Matthew 24. 36-44
Advent is a time for promise and hope!
by Gretchen Shults, deaconess
Some years ago, as we were dusting the sanctuary, getting ready for Advent, someone said, “I wish we could put all the poinsettias out, now, like all the other churches in town.” I said, “We’re not like all the other churches.” I thought that was a good thing; evidently, she didn’t because she left and never came back. I should have said, “Wait. Let’s sit down. Tell me what you mean.” If only I had listened. Perhaps, it wasn’t really about poinsettias. Maybe she was lonely and wanted the holidays over quickly. Or maybe Advent and our church year never made any sense to her. However … out of the blue comes Advent bursting with hope! Promising the gift of freedom from all our should-haves and if-onlys!
Today begins a new year! Over the centuries, Christians have kept time according to the liturgical church year. Digital watches and phones and calendars don’t work well here in this place. God typically functions in kairos, a Greek word meaning “fullness of time,” as in a process rather than chronos, the Greek word which describes minutes and days, forming a chron-ology. Mary didn’t give birth to Jesus on the 25th of December at 12:06am. Instead, scripture tells us, “When the full ness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.”
Here in this place, we’re counting time by the fullness of grace, from the manger to the cross. The church year helps us remember God’s saving rescue. It’s centered on God’s faithful promise to love us. “What Feast of Love Is Offered Here!” This is how we count our days and weeks: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost – days well spent!
The year begins with Advent. The four candles are silent symbols counting down the four Sundays of Advent. Advent means come-to. Christ comes-to us at Bethlehem. He comes-to us now in the word, in the waters of baptism, in the bread and the wine, and in you – is loves ones! Quietly he comes-to our lost world! And as people of faith we are wrapped up into God’s saving story! Advent is the time for simplicity and quietness. We wait for Jesus to break into our lives and make his presence known. That is the gift of advent! Christ comes again and again and again!
To each other, we sing, “Rejoice! Rejoice Emmanuel Shall come to you!” These words go with us through the week where Advent is often overshadowed by the sounds and sights of an artificial Christmas. How sad if we were to march through Advent to the tune of “Here Comes Santa Clause” or be molded into a shopping mall Christmas with a parade of poinsettias. Please wait! It’s Advent!
Advent keeps us from stressing and striving so hard. We’re free to rest under a blue mantle of hope! The color for Advent is blue. Blue not because “It’s a boy!” But blue for the color of hope. The blue rays of dawn telling us to “Awake! Awake, and greet the new morn!” Just getting up in the morning is living hope! A new beginning! A sign of God’s unending grace! Christian hope isn’t the same as wishing. The gift of hope is a certainty! Thanks to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! In him, we know our future is certain! We don’t have to wish that we will be saved; we know for certain that we ARE saved! We know for certain that God loves us! Cares for us! Forgives us! By Christ’s “holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death,” hope is born in us!
There’s, also, a real difference between optimism and the gift of hope. Real hope is always in dialog with the reality of sadness and pain in our lives. It’s hope that allows us to name our failures and wounds. Christ’s cries of desertion from the cross empower us to say our fears. Christ comes with hope in the midst of death, despair, and doubt. We listen to the one who is always near. I hear echoes of hope in each of our readings. Hope is an act that primarily contradicts the facts-on-the-ground!
The people at Isaiah’s time certainly had not reason to hope. They’d been attacked, wounded, and well aware of the realities of powerlessness. It was a time of extreme stress for the people of Judah. The kingdom was about to collapse. The prophet calls them to trust in the certainty of a new day! The promise of this text is overwhelming! What God has in mind is an utter and total transformation! Contradicting the facts-on-the-ground, all people will come to know God! There is no need to learn war! Weapons will be made into rakes and shovels! No one is too lost, too wounded, too anything, not to be welcomed into the circle of God’s love and grace! No sin is so great, no life so wrong-headed, that God turns away! We, too, are held firmly in God’s hands. Our real hope is in Christ Jesus. “To us, to all in sorrow and fear Emmanuel comes … he is quiet and near!”
In our Second Reading, Paul compares the advent of Christ to the coming of the new day. We put on Christ to light up the world. “Joined to Christ in the waters of baptism we are clothed with God’s mercy and forgiveness!” This is certain! This we know! “Will not day come soon!”
Our Gospel Reading is all about what we do not know. It’s mentioned four times! We do not fear the unknown because we know how and why Christ came the “first” time. He came as a baby – “weak and poor” – out of compassion to save us! He came to “be delivered up to be crucified” for us! And that’s what makes all the difference! Did Christ come in anger or in mercy? Does he come as our stalker or as our rescuer? Keep-awake and be-ready are not words to terrify us, but to encourage, to calm, to instill trust! Keep-awake and be-ready, in effect, means trust! God is faithful! His grace saves us! The Lord is near!
Whenever a new year began, my mother and I would say this verse together …
I do not know what next may come across my pilgrim way;
I do not know tomorrow’s road, nor see beyond today.
But this I know – My savior knows the path I cannot see,
and I can trust his wounded hand to guide and care for me!
In all my Advent days, I can’t remember ever singing “Joy to the World”! In this hymnal, this song is in the Advent section. I picked it as our sending song to stir us to “repeat the sounding joy” to all the world! “The Lord is come!” The Lord is always coming! Amen, come, once again, Lord Jesus!