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Advent
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
And welcome to church. My name is Jeremy. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, it is December, and so everyone is very aware of the Christmas season right now. Shopping and lights and traffic jams at malls abound. Actually, I had to go into the Apple store to get something fixed with my phone and I realized why am I scheduling a visit to the mall in December like a crazy person.
Speaker 1:But we are also in the season of Advent right now. And Advent is not quite Christmas. It is the season of waiting for Christmas. Now, that may not sound as exciting, but it certainly is just as important. Because as Bobby said last week, if we arrive at the amped up party of Christmas without having properly prepared and waited and anticipated that celebration, then we will never truly experience the joy and the party of that moment.
Speaker 1:And so this is why I'm wearing this clerical stole today. In many traditions, pastors wear vestments like this every time they get up to preach. Our tradition here at Commons has been that we save these liturgical symbols for the seasons of Advent and of Lent as we lead up to Christmas and Easter. It's a way to remind ourselves that we are waiting, we are preparing together for something special. And so over these next few weeks, as you come and you notice the Christmas trees and the garland and the lights and the liturgical vestments, perhaps that might give you pause to reflect on how you are waiting for Christ in this season and what the coming of Christ means for you personally this Christmas.
Speaker 1:Now, we are gonna talk about waiting today. How to do that well, and how to do it more than passively. First, we need to remember where Bobbie took us last week because she led us into the Advent season by talking about darkness. And in one sense that makes sense. Right?
Speaker 1:We are closing in on the shortest day of the year. Thanks to daylight savings. Whoever came up with that, you likely wake up in the morning and go to work in the dark, and then you get off and you drive home in the dark these days. And yet, this is also a season that we equate with light. The coming of Christ, the birth of Jesus, the star and the angels and the bright light that shone all around them.
Speaker 1:But this paradox of light is, of course, more than just photons. Anytime there's a deep and cultural recognition of joy and family and tradition and good memories, that inevitably brings with it some dark as well. Challenges for any of us who have lost or experienced loss and pain. Maybe that pain is recent and fresh and Christmas just hurts for you. Maybe you have long since laid it down and moved forward, and yet these moments, these times of year seem to dig it all up again for you.
Speaker 1:You remember someone you have loved and lost. Some memory of hurt that you rarely even think about during the rest of the year, but it is very present to you at Christmas. And we wanna acknowledge that. We wanna honor that and recognize that part of the deep beauty of Christmas beneath all the tinsel and the ornaments is this truth that all of us, the entire world in fact, has been hurting and waiting and longing for God to come to us. And I know that it could seem shallow or trite to say that just because Jesus came two thousand years ago, your pain has been answered.
Speaker 1:But I think Bobby did such a great job of talking about how the scriptures invite us to imagine this ongoing, never ending, always repeating coming of Christ. And she took us to the prophet Isaiah and the different horizons on which his words have meaning for us. For the poet Isaiah himself, the issue was God coming to free his people from the political occupation in Judah. That was what was on his mind. For Matthew, those same words become the birth of Jesus the rival of God in history.
Speaker 1:And then for us, those same words, a people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep dark, a light has dawned. Those same words become the reminder that Christ is always coming and always arriving in our lives. That God is never more than a moment away even when it feels like deep darkness. So let's pray.
Speaker 1:And then today, we will talk about waiting. God of Advent, you teach us that the night is far spent and the day is almost at hand. Keep us awake and alert in this season of waiting for you, Watching for your kingdom, looking for the ways to bring and to be your light in this world. Make us strong in faith and unafraid of the dark, and yet still vulnerable enough to feel deeply and then to join others in the healing of their hurts. God of glorious, simple, unexpected gifts.
Speaker 1:Help us to set aside the trappings of this season and be present to your story today so that we might bring that same surprising gift of love to everyone we encounter this Advent. As we wait for you, would you help us to wait well with hope and anticipation and an active investment in the world that we know you have planted beneath our feet. Child of Bethlehem, make your presence known to us this day. In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Alright. We are in Advent, and Christmas is coming. But we have three more Sundays until we get to Christmas Eve and then we have four services on Christmas Eve before we get to the big day. There's just a lot of waiting in the Christian calendar. And waiting is not something that many of us do particularly well.
Speaker 1:And so that means it is also probably something that we should take time to reflect on from time to time. Now, I'm not proud of this, but I am not good at waiting. If I'm in line at the grocery store and the line is too long, I would rather just eat out for a week. I'll leave my groceries, come back another day. When I get in that self checkout line and I realize that the person in front of me has never seen a touch screen before Or has a basket full of produce and is gonna need to look up every item to find the code?
Speaker 1:Come on. That's not what self checkout is for. You know what I'm talking about? All kinds of inappropriate thoughts go through my head as I stare daggers into their Swiss chard. The funny thing is, I actually used to be proud of this.
Speaker 1:There was a time when I thought that being busy and impatient and not having time to wait was a signal of how important somebody was. Now, some of that was just immaturity, but the truth is a lot of it was just the way that I had been conditioned by the culture that was around me. Now early in my career, I worked with leaders who saw their busyness as a huge part of their significance. That's what it meant to be important, to be always going from thing to thing. I got used to having Netflix instead of broadcast TV.
Speaker 1:I mean, can you imagine waiting to watch a TV show at a particular time on a particular day? I mean, who does that anymore? I grew up with a microwave. I didn't even really understand the concept of preheating an oven until my thirties. By the way, we have a gas range now, life changing.
Speaker 1:Who needs a microwave when you can just have fire whenever you want it? It's incredible. But because of all this, I and probably to some extent all of us have just gotten used to an on demand life. I mean, I can't even imagine life without Amazon Prime and free two day shipping anymore. And even going to a mall, finding a parking spot in December, it gives me shivers and has nothing to do with the temperature.
Speaker 1:And yet, I have chosen to identify myself with the story of God that tells me over and over and over again that long and slow and steady is divine. Not last week. We began Advent in the book of Isaiah. And I love that because the text of Isaiah was written over a very long period of time. Centuries before Jesus would be born in fact.
Speaker 1:And if four Sundays seemed like a long wait for Christmas, then imagine eight hundred years for Isaiah. But this text of Isaiah shows up all over the Christmas narrative. And Bobby looked at where some of Isaiah's words appear in Matthew last week. Today, I wanna turn to the gospel of Mark because this gospel writer starts at a really interesting point in the story. Matthew begins with genealogy.
Speaker 1:Luke begins with nativity. John begins at the beginning, like the formation of the universe. But Mark is generally not known for even having a Christmas story because he picks up the story mid story with a callback to Isaiah though. Alright. Chapter one verse one.
Speaker 1:The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the son of God as it is written in Isaiah the prophet. I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. A voice of one calling in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight paths for him.
Speaker 1:And for this writer, the story of Jesus begins a long time ago in a country far far away. This concept of waiting has been part of the Christmas story even before there was a Christmas story. Mark continues. Verse four, and so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. For the writer here, John the Baptist is clearly the one who prepares the way for the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1:And the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to John confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. John wore clothing made of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey, and he was a weird dude, and I may have added that last bit, but this was his message. After me comes the one more powerful than I. The straps of whose sandals I am unworthy to stoop down and untie.
Speaker 1:I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the holy spirit. At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and he was baptized by John in the Jordan. But just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven saying, you are my son whom I love. With you I am well pleased.
Speaker 1:It's Mark chapter one verses one through 11. This is how he starts the story. Now, this might not sound like a Christmas text, but this is where the story begins from Mark. And what we're seeing here is that in the writer of Mark's mind, the advent of the Christ, this coming of God, this is a story that goes all the way back at least to the imagination of Isaiah. To a promised preparation, to an extended wait, to a longing and a searching and a wondering that has shaped the Hebrew peoples for centuries.
Speaker 1:And for Mark, that voice of one who prepares the way, this is John, and the one that we have been waiting for, the one we have been watching for, this is Jesus now arrived, come to us. But of course, the larger context here is that Isaiah was originally written hundreds of years before Mark. And so where we read quote from Isaiah, story about John, appearance of Jesus, all wrapped up in a nice neat little package. What Mark actually has in mind is drawing out and teasing out generations of hope and frustration, and wait and anticipation, and longing and despair all at the same time. I mean, for a Jew who has been waiting for the coming messiah, who knew his father was waiting for the coming messiah, who knew his grandmother was waiting for the coming messiah.
Speaker 1:This is a very complex narrative to enter into. Advent is full of mixed emotions. Maybe you sense that in your own life. I mean, Christmas is beautiful and joyous, and it is a celebratory time. And we are looking forward to it, no doubt.
Speaker 1:But you are still waiting in many ways, I would guess. I don't just mean waiting for the presence underneath the tree or waiting to see family. I mean waiting for something else. For an answer to a question perhaps. Or waiting for peace, like real peace to really feel like it has found its way to you?
Speaker 1:Or waiting for a rest maybe? Or change, waiting for reconciliation with somebody, for forgiveness from someone, waiting for some kind of transformation or change and opportunity. Wait for any number of deep and significant moments to find their way into your story. And Advent doesn't end the waiting for us. It helps us make peace with it.
Speaker 1:And I think Mark gets this in a really powerful way. He starts the story of Christ's advent with John the Baptist, the forerunner, the one who prepares the way. And that in itself is a really great picture of waiting I think. I've always loved this quote from Henry Nouwen. He writes in his book Finding My Way Home that most of us consider waiting something very passive.
Speaker 1:A hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands. The bus is late. We cannot do anything about it, and so we have to just sit there and wait. But there is none of this passivity in the scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively.
Speaker 1:They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing. If we wait in the conviction that a seed has been planted and that something has already begun below the soil, it changes the way we wait for the future. Active waiting implies being fully present to the moment with the conviction that something is happening where we are. A waiting person is someone who is present to the moment believing that this moment is the moment. So if John represents our waiting in the story, then he is waiting well.
Speaker 1:He's waiting very actively. He's preparing the way. Right? In this case, that means he's preaching with conviction that one is coming. Don't lose hope.
Speaker 1:I know it's been a long wait, but keep heading in the right direction. And I think that's meaningful for us. And there are things that I'm waiting for. I'm waiting for a better world. I'm waiting for more margin in my life.
Speaker 1:I'm waiting for my son to grow and learn and come to understand his own faith journey. But none of that means that I'm passively sitting on the bench and watching this. I'm deeply actively engaged in creating the things that I'm waiting for. Now, I could wait for a season when I will have more time for my wife and my son, but that's not gonna happen. And so I have to start to shift my priorities and value different things.
Speaker 1:I can begin to structure my day and my week around new choices that will lead me to what I hope for. That doesn't happen overnight. Nothing worth waiting happens that way. It happens because of a pattern of decisions in the same direction. Eugene Peterson once wrote a book called A Long Obedience in the Discipleship in an Instant Society.
Speaker 1:Now that is worth buying and putting on your shelf just for the title alone. You don't even need to read it. Like just buy that, put that on your shelf, leave it on your desk, look at it once a day, and it will change your life. A long obedience in the same direction. Discipleship in an instant society.
Speaker 1:But maybe you're waiting for new opportunities to emerge at work. Well, take some courses. Now, do some reading. Start investing yourself in where you want to go and where you want to be, what you're waiting for. Maybe you want to see some changes in this city.
Speaker 1:Find an organization. Jump on Google. Get involved. Start volunteering for the city that you want to live in. Maybe you, like I, am waiting for your wife to discover just how romantic you really are.
Speaker 1:Take her out for dinner. It's a good start. Maybe you wanna see something new here at Commons, then pray about it, reflect on it, but at some point, you're going to need to come and actually talk to us. And we will do everything that we can to get behind you and put rocket fuel behind your ideas, but eventually, you will need to put some weight behind what you're waiting for. That's how the waiting becomes Advent.
Speaker 1:And, yes, God comes to find us, but sometimes God is waiting perhaps for you to engage with him. And so some eight hundred years after the book of Isaiah was started, John picks up this text, he picks up this hope, and he decides to lean into preparing that way. And he waits well for the Messiah. And that would be a great place to end today. If you hold on to hope and you lean in and you start to prepare, then Jesus will show up and it will be a happy ending.
Speaker 1:Except that as we said earlier, this is a far more complex narrative to enter into. Because Mark starts the story of Jesus with the longing of Isaiah. And he ties that to the conviction of John the Baptist who picks up the hopes of his people and he waits well. But how does that particular thread in the gospels end? Well, verse 12, Mark tells us that Jesus went out into the wilderness to be tempted.
Speaker 1:That's actually a story that we're gonna spend some time with in the spring when we talk about anxiety and where that comes from inside of us. But then in verse thirteen and fourteen, he says that after this, John was put into prison and Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news. So John who waits well gets arrested and thrown in prison and eventually executed. Now, some of you were all excited to wait well and to be active in what you hope for and follow in the footsteps of John and now you're like, oh, not so much. But I love how the gospels follow this story.
Speaker 1:They refuse to drop it. It's as if they want us to see how messy it gets sometimes if you actually want to trust Jesus. Because in Luke chapter seven, there's this final interaction between John and Jesus. And it comes while John is in prison and he sends his followers, some of his closest friends to Jesus with a question for him. And his friends have been coming to the prison to update John and what Jesus has been doing and the good news that he's been preaching, but John is still in prison.
Speaker 1:And he knows that his days are short and he's been carrying this weight of the Hebrew peoples on his back for years. And so in Luke chapter seven, John the Baptist calls two of his closest friends together, and he sends them to Jesus with a question. He says, go to Jesus and ask, are you the one who is to come or should we be waiting for someone else? Now, if you just read through this in the gospel of Luke, you could gloss through that moment without much thought. But if you stop here and you reflect on John's life and his passion and his predicament in this moment, then all of a sudden this becomes a profoundly heartbreaking scene.
Speaker 1:John has read the prophets and he has been faithful and he has prepared the way. And then he meets Jesus. And he thinks that he has seen the Messiah, everything that he's been waiting for, but now it all starts to unravel in front of him. And now this guy who has waited so well for so long, all of a sudden he is wondering if it was worth it. At one point, the prophet Isaiah wrote, I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.
Speaker 1:I will put my trust in him. That's where John is. Except that he's struggling to repeat the last line. And some of us, perhaps some of us here in this room right now, right now we are waiting for a Lord who seems like he is hiding his face from us. This is how Jesus responds.
Speaker 1:He says, go back and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. Now, I told you Isaiah was everywhere over Christmas. And here he is again.
Speaker 1:Because Isaiah is who Jesus is quoting here in Luke. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the good news is proclaimed to the poor. That is Isaiah 61. And we talked about this two weeks ago at the end of Leviticus. Right?
Speaker 1:This is the year of the Lord's favor. The year of Jubilee, the Hebrew hope for the kingdom of God now made accessible to everyone. But look at what Jesus adds here this time. He says, blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me. All of these good things are happening over here.
Speaker 1:Blessed is anyone who doesn't stumble on account of me. What a strange thing for Jesus to say. Who stumbles on account of Jesus? But here's what I think Jesus understands. That sure, it can be difficult to motivate ourselves to wait well, and it takes discipline to be active as we prepare for the future that we are waiting for.
Speaker 1:That long obedience is hard and that staying on the same path in the same direction can be arduous even if we know that it's good for us. But what he also knows is that sometimes radiance only begins in deepest dark. And that sometimes, the struggle of waiting that we feel doesn't just come down to healthy life choices. Sometimes, waiting will be about giving yourself over utterly and completely to an extraordinary hope. See, sometimes you need to wait well, and you need to be strong, and you need to lean into the tomorrow that you wait for.
Speaker 1:But sometimes sometimes like John, all that is left are broken plans and shattered expectations and the trust somehow that even in deepest dark, God is somehow still present to us. Sometimes that's all that's left. See what Jesus is reminding John of here is that this kind of profound hope is not naive. It's what the universe is made of. Christmas is about God coming in the smallest, most insignificant, almost unnoticeable way imaginable.
Speaker 1:Because sometimes, that's where the weight takes us. And what Jesus reminds us of. What Christmas reminds us of is that even in deepest dark, there is always light somewhere waiting to be noticed. It's not just a throwaway line when the Christmas narrative tells us that the angels appeared in light in darkest night. That's what the story is about.
Speaker 1:That light appears where we least expect it, when we least expect it. And so when we hit that place like John and we wonder if it's all being in vain, that's when Jesus comes and he says, blessed are you because you don't stumble on account of me. And you don't give up because I'm not what you expected. I'm not glorious in the way that you imagined. And I'm not powerful in the way that you thought.
Speaker 1:I'm not attention grabbing or seeking like all of those other things that steal away your attention, but I am worth it. And so when someone comes to me and they say, oh, the way that I have made a mess of things this year, you don't even know. The the darkness that I carry around inside of me, And the stress, the anxiety I feel. You don't understand the brokenness and the hurt that I am waiting to be set free from. What I want to say in that moment is it's okay.
Speaker 1:Because this is where radiance begins. Darkness is not the end. It is the beginning. That's what Christmas is all about. That the most beautiful moments appear from the most unexpected places even when it feels like it's being in vain and we are trapped in prison.
Speaker 1:And so maybe this Advent, you need to be reminded to wait well. To lean in and prepare for what you long for. To wait very actively this Christmas. But maybe what you need to be reminded of this Advent is simply that God knows about that moment where the light seems to be lost. And he knows about the fact that you feel hope has left you.
Speaker 1:That he knows about how dark the night gets and how cold the evening can be, and he knows how we can stumble when it feels like we haven't seen him in a very long time. But when the night is darkest and the wait has been very, very long, This is where the Christ child comes to us. Naked and invulnerable and with us in the midst of our struggle, not above it or beyond it, but with us in the midst of that dark night. And so despite all that glitters this Christmas, may you learn to wait well this Advent. Whether that means leaning into tomorrow with everything you have at your disposal, or whether that means leaning on Christ to help you get there when you feel like you can't take another step.
Speaker 1:Because in either circumstance, Christmas reminds us that we are more loved than we can possibly imagine. And there is light if we choose to look for it. Let's pray. God, help us this Advent season to wait well. And not just to be absorbed with the waiting, but to recognize that in this moment you are coming to us right now.
Speaker 1:That you are present to us right now. That you are waiting with us alongside us, in us, and through us. You long to see the world changed and transformed just the way that we do. That you wait because you love, and you come because you are gracious, And you arrive because you are good and you are strong and you are powerful, just not in the ways that we expected you to be. And so, God, if we are feeling a despair because things are taking too long, then perhaps we would ask that you would give us courage.
Speaker 1:That we might begin to take steps to move towards the future that we are waiting for. That we would lean in and wait actively with your power. But at the same time, God, if we feel ourselves in that moment where all the courage has drained away, and the night is very dark and we are unsure if we can take even one more step. And, God, by your spirit, would you be present to us even in this moment, lifting us and helping us and energizing us to realize that you are always there with us in the midst of that moment, Not above or beyond, not calling us out, but you are there with us in darkest night. God, thank you for the incredible grace of your arrival.
Speaker 1:In the strong name of the risen Christ, we pray. Amen.