Advent
1A 2019
Rev.
Adam T. Trambley
December
1, 2019, St. John’s Sharon
From this morning’s Gospel:
Therefore you also must be ready,
for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected
hour.
The Son of Man is coming.
Jesus is returning.
Our greatest hope will see its fulfillment.
The poor will be lifted up.
The
hungry fed.
The
land bearing abundant fruit.
The
world put back the way should be.
The
promises God has made
Time
and time again to us and our ancestors
Finally,
perfectly, fulfilled.
That phrase from Lord’s Prayer we pray
regularly,
“Thy
Kingdom Come”
Having
a conclusive answer.
We look for Jesus’ coming,
But
we don’t know when it will be.
Twice in the past ten years,
Have
people published the likely end of the world
Both an ancient Mayan calendar and a
contemporary radio evangelist
Offered
assurances that they knew the hour
Of
the end.
We’re still here.
Jesus says the hour is unexpected and
unpredictable.
I’ll
put my money on what he says.
In this time of Advent --
A
time of preparation for Jesus’ coming
Both
as the babe in the manger at Christmas
And
as King of the World
When
we returns --
In this time of Advent,
What
can confidently say
About
what we are waiting for.
Most importantly,
We
can say that
We wait for a WHO, not a WHAT.
We wait for Jesus.
The
same Jesus revealed to us in scripture.
The
same Jesus who loved
Each
and every one of us
Enough
to die for us.
The
same Jesus who made a universe out of love,
Set our first parents in a beautiful
garden,
And
has prepared for us a final home
In
a new Jerusalem
Filled
with gold and gems and sparkly, shiny treasures
The
same Jesus who is there for each of us
In
our time of need.
This loving-each-of-us with an unconditional
love Jesus
Is
who we wait for.
This Jesus isn’t messing around, though.
He is going to judge the world with
righteousness and justice.
He
loves us too much
To
leave things the way they are.
He
love the poor too much
To
allow the wealthy to keep taking too much.
He
loves the oppressed too much
To
allow people to take advantage and abuse them.
He
loves the persecuted too much
To
allow people to peddle fear and hate
To
further their own ends.
He
loves all his children too much
To
allow anything to remain
From
this world into the next
That
isn’t good for everyone.
Waiting for a WHO -- Jesus Christ our loving
judge --
Means
that we prepare for the end through loving relationships.
Focusing on love and relationships
Is
fundamentally different
from the preparations of cults, even
Christian-themed ones,
They
prepare for a WHAT.
Such cults existed in Jesus’ day.
They watched for signs of the endtimes.
Was
there a war?
Was
there an earthquake?
Was
there an eclipse or a comet or
A
weird astronomical phenomenon?
Could they use some secret numeric code
In
conjunction with inexplicable scriptures
To
find something no one else had found?
(Pro
tip – if no one else has found it
Over
a couple hundred years,
It
might not be there.)
Fully convinced that a huge WHAT was coming,
And
they figured out the WHEN,
Endtime
cults start their to-do lists:
·
Build a bunker in the back yard
·
Buy ammunition, spam, and bottled water
·
Decide who the right people are and ignore the
wrong people
·
Or maybe sell everything and go to a
mountaintop and wait.
When the Mayan calendar seemed to predict the
end of the world,
The
hotels in Southern Mexico were booked early.
People
wanted to be at ground zero for the end of the world.
More than once people have had to come down a
mountain
The
next morning
When
the world was still here
And
hope some forgiving family member
Took them back in.
Jesus gave us clear instructions about such
foolishness:
“Do
not believe them.”
He said the only sign that was reliable
Was
his returning.
And
he promised that when he returned
We
would know.
Instead of cataloging our canned goods
Ahead
of a coming calamity,
Christians continue creating a community
That
will be a blessing in this life
And
carry into the next.
To prepare to meet Jesus,
Either
at our own deaths
Or
at his return,
We follow his Great Commandment and Great
Commission:
Love
God,
love others,
and teach people to love along the way.
There are no tricks,
No
secret handshakes,
No
special passwords,
No
checklists
That we need in order
to be embraced by our Lord and Savior
At the last day.
Instead, we face one fundamental question:
Do
you want to give and receive love
At
a deeper level
Then
you have ever experienced?
Unconditionally?
For
everyone and from everyone?
For
all eternity?
Do
we desire that depth of love with our entire hearts?
If we want to love with Jesus’ love,
While
surrounded by Jesus’ love,
Then
we will be ready at any unexpected hour.
Wanting to live in such love with Jesus for
eternity
Has
implications at this moment.
We can’t decide now
To
want that kind of love later.
We can’t decide today
That
we’ll live into a relationship tomorrow.
We can’t decide to live for ourselves this week
And
expect to learn to live for Jesus
At
some convenient time before he returns.
All we have is now.
The good news is that all we have is now.
We don’t need to worry about our past.
Whatever
love there was carries forward.
And
our former failings are all forgiven.
The beauty of getting to make a choice for God
In
this present moment
Is
that all our past choices
Are
nothing more than the story
That
brought us to today.
We get to write the next page of our story.
We get to decide if the story becomes
A
tragic tale of a life wasted
Or
the next chapter in God’s great story
Of ever
unfolding love.
We get to determine whether
All
the pain and problems and mistakes
Up
until now
Are
canyons too high to scale
Or
merely channels for grace and love
To
flow more powerfully through our lives.
We can allow Jesus and his love
To
have center stage in our story.
If we have made such a choice in the past,
Living
with it into another chapter is easier.
But even if we are encountering Jesus
And
his love and forgiveness for the first time today,
We
can invite him into our lives,
And
live in his love forever.
Living in that love is simple.
Not
always easy, but simple.
We live like everyone we meet
Is
someone Jesus loves.
Everyone we encounter is someone
Jesus
created.
Everyone, however we know or don’t know them,
However
near or far,
However
much they are like us or not like us,
However
much their interests align with ours or not,
However
much they may have hurt us,
However
much they might just seem to be in our way,
However
much they aren’t even on our radar screen,
Everyone
is someone
That
Jesus loved enough to die for.
And that everyone includes us.
As I strive to love everyone else,
I
love myself as well.
Sometimes
learning to really love myself,
And
to see myself as Jesus sees me –
A
Beloved, blessed, beautiful
Child
of God --
Is
needed before I can truly love others
As Jesus
loves them.
Living into this kind of love
Is
the gospel.
We won’t get it right all the time,
Or
maybe even most of the time.
We just have to be willing to love like Jesus.
We
just have to want to love like Jesus.
We
just have to ask God
To
help us love like Jesus.
Wanting to live today into this divine love
Changes
our lives
And
changes the world.
Once we ask God
To
help us love like Jesus
The
way we are at work changes
The
way we are at school changes
The
way we are at church changes
The
way we are at home changes
The
way we are with ourselves changes.
Everything isn’t perfect,
But
looking for ways to love people
Like
Jesus loves them
Is
a whole lot different
From
dealing with people
In
any other way.
Living into lives increasingly saturated with
Jesus’ love
Makes
us ready for meeting Jesus when he returns.
When we learn to love like Jesus,
The
when of the end isn’t important,
The
what of the end isn’t important,
And
even the where of the end isn’t important.
Jesus
says after all
That
he will find us in the fields
Or
grinding grain
Or
whatever we are doing.
We
can live our lives,
Whatever
they are,
With
love.
And
he’ll come fetch us when it’s time.
What will matter to us is the WHO.
And
that who will be Jesus,
Accompanied
by all the others
Who
are dedicated to loving like him
For
all eternity.
If we have started on that path of that love
today,
We
will rejoice
When
that love is brought to perfection
In
us and through us
As
we finally meet Jesus
Face
to face.
That meeting is what we are waiting for.
That meeting is what Advent prepares us for.
That meeting is worth a lifetime dedicated to
Jesus
And
his love.
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