First Sunday of Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-10
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who keeps all promises. Amen
Welcome to Advent
and the beginning of the new church year,
this year we’ll be spending time with Luke
and his gospel account of Jesus’ life,
and as always we begin
by anticipating the coming of Jesus,
and not just in the sense of waiting for the baby in the manger
but for Christ to return as he promised he would,
a return we confess each time we say the apostle’s creed,
“he will come to judge the living and the dead”
His coming will bring about a time of peace
such as the world has never known
and that sounds like a very good thing,
especially when we look around us
and we are moved to pray
come Lord Jesus,
come so that we no longer have to live in a world
where children starve to death because of war
come Lord Jesus,
come so that people will no longer have to flee their homes seeking safety,
come Lord Jesus,
come so that if people decide to travel to a new land,
when they arrive they will be met with open arms,
come Lord Jesus,
come so that plants and animals, sea and sky are healthy and cared for,
come Lord Jesus,
come quickly
God has promised to return,
and God keeps God’s promises.
But God keeps God’s promises
on God’s time, not ours.
We heard God speaking a word of promise
through the prophet Jeremiah
in our first reading,
the prophet recalls the promise God made
to King David that there would always be a descendant of his
as ruler of Israel,
listen to God’s words of promise from 2 Samuel 7:14-15a
“I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him”
God chooses David and his descendants
to be in a special relationship with God
But of course there will be consequences
for those who fail to trust God
and lead the people astray,
and there are plenty of examples of that in the history of Israel,
but God also promises
that even though there may be times of suffering through the consequences
God loves the people
and will provide once again
a good and faithful leader from the house of David,
a branch will spring up from what seems like a dead stump
and life will grow once more.
And we believe that God kept God’s promise,
in Jesus,
descendant of David.
And while hundreds of years passed between the words of Jeremiah
and the arrival of Jesus.
God kept God’s promise.
on God’s time, not ours.
And so we wait
trusting in God,
Much of faith it seems,
is about waiting.
but we are not to sit around twiddling our thumbs
the waiting we are called to is an active waiting
one that seeks to live the way of God
even in the midst of chaos
and indeed Jesus tells the disciples
that chaos is a sign they are to watch for
signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on the earth distress among nations
confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
Jesus tells the disciples
that “people will faint from fear and foreboding” at all of this
but that is not what the disciples are to do:
he tells them “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
This is the exact opposite of our instinct in times of trouble,
growing up in Oregon
our local natural disaster of choice was earthquakes.
In school we would have earthquake drills,
and our practiced response to the earth shaking beneath us?
to duck and cover,
to crouch under our desks and cover our heads and necks with our arms.
Such drills and the experience of things
Like earthquakes and other storms
have driven home to us
the point that nothing is permanent
and in this finite world
we do our best to stick around as long as possible,
we prioritized self-preservation
especially when faced with what seems like the End with a capital E.
but appearances can be deceiving
Jesus reminds his disciples,
look at the life cycle of trees,
in fall they lose their leaves and seem to be dying,
in winter they look dead,
but come spring what happens?
they sprout green leaves,
life returns
Jesus’ promises are like the trees,
what seems dead for a time
will in the fullness of time
sprout new life,
and then he anticipates that one pedantic disciple
(it was probably Judas)
who he knew would point out that even trees die after a time.
Look, Jesus tells them
“Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away”
and in the meantime we are to wait
wait by raising our heads in the midst of chaos
waiting by living as if the kingdom of God is here already
waiting in the hope of the promise that the End is not the end but the beginning
and yes this is difficult
Jesus doesn’t pretend that it isn’t.
“be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life” Jesus says,
recommending constant prayer and alertness
which also seems like impossible responses
the disciples certainly struggled with this
in the garden of Gethsemane,
constantly falling asleep
while Jesus talked with his Father
before going to the cross.
And it was on the cross
that Jesus died for those sleepy disciples,
who constantly failed to follow Jesus’ teachings,
because ultimately
whether we are alert and prepared
or have fallen asleep with exhaustion
God is going to keep God’s promises.
We know that we get distracted,
weighed down, fall asleep even.
So we begin each year
with a call to wake up,
to return to active waiting,
to attend to the promises of God
and renew our hope in the words that will not pass away
the promise that after death comes new life
the promise that Jesus kept in his life, death and resurrection
that means there is life on the other side of the chaos,
everlasting life.
There is hope.
So we wait
We watch
We pray
and we have hope
knowing that God has already acted,
and in God’s own time,
God will act again
because God keeps God’s promises. Amen
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