“Advent: Make it count!”
1st Sunday in Advent, November 30, 2008
Audio version is available.
"When will God finally “open the heavens and come to us.” When will God blast our enemies to smithereens. When will God crash into our existence with a cosmic bullhorn! A loud and noisy Advent. That’s what we want. A loud, noisy Advent."
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you, in the name of God our Creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier.
Amen.
Only a few more minutes. Make ‘em count!
Often when I’m teaching an aerobics class, and we get near the end of the workout, I’ll look back in the mirror and notice that maybe some of the people in the class are looking a little tired, running out of steam, apparently coasting along, toward the cooldown and the final stretch.
“Just five more minutes,” I shout out.
“Just five more minutes.
As long as we’re here, we might just as well make the next five minutes count for something!”
Mark 13:24-37: the end of our workout
This morning’s gospel reading suggests that the day of Christ’s coming will be like this:
The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light.
The stars will fall out of the sky.
The “powers in the heavens” will be shaken.
When we see these things happen, it’ll be the end of our “workout”!
We’d better make the most of the time we have left!
Some “bibilical criticism” in passing
The author of that gospel, Mark, places the prediction on Jesus’ lips, but they’re not Jesus’ words.
They’re the words of Mark.
They’re words that reflect the thinking of the church in the first century.
Lots of preachers speak as though the gospels are history, that the wise men really followed a star, that Jesus really said all of the things they say he said in the gospels.
Lots of preachers speak as though biblical prophecies are accurate peepholes into the future.
But it’s is not the 13th century any more.
And it’s dishonest to ignore centuries of biblical scholarship simply in order to cling to eroding traditional belief.
What’s important about it, I suggest that we see the dire warnings as mere conjecture from a first century world, and leave it at that.
The important point of the gospel for us today, I think, is not about a catastrophic apocalypse.
It’s the bit about the uncertainty of the timing, the uncertainty about exactly when to expect the The Divine to “jump into our lives, as God does do, from time to time.
Keep awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come.
Keep awake.
You never know when it’ll happen.
For Isaiah: God’s on vacation?
In this morning’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah begs for God to “come out of retirement.”
“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
Isaiah was lamenting the fact that God had been elusive, that God was absent, God, on an extended vacation.
The same for us?
Isaiah’s experience of course is not unique.
It can be that way for us as well, particularly in troubled times like those we’re we’re living in right now.
Our American expectation is that God will want to bless each of us personally, and that God will “bless America.”
But everything seems to be going to hell, financial hard times, rising inflation, higher taxes, unemployment.
An endless war, and genocide, and terrorism, and famine.
Global warming, and energy shortages, and disappearing natural resources.
The list goes on and on.
And more and more of us are feeling it.
Like being in the wilderness
Where we are now is something like being with Isaiah, captive in Babylon, lost in a sort of Godless wilderness, facing uncomfortable questions.
Where in heaven or on earth has God been with all of this going on around us.
Why are things so screwed up?
Why don’t we have the answers?
Are we being punished?
Have we done something wrong?
When will God finally “open the heavens and come to us.”
When will God blast our enemies to smithereens.
When will God crash into our existence with a cosmic bullhorn!
A loud and noisy Advent.
That’s what we want.
A loud, noisy Advent.
But most of us, most of us get the God of Isaiah, the God who hides from us, the God whose presence is more elusive more elusive than we want God to be.
The Advent comes when we least expect it
Some people spend a lot of time trying to work out the details of when and how Jesus will come again.
In the process, they fail to grasp the truth that Christ will not come twice, but has already come hundreds of times appearing as “God-with-us,” “God in us.”
The awareness of that presence, however, is a different matter.
The awareness of the advent of God in our midst is not always there.
My experience
I find that awareness will come, but it comes when I least expect it.
I’ve got to be on my toes to notice it.
I’ve got to be alert, watching and listening for that window of opportunity.
I’ve got to be expecting the unexpected!
Look in the mirror
Look into the mirror and look for the real you.
Take a walk by yourself.
Light a candle and gaze into the open flame.
Let the vision of God emerge in God’s own time.
The wilderness of doubt and despair we’re in provides the very opportunity we need.
On a spiritual path, a “wilderness” is a very good place to be.
Think for yourself, and realize that none of our thoughts, not yours, not mine, can possibly define, or contain, who we really are, or what God really is.
It’s then that the hidden God can come out of hiding and become God our Savior.
Our very own Advent.
Chesterton: God sometimes chooses to enter by the back door
G.K. Chesterton, an influential writer who lived through the turn of the last century suggested that God often works in unexpected ways.
Chesterton pointed out that God sometimes chooses to enter our world, in a barn at the edge of town.
Sometimes God comes down and slips in the back door of life’s slums to surprise us from behind.
That’s how Isaiah’s prophecy became the Christmas story.
And that’s how, for us, in a world gone awry, the prophecy of Isaiah still comes to pass, slipping in the back door.
For a child has been born for us, a son given to us, authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Only three more weeks
Today I stand in your midst, fast-approaching the celebration of the birth of the one in whom we have seen God.
It’s all coming too fast, I’m thinking.
There’s so much to do to get ready for Christmas.
But I want to stay focused on what Advent is really all about.
For me, it’s a bit like being at the tail-end, of an aerobics class.
A little tired, coasting along toward the cooldown and final stretch.
“Just three more Sundays,” I shout out.
“As long as we’re here, lets make these remaining weeks in Advent count for something!”
Keep awake, for you do not know, when the master of the house will come.
Keep alert.
You never know when The Divine will “jump into your life.’
God will do that, you know, from time to time.
It’s your Advent.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life.
Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness. This is our prayer. Amen.
"Lots of preachers speak as though the gospels are history, that the wise men really followed a star, that Jesus really said all of the things attributed to him in the gospels.
Lots of preachers speak as though biblical prophecies are accurate peepholes into the future.
But it’s is not the 13th century any more.
And it’s dishonest to ignore centuries of biblical scholarship simply in order to cling to eroding traditional belief."
Lots of preachers speak as though biblical prophecies are accurate peepholes into the future.
But it’s is not the 13th century any more.
And it’s dishonest to ignore centuries of biblical scholarship simply in order to cling to eroding traditional belief."
"When will God finally “open the heavens and come to us.” When will God blast our enemies to smithereens. When will God crash into our existence with a cosmic bullhorn! A loud and noisy Advent. That’s what we want. A loud, noisy Advent."
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you, in the name of God our Creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier.
Amen.
Only a few more minutes. Make ‘em count!
Often when I’m teaching an aerobics class, and we get near the end of the workout, I’ll look back in the mirror and notice that maybe some of the people in the class are looking a little tired, running out of steam, apparently coasting along, toward the cooldown and the final stretch.
“Just five more minutes,” I shout out.
“Just five more minutes.
As long as we’re here, we might just as well make the next five minutes count for something!”
Mark 13:24-37: the end of our workout
This morning’s gospel reading suggests that the day of Christ’s coming will be like this:
The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light.
The stars will fall out of the sky.
The “powers in the heavens” will be shaken.
When we see these things happen, it’ll be the end of our “workout”!
We’d better make the most of the time we have left!
Some “bibilical criticism” in passing
The author of that gospel, Mark, places the prediction on Jesus’ lips, but they’re not Jesus’ words.
They’re the words of Mark.
They’re words that reflect the thinking of the church in the first century.
Lots of preachers speak as though the gospels are history, that the wise men really followed a star, that Jesus really said all of the things they say he said in the gospels.
Lots of preachers speak as though biblical prophecies are accurate peepholes into the future.
But it’s is not the 13th century any more.
And it’s dishonest to ignore centuries of biblical scholarship simply in order to cling to eroding traditional belief.
What’s important about it, I suggest that we see the dire warnings as mere conjecture from a first century world, and leave it at that.
The important point of the gospel for us today, I think, is not about a catastrophic apocalypse.
It’s the bit about the uncertainty of the timing, the uncertainty about exactly when to expect the The Divine to “jump into our lives, as God does do, from time to time.
Keep awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come.
Keep awake.
You never know when it’ll happen.
For Isaiah: God’s on vacation?
In this morning’s first reading, the prophet Isaiah begs for God to “come out of retirement.”
“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.”
Isaiah was lamenting the fact that God had been elusive, that God was absent, God, on an extended vacation.
The same for us?
Isaiah’s experience of course is not unique.
It can be that way for us as well, particularly in troubled times like those we’re we’re living in right now.
Our American expectation is that God will want to bless each of us personally, and that God will “bless America.”
But everything seems to be going to hell, financial hard times, rising inflation, higher taxes, unemployment.
An endless war, and genocide, and terrorism, and famine.
Global warming, and energy shortages, and disappearing natural resources.
The list goes on and on.
And more and more of us are feeling it.
Like being in the wilderness
Where we are now is something like being with Isaiah, captive in Babylon, lost in a sort of Godless wilderness, facing uncomfortable questions.
Where in heaven or on earth has God been with all of this going on around us.
Why are things so screwed up?
Why don’t we have the answers?
Are we being punished?
Have we done something wrong?
When will God finally “open the heavens and come to us.”
When will God blast our enemies to smithereens.
When will God crash into our existence with a cosmic bullhorn!
A loud and noisy Advent.
That’s what we want.
A loud, noisy Advent.
But most of us, most of us get the God of Isaiah, the God who hides from us, the God whose presence is more elusive more elusive than we want God to be.
The Advent comes when we least expect it
Some people spend a lot of time trying to work out the details of when and how Jesus will come again.
In the process, they fail to grasp the truth that Christ will not come twice, but has already come hundreds of times appearing as “God-with-us,” “God in us.”
The awareness of that presence, however, is a different matter.
The awareness of the advent of God in our midst is not always there.
My experience
I find that awareness will come, but it comes when I least expect it.
I’ve got to be on my toes to notice it.
I’ve got to be alert, watching and listening for that window of opportunity.
I’ve got to be expecting the unexpected!
Look in the mirror
Look into the mirror and look for the real you.
Take a walk by yourself.
Light a candle and gaze into the open flame.
Let the vision of God emerge in God’s own time.
The wilderness of doubt and despair we’re in provides the very opportunity we need.
On a spiritual path, a “wilderness” is a very good place to be.
Think for yourself, and realize that none of our thoughts, not yours, not mine, can possibly define, or contain, who we really are, or what God really is.
It’s then that the hidden God can come out of hiding and become God our Savior.
Our very own Advent.
Chesterton: God sometimes chooses to enter by the back door
G.K. Chesterton, an influential writer who lived through the turn of the last century suggested that God often works in unexpected ways.
Chesterton pointed out that God sometimes chooses to enter our world, in a barn at the edge of town.
Sometimes God comes down and slips in the back door of life’s slums to surprise us from behind.
That’s how Isaiah’s prophecy became the Christmas story.
And that’s how, for us, in a world gone awry, the prophecy of Isaiah still comes to pass, slipping in the back door.
For a child has been born for us, a son given to us, authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Only three more weeks
Today I stand in your midst, fast-approaching the celebration of the birth of the one in whom we have seen God.
It’s all coming too fast, I’m thinking.
There’s so much to do to get ready for Christmas.
But I want to stay focused on what Advent is really all about.
For me, it’s a bit like being at the tail-end, of an aerobics class.
A little tired, coasting along toward the cooldown and final stretch.
“Just three more Sundays,” I shout out.
“As long as we’re here, lets make these remaining weeks in Advent count for something!”
Keep awake, for you do not know, when the master of the house will come.
Keep alert.
You never know when The Divine will “jump into your life.’
God will do that, you know, from time to time.
It’s your Advent.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life.
Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness. This is our prayer. Amen.
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