First Advent
Luke 21:25-36; Jeremiah 33:14-16; I Thessalonians 3:9-13
Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving. When the doors were unlocked to let in customers to the Circuit City in Vernon Hills there were people who sprinted to the back of the store. Before 7 a.m. the store had sold 25 32 inch televisions and 19 surround sound systems. Check out lines grew longer and longer until at the nearby Best Buy there were reports of over an hour wait to make purchses. Several people abandoned their shopping carts filled with special deals. They couldn’t wait more than a half hour just to check out. More than one person was heard to exclaim, “I don’t have time for this.”
We are not a very patient people. Waiting is not something we accept easily. Whether it is shopping for Christmas bargains or dealing with political and economic issues of the world. we want to know that there will be no more delay then necessary. And necessary is defined by us and the next items on our agenda. I’ll be honest. at least for me, the countdown has begun. Already there is a bit of anticipation in the air as the seasons change, foreshadowing what is surely to come. I could not help but check the calendar again yesterday and double check my math. Incredibly there are only 204 days left before summer officially arrives. For some that no doubt seems like an eternity but we can rest assured that the day will arrive and the warm sun of June will shine with green grass and flowers in bloom. Of course some people would focus on more imminent dates. Focus on the more pressing events on the calendar, like Christmas.
That in many respects is what happens in our Gospel lesson today. Those who read and hear this text often are captivated by various expectations and agendas. Some have read in this text the inspiration for planning the details of Christ’s immediate return. and an urgency that causes folks to line up for religious reconciliation with God lest they be caught ill prepared. Others have heard this text speak of last times. But conditioned by almost 2000 years of history, more or less shrug and wait in line. Still others take an even longer perspective on time and Christ’s return saying more or less, “I don’t have time for this right now. There are more important matters to deal with first.” Waiting is not something most of us handle well. We want to know the schedule. To be clear on exactly what is expected. and if we must wait. what type of wait we can anticipate. So for the last 20 centuries various members of the faith community have tried to pinpoint the meaning of our gospel lesson in contemporary terms. Sometimes the results have been a bit peculiar, like the television evangelist encouraging people to order copies of his special audio tapes explaining the predictions of the End Times. While he was still talking the words on the screen flashed the declaration. “Jesus is coming soon. perhaps tomorrow. Send $10 right away for tapes that explain the details and schedule of the second coming. Please allow six weeks for delivery.”
C. Edwin Bowen reminds us that “making predictions about when Christ will return has been an obsession for some people ever since the beginning of the Christian church.”.And particularly in America. As early as 1694, there was the Woman in the Wilderness cult that spent their time each night, sitting on their roofs with telescopes, looking for signs from heaven to announce that the end was about to take place. In 1836, a man named William Miller announced that according to his calculations, the world would come to an end in 1843. 1843 came and went, and some of his followers began to doubt. But then early in 1844, a comet appeared in the sky and the Millerites started to get excited, thinking that that was the sign that they had been waiting for. At one point the Millerite movement grew to some 50,000 followers who believed the interpretations about Christ's return. But as time went by, and Christ didn't return as quickly as Miller predicted, his followers slowly began to fall away. The Jehovah's Witnesses is another American cult founded by a man who thought that the world was going to end in 1874. Later he changed his prediction to 1918, 1920, 1925, 1940, and then 1975. Finally, the Jehovah's Witness adopted a new policy. a policy that said that you shouldn't try to set dates.
Still people continue to look for signs that the end is near. In recent times there have been the Heaven's Gate cult. and then came the comet Hale-Bopp. The lessons for today make it pretty clear. The world will end. Christ will come. There are signs that are listed as a critique of the day and a promise of what is to come. But most of us have become pretty used to hearing the doom and gloom, terror and judgment. And except for a pause on a Sunday at the beginning of Advent, we usually conclude that we don’t have time for this right now. Waiting is not easy.
This past week we received an e-mail from a former member thanking us for having referred her to a new church. She had moved to a new community and when she left Holy Spirit. We gave her information about a church in her new community encouraging her to make contact there. She did. She wanted us to know that when she lost her job recently she went to the Pastor. She admitted it was not easy but the new church kept her focused on the meaning God gives to our lives. And she confessed that every time she began to feel bad for herself she remembered the many others facing far greater challenges and troubles. And she would conclude she just didn’t have time to feel bad for herself while she waited to find a new job. There was too much more God wanted her to do in her life and for others. She was glad she had gone to the Pastor, not for anything new, but to be reminded of what was promised of old.
It is so easy to focus on the things we don’t like in this moment. To center on ourselves and our plans and our priorities and our agendas. The Gospel of First Advent is intended to bring us up short. to ask us. Do we really have time for this? Do we really think Christ died for us so that we could miss the real signs of the kingdom? Do we really think so little of God that we are not willing to commit ourselves to the vision of the kingdom that Jesus invites us to share? There are moments, occasions when God breaks through into our lives and gives us a chance to see clearly, not only the contrast between what we are and what God wants us to be, but also the limitations of our human powers and resources. We can react by rolling up our sleeves and working more vigorously to build our lives in the image we have created for ourselves, or we can put our life in God’s hands. We can attempt to manipulate, control and judge others by our expectations and agenda. Or we can ask ourselves how God wants us to respond, and then we can rely on the divine inspiration and strength needed for such a response.
The history of Christian experience shows us that this is the way people really change and grow. When Jesus was arrested, Simon Peter mingled with the hostile crowd outside the high priest's house. Three times he was asked if he was a disciple of Jesus, and three times he denied that he was. Then, when dawn approached, a rooster suddenly crowed, and time stood still as Peter remembered Jesus' prediction of his betrayal. Peter could have been overwhelmed by his guilt and failure and walked away, or he could have been so angry at the other disciples for not supporting him in his moment of trial that he gave up on the other disciples. But instead Peter interpreted his experience as a sign of God's coming, and he responded to it with a repentance and commitment that opened him to the Spirit and his place in a new creation. His witness of the resurrection and the birth of the church.
Three hundred and fifty years later, St. Augustine, one of the great figures in the history of the church was a restless, directionless playboy until the year 386 A.D. In that year, when he was 32 years old, a crisis occurred. Suffering from emptiness and self-disgust Augustine fled one day into a quiet nook in a garden. Over the garden wall he heard a child's voice saying, "tolle lege", "take and read." Augustine found a copy of the New Testament, opened it, and his eyes fell on the words in the 13th chapter of Romans: "not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness...but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Augustine interpreted this experience as a sign of Christ's coming to him, and it precipitated his conversion and a saint was born. The kingdom comes, in moments that stop lives. Sometimes it is a crisis or a catastrophe. More often it is a critical moment of self reflection. when Jesus comes once more to a troubled life. a turbulent world. There are moments in every life when time stands still. We find ourselves making a decision that will define us for all time, maybe for all eternity. We can make the decision alone or with divine guidance. We can choose our lives or we give our lives over to God.
Jesus said “there will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.” What will we make of the unexpected moments in our lives when the foundations are shaken, when the sun, moon and stars stand still, when the waves rush in? Will we dismiss them with a shrug declaring we simply don’t have time for this? Will you try to respond in terms of your own limited capacity? Or will you see in them signs of the Lord's coming to us in the midst of life and respond with repentance, trust and hope? "When these things begin to take place," said Jesus, "look up and raise your head, because your redemption is drawing near."
It was decades ago now. but I still remember my brother asking my old Norwegian farmer grandfather. “What does a farmer do?” My grandfather’s answer stuck in my head. He said, “In the spring a farmer prepares and plants. In the summer the farmer cultivates and cares. In the fall a farmer harvests. and in the winter the farmer does the most important task, he waits.” I remember watching my grandfather wait. Watching him walk out to the fields and lift up his eyes to study the rolling hills that awaited the seed. Waiting for the summer rain and heat. Waiting for the crops that would one day yield again their bounty. He could see what was coming. he knew it would come. He lived in the promise of the fields that would be blessed by God’s abundance.
As we enter the new church year. the season of
Advent, we are reminded to lift our heads and see the promise. To wait in the
promise. The count down has begun. 25 days to Christmas. 204 days to summer,
and then again, a few minutes ago we entered by God’s grace the rest of
our lives. We live from this moment on in and by God’s grace, waiting for
the kingdom that we have already begun to enter through God’s word and
the promise of the holy sacraments. The count down has begun, and the waiting
continues.
Amen.