Sermon for Advent 3/4

Sermon Advent 3 2010

Text: Isaiah 35:1-10, Luke 1:46b-55

We have spoken of Hope, and Peace so far during this season of Advent. The Hope of a Child born to us, a child that through his teaching will bring Peace to this world. This week we will speak of Joy and Love. The Joy of God’s presence and the response of two people in different places and times to God’s presence. The love of a God who shall come to us, and has come to us. It is a Joy that gets lost in our own lives in the midst of the secondary joy of the commercial aspects of Christmas. It is a love that brings us to the child born for us. Let us continue on our reflection from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams:

“It's been said so often it hardly needs saying again, but it is rather a pity that for a few weeks before Christmas we are saturated with Christmas carols. We don't have quite the sort of quiet we need to think, 'Well what would it be if Jesus really came as if for the first time into my life? What would it be for the good news really to change me.' Because for that to happen I need some reflective time; I need some peace; I need to slow down; I need, you might say, to take my time about things. And so all those bits of our contemporary culture which are about rushing to get gratification, getting the results straight away, all those habits in our culture which so drive the crises of our culture, whether it's the credit crunch or the environmental crisis, all those things we have to cast a rather cold eye on during Advent and say slow down, take time, let yourself grow and open up, rather like a flower coming to blossom - a time of expectation, a time of excitement, a time of waiting, a time of peace, a time where we're clearing our hearts and our minds a bit so we really can see clearly when Jesus arrives, and feel fully the impact of his coming.

During Advent, we try to get ourselves a bit more used to the truth - the truth about ourselves, which is not always very encouraging, but the truth about God above all which is always encouraging. The One who comes will come with a great challenge. It will be like fire on the earth as the Bible says. And yet the One who comes is coming in love. He's coming to set us free. And that's something well worth waiting for.”

That concludes our reading of this reflection, if you would like to see a copy of the full reflection they are available on the table in the Narthex.

We are looking at two candles this morning. The Candle of Joy and the Candle of Love. There is much Joy in this run up to the Christmas season, but when we think about this season as the season of Advent, a time of expectation. What does the idea of waiting in expectation have to do with Joy? When we think joy we want joy right now!

But, that period of waiting is exactly what happens in two of our texts this day. We have heard much already about the trials and hurts of the people of Isaiah. At this point in the book, they are in the midst of the Babylonian exile. They are asking themselves: What will become of us? What does our future hold? And to those questions the answer could seem to be, nothing. Yet, that is not God’s answer. God gives them this promise. The land from where they were taken will be glad, its wilderness shall rejoice, blossom, exult, and shout, sing, and rejoice with Joy!

Why? Because God has promised to care for them, to those fearful lost ones, God says, “Be strong, do not fear! I will come and save you! All of your concerns will be lifted, the blind will see, the deaf hear, the lame leap, the speechless will sing in joy. Waters will nourish you in the desert, water will fill the land with life, there will be a path protected by God for your return. And oh, you will return. You will return to you homes, the places taken from you. The ransomed of the Lord will return, you will come to Zion, singing, and everlasting joy shall be upon your head, you shall obtain joy and gladness, sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

That is Joy! And so maybe Joy is not about the now, but about what is promised to us. That waiting in expectation, knowing God’s promise is our Joy!

I have always enjoyed the commercials or videos you see of parents telling their kids that they are going to Disney Land. The sheer joy lighting up their faces, uncontrollable happiness, unable to contain themselves fills me with joy. And they are not even there yet. That is the Joy of expectation. We take this time of advent to reflect on what is coming to us, what has come to us and what will continue to come to us.

Our God.

Who has promised us care and comfort, protection and life.

We hear that Joy in Mary’s song, the magnificat, her spontaneous outburst. Mary has heard the announcement of the angel that she is pregnant with a child to be called the Son of God. Mary goes to Elizabeth her relative and when Elizabeth recognizes what is happening without Mary telling her, Mary erupts in song. Mary’s song of Joy is also our song of Joy. The Joy of knowing that Jesus is coming, and has come.

Hope, Peace, and Joy. But in a way, all along, we have been talking about Love. It is the Love of God that comes to us this Christmas. It is the Love of God that restores us when we are hurt. When we feel so inadequate it is the Love of God that forgives us and shows us that we matter. What we Hope for is give to us in God’s Love, God’s Love brings us Peace, and God’s Love brings us Joy.

It is God’s Love that we celebrate this Christmas, not a mere Baby given to us, but a baby given to us in Love. A savior who comes in love.

It is this love that Joseph hears in the voice of the angel. Joseph is filled with Love for Mary. His plan to dismiss her is indeed a righteous one, he wishes her to find the true father of this child and for her to be with him. But then an angel talks to him in a dream. This angel tells him the unimaginable. This is no mere child out of wedlock, but a child through the Holy Spirit, a child promised to save his people, a child promised to be Emmanuel, God is with us. Alyce Mckenzie, professor of preaching at Perkins School of Theology puts the interaction between Joseph and the angel in this way.

“Here,” whispered the angel, “is the key that unlocks your dilemma. Believe her unbelievable story. Marry her, and become the father of God’s child. He will need a father to be accepted by others as he grows to manhood. He will need, not just any father, but a father like you, capable of nurturing him, and giving him a name. ‘Immanuel -- God with us.’

“He will need a father like you to teach him to take risks like the one you are about to take, for he will be tempted not to take them.

“He will need a father like you to teach him to withstand the disapproval of others, as you will soon have to withstand it.

“He will need a father like you to teach him what to do in situations like this one, when all hope seems lost and only pain remains; to model how to believe the unbelievable good news and to walk ahead in faith.

“If you do not walk the hard road to Bethlehem, who will teach him how to climb the cruel hill to Calvary?”

That is Love, the love of the God the Father, shown through the love of Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. Not looking for anything in response, simply loving. And that is the Love of Christ, the Love of God. God comes to this world as this tiny babe, one in need of constant love, to give us unimaginable love. In Christ’s coming God is challenging us to tell the whole world that unimaginable Love has been given to the whole world. As Rowan Williams closes,

“The One who comes will come with a great challenge. It will be like fire on the earth as the Bible says. And yet the One who comes is coming in love. He's coming to set us free. And that's something well worth waiting for.”

Let us pray,

God of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love,

Come to us. We wait, knowing your promise to us. Come to us, give us strength, and hold us up. We thank you for all that you do in our lives, and in the lives of all in this world. Show us how to care for our neighbors, show us how to find Joy in our lives. Show us how to, with the wild abandon of Mary, sing praise to you in the midst of that Joy. Show us your Love, show us that we matter, give us the strength to go tell the people of the world that they matter.

Amen.