrine of the rapture,

the idea that the end of days will come and good Christians will be snatched up by

God before the tribulation.

Many use it to keep peoples eyes focused on the future – on things to come.

Indeed, Christians have often been accused of preaching “pie in the sky,”

some intangible, unprovable future benefit

that makes up for the unpleasantness of this world.

Don’t worry about being poor now, you’ll be rich in Heaven,

Deny yourselves now and be rewarded later.

As Lewis Carroll said, “Jam tomorrow, but never jam today.”

And I admit this has been popular in Christianity, historically.

But it’s wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Listen to what Jesus has to say:

“Keep awake therefore,

for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

But understand this:

if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming,

he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

Therefore you also must be ready,

for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Christianity is never about tomorrow.

No one knows when the last days will come.

And no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

So be ready today.

Love your neighbor today.

Repent today.

Reward or no reward, that’s what I intend to do.

We have this hope, a hope that God will come into our lives,

that God will lighten the darkness,

and recreate us as our fuller selves.

We look for the resurrection of the dead,

and the life of the world to come.

These are promises made by Christ, our friend,

and our Lord.

But we are not Christians for the sake of profit, even the profit of our souls.

We are Christians for the sake of love.

Christ, King of Kings, through whom all things were made,

was most fully Christ when he was hanging on the cross,

most fully present to God and humanity in that fateful moment.

And also most miraculously divine in transforming that sacrifice,

when we rejected God’s love,

and turning it into a gift

when God gave himself to us and for us,

and brought life out of death

in the resurrection.

So, even though it is Advent,

I have decided to preach Christ, and him crucified.

Resurrection, redemption, salvation –

they come to us not in some distant future,

but right now.

Every now, and each now.

They come to us in the form of friends and family.

They come to us in scripture and worship and charity.

They come to us in the joy we feel at celebrating light in the darkness.

They come to us amidst the foibles of this silly church of ours.

They come to us amidst economic challenges and political wrangling.

They come to us amidst pollution, pestilence, fear, and ignorance.

They come to us as a child, born in a manger.

Emmanuel, God with us.

God is not far off.

God is not in the future, or the past.

God is now.

What are you waiting for?

Do not rush too eagerly through the winter and into spring.

Do not jump forward to what will be or what must be.

Take a moment to breathe the air and look around.

This is the day that God has made,

and, as we await the coming of the Christ child –

as we await his coming again in glory,

take a moment to dance with the God of mystery,

the God of waiting and of the moment.

I invite you to savor advent,

not as a prelude to Christmas,

but as the eternal now,

that stands between the past and the future.

Ask yourself what it means to be waiting on God,

what you are waiting for,

and who you are waiting for,

so that when it comes,

you may truly, fully, and passionately say “yes.”