1st Sunday in Advent- December 3, 2006- “Series C”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks that you have, throughout the ages, remained faithful to your promise to redeem those who trust in you. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to a deepened faith, that we might continue to trust in your faithfulness, and in the midst of turmoil, view the future with hope. This we ask in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come. Amen.
Today we begin a new church year, as we celebrate the First Sunday in the Season of Advent, and begin anew to proclaim the message of God’s word and saving grace. This year, our lessons will be from “Series C” of the three-year Common Lectionary, which features the Gospel of Luke.
And I believe that it is only fitting, as we begin to tell this awesome story, which will unfold as we move through the various seasons of the church year, that we focus on the fact that God first reveals himself to us with a promise. But more importantly, during this season of Advent, we focus on the fact that God not only reveals himself to us through his promise, but that he is faithful in keeping his promise.
Think of the ways God has been faithful through the years. He promised that Abraham would be the father of a great nation, even though he and his wife, Sarah, had little reason to believe that this would ever come to fruition. But God kept his promise, and they conceived and gave birth to Isaac. And then later, God made a promise to redeem Israel from slavery in Egypt. And he kept his promise, calling Moses back to Egypt as God’s instrument by which he would fulfill his promise.
When many in Israel were taken into captivity in Babylon, God promised that the day would come when he would act to enable their return. In our first lesson for this morning, Jeremiah joyfully announces that the day was soon approaching when God would fulfill his promise. And sure enough, that day came.
Of course, God also promised that as Israel again suffered from being in bondage, that he would send a Messiah, one who would restore God’s kingdom, that his people might live in freedom. And as Christians, we believe that God was again faithful his promise, in the person of Jesus the Christ, who, through his death and resurrection, has freed us, not from the bondage of oppression, but from our ultimate bondage to sin and death.
But during Advent, as we begin to tell the story of God’s word and grace for our lives, is not just a time to recall how God has been faithful to his promises in the past. It is also a time for us to realize, that as a result of our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection, God has made a promise to us! And as a result, we are a part of the story that will unfold as we progress through these seasons of the church year.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning is a part of what constitutes God’s promise to us. And when this text is read in the context of this whole chapter in Luke’s Gospel, it is so alive with meaning for our life, and our present day situation, that it can not help but capture our attention and beg us to listen.
Some of the things that Jesus says leading up to this morning’s lesson are: “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately… Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes…famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from the heavens…there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people…and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles…”
And then, in the first two verses of our text for this morning, Jesus says, “There will be 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. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
This sounds horrible, dismal and depressing, doesn’t it? And what makes it even worse, is the fact that it seems to be happening right now, in our own lifetime. There is the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention the ongoing battle between Israel and the Gentiles that has been going on for years. And it is not just nation against nation, as those who foster terrorism have spread their war to nearly all parts of the civilized world.
And of course, we can not neglect the confusion created by the roaring of the sea and the waves. The devastation by hurricane Katrina, which was followed by a mass of confusion in how to deal with the destruction left in its wake, is just a part of the story. After all, many areas that were devastated by the great tsunami a few years ago, are still struggling to recover.
During our synod assembly, we heard about the famine and starvation that is occurring in many parts of Africa, which has been compounded by the AIDS epidemic, where many children fail to reach their teens. Add to this the feared pandemic from bird flu or animal transported diseases, and the concern knows no boundaries.
And just this past week, I had a conversation with some friends where, in addition to all of these concerns, the subject again surfaced about the moral decay that many perceive is taking place in our nation. I can’t count how many times over the past few years someone has said to me, “What is our world coming to.” It is a frightening time in which we live today, and I’m sure that it might have a lot to do with the increased sales of anti-depressants and anxiety disorders.
Now, I certainly do not wish to speculate, that because of the occurrence of events over the past few years, that the end of the world is coming soon. Throughout the centuries, too many have tried to engage in predicting the last days of life as we know it on this planet, and simply made fools of themselves.
But I do wish to say, that all of these things that are going on in our world today, all of these things that Jesus mentions in this twenty-first chapter of Luke, is not God’s promise! It is simply our Lord’s prediction, that because of our human propensity to sin, including the pollution of God’s creation, and our inability to care for and love one another, that these things would eventually take place.
What is God’s promise to us is recorded in the next two verses. Here Jesus says, “Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now, when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
This is God’s promise that draws those of us who have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, and continue to live in faith in God’s word and grace, into the story we begin today, to tell anew. This is the promise that Jesus makes to us, that regardless of what catastrophic events might come upon the world as a result of human sinfulness, God will, in the end, be victorious!
Thus, we begin this new year of proclaiming the word and grace of God, by both looking back in time, and observing how God has always been faithful to his promises in the past, so that we, living today, might live in the courage and assurance that his promise to us, will be kept as well.
Amen.
