Sermon Advent 1 2013

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ whose light bursts forth lighting up the darkness.

         I tend to see sunsets over sunrises. I thought about blaming it on the fact that my front windows face the evening sky so I just have to look up between 5-7 to see the sunset, and to see the sunrise I would have to get up, open windows, or go outside and look around the backside of my house. But, really it’s because I’m usually still asleep.

         Sunsets are marvelous things as it gets darker and darker, but there always seems to be this last glow as the sun goes under, a last little burst of light, even better when there are clouds on the horizon, then it just glows even after the sun is down.

         Living on the edge of town some of my favorite moments have been stepping outside as the sun is going down, with nothing to interrupt the view for miles.

         And, then it gets dark. And many times I love that time as well. I grew up in the Twin Cities and the sky was rather light polluted there and you can’t see a tremendous amount of stars. But, here or anywhere with a large amount of rural land, the sky just opens up once the sun is down. I find myself getting lost sometimes in the night sky. I’ll get home from driving somewhere, lost in thought and racing around different topics and ideas. And as I step out of my garage to walk to the front door, my eyes will go up and I’ll just stand there for a while. I wonder if Bob and Barb have ever caught me doing that, wondering, what is pastor staring at?

         But, there are times when it’s cloudy, or the moon is not reflecting, and it’s just dark. Not ooo, a little hard to see, but just dark, can’t really see anything. Something about those nights seems to just cling to you, like a heavy coat wearing you down. I just want to get them over with, get inside where there’s light, turn on an outside lamp or flashlight.

         Now, imagine that it’s not just a random night, but that feeling of overwhelming darkness fills not the night sky, but your very being.

         You’re a people who’ve walked in darkness, through slavery in Egypt, exodus in the wilderness, exile in Babylon, and occupation by the Romans. You’ve been conquered numerous times, always the stepping stool of those more powerful who surround you.

         But, you hold onto this hope that the sun will rise. That light will conquer darkness. All of your being wishes for the Messiah to come, the one who will save you, who will bring light.

         And then it happens the Sun rises. At first when you look out, it just seems that you can begin to see shapes again. Trees hold their lines more and more, the hazy shape in the distance takes a distinct image. And then in a burst, the sun breaks the horizon, and it goes from dim to bright, a glow of pink, the red, then a burn of orange, and any remaining doubt of night is burned away in a glowing orb launching itself from the horizon.

         That is a moment to remember and wish for in the midst of night. That burst makes the weight lift, it makes the darkness disappear.

         It is that moment of the sun bursting forth that both Jesus and Paul call forth in our texts for today. It’s that light of Christ’s arrival that wakes us from our slumber.

         But, how do we react? Christ asks us to remain awake, to stay vigilant. Paul reminds us that the night is gone and the day is near. Are we ready? What does it mean to be ready?

         Christ and Paul tell us to wake and remain awake, obviously they can’t mean physical awakeness, they are not asking us to remain without sleep. But are asking us to prepare for Christ’s coming.

         How do we do so? Many think we need to keep at our best behavior, never breaking a stride towards perfection, well, I can count myself out of that. I may not break rules if I can think of them, but breaking of things by omission? If that’s the case I’m done.

         Others think that we must help as many people in the world as we can, certainly a novel goal, but is it a requirement? Then how many is enough, what is the number needed? Is there a quota needed to be fulfilled for Jesus to return? No, I don’t think so. If we can’t know the day, we certainly aren’t the ones who will cause it to happen.

         Then what do we do?

         Matthew says, stay awake. Theologian Anna Carter Florence says The only thing we can do is keep awake. Our only job is to watch.

         And yet we can’t do that. I imagine us as a car full of kids. Waiting for Jesus to come. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Is he here yet? Is he here yet? Is he here yet?

         And we don’t look outside the windows. And that will be hard once we do that though, once we start watching, because we will see all the sorrow in the world, the hungry, the poor, the hurting, the dying and grieving. But, we will see God. Martin Luther is often attributed as saying, “God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.” 

         As we begin Advent, preparing ourselves for Christ’s birth, we start by remembering that Christ has already been born, and already dwells amongst us. But, so often we are distracted by all the adiaphora, all the little unimportant things of life, what toy to get, what suit or dress to wear, what car to drive, are we there yet?

         And we miss the sunset, the night stars, and we miss the sunrise, bursting forth around us, showing the world that God made and the world where God continues to work. The glow of Christ’ life and resurrection breaking forth into our very lives, driving out our fear, and grief, our pains and hurts, our hunger and thirst.

         As we begin Advent we ask God to rise in our lives, to shine into the midst of our darkness, and to help us stay awake, help us to watch and look at the world, where if we look we can see God’s presence, and kept vigilant for Christ’s return.

Amen.