One Small Step

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 31, 2006
First Sunday after Christmas

One Small Step
Luke 2: 41-52
1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26

The Sunday after Christmas always seems like such a let down:
The presents are opened;
leftovers fill the refrigerator;
garbage bags overflow
with the remnants of wrapping paper and boxes.
Children have decided which is their favorite toy or game,
and which one will sit neglected or broken on a shelf.
Adults have decided which presents will be kept,
which will be returned,
and which ones will be regifted.

We are almost grateful for the new month, the new year,
the new beginning that comes at midnight tonight.
December is such an exhausting month for all of us,
that as much as we look forward to it in November,
we are glad when we can turn the page on the calendar.

We leave 2006 behind tonight and take a first step into 2007,
one small step, but a ready step.
A new year, even more than a new month, a new week,
or a new day reminds us of the promise in Christ:
the old ways have passed
and a new life has begun for each of us.

The days that lead up to New Year’s after Christmas
provide us with an opportunity:
an opportunity not only to relax and enjoy the holidays,
but also the opportunity to look back,
to reflect on the year that is about to end
before we step into the New Year.

We each can look back on the year past
and remember both the joys and the sorrows,
the good times and the bad,
the ups and the downs.

For all of us as disciples of Christ,
we should all be asking ourselves the same question
as we reflect on the past year:
Did we grow?
Grow in faith?
Grow in wisdom?
Grow in knowledge of the Lord?
Grow in love?

These are not questions most of us ask, though.
We are more inclined to ask:
Is the bank account bigger?
The retirement account larger?
Did I get a promotion at work?
Was I more popular at school?

But life is not, of course, about how many things we have,
things that will eventually all turn to dust.
Life is about growing in faith:
Growing in our knowledge of God and Jesus Christ,
finding new and better ways to take the peace and goodwill
that we feel during the Christmas season
out into the world throughout the year;
to feel it and spread it as we keep Christmas
in our hearts the whole year through.

So: how did you do this past year?
Did you grow spiritually?
Did you grow in faith?
Did you grow in your relationship with God through Jesus Christ?
Did you follow Paul’s admonition that:
“we must grow up in every way into him who is the head,
into Christ…” (Eph. 4:15)

Here’s the most important question:
did you grow because you sought to grow,
Did you grow because you worked at growing?
Or did you grow because of happenstance,
circumstances, things happening in your life?

God hopes,
in fact I think God expects us
to grow in wisdom
grow in knowledge,
so that we can grow in faith.
But we will not grow unless we work at it,
unless we make an effort,
unless we are disciplined.

Growing in faith is not about how we feel,
it is about what we do.
William Willimon has observed,
“Will and discipline are not much in fashion in our age.
In our minds, religion is mostly a matter of feelings --
private, personal feelings –
as we drift from one vaguely spiritual high to another...
I think we have made a big mistake
in implying that the spiritual life,
our relationship to God,
is mostly a matter of what feelings we manage to muster.
Our relationship to Christ is also a matter of keeping at it,
of habits, of persisting in the disciplines of faith.”
(Reading with Deeper Eyes, 53)

Willimon is right: we need to persist in the disciplines of faith.
Spirituality isn’t about feeling good,
it’s about feeling God:
feeling God in your life so you can know real joy
when you have followed God’s will and his way.
It is also feeling God with his gentle but firm admonition
when you have strayed from his path.
It is feeling God’s presence in good times,
so you can acknowledge the source of your blessings.
And it is feeling God’s presence in difficult times,
so you can know the comfort that comes with God’s
unwavering love, God’s unconditional promise
that “underneath us are the everlasting arms.”

Jesus’ preaching, as he took his ministry out into the world,
was never about feeling good,
it was never about the visceral.
People didn’t dance in the aisles when Jesus spoke;
They listened to him;
paid attention to him;
heard what he had to say,

Some may have discounted what Jesus said;
Others may have taken in only part;
But there were always a few who listened carefully
and thought about what Jesus said,
and then talked about Jesus teachings with others.
They took to heart what Jesus said
and then acted on what they had learned.
In listening, they took the first small step in growing
in faith, wisdom, and understanding.

In our first lesson we heard that growing in spirit,
faith, and wisdom was important to Samuel.
Each year with Eli, Samuel learned,
and he grew in his knowledge of the Lord.
Eli’s own two sons could not have cared less about learning;
they were lazy louts, convinced that wearing an ephod,
the religious garment worn by priests at the temple,
was all it took to be a man of God.
Samuel understood that it took more than trappings,
more than looking the part, much more;
it took patience, discipline, will, hard work, dedication.

Our second lesson reminds us that Jesus himself
understood the importance of growing in knowledge
and wisdom of his father in heaven.
Luke’s gospel is the only one that captures Jesus
between the time of his birth and his adult years
with the well-known story of Jesus at age 12
staying behind in Jerusalem
following his family’s pilgrimage at the Passover,
staying behind not to play, not to get into mischief,
but to learn:
He stayed behind in the temple
“sitting among the teachers, listening to them,
and asking them questions.” (Luke 2:46)
Jesus was learning.
Jesus was learning so that he too could grow in wisdom.

You may recall that a group from the church
made a trip into the city a few weeks back
to view an exhibit at the Sackler Gallery.
The exhibit is of Bibles made prior to the year 1000,
prior to the invention of the printing press,
back in a time when books were produced by hand
on parchment or papyrus.
It’s a marvelous exhibit, to see pages and even fragments
from books we know well.
The exhibit also included fragments from books that
were not included in the canon we call the Bible,
books we refer to as apocryphal.
Many were apocryphal gospels, stories that purported to
tells us about the life of Jesus as a boy and young man.
One of my favorites is “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas”,
written about 120 years following the crucifixion.
The book tells the story of Jesus as a young boy,
a boy filled with magical powers that he uses not for good,
but as might be expected of a young boy:
for mischief and mayhem.
It is a rousing story of Jesus as troublemaker;
it is obvious why it was not considered canonical.
But the interesting thing is the way the story ends:
it ends with the passage we heard in our second lesson,
the passage from Luke,
with Jesus no longer mischievous,
with Jesus’ focused squarely on learning.

Thomas a Kempis, in his famous work The Imitation of Christ,
wrote, “We…have little zeal for our daily progress;
therefore we remain spiritually cold or tepid.” (38)
We will remain spiritually cold or tepid unless we work
diligently, with discipline, to learn, to grow,
each of us immersing ourselves in our daily progress,
just as Jesus did.

What will you do in the coming year to help yourself grow in faith?
Don’t think of it as New Year’s resolution;
we all know what happens to them!
instead, think of it as one small step,
one small step forward that you’ll take in January,
with another step to follow in February,
and another in March.

What will your first small step be?
Come to Bible Study?
If you are interested and neither our Wednesday morning group
nor Thursday evening group fit your schedule,
let me know and we’ll see what we can do.

What about reading the Bible regularly on your own,
a few pages a day?
If you have tried that in the past without success,
let me suggest that you purchase a copy
of the “One-Year Bible”.
There are a couple of different versions available,
each does the same thing:
provides you with a reading from the New Testament,
a reading from the Old Testament,
a bit from a Psalm, and a Proverb, each day:
The entire Bible in 365 readings,
none of which takes more than 20 minutes.
It is the easiest way I know to work through the whole Bible.
If you want help finding a One-Year Bible, let me know.

Perhaps a daily devotional book might be your first small step.
There are many different wonderful books just waiting for you
to step into their pages to learn, listen, and grow.
Eugene Peterson, William Barclay, Marva Dawn,
Frederick Buechner and Henri Nouwen
all have books that are accessible, thoughtful, and faithful.
Barbara Brown Taylor does not have a book
that falls into the category of daily devotionals
but any of her books filled with her sermons
would be more than just small step.

Perhaps you’ve thought about forming a faith club
similar to the one written about
in the popular book of the same name,
a book one of our book clubs just read.
Three women, each from a different faith background,
Muslim, Christian, and Jew,
met regularly to talk about their faiths,
not to convert or proselytize,
but to learn with one another
learn from one another,
and grow in faith and love,
each woman in her own way.

Growing in your spiritual life requires effort on your part,
more than just coming to church on Sunday.
It requires a small step, a joyful step,
a step away from tepid faith, to deeper, richer faith.
In her book, “Soul Feast”, Marjorie Thompson, wrote,
“The spiritual life invites a process of transformation
in the life of the believer.
It is a process of growing in gratitude, trust, obedience,
humility, compassion, service and joy.”
A process;
a process that is continuous;
a process that begins with a single small step.

In the presents you opened up last Monday,
did you receive something,
anything that will help you grow spiritually?
A book of prayers?
A daily devotional book?
A calendar with a daily Bible verse?
Something?
Anything?
If you didn’t get something,
then stop by Barnes & Noble or Borders,
or visit Amazon.com or Christian Books.
If you want some help and guidance,
just ask, and I would be happy to offer a suggestion.

Jesus tells us to be like little children in our faith.
Little children have eager minds, inquiring minds,
a natural sense of curiosity,
They are open to learning.

Take that one small step
if not tomorrow, then this week.
One small step to grow,
to grow in Christ, grow in faith;
to grow away from tepidness,
to grow into passion and conviction.
“Grow in every way into him who is the head:
into Christ.”
AMEN

What’s On Your List?

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 17, 2006
The Third Sunday in Advent

What’s On Your List?
Isaiah 7:10-17
Matthew 1:18-25

The countdown has begun:
Eight more days.
Eight days till Christmas,
but only seven shopping days left.
That is how we measure the final week till Christmas,
till we celebrate the birth of our Lord:
feeling like the sands of time are running out on us.

The stress level rises for everyone in this last week.
We find ourselves wading into crowded malls with sharp elbows,
driving from store to store with a “take-no-prisoners” attitude.
All this in an effort to try to find the perfect gift,
or as time runs out, at least to find something,…anything.

I can remember when I was a boy growing up in Buffalo,
there were no such things as malls;
no Wal-Marts, no Kohls, no Targets.
Downtown was where everyone went to shop.
We’d drive downtown and park the car
and then walk into the central part of the shopping district,
where the sidewalks were crowded,
storefronts dressed for the holidays,
silver bells ringing as Salvation Army Santas worked
to fill their kettles and stay warm.

There were two big department stores
where we did most of our shopping:
Hengerers, and A,M,&A’s
Each was a city all to itself,
with floor upon floor of goods.
Hengerers was my favorite store:
seven floors of wonder for a child at Christmas time.
I could find something for everyone on my list:
Grandma, and Grandpa,
Mom and Dad,
and, with more than little encouragement from my parents,
something for each of my sisters.

We’d start on the ground floor and work our way up,
riding the escalators, ascending in spirit as well as height,
until we found ourselves on the 6th floor.
That was as close to the North Pole
as a child could get in Buffalo,
for that was where the toy department was.
Lionel trains and Eldon race cars,
models of Chris Craft boats,
Mickey Mantle baseball gloves, Johnny Unitas footballs,
games by the dozens: Monopoly, Clue, Scrabble
Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Mousetrap.
It was a place filled with joy,
a place filled with wonder.

I still find joy and wonder as I shop at Christmas,
although I must admit that I find malls too big
and the big-box stores too crowded.
I do more and more of my shopping each year
over the Internet.
Point, click, and the box arrives a few days later
on my doorstep, as though Santa himself had delivered it
without the bother of the chimney.

However we each go about our shopping,
we all share a common problem:
getting just the right gift for each person on our lists.
Most of us put a great deal of thought
into our gift buying and giving,
and we are thrilled when we give someone a gift
and they respond, “It’s just what I always wanted!”

The trickier part though isn’t getting someone the right gift;
it is trying to react with excitement
when we’ve been given a gift
that wasn’t on our own list.
You know the feeling:
A loved one or a friend hands you a box --
it’s large and it’s heavy.
The person handing you the box beams with delight,
and you find yourself filled with a sense of anticipation.
Could this be what you had been hinting about
for the past few months?
The gift that had been at the top of your list?
You talked about it, you pointed it out in catalogs,
and newspaper advertisements.
Yes, this must be it!
You tear away the wrappings,
and open the top of the box
and you know immediately: …
it isn’t what you wanted.
It isn’t what you hinted at all those weeks.
You lift the gift out of the box,
force a smile and turn to the gift-giver,
who can barely contain his excitement,
as you squeeze out the words,
“You really shouldn’t have”.

You try your best to show your gratitude.
You leave the gift on display under the tree
until it’s time to put the Christmas decorations away.
After that, it gets tucked away, in the back of the closet,
in the basement or attic,
or that cupboard above the refrigerator,
the cupboard that is in every kitchen,
the cupboard into which things go
never to be seen or used again.

More than 700 years before the birth of Christ,
more than a thousand years before the first
celebration of Christmas,
King Ahaz, the king we heard about in our first lesson,
had just that problem:
what to do with a gift given him
that he really didn’t want,
that had not even been on his list,
much less at the top.
What Ahaz wanted was an army:
swords, horses, soldiers, and chariots.
the military might he needed to fight off
the combined kingdoms of Aram and Ephraim.

God knew that Ahaz had his wish list,
so God instructed the prophet Isaiah to go to Ahaz
and tell him not to worry, that God would take care of everything.
“Take heed,” said God through the prophet,
“Be quiet, and do not fear.”
You could almost imagine Ahaz’s excitement:
Christmas was going to come to Ahaz:
he was going to get everything on his gift list, all from God:
All the military might he was going to need
to fend off the vicious attackers
who threatened the lives and land of God’s children in Judah.

Then the prophet told Ahaz the wonderful gift
he was going to receive from God:
“look the young woman is with child and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Immanuel.”

Ahaz was stunned by these words.
“the young woman is with child and shall bear a son??”
Ahaz wanted soldiers;
he needed soldiers;
he had asked for soldiers.
And God was going to give him a baby?

Ah, but sometimes the best gift is the one we didn’t expect,
the one that wasn’t on our list,
the gift that doesn’t fill us with joy when we first open it,
first take a look at what’s beneath the wrappings.

God does this to each of us all the time:
Gives us gifts that we don’t ask for,
gifts that we don’t appreciate,
gifts that we don’t recognize,
gifts we don’t even realize come from God.
As William Willimon, a Bishop in the Methodist Church,
has observed,
“This is often the way God loves us:
with gifts we thought we didn’t need.”

Who would have thought we needed beauty?
Who would have thought we needed happiness?
Who would have thought we needed joy?
Who would have thought we needed hope?
Who would have thought we needed laughter?
Community? Family? Friends?

Who would have thought we needed a baby?
Who would have thought we needed God to be with us?

But that’s the gift God promised Ahaz,
and that’s the gift God has given to you and me.
In the word “Immanuel” we have such an extraordinary gift,
a gift we never thought about needing or wanting:
God with us.
God no longer distant in the highest heavens;
no longer hidden in the smokey darkness
of the holy of holies in the Temple;
no longer accessible only to the chief priests;
God we can look upon without fear.

God with us.
Look, the young woman is with child
and that child is Christ our Lord,
our Immanuel, God with us.
In the baby born in the stable, God gives us himself
The baby whose birthday we will celebrate in 8 days
was born for us.
A gift from God given to us.
Don’t you remember what the angel said to the shepherds?
“I bring YOU good news, of great joy,
For to YOU is born this day a Savior.”
(Luke 2:10)
This is a gift for the shepherds, the wise men,
for you and for me!

This is not a gift likely to be found on most Christmas lists.
lists that tend to be filled with things like
plasma televisions,
electronic game systems,
food processors,
iPods, books, clothing.

God gives us this gift to fill us with joy,
joy not just in this festive season,
but joy throughout our lives,
joy even in the most difficult times,
joy because in our Immanuel
we have God’s unconditional love,
God’s unwavering presence.

God also gives us this gift to transform us,
for that is what God has on his Christmas list every year:
that we might become even a little more Christ-like
in the coming year: a little more loving,
a little more forgiving, a little less judgmental,
a little more merciful.

C. S. Lewis once wrote,
In the birth of Jesus, the coming of our Immanuel
“God descends to re-ascend,
comes down, down from the heights…
into humanity, comes down to come up again
and bring the whole ruined world with him.”
(C.S. Lewis, The Grand Miracle. Miracles, p. 179)

This is the gift given us:
our salvation,
life eternal,
love eternal.
God descended as our Immanuel
and in Christ, through Christ and with Christ,
groans to lift the world back into the light,
the world that always seems to teeter
on the edge of darkness.

This gift was something unexpected, something radical:
The Messiah, the incarnation of God,
the incarnation that is the hope for our transformation.

On Christmas morning, the gift will be there,
under the tree, over to the side.
It won’t be wrapped in bright paper,
it won’t require batteries,
it will be just the right size,
a gift that will bring you joy
long after every other gift has been forgotten.

Will you see it?
Will you know it?
Will you appreciate it for what it is?
Will you sit quietly after you open it
and say, “I can ask for no other gift,
for a child has been born for me,
my Immanuel.”
Glory to God in the highest!

Amen

Which Is It?

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 10, 2006
The Second Sunday in Advent

Which Is It?
Malachi 3:1-4
Luke 3:1-6

“T’was the night before Christmas when all through the house,
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
Mama in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like flash,
tore open the shutter, and threw open the sash.
When what to my wondering eye should appear,
but John the Baptist crying out, “Jesus soon will be here.”

That’s not how the poem goes, does it?
No, the title tells us what the poem is all about:
“A visit from St. Nicholas”, by Clement Clarke Moore.
It was sung so ably last night by the
Belle Voci Chamber Choir,
with our own Ken Adams as the featured soloist.
Many us know much, if not most, of the poem by heart.

But what about my version?
Isn’t it a more appropriate text for Advent?
As much as we all love the traditions of Santa Claus,
reindeer, Christmas trees, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
shouldn’t our focus be on the coming of Jesus Christ?
The Christ who came into the world as a baby
born in that stable,
Emmanuel, God with us;
The Christ who came into the world
to save us from our sins;
The Christ who came as the light of God,
the Word of God,
the love of God.
The Christ who came,
and will come again.

John the Baptist helps us with our focus
in the middle of such a busy time of year.
John was the very personification of Advent,
as he proclaimed the coming of Christ:
Prepare yourself for the coming of the Messiah,
he cried out to all who would listen.
John’s message is Advent.

John’s father, Zechariah, was one of the priests at the Temple.
Unlike many of his colleagues, Zechariah was a man of faith.
He knew just what God had in mind for his son
as soon as he laid eyes on him.
Zechariah looked at the infant and said,
“And you child will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people,
by the forgiveness of their sins.” (Luke 1:76)

God called John to tell the people to prepare themselves,
to ready their hearts,
ready their minds,
ready their very lives
for the Messiah,
the one they had been waiting for,
the one they had been praying for,
the one who was about to come into the world.

Over the centuries, the prophets had proclaimed
a message of hope,
a message that the Messiah would come.
More than 700 years before the birth of our Lord,
Isaiah prophesied, “Look:
the young woman is with child
and shall bear a son,
and shall name him Immanuel”
which means “God with us”. (Isaiah 7:14)
Isaiah’s contemporary Micah prophesied,
“and from you Bethlehem,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel….
and he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure,
for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;
and he shall be the one of peace.” (Micah 5:2ff)

The people were watching, waiting,
eager for the Messiah to come;
they were watching and waiting,
but they were not preparing themselves,
they were not making themselves ready,
not making straight the highway of the Lord.

As John proclaimed the Messiah’s coming
many thought that he himself was the Messiah.
There were others who thought that John
was the prophet Elijah come back from the whirlwind
which had taken him up
more than eight centuries before.

John knew that he was just the messenger,
the one called to proclaim,
the one called to proclaim the advent of the Messiah,
the one called to urge the people to make themselves ready.
John understood his calling
even while he was still in his mother’s womb.
And so, he took his message out to the people
proclaiming the coming of the Messiah,
proclaimed the coming
even though he did not know who the Messiah was;
didn’t know it was his own relative, Jesus of Nazareth.

John proclaimed with fury, even rage.
His appearance suggested that of someone
who had just been hit by a lightning bolt.
His diet was locusts and wild honey.
His words were pointed, sharp,
themselves bolts of lightning,
as he snarled at a world so content
to walk at the very edge of darkness,
people claiming to follow God,
yet people who were loose, lazy,
lubricious and lascivious;
the rich and the powerful sitting comfortably
while the poor and the destitute were forced
to do their gleaning amid the stench and flames
of the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem.

It was a world in which John did not fit;
but he didn’t even try to fit in;
he didn’t care.
But it wasn’t his looks, his clothes or his diet.
that set him apart from everyone else;
it was his faith and his faithfulness.
He was ready;
he was committed;
He was prepared for the coming of the Messiah.
While many heard him shout, “prepare”,
most wondered why they should listen to him:
“Look at him; who in their right mind would listen to him?
Besides, I cannot be bothered now; I have things to do,
important things that must be done.
Business to attend to; social engagements;
important people to be with.”

But a handful did respond to John;
And it is much the same today.
We would rather focus on the coming of Santa Claus,
on the coming of Christmas day,
on preparing our homes.
But John tells us we should be focused on
the coming of Christ,
the coming of the Kingdom of God,
on preparing our hearts.

John’s style was blunt, direct, and confrontational:
“Which is it?
What is your choice?
Don’t waffle. Make a choice.
Are you ready to repent and prepare,
here and now?
Or are you going to continue on the path you’ve been on?
Something radical is about to happen;
Are you ready?
Are you prepared?”

It is fitting that John was compared with Elijah.
Do you remember that famous scene when Elijah confronted
the people of Israel and the prophets of Baal?
He demanded of them, “How long will you go limping along
with two different opinions?
If the Lord is God, follow him,
but if Baal, then follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21ff).
Elijah was fed up with the people saying that
they were followers of the Lord God,
but then following their own wills and their own ways.
Elijah was fed up with the rank hypocrisy.
“Make a choice and then stick with it”, he shouted.
“If you are going to follow God,
then do it as though you mean it.”

John called the people of Israel to the same standard.
John calls us to the same standard.
If we say, “Come Lord, Come”;
if we sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”,
then we’d better be ready.
We’d better prepare the way,
we’d better make the highway straight,
especially the highway to our hearts.
John confronts us in this Advent season,
because John’s message is Advent.

Perhaps we need an Advent variation on
“A visit from St. Nicholas”,
a variation to help us to hear John’s message
and respond to it by preparing ourselves:

“T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
and there was even one for Jesus, whose image we bear.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
after giving their thanks and bowing their heads.
Mama in her kerchief and I in my cap,
we each knew that God’s blessings overflowed in our lap.
And we heard John the Baptist speaking straight to our ears,
the voice from afar, grown strong through the years.
‘Prepare the way of the Lord, and make his path straight.
fill God’s earth with his love, and banish all hate.’
This is what Christmas is about, so much more than St. Nick.
The sharing of love, hope, and peace; comforting the sick.
Each day from now on as we arise in the morn,
let our thoughts always be on the Christ who was born,
in that stable so bare and so long ago,
the Christ whom our Father
wants us so desperately to know.
For he is the Christ who is with us,
and the Christ who’ll come again.
The one always with us from beginning to end.
Let us make his path straight,
that he might come in glory,
and remember that that is the real Advent story.

Amen

When Are We Going To Be There?

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
December 3, 2006
The First Sunday in Advent

When Are We Going To Be There?
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Luke 21:25-36

Today marks the beginning of Advent for us,
the wonder-filled season that leads us to Christmas.
It is my favorite time of the year.
December is filled with singing and lights, gifts and joy;
Smiles are more apparent,
and there is a lightness in our hearts,
even as we find ourselves busier than ever
juggling jobs, homes, families,
decorating, shopping, and travel.

It seems a bit paradoxical, then, even a little unfair,
that the lectionary text for this first Sunday
in such a festive season
sounds so bleak, so dark:
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth distress among the nations,
confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will faint from fear and foreboding
of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

These are not the words of some wild-eyed prophet;
these words come from our Lord Jesus Christ himself!
The one who was born to bring us hope
seems to be throwing a bucket of cold water
on our festivities before we even get the Christmas tree
straight in the stand.
Where is Joy to the World?
Where is peace and goodwill to all?

We have to remember what Advent is all about:
The next 22 days are not a countdown to Christmas,
not a reminder of how many days we have left
to get all our shopping done,
all our cards written, all our homes decorated.
Advent is a time for us to focus
on more than the birth of our Lord:
Advent is a time for us to remember the promise,
a time for us to reflect on the promise:
the promise that the Christ
who came into the world in Bethlehem,
is the Christ who will come again,
come again in glory,
come again to bring the world to its fulfillment.

It is easy to overlook the second coming of Christ;
even for ministers, focusing on the birthday party
is a lot more fun.
And we should celebrate with joy
the birth of our Lord – absolutely!
We should celebrate with lights and decorations,
with carols and cheer.
But even as we look back on that night
when love was born in the stable in Bethlehem,
we are also called to look forward,
look to the future,
the future that WILL come someday,
when Christ will come again, come in all his glory.

That’s what Jesus was talking about in our second lesson.
The text comes near the end of the Gospel according to Luke.
Christ’s death on the cross was just a few days away,
and he knew it.
He knew that the days and months following his death
were going to be difficult for his disciples.
But even has he spoke bluntly to prepare them
for the struggles that lay ahead,
he also wanted to give them a message of hope.

He reached back to the prophet Daniel
to assure his followers that the day would come
when “the Son of Man [would come] with the clouds of heaven.
…[And] to him [would be] given dominion and glory and kingship,
that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.
His dominion [would be] an everlasting dominion
and [would not] not pass away….”
(Dan. 7:13-14)

This is the message of hope
that Jesus wanted his disciples to hear.
It is the message that Jesus wants us to hear today.
Our first Advent candle conveys this message of hope,
this message of expectation,
and anticipation,
for that day that we know will come:
when Christ will come again,
come to make all things new.

We use the word “eschatology” to describe this coming;
It is a rather fancy word that means “the end time”.
We do not know when that time will arrive.
Even Jesus himself didn’t know.
But what Jesus tried to teach his disciples,
and what Jesus is trying to teach you and me here and now
is that we should always be watching, waiting,
ready, alert,
prepared,
as we await with hope,
for that day that will come,
as Jesus reminds us,
“like a thief in the night.”

Of course, we’d like to think that
we’ll have a little bit of advance warning,
a little time to get ready.
Even the most socially-challenged guest knows enough
to telephone first to give you an hour or so
to straighten up the house,
take a shower, and put on clean clothes.
Jesus understood this need in us.
So he talked about signs and portents.
But then what do we do with them?
We spend so much time talking about the signs
that we risk not being ready when that times does come.

When will that time come?
We don’t know; it is that simple.
What signs shall we look for?
There are many followers of Christ who look to events like
war in the Middle East,
natural disasters,
or pandemics and say,
“These are clear signs of the end times!”

I have two problems with folks who busy themselves this way.
First, Jesus tells us again and again
that when the time comes,
it will come like a thief in the night,
suddenly, immediately, bang, it’s here.

Second, how does such a picture
fit with a God of love, a God who is love,
a God who so loved that world that he gave his only son,
a son who taught that it is by our love for one another
that we are known as his disciples?

Perhaps, just perhaps,
the signs we ought to be looking for are
as Jesus suggested in our lesson if we read more closely:
like blossoms on a tree that are about to burst forth in full fruit:
that the eschatological signs we should look for are
the absence of war,
the eradication of poverty,
the elimination of ignorance,
the end of racism, sexism, and ethnic conflict;
when children no longer go to bed hungry,
when the elderly no longer feel alone,
when young and old alike no longer live in fear:
When all can look to a future filled with hope,
filled with expectation,
filled with anticipation.

When we as humans,
we as humanity, bear rich fruit,
because we have built as much of the Kingdom
as we can humanly hope to build.

We Christians are like the child
on a long trip who constantly asks
“When are we going to be there?”
God’s response to us is no different
from that any other parent:
“we will be there when we get there”.
Our job, our calling, is simply to work to prepare ourselves,
to make ourselves ready for that time when we get there,
And the surest way to be ready,
the surest way to keep alert
is to work for the Kingdom
to work on building it with conviction and persistence,
energy and enthusiasm.

O Come O Come Emmanuel!
Those words reflect a promise,
a promise filled with hope,
a promise made in that stable so long ago,
a promise that God will keep.
The question Advent sets before us is not,
“are you ready for Christmas?”
The question Advent sets before us is:
"Are you ready for God to keep his promise?"

AMEN