In a recent episode of the television show Grey’s Anatomy, a group of male doctors embark on a camping trip together. Burke and Shepherd, two youngish, virile, single doctors, are taking a fishing trip. They are going off to be mountain men in the wild, complete with a vehicle that looks, as one commentator put it, “kind of like a jeep and kind of like something the Australian army would drive to fight off a kangaroo invasion.” Drs. Burke and Shepherd pull up to the front door of a swanky Seattle hotel to pick up The Chief, the head of surgery for the entire hospital. Drs. Burke and Shepherd are ready for a real camping trip: they’ve brought backpacks, hiking boots, hip waders, tents, sleeping bags, the whole nine yards. The Chief walks out of the hotel in a polo, khakis, loafers, carrying a picnic basket and pulling a small suitcase on wheels behind him. He hands the suitcase to Dr. Shepherd and remarks, “This is my first camping trip.” No, really? Within an hour of arriving at their campsite, the Chief realizes that he’s packed for an afternoon in the park, not a night in the wild; the Chief doesn’t have a tent OR a sleeping bag, and he’s going to be VERY uncomfortable because he wasn’t really ready for what was coming.
Every year around this time, we in the church begin to get ready for…something. But while we are looking forward to one thing, it often seems that the world in which we live is getting ready for something else entirely. It makes the difference very uncomfortable at times, more so because we’re not always sure what it is we’re supposed to be prepared for. Someone is showing up for the Advent journey with a picnic basket and a wheelie suitcase, but we’re not sure if it’s us or if it’s the world around us. Maybe it’s both? Hard to say.
Let us pray: Stir up your power, Lord Jesus, and come. Come to us in ways we cannot expect. Come to us in hope when we feel despair. Come to us in comfort when we feel pain. Come to us in wonder when our minds are dulled and deadened by our world’s brokenness. You who came to us once as a child, come to us children now, who are longing to see your face and hear your voice and follow you. Amen.
This First Sunday in Advent isn’t really limited to remembering the birth of Christ. The Latin word “Advent” literally means “coming to.” Advent is a season to remember that just as God once came to us as a child in a manger, God comes to us today in other ways we cannot expect or explain. The Holy Spirit comes to comfort and sustain us in times of trial. God gives us wisdom and courage through the Word that we cannot decipher by ourselves. We live in a time of constant Advent, a time when God’s kingdom has already come to earth in Jesus Christ and has not yet come because Christ has not yet returned to judge the living and the dead. Advent is a new day for the church – the church’s New Year’s Day, if you will, and another step closer to the day when God will bring this world to an end and create a new kingdom, one in which God the Creator, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit will rule in truth and justice forever. We believe that this Advent is coming, someday, and we gather today to remind ourselves that Christ is coming soon. We gather to make ourselves ready.
But ready for…what, exactly? What are we getting ready for? The world around us is certainly getting ready for something, and it seems vaguely aligned with the coming of the Christ, but are presents and eggnog part of the preparation for the Christ Child? There have been riots at electronics stores over the newest video game systems – released just in time for purchase to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Victoria’s Secret is holding a Christmas sale – am I the only one who sees the irony in selling lingerie to celebrate a child born of a virgin? The day after Thanksgiving is now known as Black Friday, and it is celebrated as a de facto national holiday. Retailers depend on Christmas to bring their finances into balance for the year. Is this how we get ready for the return of Christ?
But - do we need to do the opposite? Do we stand next to the Salvation Army bell ringers and berate every shopper for neglecting to honor “the reason for the season?” Do we boycott retailers who refuse to say “Merry Christmas” in their promotions? Do we make jokes about the fact that the song “White Christmas” was written in June by to a swimming pool in Los Angeles by a Jewish songwriter? Do we throw hissy fits about not decorating the house for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving? (That was one of my own contributions last year, but the way) Is this how we get ready for the return of Christ?
No matter how we might try to get ready, I get the feeling that all of us are showing up for the Advent journey with a picnic basket and a wheelie suitcase. It’s not our first trip into this particular wilderness, but no matter how hard we try, we can’t get the packing done just right. You see, we’re not the ones leading the trip, and every year the destination changes. One year Advent comes with joy: a new birth in the family; a first Christmas together for a young married couple; a year of unexpected prosperity for a family accustomed to scraping by. The next year Advent comes with sorrow: someone you love is not with you anymore; a tight financial year for a farming family; the breakup of a marriage means it’s the first year the kids have to work out who’s doing Christmas with whom. Every year the scenery, the directions, the street signs, the whole trip is different, and it is impossible to get ready correctly if you don’t know exactly where you’re going. So here we sit, picnic baskets and wheelie suitcases at the ready, smiling nervously and saying, “No, it’s not my first trip – but I don’t know if I’ve brought everything I need.”
But here’s the good news for today: you don’t need to worry about what to pack. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got the latest high-tech moisture-wicking lightweight waterproof Gore-Tex camping gear or a canvas tent that was sewn during the Eisenhower administration. We are not in the Boy Scouts, and God is not calling us to be prepared – we are simply called to be ready. The prophet Jeremiah tells us the days are surely coming when God will fulfill the promise God has made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jeremiah goes on to say that God will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and God will execute justice and righteousness in the land. God is the actor; God is the subject; God is the object; God is the one accomplishing God’s work.
Jesus also says that we need have no fear for what the future may bring: we need only be ready. “There will be signs,” Jesus says, and the signs certainly sound terrifying. But in all of that long passage from Luke’s gospel, the only thing Jesus orders his disciples to do is to be ready and know that redemption from God is drawing near. Jesus talks about the fig tree putting out its leaves and its fruit: do any of us cause the trees to sprout leaves in the spring? No – but we are ready for it when it happens, and we know that change is coming by looking carefully at the world around us. So also Jesus reminds us that God is constantly coming into the world, that we are always in Advent, and that one day the advent of God will be the last advent. But we don’t need to be ready to strike out into the wilderness on our own: we need only be ready for that great and glorious day when it comes.
Traditionally, December is a month of great festivity, especially for Americans. Offices hold their Christmas parties; radio stations play Christmas tunes the whole month long; friends and family travel from far and near to be together; as winter closes in, we raise our lights and warm our houses to keep out winter’s chill. But December is also a month when depression and loneliness also grow to their strongest. The coming of winter itself threatens some of us with Seasonal Affective Disorder – the lack of sunlight actually causes depression. Some of us grieve the loss of loved ones for the first time. The mindless vacuum of consumption and consumerism can suck the joy out of what should be a season of delight. Those far from family and friends must celebrate alone. This year our military is stretched across the globe and the forecast for their safe return isn’t what we wish it could be. Some who struggle with these things and more answer that struggle with more consumption, more alcohol, more attempts to deaden the pain by any means necessary.
But Jesus warns us that this is not the way to “be ready” for the days that are surely coming. Eugene Peterson, who translated the Bible into a contemporary version called “The Message,” translated Luke 21.34 like this: “Be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise…”[1]
This Advent we cannot be sure exactly what it is we should be ready for. How is Jesus coming to us today? We can’t know for sure. But we can be ready. We can be watchful for the times and seasons when Jesus comes among us, through His Word, by the Spirit’s power, or in the clouds of heaven to signal the end of the age. The promise is God’s promise, and also God’s work: what is coming is God’s surprise for us, and it will be marvelous to our eyes, I’m sure. We need only be ready. So my prayer for you is that you may be ready, and, as Paul says, “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may God so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” Be ready, brothers and sisters, for days are surely coming. Amen.
[1] Peterson, Eugene. The Message. © 2002 by Eugene Peterson, published by NavPress Publishing Group, Colorado Springs, CO. p. 1904
Beautiful job on the sermon! And YES!!!! You absolutley get points for using a GA reference.
ReplyDeleteIn seminary, we freqently would say, "I'll give you a quarter if you use this or that in a sermon>" or "I will give you a dollar if you use so and so in a sermon."
So, I think you get a dollar at least. Use the cojoined twins and their shared relationship and you are up to $5. Seriously, good work!
BTW.
ReplyDeleteI use Teh Message a good bit in preaching or at least use lines from the text that seem appropriate.
When Jesus calms the storm, Peterson uses the phrase, " the wind ran out of breath." Love it!
Whoa...Did you seriously quote "The Message"...?
ReplyDeleteWell, yes - just because it worked this time. Mark Throntveit at Luther was my Hebrew prof, and because of him I developed the practice of checking different versions for intriguing stuff. His comment was, "the best translation is the one that you read!"
ReplyDeletePeterson obviously has his biases, and it's not scripture in my mind, but the paraphrase certainly brings out challenging stuff sometimes.