First Reading:
2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw
concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In 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. 3Many 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. 4He 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. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us
walk in the light of the Lord!
Second Reading:
36But about that day and hour no one knows,
neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father. 37For as the days of Noah were, so will be the
coming of the Son of Man. 38For as in those days before the
flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,
until the day Noah entered the ark, 39and they knew nothing
until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the
coming of the Son of Man. 40Then two will be in the field;
one will be taken and one will be left. 41Two women will be
grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be
left. 42Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what
day your Lord is coming. 43But 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. 44Therefore you also must be ready, for the
Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
At our house we always put up our Christmas tree on the Friday after Thanksgiving and it does make it feel a lot like Christmas. Yesterday, when my daughters woke up and came downstairs in the morning, one of them came running up and gave me a big hug and said Merry Christmas Daddy… it was very cute. And of course I said Merry Christmas back to her and then I explained that it's not actually Christmas yet. Christmas is coming and it's coming soon, but it isn't quite here. It's pretty common that by the time Advent rolls around, most of us are ready for Christmas… It's hard not to get caught up in the cultural momentum of the Christmas season. Stores have been getting ready for months. Just about everyone you ask has their gift list made and I even talked to a neighbor on Friday who left her house at 2:30 in the morning so that she could be done with her Christmas shopping before she sat down to her left-over Thanksgiving Turkey sandwich. On TV there are Christmas specials, on the radio there are at least two stations that play all Christmas music all the time and it's more likely than not that you'll find Santa waiting at the front of the line at your favorite shopping establishment so that good little boys and girls can share their vision of what Christmas morning will look like. And after all, Santa is the icon of the cultural vision of Christmas. I even heard a commentator refer to Santa's arrival at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as the official start of the Christmas Season. So I think it's safe to say that culturally, Christmas is here.
But on the church calendar, Christmas is coming, and it's coming soon, but it isn't quite here yet. Today is the first Sunday of Advent, and there's always a tension associated with advent because at the same time our cultural Christmas season is getting into full swing, the church calendar is focused on waiting and preparing. For four Sundays we're asked to prepare for Christmas. We'll get to the baby in the manger soon but before we do, it's good for us to start by looking at a little bit of what that baby in the manger means. Advent always starts with a reminder of the end of the time horizon. Most of us come ready to hear Christmas stories and sing Christmas Carols. But the texts for the day speak of other things. They speak of promises and warnings. They speak of a time when the world will change in ways we can't explain and we can't entirely predict. Both of our passages paint a vision associated with the coming Christ. Isaiah's is hopeful and filled with promises… Matthew's is slightly more disturbing… so that's where I'll start.
There is probably no subject in the study of theology and in the life
of faith that carries more baggage than the coming of Christ. The New
Testament writers all had to deal with it in one way or another
because the expectation was that Christ would come in glory very
shortly after he left… Needless to say, that didn't
happen… And I think that most of us, now, in our faith
tradition and others like ours, tend to not worry very much and not to
talk very much about the coming of Christ… unless of course
we're pointing out how the thought of the end of time has inspired
more scary preaching and more crazy behavior than just about anything
else in our tradition. Our gospel passage today has often been used,
to try to scare people into believing. Two will be working in a
field, one will be taken and one will be left… two will be
grinding meal together, one will be taken and one will be left. That
phrase gave rise to the bumper sticker that says, in the event of
rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned
and it's the premise for
the start of the Left Behind
series of books and movies that
was so popular a few years ago. In it, the rapture's followed by a
sequence of horrible events… and the message of that line of
thinking is believe now or else… and that's definitely the
interpretation that's gotten the most press over the years. But I
have to admit, that interpretation is hard for me to buy into…
mostly because I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the revelation of
God and the Christ who is coming has to be the same person as the one
who was revealed to the world as Jesus of Nazareth. He wasn't out for
vengeance, we don't have record of him doling out punishment. His
life's work was about reconciling people with God. The gospels record
his teachings about leaving the ninety-nine to go after the one who has
wandered. They record his stories of welcoming people who deserted
him… Thomas, Peter, Mary, the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Every one of them was filled with despair and hopelessness at some
point in the story… in some sense each had been left behind or
left out… but with a touch, with a word of forgiveness, by
calling her name, and by opening their eyes the risen Christ inspired
them to new hope and a renewed faith. In life, in death and in
resurrection, Jesus' ministry was one of reconciling people to God by
showing them glimpses of the kingdom. How could we expect anything
else if and when Jesus comes?
So what if, instead of looking at this passage as a vision of what's literally going to happen, we see it as Jesus teaching his disciples to be alert. The passage talks about some unknown day in the future but it starts and ends very much in the present moment. It doesn't do any good to worry about when, or how Jesus is coming because there's not anything that any of disciples can do about it. In fact according to verse 36 there's nothing anyone can do about it Jesus himself doesn't know the specifics. And yet even though we don't need to worry about the specifics, there are still things we can do to be ready.
Matthew's gospel has lots of parables about the difference between being ready and not being ready… and mostly the difference between the two is that the people who aren't ready are those who aren't aware of what God's doing. So perhaps what Jesus was saying is to be prepared… and the way to do that is to stay in touch with what God is doing; right now. Go about your everyday activities… back then it was working the field and grinding meal… now, you know what it is that you do all day… and whatever it is, when you do it, perhaps the invitation of this passage is to carry an alternate vision with you… a vision of God's kingdom.
Advertisers know that we're pretty good at carrying a vision around with us. In gift catalogs and on TV we see pictures of happy families in matching pajamas spending quality time together… we see products that promise contentment, connection and comfort or leisure, laughter and love. And the advertisers are brilliant because what they're doing of course, isn't actually selling a product based on its merit, what they're doing is connecting their product to a vision. They touch real desires and for many of us the vision they put forth is the same vision we hold of Christmas… sentimental traditions, family and friends, good food, comfort… we yearn for that vision whether or not real life measures up.
But Isaiah holds up a different vision of the Christ's coming and he does it with a series of promises. When he says the Lord's house will be established as the highest of the mountains, it's a promise of God's presence clear, strong, not hidden… When he says people will be drawn from everywhere to know God's ways and to follow them, it's a promise of unity of purpose, that people of the world want the same thing… When he says God will judge between nations and arbitrate between peoples, there's a promise of justice, fairness and equity…. And when he says Swords which are weapons of violence will be made into plowshares which are tools of sustenance, there's a promise of Peace… Now I'll be the first to admit that it's hard to see how real life will ever measure up to that vision… in fact for most of us the cultural vision of Christmas is much closer to reality than Isaiah's vision and it's much easier to hope for gifts and tradition and good food than it is to open ourselves to believing in promises that seem impossible… or better yet, carrying them in us and working toward them.
The promises of advent have been lifted up year after year and century after century, and we still wait. We don't know how they will come and we don't know when. But in the end, what Isaiah offers and what Jesus invites his disciples to is not just holding a vision of promise and transformation but also living in that direction. As Christmas approaches, culturally, things change. People's lives begin to orient around celebrations and shopping and gift exchanges. But with promise of Christmas, the coming of Christ, our lives can be oriented to the expectation of a new creation.
The reading from Isaiah ends O House of Jacob, come, let us walk in
the light of the Lord.
And the New Testament reading ends with
Jesus telling the disciples to be ready, for the Son of Man is coming
at an unexpected hour. The coming of Christ can and will undoubtedly
catch people unprepared because we can't even imagine what a world of
Isaiah's vision would look like.
But nevertheless, this is the time of year that we have set aside to get ready for Christ's coming. So in this time of preparation for Christmas… remember the promises you've heard… carry the vision of the kingdom with you wherever you go… and wait patiently for them… but don't wait passively… because we are a part of the kingdom. We are a part of the promises. We are invited to live a faith that overcomes hatred with persistent love; a faith that breaks through despair with unbounded hope; a faith that perseveres in the midst of uncertainty. A faith that lives as though Christ has come… Because he has, and he will. Thanks be to God.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on the First Sunday in Advent, November 28, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
