Sermons 2003-2004

Advent 1A 2004 Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 24:37-44 Most of us have heard of the popular current series of “left behind” books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, now into twelve volumes. You can find many of these volumes in any library sale, hospital book sale, or yard sale. I think you can get all of them brand new in sets of four at WalMart. Some have been made into movies that you can rent in both Burgess and Kilmarnock. In these books and film, the focus is on the last days, the end of life and time as we know it, the end times stressed in the book of Revelation and in any number of prophetic and apocryphal passages in both the New Testament and the Old. Topics like The Rapture where some are spirited away and others left behind, Armageddon like great battles between good and evil, and the triumph of faithful Christians are the stock and trade of this 12-book series. They are very popular with those who agree and disagree with the books alike. The regularly appointed readings for the First Sunday of Advent – of which was just read only the Gospel -- present these themes, but with a lot less detail and a lot more challenge to the reader. First, in the prophet Isaiah, we read about a looming political, military, and social cataclysm in the 8th Century, B.C., when the kings of Israel had offered to pay tribute for protection from invaders, indeed trying to find any way out of the vise trap caused by the successive armies and empires of the Assyrians, the neo Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Persians. The prophet First Isaiah proclaims the vision of a new Israel where tribute will be no more because all kingdoms will come to the “mountain of the Lord’s house.”

And then comes the vision of universal peace where “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” No one will learn war anymore. Anyone reading a daily newspaper would agree we are far from that vision today. But this vision has given people hope. A few years ago one organization provided people with pins made of metal from a scrapped warplane, forged into the shape of a plowshare as a reminder of that vision from Isaiah.

In his letter to the Church in Rome, Paul, who had not yet abandoned his sense of Jesus’ immediate return, focuses not on when it will be or what it will be like, but how we should live as though it were tomorrow.

Paul tells us to be awake, lay aside works of darkness, put on the armor of light, and live honorably. He doesn’t have any interest in doomsayers or seers predicting destruction. What Paul wants is for people to behave like disciples, behave like followers of Jesus. But this doesn’t mean only leading a life of just being pure as the driven snow. No, this is a gutsy mandate that demands treating others as we would wish to be treated.

In the Gospel appointed for today, part of the apocalypse from Matthew Jesus addresses people’s concerns about the end. He does this, incidentally, from the Mount of Olives where he is about to begin his own arrest, trial, and crucifixion. Jesus was certainly aware of what might happen to him as he spoke. We have a suggestion here of how universal that end will be—it will affect everyone, believer and non-believer alike. People engaged in work, and people partying are two extremes of those who will be caught up in the coming of the Son of Man. Sounds like Volume 1 of Left Behind.

And people were just as curious then as now. They wanted to know when, who, and what they had to do to be saved. Jesus doesn’t answer these questions directly now. He wants people to live a different way, not be afraid of living altogether. He has already answered this question in his great Summary of the Law.

Can we, as responsible disciples, bring in the Kingdom? Can we make the vision of Isaiah come true? No, not if we think we are the only people who can. Only if we work together and not tear each other apart. Do you think that day will ever come?

For some of us Advent is a time of quiet waiting. A time of quiet reflection and prayer, a time of probing and renewing the deep springs of our spirituality. For others it is a time of active searching. Searching for the spark of Jesus in others, repairing and polishing our own armor of light, and looking for hope when people say there isn’t any.

Advent is not about getting ready for Christmas, either. It is a separate, intense season of looking for, and listening for, the hope planted by God within each of us. It is a time of shutting out darkness, refusing to accept it as part of life. Even though it is the darkest part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, Advent is a time to light the lamps and scatter the darkness, not brood over it, floods of light lighting our way into the kingdom of love that God intended. Floods of light scattering the darkness from before us. Light filling us with energy, love, and joy. Floods of light from Christ's birth, death and resurrection surround us all. This Advent walk in it, live with it, and respond to it, and your Advent will be one to remember. (1)

1. Adapted from a sermon by The Rev. Ben E. Helmer, of the Congregational Development staff at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, the Selected Sermon for Advent 1A 2004, Worship that Works, at dfms.org.