What I learned today - Preaching My Way to Faith: Sermon

1^st Sunday in Advent, Year C November 29, 2015

Luke 21:25-36, Jeremiah 33:14-16 Panzer Liturgical Service

As a society, we are terrible at waiting. We want what we want, and we want it NOW!

I would be willing to guess that many of us spend a tremendous amount of time, energy and even money to avoid waiting. And in general, that’s not a bad thing. GPS helps us to avoid traffic problems and sends us to the most efficient route. In the last few months, the Garrison has put online appointments for some of its most time-consuming processes, like car registration and ID renewals. But there are also the times when our unwillingness to wait can be a detriment, even a misrepresentation of who we are and our place in the world.

In the US, we feel like we have accomplished something if we wait until after Thanksgiving to start our Christmas celebrations. We are sucked up in the whirlwind of holiday preparations with our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, free shipping and here in Europe with our visits to Christmas markets galore. And while none of these things in and of themselves are bad, are we focusing in the right places?

I know we’ve talked about this before, but at the beginning of Advent – the beginning of the new church year – we have an important opportunity to remember something important about time. In early Greek biblical manuscripts, there are two words for “time.” Each day we count down to Christmas, each door we open on our Advent calendar is measured in Chronos… clock time: we count down the seconds, minutes, hours, days and weeks until the day. But what if we were counting down in Kairos… God’s time? What if we experienced this season as preparation for the coming of his kingdom? How do we think about God in this eternal time of Emanuel… the time of God with us…? How do we expand our thinking and our living in this way?[i]

The season of Advent gives us the opportunity to prepare for the amazing news of Jesus Christ. It offers us time to place the birth of the infant savior into a historical and cultural context, and to be reminded that the coming of Jesus is not just a past event, but one which we look forward to in the future.

That’s why today’s gospel reading is not from the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke – we will get to those soon enough. Today’s lesson comes from the end of Jesus’ ministry, Luke’s version of Mark’s Little Apocalypse, which we just studied two weeks ago. His message is proclaimed to those who are waiting - keep hopeful, stand up in the midst of trials, and know that the pain of life will not defeat us. Jesus says, “Take care that your hearts are not dulled…” He is saying that this isn’t the time to give into the temptation or distraction or fear.

We see the news and we are tempted to throw in the towel. It’s not just that the news is negative. It’s disheartening. It makes us wonder if there is anything at all that can turn the world around. I think it’s especially difficult this year, as religion seems to be at the center of the conflicts endangering the world around us. We wonder if there is anything we can do to make it better. In this season of Hope, we wonder is there is anything to be hopeful for.

The reading from Jeremiah tells us that there is a reason to be hopeful. God is faithful, even when those in the world around us are not. God promises that he will restore the world, and this is a promise that we have to trust.

Have you ever participated in a trust fall? You know, the one where people gather around you, promising to catch you when you fall… Have you given in to that trust, allowing yourself to tip backwards into the waiting hands below? If you have, I hope it went well. I’ve instructed others in such activities over the years, and even participated once myself, surviving with only a small head bonk from the process. The two poor youth who were catching my shoulders were so apologetic, stating, “It was just so much harder than I expected it to be.”

I learned a lot from the process about what it means to trust others to catch you when you fall. And I also learned about what it means to have that trust placed in your hands. After my experience, I taught that exercise differently. I didn’t focus on trust from one perspective. Yes, it takes trust to be the one falling, but there is also great responsibility entrusted to the ones helping, to make sure the person makes it safely to the ground. In the same way, being a member of the Kingdom of God is also about being trustworthy, and actively present with people who need God’s love the most.

In the gospel, Jesus tells us to stay alert. And these days I don’t think that’s just about making sure our personal spirituality is in order. I think we are also called to look for the places where the good news is needed. Somehow we have gotten the notion that we will reach out when we have a good handle on our own faith journeys. But time and again I reminded that my best blessings come when I am reaching out to and serving others, even in the midst of my own pain or questions. In fact, I can honestly say that I would not be with you today if it weren’t for a mission opportunity 30 years ago that led my life in a totally different direction – one that I did not ask for, and sometimes did not want. But being with people so different and yet so alike, I realized that God would use me, if I was only willing to take the first step forward.

The Christian life is not about speculation or observation. It is not about living outside the fray and watching it all unfold before us. It is about behavior and relationships, living with faith that God is with us, even when we aren’t sure where we’re going and what it will all look like in the end.

Jeremiah reminds that Emanuel is coming – God is with us. We sang this morning, “O come, O come, Emmaunel…” We know that Jesus is that Emanuel. He is the hope in the midst of despair, the light in the midst of darkness… this is enduring message of the gospel.

So in this season of Advent, remember that hope is all about waiting. Hope is active patience, working while we wait, reaching out even in spite of our fear, and expecting that God will show up. And to remember that to wait faithfully is one of the hardest and most important things that we can do.[ii]

I hope that each of you is incorporating some kind of Advent practice into your life. Maybe it’s an advent calendar, or lighting an advent wreath at home, or reading an advent devotion each day, or planting an amaryllis or paperwhites. But in addition to those things, I ask you to consider digging a little deeper and looking at how God is calling you to take the next step.

Over the next four weeks, I hope you’ll think about how you or your family or we as a community can live in expectation of his coming. We know that Jesus came before, and we have his promise that he will come again, we just don’t know when it will be. It could be an hour from now, next month, next year or long after we are gone from this world. But what we do know is that God wants us to spend the time we have making sure that we are ready for his coming – that we have lived in such a way that others want to know and follow him, too.

In that process, we can ask ourselves these questions:

1.     Am I willing to examine my life, celebrating the good and repenting and turning away from the things that are not life-giving?
2.     Am I living in the ways that Jesus has asked me to live? Am I taking the lessons that Jesus taught and applying them regularly in my life?
3.     Am I participating in the healing of the world?
4.     Am I offering the hope, peace, joy and love that Jesus was born into this world to share? and lastly,
5.     Do I live as if I believe in the promise of everlasting life?[iii]

My friend Kelli is a United Methodist chaplain. After moving to NC this summer, she settled into her job on campus with the students around her. But in the process, her ministry has expanded outside of her official duties. This fall, her office sponsored a special speaker. Through the generosity of donors, she was able to open the program and luncheon, not just to students, but to anyone on campus who wanted to attend. A thank you note some weeks later revealed that a campus employee and his wife felt particularly blessed by the program. They were especially thankful for the lunch that they were served, as they usually go without each so that their children will not suffer from their underemployment – meager salaries and several part-time jobs.

Kelli and her husband feel called to help provide ministry to this part of her community, and are collecting money to purchase $5 gift cards for local restaurants in their area. These will be shared with those who work, those who most people would never know often go hungry in order to support their families. “Lunch is on Me” is just getting off the ground, but I am blessed by her willingness to go beyond what is expected of her to live out the love of Christ.[iv]

Today’s Psalm 25 is about trust. It is a reminder that God keeps God’s promises, just not always in our timing and not always in the ways that we prefer. But even more important, we must remember that God chooses to see the fulfillment of his promises in us. We are his hands and feet and voice in the world, and with them, Advent calls us to live that promise. “The day is coming,” says the Lord. Are we ready?

Amen.