RCL Year C (Advent 1) - November 29, 2009

The Rev'd Kenneth H. Saunders III

Christ Church - Cleveland, NC

RCL Year C (Advent 1) - November 29, 2009

Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

(transcribed from audio - sermon preached without notes or manuscript)

You only have to walk down the street in Cleveland, down main street, to see what’s happening. Just last week, actually before thanksgiving, they put up the lights, and the garland, the bows… and you can walk into any retail store, even before Halloween and see trees, these evergreen things that we like to bring into our homes, and ornaments, and ribbons and bows and frilly things used to decorate our homes.

Now, I am not going to preach against all of that… but I am going to call you to an awareness of what the season is. The season is Advent! It is a time of preparation… preparation for the coming of the messiah, the coming of Jesus Christ who came and dwelt among us, but not necessarily for the coming of a baby that was born in a barn 2000 years ago, but also for the coming again in glory and majesty.

That’s what the readings were about. Jeremiah in a torn and horrid situation witnessing the burning of his own community was not torn to strife and despair, but drawn to hope in the restoration of Israel.

The church in Thessalonica, was taught by Paul not to run scared, not to fear what’s going to happen, but be united with Christ in His coming again.

And Jesus tells us in the Gospel that it’s time to start paying attention. It’s time to prepare ourselves. It’s time to prepare introspectively and collectively for when He will come again into the world.

This time of year, in our society, it seems that time of preparation is hijacked… That time of introspective thought and prayer and dedication and focus on the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we ran straight from All Saints’ to Christmas.

We want Christmas to be here so bad. That we don’t want to stop and take some time to think about what we are waiting for, who we are waiting for… The commercial society has hijacked the feelings and magic of the coming of the messiah to sell goods and to boost the economy. They have hijacked it so much that we don’t spend time preparing ourselves with prayer, and fasting, and meditation about what is happening… what is happening now, and what happened then…

So Advent is a time of the already, and the not yet… We know that Jesus came… Came into the world, died on the cross, and saved us from our sins. The saving work has been done… that is the already. Jesus promised that he would come again into the world to draw the whole world unto himself. That’s the not yet. So we are in that liminal space between the already and the not yet. And we were warned to prepare ourselves…

The gospel reading say that we will see signs, but we are not to worry about those signs huddled in a corner, worried about what we have or don’t have – or done or not done – so many preachers hijack this scripture and try to sell from the pulpit some kind of celestial fire insurance, or a get out of Hell free card, instead of taking the time to nurture the people in the faith to teach them how to prepare with prayer and anticipation and expectation for the coming of the Christ.

That’s what Advent is about. It’s about the already and the not yet. It’s about the time that came, and the time to come. The time to come of the One who was and is and is to come. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming into the world, and we are called to prepare and look for signs and not run from those signs in fear, but hold our heads up high, for our redemption awaits us all.