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“The Joy That We Feel”
Jeremiah 33:14-16;
Psalms 25:1-10;
Luke 21:25-36; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
First Sunday of Advent - New Year
Calendar C
December 3, 2006
Please pray with
me; Lord, we are in anticipation of what you have in store for us. As we hear
your Word and understand its meaning, send your Holy Spirit among us to enjoy
all that is to come. Allow us to feel the joy ahead. AMEN.
When pastors preach during Advent,
that timing of the season ‘to come’, it seems we are upon two timings of Christ
Jesus. The first is Christ’ incarnation, that timing of his birth to come in
Bethlehem in a manger as a joyous, yet modest beginning, and then that timing to
come in the second rejoicing arrival of Christ at the end of time. And today our
scriptures reveal this to us. They seem mis-placed in our calendar year; for the
most part, after-all, Christmas is about joy, peace, love, and hope. Yes, they
are themes each week this year too, as the Advent candles are lighted for the
season. But these timings of the beginning and end of times are anticipating
times for sure. Jesus’ good news reminds us in Luke, as does Paul in I
Thessalonians to ‘be alert’, and ‘be strengthened’ and encouraged in our faith
for these times; to make Christ the beginning and the end of our faith. We can
ask, then, can’t we, about the importance, the challenge of our faith in these
Advent weeks?
To be sure, the apprehension,
anticipation, and advent of the Christ-child is much more disruptive than we
might think. Have you heard, like we do, almost yearly, “There is no way I’m
going to be ready for Christmas this year; the shopping is hectic and I’ve
waited too long to get what I want for gifts.” Or, “The decorating of my house
will have to wait until the kids come home to help because there is too much to
do on my own.” Or “The baking I love, but it seems the favorites I make–turtles,
pop-corn balls, fudge, and sugar cookies are not favorites anymore!” Do many of
you feel, in this hectic paced time of the year, ‘where is the joy we are
supposed to feel?’
The text in Luke is describing
dismay, a disruptive nature, as Jesus is telling of world disorder; the sun,
moon, stars, and the earth. Where is the joy? And Timothy, through Paul, is
restoring the faith of those Thessalonians as well as our faith as a way of
life. This is joy? Jesus is at the end of his ministry in the temple in our
Gospel of Luke, and is actually prophesying, bringing a message of watchfulness
and warning of God’s presence and purpose. And it isn’t smooth by any means, as
we hear, ‘distress among nations’, ‘people will faint from fear’, and ‘powers of
the heaven will be shaken,’ ( v.25-26). In
imagining creation in Genesis being all ‘very good’, here we read that it is all
disrupted; but isn’t the rainbow the Son of Man? God Incarnate?
What we see here is a scene of
real advent–what is to come is the Son of Man in our midst. Each year it is with
trepidation, but a joyful apprehension, to be sure. We are asked to be watchful,
once again, to be on guard (v. 24). As
strange as it may sound, we are asked not to be burdened by our non-preparation,
our in-attentiveness for what is to come. If we were to prepare, it will be like
an unexpected catch-trap (v.35)! But if we are alert, praying for strength to
get through the days, we will stand tall before the Son of Man, before God,
human as Christ was, and Creator of us all. We are asked to feel the joy
surrounding us, and the signs will be there for disruption, but we are of
strength in faith to get through the times. We will emerge with courage to face
what is to come, and we can engage in all that is to happen–with joy. It is the
ultimate joy that we feel.
It seems that our joy that we feel
is all in the timing, this first Sunday in Advent. Our joy to come tells us of
an important timing. But the secret is in God’s timing, not ours! Whether we are
ready or not, Christ is coming in birth, and Christ is coming at the end of
time–by God’s timing. You see, we are experiencing what the prophet Isaiah
prophesied long ago ( Isa. 24:17-20) in
the O.T. that from a cloud would come power and glory
(Dan. 7:13-14). Yes, and Christ came in power and glory! We know
that in the end of times, God is at hand, just as God is at hand in the
beginning of times. That’s what is so very important for us to remember. There
is power in all of these Words in scripture; the beginning of times, that we
hear from the prophets, the signs and images for the coming of Christ, just as
in the preparations for the end of times. BOTH timings are in the hands of God.
For God is in the business of using God’s power in Bethlehem, in the armies of
the kings of antiquity, in the arms of Mary in labor, or any woman we know today
with child, and in the buds sprouting on the fig tree or anything that happens
in the heavens or on earth. God is there. God is here. Always!! What a joy
divine! It’s all in God’s hands.
If we look at end times, Jesus’
parable is just that; we must look at fig trees, mustard seeds, or images that
help us understand God’s great works–in God’s timing. Not in our timing, as they
sprout, grow, reproduce, and have a way of life. Like our generations too. Jesus
tells about these generations passing away and gone; he is also prophesying
about these times, now, that won’t pass away. We will have learned from
them as our cloud of witnesses have taught us. In all of this, we don’t need to
accurately predict the future if we trust in our living the present faithfully
and watchfully. All of our days, every one of them are to keep us on the alert
for what is to come. We can count on it!
As we come to the table in
remembrance and joy, the good news of the Gospel for us is that the beginning of
time is the prophets, the middle of time is Jesus Christ’ life and story, and
the end of time is to come in not our knowing or predicting, but in being
watchful that it will be in God’s timing, not ours. The joy that we feel is the
ultimate timing of the Son of Man in our midst, in our lives; his birth, his
death, his graceful prominence through our watchfulness, our waiting for his
coming. Advent is not of worry for our readiness, it’s being watchful about
divine joy in Christ’ coming and presence–in God’s own timing. We can count on
it! AMEN
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