Advent 1
November 29, 2009
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:26-36
Well, listen up, good and faithful Christians. Jesus has an important message for his church on this first Sunday in Advent. It’s a startling message for small congregations like ours who struggle to stay vital. It’s also a wakeup call to those of us who are weighed down by our worries of declining membership and financial support. And it’s also a challenge to us who fear the coming of our own end time in our church; a time when we might have to close our doors and leave our past behind us. That’s the hard news of today’s gospel.
But there is good news, too. Jesus’ message is also hopeful for those of us who are ready to be an Advent people; a people who are able to see beyond the darkness and difficulty of our circumstances to the promises of a new life in a new future for us. “Stand up,” says Jesus. “Raise your heads.” Because there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel. And God is in that light ready to show us a new way to be the church. He is ready to take us in a new direction which will better serve his purpose for us in this world. But we have to find our way through this dark time of Advent to get to that light. We need to be in this in between time. This difficult time in between the fear and regret of end time and the promise and hope of God’s future for us. We need to move on, says Jesus. We need to stand up, so that we can raise our heads above the forces of fear and denial. We need to look around to see where we really are; we need to look toward the light to see where we need to go. And then we need to go there.
And aren’t we fortunate to be hearing Luke’s version of end time in his gospel. Because more than the other gospel writers, Luke emphasizes the promise and hope of Advent more than the chaos and destruction of end time. It is apparent that Luke feels the need to emphasize the message of promise and hope for his own faith community as they experience the impact of the chaos and destruction going on around them in their world. We need to hear that message in our time, too. And the most important thing about Luke’s perspective on end time is that Luke truly believes that in the midst of such darkness and despair God is making all things new. And we need to believe that message, too. Luke wants us to believe in the new life which can come from the dead and dying places of our life and of our world. But new life can only begin in us when we acknowledge and accept the fact that the life we once knew is coming to an end.
There is a good reason why Luke can be so optimistic about promise and hope in Jesus’ end time prophecy. Because some 40 years after Jesus’ prophetic warning about the destruction of the Temple, his prophecy has come true. So Luke can believe that Jesus’ words of promise and hope are also true. And for Luke this means one thing: in order to continue being the church in this dark and difficult time means he must write a gospel of hope and promise, and he must see to it that his community of faith lives in a manner consistent with God’s intention for their ministry while they wait for the new life which will come to them. Both Jesus and Luke would have us know, however, that watching and waiting are not passive activities. Jesus tells his disciples they must watch for the future God intends for them, they must wake up to the signs God is giving them, and they must follow those signs into that future. In the meantime, Luke’s community of faith must live in this in-between time. In this time between the darkness and chaos of their circumstances and the hope and promise of God’s future for them.
It is no wonder the church came to call this time in-between time, Advent. The word “advent” itself indicates a preparation for a new beginning. Advent is the time between what was, and what will be. It is a time of watching and waiting for signs that will help us let go of the past so that we can enter into God’s future. And no one ever said that moving through this in between time would be easy, but it is necessary if we are to grow to God and move forward into God’s future for us. Throughout its history the church has gone though several periods of Advent, and she has always come through them with renewed strength, a new vision of her life, and new ways for living into the faith of her ancestors.
This is also true for you and me; we also experience periods of advent in our own life; those dark and difficult times in our own life which require us to let go of the past so we can move on into our future. Our personal advents come with the natural ordering of our years; periods of in between time like adolescence when our bodies and minds are becoming mature, but we are not yet adults. Do you remember how chaotic and frustrating it was to be an adolescent, and how much you anticipated rites of passage into adulthood? Our times of advent also come in with the circumstances of our life, like the time of between engagement and marriage or the in between time of pregnancy and the birth of a child, or the in between time of leaving a job and finding a new one. In between times also come with the death of loved ones and the death of a relationship.
We experience a kind of advent in all of these in between times of our life; an advent of waiting and watching, of hope and anticipation, of moving out of a place in our life which no longer serves us well into a future which promises to serve us better. Our times of advent always invite us to grow into a new future, and sometimes we have no choice, circumstances make us grow into that future whether we like it or not. And one thing we can be certain about during our times of advent—they are not without their growing pains.
God’s church is also experiencing these growing pains right now. This Advent many of our churches in the Berkshires are beginning to recognize that we are stuck in patterns of being the church as we always have been, doing the same things we have always done, hoping for different results. And we are not growing. Instead, we find ourselves moving deeper and deeper into a tunnel of darkness and distress, often looking behind us to a light from our past which can no longer show us the way; a light which has been dim for quite some time, and seems to be fading rapidly.
This is why Jesus’ message is so important for us and our church to hear today on this first Sunday of Advent. “Stand up,” says Jesus. “Raise your head.” And I imagine if Jesus were here right now, this is what he might say about this in-between time our church finds ourselves in. He would tell us there is a light at the end of this tunnel. But we will not see that light if we will only look back to the place we have been. And if we continue to linger in this place of darkness and chaos we will only languish, and eventually we wil come to our own end time. Jesus would have us know that the only place an Advent people can look is to the future. And we can only arrive at the new place God is preparing for us if we take God’s invitation to go there.
Difficult words for us to hear, aren’t they? But the prophetic words of end time are always difficult to hear. They were hard words in Jesus’ day and they continue to be in our day. But warnings of end time also come with hope for a new time; a new creation, a new life and a new world where God’s divine purpose for us and for his creation will prevail. And if we are willing to go to that place we will also find, like Jesus, that there is great power and glory in it. But for now, in this season of Advent and in our community of faith we call St. George’s, we are in a time in-between. Theologians call it a time of “already,” but “not yet.” God is already bringing forth new leaves on his fig tree, but our leaves still lie dormant. The good news is that like the fig tree, we do have life in us. The good that we are and the good we continue to do are signs of that life. But we are not yet living into the new life God is calling forth in us; our new leaves have yet to blossom.
On this first Sunday of Advent we who call ourselves Easter people find ourselves in this moment of Advent. Already redeemed, but not yet living into the promises of redemption for our struggling and dying churches. This period of Advent, this time in-between, has greater meaning and more significance for congregations like ours this year. But only if we are willing to stand up and raise our heads, willing to watch and wait, willing to prepare ourselves for moving forward into God’s preferred future for us. We know that moving through our time of advent will not be easy. We will grieve the things we must leave behind. We will have to let go of the glorious experiences of our past and resign them to our personal memories and our collective history. But this is what God requires of an Advent people.
I was struck by a comment I read recently in the magazine Christian Century which captures the essence of Advent in these few short words: “Advent is living between the grief that comprehends our circumstances, and the joy that calls us into God’s future.” As we begin this season of Advent in the liturgical cycle of our church, I pray that Advent has also begun in us, and in the church God is calling us to be in a future only God can lead us into.