Hope for the Waiting: Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent (Advent 1C)

Advent 1C

11/29/09

"Hope For The Waiting"

Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36

Happy New Year!  Welcome to the First Sunday in Advent, which marks the beginning of the New Church Year.   There aren't the typical new years celebrations: no fireworks or "Auld Lang Syne".  But we do have a lit Advent Wreath and a glowing Star that have appeared since last week's worship.  These signs help to point us in the direction and prepare us for the coming of God-with-us Emmanuel. But we are not there yet, and so we wait.   

Advent is a time for waiting and breathing, not a time to rush too quickly from one thing to the next.[1]  I believe we miss something if we rush too quickly to Christmas.  Advent helps us to pause, take a breath, and prepare, not only our homes and church, but our hearts and minds for what is about to come.   

For some people Advent is a strange practice amid the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations.  Advent has been compared to the hush that falls over the crowd just as the conductor takes his baton, raises it in the air, and pauses for that o-so brief moment before the symphony pulses with glorious music.[2]  It's that last minute check of costume and make-up before the actress takes the stage and the curtain is raised.  The audience and actors all pause and wait, wondering with anticipation what the future holds.  Observing Christmas without Advent is like celebrating Easter without passing through Lent and Good Friday--it's possible, but the meaning can get lost so easily because our hearts and minds aren't fully prepared.[3]  


We are one of thousands of churches around the world that live into the liturgical church year cycle and welcome the New Year today with Advent.  The tradition of the liturgical church year has developed since the earliest church.  The Lectionary-assigned Scripture readings that help guide our worship are from an evolving process that began in the 4th century and developed into the Revised Common Lectionary in 1992.[4]  The Revised Common Lectionary includes a 3-year cycle of texts that were chosen to highlight different holy-days and events in the life of Christ and the history of the church.  Each Sunday has four texts to choose from--an Old Testament reading, New Testament Letter, Psalm, and Gospel reading.  It also helps us to hear a wide variety of Scripture over the course of the years.  In case you are wondering, we are beginning Year C in the cycle today, and will focus on the Gospel of Luke most of the year in our Gospel readings.  

Advent lasts 4 weeks and is followed by Christmas--a season 12 days long that starts on the eve of December 25th.  But we're not there yet, even though it's hard to tell by looking outside. I have been hyper-aware of Christmas preparations this year.  I found it downright disturbing to see Christmas Trees and decorations for sale during the 2nd week of OCTOBER.  And the wreaths were hung by the shop buildings with care--before Halloween.  It seems that in years past Thanksgiving was overshadowed by Christmas Shopping, but this year, even Halloween got overshadowed.  Really?  Halloween.  Do we need to make the commercialization of Christmas last over 2 months?  Will "Merry New Thanksgive-o-ween!" become the new standard holiday greeting? 

The rampant commercialization of the holiday has almost at times zapped my hope for something different--something simpler.  Now before I go any further, I must first say that I love Christmas--I love the music and decorations and yummy smells that permeate the season.  I love spending time with family and friends and smelling the Beeswax and evergreen that fills the air.  But I have to consciously hold my love of Christmas in tension with the waiting of Advent.

If you came today expecting to hear about Christmas, then you are likely disappointed.  Our assigned Scripture Texts today do not include the birth narrative of Jesus.  It's not yet time to sing Joy to the World or Silent Night.[5]  Today is the day, instead, to begin anew to live into the hope of the waiting and longing for another day as we sing O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  This morning through our assigned texts we heard the Prophet Jeremiah speak of a promise from God spoken to comfort a people amidst destruction and war, and we heard Luke's Gospel tell of a time to come when Jesus will return again.  These passages, especially when held up together in Advent, help us to see our own lives as part of the ongoing narrative of God's people who live into the already-not yet waiting for Christ.  We know he has come in the flesh and will come again this year at Christmas--and yet he hasn't arrived in the second coming.  We hear the words of hope from Jeremiah's time as they live in the midst of war and impending conquest at the hands of the Babylonians.  Life isn't easy for these people, and things sometimes only look like they will get worse before they get better.  At the same time we hear Luke's recounting of Jesus' words just before his crucifixion about his return to earth in the future.  For the early church in Luke's time, the Resurrection has come and gone, Jesus said he would come back soon, and it's been 2 decades... where is he?  We can almost hear the Gospel writer asking, "Maybe it's time to reframe our thinking about when he'll arrive, and instead wait expectantly."  And so we sit with hope in our hearts and wait.   

I've thought a lot about waiting with hope in the past week, as I've wondered where I see hope in our world today.  Sometimes if you are anything like me, we have to be intentional to look for hope because it is so hard to find amidst all the bad news and Christmas consumerism.  Where in the world is God at work giving us signs to wait with hope and, at the same time, fulfilling the promise to be with us forever?  I posed the question of where we find hope to my Facebook page to see what others had to say.  I asked, "Where do you see hope these days?"  One person named watching younger generations volunteer to help those in need--noting the example of the Moravian Youth Fellowship from here that went gleaning a few weeks ago to gather sweet potatoes for the Food Bank.  She said, "Maybe because of the [youth] willing to do that, love still stands a chance in the world."  Another person said, "Love Wins, and God is love."  Yet another person claimed the beauty around her in creation quoting, "I see skies of blue and clouds of white, the bright blessed day and the dark sacred night, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world."  God is indeed at work around us giving us signs of hope to hold on to in the waiting times. 

On my search for hope to help with this waiting of Advent, I began looking around intentionally for signs.  Signs of God's presence and what is about to take place, signs of the breath just before the curtain rises.  Then I woke up one morning this week and saw it--right there in the window--my two Christmas Cacti were blooming.  Not just one bud, but three flowers open, and the rest of the plants about the burst open.  I am always amazed when these plants bloom, given my track record of over or under-watering.  One of these plants is quite old.  The other one is an off-shoot of the first that I rooted years ago, and has become another beautiful plant, so they sit in the window almost like a sign of rebirth and new life.  Seeing these blooming plants led me to look with new eyes again--where else do I see sign's of God's hope in my midst?  Well, the plants I got at the plant sale are still blooming.  My biggest surprise was the Gerber daisy from earlier this year.  It is still alive and blooming now too.  Now if you had seen this a month ago, you would have agreed with me that the daisy had no hope of survival. I had actually given up on it, due to my over abundance of watering, but I just hadn't thrown it in the compost bucket yet.  I'm still amazed it's blooming, especially now.  It's the end of November and I have beautiful plants flowering!  What signs of hope for these damp, dark November days.

Jeremiah's words likely took his listeners by surprise, much like the flowers did me.  During Jeremiah's time, things were tough.  The Babylonians were pressing down about to overtake the city.  Jerusalem was about to be destroyed.  Jeremiah sat in jail because officials were trying to keep him quiet.  He had been the prophet of doom and gloom for quite a while.  If it could be cursed, he had cursed it.[6]  Things were so bad, it seemed as though hope left town and had taken a vacation.[7]  Amid these tough times, we hear Jeremiah's words, "14The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”" (Jeremiah 33:14-16).  A new branch will spring up from a dead stump, or a flower will grow from a dead daisy.  These words brought hope and comfort.   

If the new growth from the dead stump wasn't enough, the previous chapter of Jeremiah told of his prophetic sign from God to purchase a plot of land.  Jeremiah declared that some day, "houses and fields and vineyards shall again be brought in this land." (Jeremiah 32:15).  Though it seemed foolish to buy land while an enemy army prepared for battle, God's sign of hope shone bright in those dark days.   Signs of hope for a people longing to hear that God's promise through the covenant with Israel would be fulfilled.  Justice will prevail, and it will be God's justice that reigns supreme.  People will live out God's call to love God with their whole hearts, soul, mind, and strength, and love their neighbors.[8]

So where are your signs of hope to help with this Advent waiting?  What do you see when you look around with new eyes, just waiting for that curtain to rise and the actors to take the stage?  What blooms in your heart to prepare you for the coming dawn?  How is God at work as you take a moment to breathe this Advent?  Do you hear the whispers?  Do you see the signs?  Where do you find hope for the waiting? 

Poet Dom Helder Camara writes, "The Spirit is Breathing/ All those with eyes to see, / women and men with ears for hearing/ detect a coming dawn;/ a reason to go on.// They seem small, these signs of dawn,/ perhaps ridiculous.//   All those with eyes to see/ women and men with ears for hearing/ uncover in the night/ a certain gleam of light/ they see the reason to go on."[9]      May we all wait with hope this Advent.  Amen.

Benediction: May the God of HOPE fill you with all JOY and PEACE, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in LOVE this day and always.  In the Name of the Triune God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

---

[1] Frederick Buechner, “Advent” in Whistling In The Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary (NY, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988) 3.

[2] Buechner, “Advent” in Whistling In The Dark, 3.

[3] http://www.cresourcei.org/carols.html

[4] http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/index.html  For the Moravian Version of the Revised Common Lectionary, see http://www.mcsp.org/resources/res_wor_res.htm and click on the Lectionary Link for a downloadable PDF version.  There are many great resources on the web about the Lectionary, but one of my favorites is www.textweek.com .

[5] http://www.cresourcei.org/carols.html

[6] Frederick Buechner, “Jeremiah” in Perculiar Treasure: A Biblical Who’s Who (NY, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1979) 66.

[7] Gary Charles, “Homiletical Perspective” in Feasting on the Word, Year C, Vol. 1 (Advent through Transfiguration), eds. David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2009) 3. 

[8] Deuteronomy 6:4; Leviticus 19:18

[9] Dom Helder Camara, “The Spirit is Breathing” in Imaging the Word: An Arts and Lectionary Resource, ed. Kenneth T. Lawrence (Cleveland, OH: United Church Press, 1994) 78.

Advent Preparations

So this year, I have been hyper-aware of Christmas preparations around town, and maybe, just maybe they are coming earlier this year than ever.  Is it just me? 

We were in Lowe's Hardware during the 2nd week of OCTOBER and they already had the Christmas section setup and ready.  The trees were on display and lit--ready to be taken home and set up ASAP!

Then, mid-OCTOBER brought out the Christmas wreaths on the outside of Crabtree Mall. 

In Target during the 3rd week of OCTOBER brought a Target shopping trip that caused me to feel like I was in the Twilight Zone-- I was walking down the aisle looking for something-or-another, and found the Hollow-mas section.  One side of the aisle was filled with candy and costumes, while the other side contained wreaths and ornaments.  It was bothersome on so many emotional levels to mix the aisle--my mind made me just walk away, and I felt I needed to just stop and shake it all off, like a dog after a bath.  I was bathed in this mix of holiday baggage and it was just too much to take.

So NOVEMBER brought ads for 24/7 holiday music on streaming live internet radio, and then today... November 16th, we mark the start of 24/7 music on the regular radio.  On one hand, I'm surprised they waited 16 days into November to start it.  On the other, it's 2 weeks till Advent even starts! 

I said recently, and I don't know if I read this somewhere or what, but reaching Christmas without pausing for Advent is like celebrating Easter without living through Good Friday... the holy-day still arrives, but it means so much more when we live into the preparations in life-giving ways.

All of this preparation just causes me to think more deeply about preparing my heart and home for the real reason for this whole season.  Not to get cliche, but I really do want, more than ever it seems, to put Christ back in "CHRIST-mas".  I am tired of the date for the Christmas season continually being pushed back earlier and earlier.  So this year, I'm trying to think differently about the season.  As I prepare to preach on the First Sunday in Advent to the theme of "Hope and Expectation," I am trying to wait with real hope and expectation to discover anew the reason we have all of this celebration in the first place.  I've been collecting websites and resources to help me refocus, and I thought I would share those with you too.  May these help all of us keep our eyes fixed on the poor, humble child who started the biggest revolution of all--Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  May your preparations be blessed and may you find your heart truly ready to recieve the Christ Child again this year.

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/site/

http://www.faith-at-home.com/

http://www.gracecathedral.com/advent/

http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/

http://www.geezmagazine.org/

Rembrandt or Kinkade? [Epiphany 5B, 2/8/09]

2/8/09
5th Sunday after Epiphany, Year B
Isaiah 40:18-30 (Preaching Text)
Mark 1:29-39

Is anyone stressed out? Anyone worried? Do we sense anxiety among us? If you are anything like me, you probably feel uneasy yourself or know someone who does. Are we tired of hearing only the negative numbers and situations as things keep getting worse with our economy. The words layoffs, cutbacks, and foreclosures are now a part of our daily
conversation. You don't need me up here telling you these things, nor do we need to be reminded about the situations we face as we walk out the door after worship. This information is everywhere and seems unavoidable. But if you are like me, you probably are looking for a reassuring word anywhere it can be found. I imagine that some of you here today tried to leave these worries at the door. We are here seeking hope and comfort in community. Hope and comfort have been on my mind a lot lately. They are not things we are finding in many places today in our world, but that is exactly what Isaiah offers us if we listen and look for it.

I assume most of you are familiar with Rembrandt and Kinkade--two particular artists from the 17th and 21st centuries. An article Jeanette Coppedge shared with me offered an analogy involving these two artists and Isaiah, and helped me to look at today's scripture passage with new eyes (1). If you are not familiar with these two artists, let me offer a brief description of the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn from the 1600s, and well-known current American artist Thomas Kinkade. Kinkade is often seen in local galleries, and his paintings are found on everything from greeting cards and afghan blankets to coffee mugs. These Kinkade paintings show angelic scenery that evokes peaceful, serene, and calm feelings. They glow brightly. In fact, Kinkade is known as the painter of light. Here is a small image of his work, "The Night Before Christmas." If you can see it, you can tell how bright it is. The snow around the house is crisp and even. The snowman is completed in the front yard; the Christmas lights and wreaths are perfectly hung awaiting the big event. This is possibly the perfect Christmas that all of us imagine and sometimes even strive for in our own lives. It is an illumination of all that is good in the world. Though snow covers the ground, the light in it brings warm, happy thoughts of years gone by or the ideal for years to come.


[Image Above: The Night Before Christmas by Thomas Kinkade, 2004]

All of Kinkade's works that I have seen bring these same feelings of happiness, warmth, and perfection. In fact, Kinkade describes his work by saying, "I love to create beautiful worlds where light and peace reigns. I like to portray a world without the Fall." (2) A world before the Fall is a world without sin, greed, war, or problems. Or it might be a glimpse of heaven in the world to come. I don't know which, but either way, Kinkade's works serve as a reminder of a different time and place. They certainly are not the images that I see regularly these days when I look around, open the newspaper, or turn on the news.

The other artist I mentioned is Rembrandt van Rijn from Amsterdam during the 1600s. Famous for many different works, he is arguably best known for his mural "The Night Watch" with militia ready to head out.

[Image: The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (known as The Night Watch) by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam]

Two others I have here are "The Return of the Prodigal Son" and "The Supper at Emmaus."
[Image: The Return of the Prodigal by Rembrandt van Rijn, c.1666, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg (from Luke 15, "The Lost Son")]

Both of these are based on scenes from Luke's Gospel. Rembrandt, as you may notice from these images or ones you've seen in the past, are often dark and deep paintings. But they highlight certain areas with light to emphasize what is important to pay attention to in the image--usually the people's faces and relationships between them. Rembrandt, like Kinkade, used light, but he did so sparingly and carefully. It is usually seen peaking out through the darkness. Metaphorically speaking, which world do we live in today--Rembrandt's or Kinkade's?



[Image: The Supper at Emmaus by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1648, Louvre, Paris (from Luke 24, "The Road to Emmaus)]

I ask this question and bring these artists' works into discussion today, not because I am interested in lecturing on art history, though I do find it fascinating. I mention these because I find them such strong visual images to explore the passage we read this morning from Isaiah. Chapter 40 in Isaiah begins a section of Isaiah that scholars refer to as 2nd Isaiah that goes through chapter 55. They believe an unnamed prophet wrote it during the exile in Babylon. The Israelites in the kingdom of Judah were conquered by the Babylonians and taken off into exile in a foreign land. Hundred of years passed between chapters 39 and 40, and their situation in life had drastically changed. As a conquered people who had been removed from their homes and forced into exile, things were looking dark. Where was God during all of their problems? Where was hope and comfort in their situation? How could they possibly see God's light through all the darkness around them?

The prophet in Isaiah 40 is asking rhetorical questions of the exiles to help the Israelites see God's light through their own darkness. The prophet uses disputations to establish his argument by asking rhetorical questions. We see the questions included two times: "Have you not known? Have you not heard?" in verses 21 and 28. The prophet is not looking for specific answers, but is instead trying to help them recall their memories. They are questioning God's presence with them in their dark world, and the prophet responds with, "Do y'all REALLY NOT know? Have y'all REALLY NOT heard what God is up to? Have you so easily forgotten God's role in your lives and the lives if your ancestors--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?" It seems like because things are so bleak in their world, communally the Israelites are suffering from a bout of spiritual and historical amnesia about how God is at work or whether God is still present at all?

These often-quoted poetic verses from Isaiah are beautiful. The prophet uses images to describe God who was the creator of all we can see and imagine; God who knows us inside and out; God who energizes the weak and weary to give fresh strength. God placed the stars in the sky, knows every one of them, and calls them by name. Not one star is missing from the sky or God's memory. God is everlasting. God doesn't grow weary or tire out. We on the other hand will get tired and fall exhausted, but God is the great renewal of strength. God gives wings to fly and legs that never grow weak. Hope oozes out of these verses. Comfort abounds for everyone who is weak and weary. To me these passages almost invoke the same feelings like Kinkade's paintings, until we remember that people in a dark, troubling exile were hearing these words--the context changes everything. Instead, these words are like the soft glow of light peaking out amidst the Rembrandt paintings. This passage stands out as a glimmer of hope and light amid a dark and difficult world. God knows what is going on for these exiles and is sure to offer hope through the prophet's words when the people need to see God's light the most.

I know from my own life, when things are going well and life is good, it is much easier to ignore or not look for the presence of God around me, because it is everywhere and it gets taken for granted. The light of Christ is bright, but life is good and therefore makes it easy to overlook the true light. But when things get tough and sometimes discouraging, like life is for most of us these days, we long to look for the glimmers of light. It can be hard to adjust our eyes to see the light around us. The other day Steve and I were out house-hunting, and he climbed up into an attic to take a look around. We didn't bring a flashlight along, so he had to stop and wait to look around. His eyes needed a moment to adjust to the darkness to see the light that was present. The light was certainly in the attic, but his eyes needed to refocus in order to see it.

So given our world's situation today, how do we refocus our own spiritual eyes to see the light of God's presence around us? How do we look with new eyes or new determination to see where God is at work around and in us? I believe we have much wisdom to learn from Isaiah in order to see God today. Isaiah was writing to a community, so it would be fair to say that we need our community here today as well. Seeking to find hope and comfort from God is best done in community. We have one another to lift each other up, dust us off when we've fallen from weariness, and help us walk with new strength. When we are weary and exhausted, it can be harder to rightly assess God's call to us, so it is vitally important we seek it together. If one of us stumbles and cannot see the light of God, the church community is here to help.

The prophet in these verses from Isaiah also recollects Israelite history. Going back to the beginning, he recalls creation and the formation of the world. Since God has been there from the beginning, why would God abandon them all of a sudden? We've been through difficult times in the past, but God was there too, and is today. This morning in the Inquirer's class, we discussed different events in the Moravian Church's 550+ year history. Our spiritual ancestors were forced into hiding and had to flee, so they took their faith in God underground in order to survive. This hidden seed carried out their secret faith for almost a hundred year before reemerging in Herrnhut, Germany. They went through so much difficulty, and yet God's light prevailed and burned within them during their difficult days. Today is no different. By looking back, we can begin to look forward with new strength and hope.

We also proclaim God's light and presence with us through our music as we sing the story of faith. The songs give us words when our own words fail. They are our prayers when we have nothing to say on our own. "Come, Let us All With Gladness Raise a joyous song of thanks and praise to God who rules the heavenly host, God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" ands "Sing Praise to God who reigns above, the God of all creation." (3) Our hymns today come from our ancient Moravian history and are but two example of how we remember our faith and proclaim God's light, hope, and comfort in our difficult times.

I am reminded of our celebrations on Christmas Eve as I think about Isaiah's passage. The music rang out through this sanctuary and filled the streets beyond the walls. Community, friends, and family gathered outside waiting for a chance to celebrate with us. Our tradition of uplifting the light of Christ tangibly proclaimed that Christ, the light of the world, prevails through the darkness. There is nothing more beautiful on Christmas Eve, I believe, than seeing the congregation grow brighter as the candles are lit and passed around. Then in the culmination of our celebration, we lift up the candles during the last song and the room glows. The darkness has not won. The darkness will not win. Our dark, Rembrandt world is aglow with Christ's light. Like the millions of stars that twinkle to remind us each night that God is bigger than anything we can imagine; God's presence shines in our dark world. We proclaim it each Christmas, and we can draw from this event when our other memories begin to fail or grow dim.

So, Rembrandt or Kinkade? Which world do you live in? Likely, I would guess, we would agree that Rembradt's darkness is what we walk into when we leave this place today. But even in a dark world, God's light shines through. Let us look together for where we see God's presence and proclaim it loudly for others to see. God is here. Hope and comfort are present. Together, we can see the light of God anew. Amen.

(1) John D. Witviet, "Isaiah in Christian Liturgy: Recovering Textual Contrasts and Correcting Theological Astigmatism" in Touching the Altar: The Old Testament For Christian Worship, ed. by Carol M. Bechtel (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008) 63-94. The comparison and idea for using Rembrandt and Kinkade comes from Witviet's thoughtful article. [Used in Duke Divinity School's Old Testament 2 Class with Dr. Ellen Davis, 2/2009.]

(2) Witviet, "Isaiah in Christian Liturgy" in Touching the Altar, ed. by Carol M. Bechtel (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008) 68 [quoting from Randal Balmer's "Kinkade Crusade," Christianity Today, 4 December 2000, pp. 51.]

(3) "Come, Let Us All with Gladness Raise" from the Moravian Book of Worship (Bethlehem, Pa: Moravian Church in North America, 1995) 518. Hymn text by Matthew of Kunwald (1457) or Gabriel Komarovsky (1467). Translated by Michael Weisse (1531); Evelyn Renatus Hasse (1911). Tune by Michael Weisse (1531). "Sing Praise to God" from the Moravian Book of Worship, 537. Hymn text by Johann Jacob Schuetz (1675). Hymn tune from a Pre-Reformation melody, Bohemian Brethren's Gesangbuch (1566).