Easy to Answer, Hard to Do

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 4, 2011

Second Sunday in Advent

Easy to Answer, Hard to Do

2 Peter 3:8-15

But do not ignore this one fact, beloved,

that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years,

and a thousand years are like one day.

The Lord is not slow about his promise,

as some think of slowness,

but is patient with you,

not wanting any to perish,

but all to come to repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,

and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise,

and the elements will be dissolved with fire,

and the earth and everything that is done on it

 will be disclosed.

Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way,

what sort of persons ought you to be

in leading lives of holiness and godliness,

waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,

because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved,

and the elements will melt with fire?

But, in accordance with his promise,

we wait for new heavens and a new earth,

where righteousness is at home.

Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things,

strive to be found by him at peace,

without spot or blemish;

and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.

So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you

according to the wisdom given him

Well, there it is, the question.

Did you hear it?

It’s there, buried in the text,

buried in the midst of blazing heavens and melting earth:

“what sort of person ought you to be”

as you wait for the coming of our Lord?

What sort of persons ought we each to be

as await the advent of our Lord?

It’s an odd question since the author of the letter

assumes we are living lives of holiness and godliness;

he seems to answer the question even as he asks it.

we cannot just take the words on face value.

We have to look at context.

This letter we attribute to Peter

was most likely written by someone other than Simon Peter,

the fisherman, the rock.

In fact, it was probably written after Peter had died.

The letter is thought to have been written

after the entire first generation

of followers of Jesus had died,

as the second generation,

those who had not walked with Jesus,

those who had not known Peter or Paul,

Thomas or Matthew,

struggled to define discipleship,

struggled to come to a fuller understanding of

what it meant to be a “Christian”,

a follower of Jesus Christ,

a follower of the Savior whose return

they eagerly awaited.

The first generation expected Jesus

to return in their lifetime;

Even as Jesus was telling his followers

to keep alert, keep awake,

for that day when he would come like a thief in the night,

he was also telling them,

“there are some standing here

who will not taste death

until they see that the kingdom of God has come…”

(Mark 9:1)

Indeed, “this generation will not pass away

until all these things have taken place.”

(Mark 13:30)

Paul reinforced this idea of Jesus’ imminent return

in his letters as well:

keep alert, stay awake, he said,

for the advent of Christ will surely happen in our lifetime.  

But days of waiting turned to weeks,

and weeks into months,

and months into years,

and years into decades;

and Jesus did not return.

And as the years passed,

life became more difficult and  more dangerous,

for followers of Christ.

By the end of the first century,

about the time this letter was written,

persecution of Christians had become

the accepted practice throughout the Roman Empire.

False prophets seemed to be everywhere;

                                            

What to believe; whom to believe,

how to keep hope alive,

how to keep faith alive - 

how even to stay alive became –

these were greater concerns to Christians

than making oneself ready for Christ’s return.

In stepping into Peter’s sandals,

the author of our letter resorted to a bit of sleight of hand

in his effort to address these very real concerns.

We may raise an eyebrow at what seems to be

a bit of disingenuousness,

but the result is a timeless letter,

a letter with words that can help us

to stand in holy hope

even as we await the return of our Lord.

It is, after all, so easy for us

to say in faith that we believe

that Christ will come again,

 even as we think to ourselves

that it isn’t going to happen anytime soon,

that we have plenty of time to sort out our lives.

At the very least, we can probably push things off

until after the holidays,

because certainly God knows how busy we all are, right?

This is the dilemma we have,

that we live in the in-between time,

the time between Christ’s birth,

and Christ’s  coming again,

and neither we nor anyone else

has any idea how long this in-between time will last.

But the longer the time lasts,

the easier it is to lose focus,

even to lose heart.

So, the letter writer calls us back,

back to where he knows we need to be:

to lives of holiness,

lives of godliness,

back to striving so that when Christ does come,

we will be found “at peace, without spot or blemish.”

God’s time is not our time

and the reason for God’s patience

is known only to God,

but it isn’t so we can grow complacent.

To presume we’re fine,

that our ticket is in order,

is to presume too much;

we have work to do while we wait.

Work to do in the world,

work to do with ourselves.

John the Baptizer reminds us that our daily task

is to make straight the way of the Lord,

to work to make the uneven ground level

and the rough places a plain

as we build the foundation for the Kingdom here and now,

working for righteousness,

working for justice,

all as we “bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

If John the Baptizer were to confront us here and now,

what do you suppose he would say to you and me?

Would he compliment us on our holy and godly lives?

I fear he would be even more outraged with us

than he was with those who came to him two thousand years ago,

outraged at the ever-increasing numbers of men, women and children

living in poverty, who struggle to feed themselves,

house themselves, keep themselves warm;

outraged that we just shrug and say,

that’s how the free market works,

outraged at the growing inequality in our country,

in the world,

outraged at our ready willingness to sacrifice God’s creation

for our own comfort,

for the sake of business,

outraged that we are not working more faithfully

to create a world of righteousness,

of justice,

of grace and love.

                          

God’s patience is built, our lesson tells us,

on God’s hope in us and for us,

that we will embrace more fully,

more completely the life God wants for us,

the life God created us to live.

John the Baptizer, the author of second Peter,

our Lord himself all teach us

that God wants nothing less than our transformation

as we give ourselves more and more completely

to the one given us,

the one who gave himself for us.

As Methodist Bishop and author William Willimon put it,

“God  [wants] to transform us into the people

we hadn’t really thought about being.”

This is our Advent gift,

our Advent opportunity:

to embrace afresh the life to which we have been called,

to embrace afresh the call to transformational discipleship

that can lift us to a new level of holiness,

a new level of godliness.

So come to this Table and embrace this gift;

come to this table and embrace this call,

this life.

And then, when you go from this Table,

fed, nourished,

transformed,

make Paul’s words to the Galatians your own:

“It is not I who live,

but Christ who lives in me,”

as you let Christ live more fully in and through you,

as you live a more holy, godly life.

    

Then, as you walk through the days of Advent,

the days of Christmas,

and all the days after into the new year,

you will be able to sing with confidence,

with hope,

with deeper faith:

O Come O Come Emmanuel.  

AMEN