Advent: Getting Ready

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 12/2/18

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^NRS Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. ¹¹ Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; ¹² the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³ let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Welcome to the first Sunday of the season of Advent. Advent is a season of anticipation as we wait the celebration party of the birth of a King. Advent is a season of anticipation as we wait the celebration party of the coming of the King in judgment and glory. You see as Christian people we should live in a perpetual state of anticipation. After all, no one else in the history of the world worships a risen savior. No one professes his or her faith in a man who has died for us and was resurrected by God so that we can receive eternal life. So when we enter into Advent we should begin to celebrate that anticipation and share in its reflection on our lives through our actions, prayers and songs. When we anticipate the promise fulfillment of God, we live lives focused on eternity, not today or tomorrow, but forever and ever.

On the one hand, we are anticipating the coming of Christ for judgment and to bring us the New Jerusalem, heaven here on earth. And in the present moment we are anticipating the celebration of Jesus birthday, a day when we received here on earth the gift of grace, mercy and love in the form of a little baby boy. Finally, we anticipate the opportunities that God is going to give us to share this message of love with the world. But sometimes we get confusing messages or the message we get is one of great joy while we feel completely rejected.

Archie Campbell of Hee Haw fame used to tell this story

"Did ya hear I got married?"
"Oh, that's good."
"No, that's bad! She's ugly!"
"Oh, that's bad."
"No, that's good! She's rich."
"Oh, that's good!"
"No, that's bad! She won't give me a cent."
"Oh, that's bad."
"No, that's good! She bought me servants and a big house"
"Oh, that's good."
"No, that's bad! The house burnt down."
"Oh, that's bad."
"No, that's good! She was in it."

Now in the story as we followed it we celebrated the ups and then crashed with the downs anticipating where the story was going to go and being amused and surprised when it did not go there. That is what life is all about. Sometimes it is hard to join the celebration when we are feeling more like crawling under the porch and hiding.

Paul gets right to it when he talks about the commandments. These are the second five, which deal with how we are supposed to deal with each other. We are to love one another. What does that mean? True love means that we share radical hospitality to one another all the time. Here at church, we need to look at this way, if we were inviting special guests to come and visit, we would clean the house, bring out the best china, prepare the best meal and when they arrive cater to make sure they are comfortable and the visit is enjoyable. Sounds about right doesn’t it. Well you and I, we share as being stewards of God’s house. This church is God’s home for this community in this place and at this time in our lives. Which means every Saturday night and every Sunday morning we are going to entertain new guests. So we need to be prepared to bring out the best china, clean the place up, prepare the best foods and when they arrive, make them feel welcome and comfortable. Paul is reminding us of that when He says love your neighbor as yourself. So when one of our youngest wants a cookie, by golly, we jump to get a tasty cookie and make that person feel sincerely loved.

Why? Because the King is coming. Paul tells us to wake up, to get up and be urgent about loving one another because the heaven is nearer to us than we accepted Christ into our lives. As we approach Christmas day, we sense the love of God nearer to us than any other time of year. We accept that there that special sense in the air that causes us to dig a little deeper for those in need, to reach a little higher to reach out to one another and to smile and share time together in a way we don’t usually do the rest of the year. So we need to set aside our quarreling and jealousy and put on Jesus. That is what Paul is telling us to do.

So what should we do? First, we should anticipate that Christ is coming again. Paul at the end of his life realized that Christ was probably not coming before he died and yet he still urgently witnessed to all the world around him as if he had only moments left. In fact, he shares that in the scripture today that we need to wake up in this moment. The reality is that you and I share an awesome story that Advent reminds us of each and every year. Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again. But more than that, we need to share the story of God’s love for the world. We need to take this season when people are excited, when people are happier than any other time of the year and we need to share that the reason they are happy is that God’s love is more recognizable. The reason people are the way they are is because they sense the celebration of the birth of a child. Regardless of who you are, little babies make you feel different. They do! I have seen grown men who would snarl to suggest they would display emotions smile and coo at a little baby. And baby Jesus is so special that we feel that love surround us even if we cannot see, hold or touch baby Jesus in the flesh.

So what are we called to do? Paul would say that as we anticipate the coming of Christ, both the celebration of birth and the anticipation of the second coming, our priority in life is to witness to the love of God to the world. We are called to witness. Now I know many of you will say, I don’t know how, I don’t know scripture, or I cannot do it at work, etc. I also know young adults will say to you, I am not much on organized religion. Hmmm. So let me ask you. How many of you are here because we are organized? How many are here because when you leave you feel better, you feel loved and surrounded by people who love? I thought so! So share that. You can easily say at my church, we don’t gather because we are part of an organization even though we are. We gather to be surrounded by people who love one another, who lift me up and make me feel better than when I arrived. Would you like to come and join me?

Each of us needs to develop and intentional discipleship plan. I have a great book called Discipler by Phil Maynard. It is designed to be used individually or in a small group with the Discipleship survey to assist folk in moving forward in their journey. As a church we are going to be spending time developing and sharing how to grow in discipleship. If you currently do not have a devotional time each day, talk to someone that does, connect with the Pastor or one of the church small group leaders who will be happy to share what they do.

The early disciples gave of their time and their resources as they faithfully moved forward in growing the church. The church is the people here in this place, not the building, not the campus and not the material things we have but the people. The early disciples volunteered their time and resources to grow discipleship among their family and friends. Let us do the same.

Finally, we need to prepare ourselves for entrance into the Kingdom. Part of the anticipation is waiting for that moment when we will see Christ face to face and be in a place where joy and celebration surround us. We can prepare for that moment by striving to become mature disciples of Jesus Christ. We can prepare for that moment by witnessing our faith to others and allowing them to share the love of God. We can prepare for that moment, which might come today, tomorrow or the day after, by making sure, we are ready.

Carly Simon wrote these words, which ring true today:

We can never know about the days to come
but we think about them anyway.
And I wonder if I'm really with you now
or just chasing after some finer day

Anticipation, anticipation

Anticipation – Are we eagerly waiting the coming of Jesus?