Sermon for 1st Sunday in Advent 2016

Advent 1A- Nov. 27

Matt. 24:36-44

            In our Gospel lesson we read, “About that day & hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” That day? What day? When is that day? What’s going to happen?

            About 10 years ago, I was invited by a young lady in my AL church to speak to her Fellowship of Christian Athletes group at Prattville HS. It was about this time of year; & I chose this Gospel reading for my text. Back then, the whole Left Behind series of books & movies was popular; & so I took a few minutes to debunk the whole non-biblical Rapture theory. Then I told those teens that what I think Jesus was talking about was not so much the end of the world as it was the end of each of our individual lives in this world.

            Truth be told, the question we face is not, “when will Jesus come back?” but rather “how does the fact that none of us lives forever change our behavior?” The Scriptures continually remind us that one day God shall, as Isaiah puts it, “… judge between nations & arbitrate for many people.” In light of which, we are reminded by Paul that “. . . it is now the moment for (us) to wake from sleep” & “put on the armor of light.” & then Jesus reminds us that “about that day & hour no one knows,” so we must “keep awake,” because, “you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

            In short, on this 1^st Sunday in Advent, we are called upon to take our God & ourselves seriously. We are called upon to recognize that life can be snuffed out in an instant & to live accordingly.  We are to stay awake, to watch out for signs of God’s activity in the world.

            This is a tough thing to do in the midst of modern, secular, consumerist, Christmas. After 2000 years, we’ve sort of stopped looking for Christ to come; & we’ve settled for a pale, weak, neon-lit imitation. We schedule Christmas parties & celebrate family dinners. We buy presents for our husbands & wives & children & significant others. We decorate our homes with lights & trees & ornaments. We send out holiday greeting cards to people all over the country; & we hope that our sanity & our bank account will hold out until New Year’s Day.

            The church’s plea during Advent is that in the midst of all this “Holiday Hoopla” we will remember to look for Christ, to seek signs of his coming, to be alert for his presence “in, with & under” all the gifting & decorating & partying.

            Sometimes in the midst of our very modern, secular, materialistic world it’s hard to find signs of life in an old faith. Sometimes it feels like God is either dead or sleeping. This isn’t a new problem.  Isaiah preached for 40 years to a people who mostly ignored him. He preached in a world full of war, economic uncertainty, & political upheaval; & he continually balanced his prophecies of destruction with promises of hope; but the people ignored him.

            Many of us have for many years held onto a vision of a hopeful future--a future in which no children starve or fall victim to curable diseases, a future in which people lay aside their differences to worship a common God at a common altar, a future in which peace reigns.  We wait & we wait; & we seek to stay awake, & we seek to trust & hope & believe that God is coming…God is really coming. We continue to look for signs that God is just around the corner.

            Let me suggest that instead of looking for signs of Christ’s coming, our more important invitation is to be a sign of Christ’s coming--in our families, in our communities, in our world. So, today I’m inviting us to a season of active waiting, of busy anticipation, of involved preparation, of participatory readiness.
            As we enter this season of Advent, I invite each of us to not only see the signs, but also to be the signs. I’m going to suggest 5 easy steps to take between now & Christmas.

            1) Take a few minutes every morning to make a Christmas list. Not a list of things to buy, or things to do, or things you want; but a list of blessings in your life, a list of people you love & who love you in spite of yourself, a list of the signs of God’s presence in your life. After you’ve made your list, pray a prayer of thanks for each thing on the list

            2) At the end of each day, take 5-10 minutes to do the Family Faith 5 with your family or with a friend, in person or by phone. Share your highs & lows from the day. Read the Scripture prescribed. Talk about the question posed. Pray a short prayer together. And then bless one another with the sign of the cross on the forehead.

            3) Then sometime between now & Christmas pick out 5 names from our Christmas card list. Pick out 5 people that you’ve almost lost touch with, 5 people we seldom see or speak to. Call them up or write them a personal letter or send them an email to tell them how much they mean to you & why. Thank them for being a sign of God’s presence & love in our life.

            4) Perform a totally new act of charity this year. Reach out & surprise someone with the unexpected love of God. Give a part of yourself to someone in gratitude for the fact that Christ gave himself for you.

            5) And finally, spend the last few minutes of each day asking God to come into our life in a fresh, new, unpredictable way this year.

            Now I have to warn all you to be careful. Watch out! God just might explode into our life at a time & in a way that you might never expect! Amen.