Isaiah 2:
1-5
NPMC
Romans 13:
11-14
Advent 1
Matthew 24:
37-44
December 2, 2007
The World is about to turn
Grace and
peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. In
our moment of silent prayer on this Advent Sunday we pray for our world. As
Christians entering a season of anticipation and excitement, we gather around
us, things and events that remind us that we are loved and are part of a bigger
family of love. We offer prayers for our world and the healing of lives and
conflicts. Let us pray… We are on the cusp of new things O Lord and we seek
to be a part of your redeeming power as we anticipate that the world is about to
turn. AMEN
Did any of you shudder when we read the
scripture texts this morning: “One will be taken and one will be left” and;
“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
Some of us will recall the terror that went with these warnings in the revival
crusades and tent meetings of yesteryear. The “Left Behind” series that is
currently in vogue today is based on these words also. The assumption is that
when Jesus comes again he will find most of us helpless and cringing, fearful
because we haven’t been good enough. And for reasons that we can never know for
sure, we just anticipate that somehow we haven’t measured up to God’s
expectations and we may be excluded from the heart and mercy of God for all
time. If we look at these passages of scripture in this way I think we’ve got it
all wrong.
What will God meet when God encounters us? That
is the question. Actually God is connected to us everyday, every moment of our
lives, so God isn’t going to learn any new information. And do we really
believe that God is waiting in the background for the opportune time to pounce
on us, catch us off guard and then leave us behind forever? Does that sound
like God to you? In fact, last Sunday I quoted a couple of verses from a new
hymn, “Nothing is lost on the breath of God, nothing is lost forever.” God know
us intimately: our weaknesses and our desire to do the right thing, to love and
to be loved in turn.
God has given us the gift of steadfast love, of
forgiveness and grace. Are we living fully aware of what this means? That is
what is at stake. Do we live as though we expect the new, God’s good news to
break in at anytime? Surprise us! Catch us off guard! Do we live with
anticipation, expectation, deeply moved by the goodness that is ours in Jesus
Christ? That is what we might miss out on!
What is God’s judgment if it isn’t God’s
assessment of the way in which we use the good gift of life? God’s judgment is,
in part, God’s opinion of our choices and the knowledge of where these choices
do eventually take us. And so two men are working in the field, one knows of
God’s ways and lives in harmony with this knowledge, the other is not aware that
he has need of God. You can’t tell by just looking at them that there is a
difference but one misses out on God’s joy. Two women are grinding grain into
meal, one know of God’s ways and lives in harmony with this knowledge, the other
is not aware that she has need of God. You can’t tell by just looking at them
that there is a difference but one misses out on God’s grace.
This does not trivialize the serious nature of
darkness and light in our lives or the fact that judgment occurs. There is evil
to be resisted and choices to make. We hear Paul in Romans reminding people
that drunkenness, excessive self-indulgence, unrestrained behavior, quarreling
and jealousy are realities of life. However, now that we have taken on Jesus
Christ our focus has changed; our world has turned. New love has taken hold. No
more do we need to hide behind all sorts of self-indulgent and self-destructive
behavior to anesthetize our hurts and insecurities. Our world has shifted
because of the grace of God.
As we set out on this advent journey we are
reminded that our lives reflect a different stance, a different way of being
from that which is marketed and sold all around us. We come prepared to move and
be moved by the grace of Jesus Christ, by remaining open and yielded to the work
of God. Surrender and submission are other ways of describing this stance, and
is often much easier said than lived. On one hand we haven’t arrived where we
are today but sitting back and letting life happen to us. We set goals and work
hard to attain them. However that is not what it means to surrender to God and
to yield one’s life in the expectation that God may turn our world on its head.
Submission to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ
is not sitting back helplessly and letting life have its way with us. It is more
about allowing for a prayerful balance between what we ourselves can do and what
God will make possible. That requires a radical openness and a resistance to
the slogans of our popular culture and the self-help gospel of the 21st
century. These maintain that we can control and work our way into a “happy”
life. On the contrary I would suggest that a happy submission to the possibility
of God working the unexpected in our lives is the antidote for the anxiety and
fear that is our constant companion these days. I will be the very first to say
that anxiety and fear are big in my life but I stand before you today as a
testimony to God’s working and turning out new possibilities. I would not be
here if it were not for the amazing intervention of God’s peace in my anxious
soul. And I know that many of you will give a similar testimony.
“You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is
coming at an unexpected hour” we read in Matthew’s gospel. Are we compelled to
set aside some of our controlling ways and wait, open to the arrival of God’s
grace that will come at an unexpected time? It is unexpected precisely because
we are not in control. Are we are ready to receive the gifts of love that come
because of Jesus’ way in the world?
One dramatic illustration of unexpected gift
comes out of the story of the Nickel Mines shootings, the shooting of ten little
Amish girls in a schoolhouse outside of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. Charles
Roberts a deeply troubled man, kissed his wife and children good-bye on the
morning of October 2, 2006 and in a premeditated plan, stormed the Amish school
at 10:15 a.m., rounding up ten young children, all girls, shooting them, killing
five. This was a horrific tragedy and one can only imagine how this crime
rocked the peace and security of the Amish community and the entire
countryside.
What happened next, in the full intensity of
such staggering loss is indeed a gift to the world. The Amish people, even
those most closely connected to the little girls, made the choice to forgive the
man who did this to them. You may remember news reports about the Amish
attending the funeral service of the killer and the support that was given
Charles Roberts’ family. The world took notice of this response, stunned and
intrigued by the way in which the small community of Amish Christians did the
totally unexpected. They remained yielded and open to God’s possibilities, even
in the face of such tragedy.
Our current self-help gurus would say that one
must not forgive too soon or that by forgiving a perpetrator, the victim is
unwittingly victimized all over again. Indeed, these are significant components
of the experience that need careful attention. Not every member of the Amish
community felt the same elements of forgiveness at the same time, nor was it an
easy and immediate position for everyone to take. However, with the strength of
conviction that existed there, over time, the Nickel Mines Amish remained
consistent with their initial desire to forgive. They believe it to be the way
of Jesus and they yield to the work of the Spirit personally and communally. Of
course they suffered, had nightmares, thoughts of revenge and all the normal
responses under the circumstances. They received therapy and counseling and
worldwide response with monetary aid to build a new school and to cover costs
for their families as well as the family of Charles Roberts. They opened
themselves to the possibility of God’s grace and offered abundance grace in
return.
What will God see in us? What does God see in
us? Will we be ready at the coming of the Son of Man? And I am not sure
exactly what that means. I think it has something to do with living as though
what we do matters. Do we believe that through the power of God, the world is
about to turn? Awareness and intentional response is key for us when we choose
to be part of God’s work of reconciliation and justice. If we imagine ourselves
as instrumental in bringing about God’s kingdom on earth, where people will some
day beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, we will have had
to make important choices along the way. So the bottom-line for us in this
Advent season: it matters how we live.
Our choices in this regard are urgent ones;
urgent in the sense that we meld our spirituality with our actions, that we
practice what we preach, that we forgive as we have been forgiven. Only then
are we truly open to accept the Word of God in our lives and freed to extend
that love and forgiveness to others. That is the urgency; that is what we must
be ready to account for. We know the times, we know about the dark and that
when sight is obscured someone can break into our homes and steal what is
inside. So we know how to protect what we own. In the same way we know the
signs of our times, the state of our world and the truth that many people need
our grace and love in order to live fully; in shalom.
Are we ready where it counts? Or will the expectations or opinion of God sneak up on us in the same way that the flood surprised almost everyone in Noah’s time or as a thief surprises and steals from an unprotected and unprepared household? The blessing of Advent is that it reminds us of the power and possibility, of God’s ways in the world. We are challenged to be open and expectant of new things happening in our lives and all around. A friend of mine gave me a ring that has a single word inscribed in it. It says, “ephphatha” the Greek word that means, “be opened.” It is a reminder to me. Advent is a reminder to us. Be open. Live with expectation. Anticipate God’s good gifts, for the world is about to turn. AMEN