The Second Sunday of Advent, Year A

Isaiah 11.1-10

Psalms 72.1-7, 18-19

Romans 15.4-13

Matthew 3.1-12

“EVERY”

            Last week, in the sermon, the title of which was “Let”, we talked about the importance of this season of Advent and how we should not miss what is most important in all the hubbub of celebrating Christmas.  What are some of the important things in being a human being?  God is at the top of the list.  We are creatures, created by God and so we need to be in a relationship with God.  Belonging is important—we look for a place, or family to be a part of.  Also security—we want some sense that where our lives are headed is in a good direction.  We want peace in our lives.  Some think a voice would be on this list—that we matter as individuals and contribute to the whole.  These are all ways we have an identity with significance in the world.  If we think about it, every person wants these things.

            As I get older, I have a harder time figuring out what I want for Christmas.  Part of it is that I am in a position now as an adult to get more of what I want.  I don’t have to wait like I did as a child for Santa to bring me things.  But also, I find that what I want can’t be wrapped, can’t be bought, even with a good charge card, can’t be sent by FedEx or UPS or the Postal Service.  I remember the Christmas I got my toy orange cement mixer, and it was enough.  Now, I would like the chance for all people, not just the billionaires, to make a living, I want healing for those who need it, peace in the world.  That is bigger stuff.

            St. Paul concludes the letter to the church in Rome with the appeal to them that they live in unity.  Unity is one of those bigger things I mentioned.  What we know of that church is that it had groups within it of believers in Christ who were of Jewish origin and other believers in Christ who were of Gentile (non-Jewish) origin.  They had, as most groups do, some trouble getting along together.  They valued different things, looked at life differently.  So Paul tells them to have Christ’s attitude rather than their own.  As God welcomed them in Christ, so they are to welcome one another.  To the Jewish believers, he says that God has still remembered and is honoring the promises made to the ancestors.  That is what they valued.  And to the Gentile believers he quotes Scripture that says that God will give mercy to them.  God includes them all.  Every one.  That is important to them.

The Gospel reading this morning tells us about John the Baptist.  He appeared in the wilderness, wearing camel-hair clothes and eating locusts and honey.  In other words, he was an old school prophet.  His message went out to everyone, each person.  And his message was that those who heard him needed to change their lives.  They were to do that because the kingdom of heaven was coming.  Everyone had the opportunity to respond.

We tend to quickly pass over that message, but Advent is a time, too, of considering our lives and what we need to do to make them better. We might not need to go out to the wilderness, but there are things in our lives—envy, anger, greed, perhaps too much time spent on things that do not matter while we ignore the things that are important.  This season is for changing those things.

There are those who need that message very obviously.  Despite the fact that we want to have peace among us, make sure that all people are valued, all people belong, we know that it does not always happen that way.  Steve Wilcox posted on a Reddit.com thread which asked users ‘what things have you overheard that have broken your heart?’  One woman had a phenomenal answer —a friend of her son at a pizza party told about his life at home.  He was taken away from his mother for substance abuse and lived with his father who had just lost his place to live.  He waited for his father every night at the library sometimes until seven when the woman started having the boy come over to her house for homework and dinner with her son.  Eventually the father asked that she keep the son for “a while”.  Now the young man is headed for college.

            If we hear John’s message, not only are we to take inventory of ourselves and change what is not right in them, we are to do those things which make that change real.  Some people need to find what is really important in their lives.

            The story of the woman who took in the boy who needed a mother also shows us something that is in the Gospel story.  There is mercy for those who look to God.  Those who say they don’t need it, those who are more impressed by something like their ancestry, are sent away.  For some, that mercy is forgiveness for what they have done wrong, for others it is getting a new chance in life.  And even those who are caught in the bad behavior of others find mercy, like finding people who care.

            This is part of the whole message: God creates and even when we are not faithful to God, God redeems.  God makes a way back for us.  Philip Gulley talks about porches, he likes them a lot.  He trusts people with front porches.  He doesn’t trust people with back porches.  And patios.  He notes that to make one the right way takes a lot of work.  To do it quickly and easily is fine, until in a couple years you have to take it all out and do it right.  Another option is to let someone else build it.  But he doesn’t like that one because the joy in creating something is one of the best joys in life.  As the work is done, it gives us joy in creating something.  He writes this: “I imagine this is God’s joy as he fashions his creation one child, one songbird, one flower at a time.  It is enough to make you glow, to know there is a God in heaven who delights in you, who gazes with quiet love at what he has fashioned.”

And in this message we hear God’s purpose for the world and to come to know that we belong, that we are loved, we are part of a whole, we have meaning and direction in our lives.

            The last part of the Gospel message is that the One is coming who will be even greater than John.  He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and his time is coming.  That is what this season is about.  It is the time when what was temporary with John in the wilderness becomes permanent.  The message is to every person, to each one.  Let us, then, be ready.  Let us hear God’s promises.  Let us find mercy.  Let us be ready.

First Sunday of Advent, Year A

Isaiah 2.1-5

Psalm 122

Romans 13.11-14

Matthew 24.36-44

“LET”

            The other day I was in a store that had a lot of hobby and craft supplies.  I don’t do crafts, unlike my cousins I have no talent for them, but the stores have some things I occasionally need.  So I passed about eight aisles of Christmas items and was looking, tongue in cheek here, for the Advent section.  There was a nice Hanukkah display, as there should be, but no part of the store was devoted to Advent.  Christmas is a very big deal, while Advent scarcely gets noticed.

Advent is the time before Christmas in which to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ.  Now millions and millions prepare for Christmas, buying gifts, cooking, decorating one’s home, sending out greetings, and so forth.  But that is not the kind of preparation Advent is.  Those other things are good and needed if a person is going to celebrate Christmas, but they don’t really get at the meaning of it.  There is something to Advent, what we do in Advent, that most people don’t understand or appreciate.  It is a different kind of preparation.  It is never going to have an aisle in a store.

The meaning is, that since Christ has come into our world and we live in the expectation of his return, we live both in that hope, but also in the urgency that Christ’s return could come any moment.  We prepare for Christ’s return by our behavior.  The Gospel reading talks about how that return could come at any time.  So the lives we lead are not just preparing for one season of the year.  And we are to be prepared for an event that will change our lives forever.  We live in the hope, not of Santa’s coming, or of Rudolph, or of Frosty the snowman, but of the One whom we celebrate in this season, coming back to us as he first came to us many years ago.  Paul’s letter to the Romans echoes that thought.

            The reading from Isaiah talks about what will happen in the time to come.  Nations will come to God’s house.  People will want to learn God’s ways and nations will learn ways of peace rather than war.  That is, as much as this is a wonderful season with things that delight us, there will be change within us.  We will turn to God.  That is the character of this season.

So, some recommendations.  Let, that is, allow, the season come when it comes.  Let it unfold as you prepare for it.  Folks who sell things want everything to happen fast so they can move on to the next sales event.  But there is more to this season than things.  There are people we share things with.  That takes time and sometimes effort.  There are memories which put our lives into perspective.  There are opportunities for kindness.  Sometimes it takes some thought.  There might be people you can reconnect with over four weeks that you could not.

            Let others enjoy Christmas, too.  The past few years there are some who make the greetings of this season into some kind of crusade.  They say “Merry Christmas” and demand that everyone else use that same greeting.  It is ironic that what is called a season of peace is made into a conflict by them.  Forcing people to say what you want them to, suggests maybe they don’t really understand the season at all.  Remember, whatever Christmas means to you, it means something to others as well.

            Let the meaning of the season take root in our lives.  We say, yes, we know what this holiday is about.  But then we surround ourselves with other things and the real meaning does not seem to touch us.  We need to be more conscious about what part of our lives these days are.  The meaning of the wonder of Christ coming into our world is not to have new socks or new games or new tools or new fragrances, but new souls.  They can only be formed as we spend time with God, as we put away the old things to take up this new thing.

            Let the things of Christmas bring you joy, but remember, they are just things.  We need to do something where God takes first place and all the other things fall back into where they belong.  We start out the season thinking about the Savior of the world, but end up talking about tinsel.  Philip Gulley tells about the time he was mistaken for someone else and appointed to a prestigious board in his denomination.  He went to the meetings throughout the country.  The best part he found, though, was telling people he was serving on that important board.  He said that the last time he felt so important was when he won second place in the 1972 Danville Optimist Bicycle Safety Rodeo.  He realizes that it meant so much to him because it caused others to think well of him and led him to exaggerate his accomplishments.  As he worked as a pastor, he ran across the idea of idols in the Bible, and noted that altars in the Old Testament were often made out of stones.  He says, “Today we still have idols, and they’re more sophisticated than mere graven images.  Modern idols are those things we love more than God, including the obvious temptations like cars, fancy houses, and grand-sounding job titles.  If we value anything more than God, it is idolatry, plain and simple.”  We prepare for this season by putting away things of lesser importance so that we can spend time with what is more important, and even the most important.  What is most important as we look towards Christmas is not our traditions and celebrations, but that Christ has come and is coming into our world and into our hearts.  We find the meaning of Christmas when we let go of the other things.

            Christmas comes each year.  We race to it and then it is over and the most important part of our lives, who we are, has not changed in a season which is about wonder and miracles and God’s presence and grace.  For the season to be what it is supposed to be, we need to do something different.  We need to pay attention to what God is doing in our lives, more than what marketing people want to do with them.  We need to find the meaning, not in noise, but in relationship with God.  For this to happen we need to be open to this, you have to let yourself be open to it.

Lancelot Andrewes wrote this prayer 400 years ago:

Open thou mine eyes and I shall see;

Incline my heart and I shall desire;

Order my steps and I shall walk

In the ways of thy commandments.

O Lord God, be thou to me a God

And beside thee let there be none else,

No other, naught else with thee.

Vouchsafe to me to worship thee and serve thee

According to thy commandments

In truth of spirit, in reverence of body,

In blessings of lips,

In private and in public.

Amen.