Sermon at
Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 24: 36-44, Romans 13:11-14
Title: “The hard parts about
waiting”
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- (START THE SERMON WITH A TIME OF SILENCE WHERE YOU LOOK AT YOUR WATCH
PERIODICALLY, TAP YOUR FINGERS AND VISIBLY WAIT)
- Waiting...
- We all do it.
- Especially at retail and grocery stores with their long lines due to
the crowds and the lack of hired cashiers.
- We wait....
- For doctor’s appointments.
- For improved health.
- And if the health is eluding us then we might even have moments where
we wait for death.
- We wait....
- For Christmas plans to become solidified.
- For the tree to go up.
- For presents to be wrapped.
- For the day when the presents are opened.
- We wait......
- And after all is said and done, we wait some more:
for the new things in our lives which promise fulfilment.
- ....Like Boxing Day sales or the big January white sales!
- It can be exciting.
- But as the years roll on we become familiar with the patterns. We know the traditions and what to expect.
- The waiting as a result is not as intense. ....or perhaps it is
replaced with a waiting for the whole thing to be over.
- ...Or it is replaced with a simple prayer to God asking what the
meaning of all of this routine waiting is about anyways.
- For at times it seems as if our existence is like an endless
treadmill.
- Isaiah likely had a sense of that “life repeats itself” routine.
- Life during his time was “nasty brutish and short” as Thomas Hobbes
would say.
- Battles were waged, won and lost.
- There was even a time of the year where kings regularly waged
war. According to II
Samuel 11:1 and I Chronicles 20:1) that time was spring.
- These wars never fully settled things but would always give wait until
the next campaign would be launched.
- In response to this seemingly endless cycle, Isaiah had a vision which took people
beyond the next battle.
- He took them forwards to a time where God will
establish his reign, and where:
the mountain of the
LORD's house
shall be
established as the highest of the mountains,
and
shall be raised above the hills; all the
nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
"Come, let us
go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house
of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach
us his ways
and that we
may walk in his paths." (Is.
2: 2b,3a)
- It will be a time where the next war or battle would not need to be planned.
for
many peoples;
they shall beat
their swords into plowshares,
and their
spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not
lift up sword against nation,
neither shall
they learn war any more. (Is. 2: 4b)
- The endless cycle of battle, gain/defeat, uprise and then battle all
over again would be over.
- There would be no “war to end all wars”, which then would give
way to its sequel the “war to end all wars Part II.”
- For then the cycle would be broken.
- There is a part of us which waits for a breaking of our regular cycles
as well.
Wake Eat Work Sleep
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Recovery
- We too are waiting for something more ....for something more ultimate
...for someone who is ultimate.
- And so we wait for God.
- But while scripture foresees a time of God’s inbreaking and his
presence among us, God seems to be elusive.
- God just doesn’t seem to come.
- At least not in the overt way we would like or expect.
- It is almost as if we are involved in a large game of hide and
seek: where God is hidden and we are the
seekers.
- This image of hide and seek is not a bad one.
- While it might be flawed in that it can be said that God is always
there and is not hidden, the game of hide and seek is a significant game.
- If you can recall playing peek-a-boo with a small child, the part
which gets the most giggles is the revelation.
- A bigger person suddenly ducks under a table or around a corner.
- For the wee one that person is temporarily not there.
- And then suddenly, all at once: (CREEP BELOW THE PULPIT) .......THERE
HE IS!
- Ha Ha Ha Ha!
- That is great fun! I still
get enjoyment from that. (Should we do
that again?)
- A former pediatric nurse has noted:
We play hide and seek with
children to teach them permanence. In their earliest stages something only
exists for them when they can see it. So hide and seek is actually a valuable
developmental lesson like most games. I believe that God does play hide and seek
with us so that during the dark times when it does not seem that God is there
we can hold on to the lesson we have learned of God's permanence and (so) hold
on to our faith. (DP website for Dec.2/07)
- Advent is a time of waiting and of expectation.
- A time of waiting and expectation during tough times, and increasingly
( for us in our first world malaise) during our
overstimulated and boring times.
- We wait for God’s appearance.
- But just like a good game of hide and seek or peek-a-boo we don’t
always know where or when God is going to surface.
- And in that surprise factor lies anticipation ....
- And in the anticipation there also lies an
inherent call to be ready (for we would not want to miss the surprise when it
comes).
- When the one who hides goes away, the seeker’s senses are called to be
attuned.
- Ready, ....watchful for clues,
....anticipating the revelation.
- Jesus’ words in Matthew encourage each of us to be attuned
- Verses 36 and 42 in the gospel talk about the “when” when they say:
"But about
that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the
Father. ....
Keep awake therefore, for
you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”
- The Romans passage takes it one step further: it talks about “how” we
should be ready. It says:
salvation is nearer to us now than when we became
believers; the night is far gone, the
day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour
of light;
let us live honourably
as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and
licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:11b-14
- It is one thing to say “be ready”.
It is another when concrete advice is given about how to be ready.
- It is one thing for someone to say “wait”. It is another when we are told how to wait.
- That gets sticky and controversial. (and the Romans passage is such a passage)
- The Advent
resource packet for 2007 says it well:
“How we resist being corrected! Even when we recognize our shortcomings, our
pride causes us to bristle at the thought of receiving help to accomplish a
goal or correct a misperception. Nowhere is this more evident than in our
relationship with God. In theory we may
welcome the idea of a God who is active in our world, but in practice we often
resist God’s wisdom, instruction, and correction. A God who commands change in our personal
affairs is about as welcome as “a thief in the night.” Yet instruction fosters insight; correction
widens vision; wisdom brings transformation.
The beginning of Advent invites us to be humble before God, to take a
posture of yielded openness to the revelation of divine truth.
- Waiting is hard:
with its where, when, and its how.
- It is also
difficult with its “who”: for the guise in which
Christ will appear might catch us all off guard (as it has happened before).
- I would like to leave
you with a reading from the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. This poem entitled “Christ Came Down” was
written in 1958 and as a quick point of clarification the reference to Lord
Calvert Whiskey refers to some ads of that time which portrayed sophisticated
men drinking this particular brand of alcohol.
- May the words of
this poem help us reflect as to what we are waiting for,
who we are
waiting for,
how
we will wait,
and
what type of advent and Christmas season this will be.
Christ Climbed Down
By