Sermon for the 1st
Sunday of Advent
December 1, 2013
PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“You do not
know on what day your Lord is coming.” What a very strange thing to hear when
all around us the “holy countdown” has started! Only 24 shopping days to
Christmas; 15 school days until vacation; 14 days to the Bethany Christmas
Pageant; 7 days to the Swedish Children’s Choir Concert; and approximately…20
minutes until the next showing of “A Christmas Story” and/or “Home Alone” on
cable t.v. And in case you might forget, here in our worship space we have
reminders of the countdown as well. Today, the first Sunday of Advent, we have one
Advent banner, one Advent candle lit behind the altar, just one verse of “Light
One Candle” to sing, and the worship space is once again awash in blue, the
color of Advent hope.
Yes, the
countdown to Christmas has begun! So what does it mean for us today to be
hearing this particular Scripture text, in which Jesus warns believers we
cannot know on what day our Lord is coming? True, this is spoken in reference
to the second coming of Jesus, not
his birth—but does this text mean we should give up on counting down anything
at all? How are Christians to wait in hope of the Lord’s coming when we’re told
we can never know when it will happen? Jesus seems to be telling us to wait,
but not to get too excited. To be ready, but not to stop what we’re doing. To
keep watch, but to understand we won’t know anything until it happens.
This kind of
waiting-but-not-waiting is even more difficult to accept because of the fact
that we really enjoy counting down hours,
days, weeks, and months! During Advent we love to open little windows on paper
Advent calendars and eat the chocolate, even if it does taste like plastic; Elf on the Shelf moves around the house; we work our way through Advent
devotionals and mark days off on our work calendars. One of my favorite new
options for counting down the days to Christmas (though it’s out of my budget)
is the whiskey advent calendar from “Master of Malt.com”: 24 tiny tastes of
whiskey from around the world, hidden behind little paper doors just like those
bad chocolates we grew up with! Yes, it’s a little naughty…but it’s also a
little nice, and besides, I have it on good authority that Santa prefers
whiskey to milk with his cookies, anyway.
But we don’t
just count down the days to Christmas. We also love to count how many months
until the baby’s due date; how many more payments on the student loans; how
many days until Christmas or summer vacation; and how many years to retirement.
Some of you can also testify to what it’s like to count how many chemo
treatments are left, and the joy that’s felt when you’re finally done. Amen?
Counting
down the days, marking time, and anticipating some future event is one small
thing that makes living this unpredictable, sometimes unexplainable, seemingly
random life a bit easier to manage. So why does Jesus insist we cannot know the
day nor the hour of his return? Why paint pictures of people going about their
daily business in the field or in the mill, and the Lord’s return taking them
by utter surprise, when he knows this will freak us out? How is this helpful,
Jesus?
One answer
lies in the fact that in Jesus’ time, as now, there were those who made it their
career and mission to predict the end of all things. Just in our lifetimes, can
you even count how many “end of the world” prophecies have come and gone? From
the year 44 (before the Gospels were even written) all the way to December 21,
2012, there have always been predictions of Jesus’ return. But in spite of
their anxious countdowns and dire warnings, all have passed without incident. Our
apocalyptic hope remains just that: hope.
So it is into
this context Jesus speaks these words: “But about that day and hour no one
knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Only the
Father knows…this a constant reminder to all who seek to discover the holy egg
timer that one can never know the mind of God. It is not given to us to know
God’s timetable. Whether we’re talking about Jesus’ return and the coming of the
kingdom; or the onset of labor, the outcome of a particular cancer treatment,
the future of a relationship, or the day and hour of our death, we are like
Noah, who knew nothing until the day the rains came and he entered the ark. The
one thing we know for sure about Jesus’ coming (and about God’s timing) is that
it will be unexpected.
We do not know
on what day our Lord is coming. We cannot know what the future holds. But, my
friends, this doesn’t mean we stop looking, stop hoping, or simply resign
ourselves to apathy and ignorance! Counting down the days, decoding prophecies,
making predictions and preparing for disaster is waiting, all right—but it is waiting
in fear. Believers, on the other hand, wait in hope. We do not know what tomorrow
will bring—but we are watchful and ready. We keep our eyes open for the ways in
which Jesus is at the same time here right now, and yet still on his way. And
we seek to clear the clutter from our minds so we can stay awake.
Anyone who
has ever worked the night shift, sat up with a sick loved one, or chaperoned a
youth group lock-in knows some strategies for keeping awake! Amen? But here are
a few for us, as Christians who wait in hope for Jesus:
First: Pray.
This one may seem obvious! But if we’re honest, we can always use improvement
in this area. So during this Advent season, I invite you to come to worship a
few minutes early (or stay a few minutes late) and visit the prayer wall at the
entrance to the sanctuary. There, you can write your own prayers, as well as
read the prayer requests of others. For what do you wait in hope? For what does
the world wait? What darkness does Jesus, the light of the world, need to come
and banish?
Second: Go
about your daily work. Jesus says “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.” In other words: The proper thing to be doing
when Jesus returns is the work to which you were called. Jesus doesn’t want to see
you hunkered down, preparing for disaster, holding your breath for the worst case
scenario. Live your life; pursue your dreams; be the person God created you to
be.
And third:
Get an Advent calendar. In fact, if you could find one, it would be great to have
a calendar with chocolates for every day of the year! For I can think of no
better way to be ready for Jesus’ coming than to celebrate each and every day
we are given. Every morning, open the door of your day to see what God has revealed
for you there. Eat that piece of chocolate and enjoy the sweet gift that is life!
But rather than worrying about counting down, remember who you can count on.
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Sisters and
brothers in Christ, just as during Advent we can count on Christmas to arrive
right on time, bringing again the joy of Jesus’ birth, so we can always count
on God to come through for us again. We may not know the specifics, but we can
trust that Jesus always shows up: not just on Christmas morning in the manger,
but also every Sunday in the bread and the wine; in the reading of the Word; and
in our midst, whenever two or three are gathered. And our faith tells us that one
day, in his own time, he will come again in glory, just as was promised.
And so, dear
people, during Advent and every day, we Christians wait in hope. All earth is
hopeful—the savior comes at last. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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