Sermon: The Coming of Christ

New series: The Power of Love: God With Us"
Sermon #1: “The Coming of Christ”
Rev. Cynthia O'Brien
November 27, 2005

Isaiah 64:1-8
Mark 13:24-37
2 Peter 3:8-15

There is a question that women begin to ask each other around this time of year. “So, are you ready for Christmas?” It is an innocent question. But it is also a mean question. It is definitely a woman question.

Men don’t ask. Men don’t care. Men do have certain things they enjoy at Christmas. They like singing familiar carols and building a stable at church. They like delivering food and gifts to people in need. They like to figure out how to connect the strings of outdoor lights without starting a fire. They are perfectly at peace until December 24, when they run down to Main Street Gresham to pick out a gift for their special someone. But largely, men don’t ask about being “ready for Christmas.”

Women do. The authors of the book “Unplug the Christmas Machine” state definitively that women are the architects of Christmas. And if you ask me, they do it beautifully. Their halls are decked with boughs of holly, they choose gifts thoughtfully and sometimes even economically, and delicious smells come from their kitchens. But it comes at a terrible price.

If you want to be mean to a type A perfectionist woman, ask her if she’s ready for Christmas. You’ll get an answer like, “Oh, dear, the THIS needs to be done and the THAT and I don’t know how I’m going to do THOSE things.”

Ministers even do it to each other. Someone will call me and say, “Oh, but I know you must be much too busy this season.” It makes me think, “Oh, no, what else should I be doing?”

The Christmas season is a busy season. Now let’s talk for a minute about Advent. Advent is a season of waiting.

We know what it’s like to wait. A group of gamers camps out in front of a store to be the first to get the new X-box. A young couple in Troutdale are waiting to find out if they’ve been approved for a home loan. A pregnant teenager in Gresham is expecting the birth of her first child.

The people of Iraq are waiting for a stable government of their own and to have control of their own country. Israelis and Palestinians are waiting for agreements to be made. Young people in Africa are waiting for medicine, supplies and education to stop the AIDS epidemic. Children in Haiti are waiting for a chance to go to school.

Isaiah 64 tells us of people who had learned to wait. They were waiting for God to send the Promised One. The Scriptures we read in Advent tell of their longing. God had promised, and they really did believe that he would send the Messiah. When you read these Scriptures, or when you listen to Handel’s Messiah, you hear the deep desire for the one who will come to bring God’s Kingdom.

In his novel The Source, James Michener pictures one small, devout rabbi who lived during the intertestamental period, waiting expectantly for the promised messiah. Every Sabbath, the rabbi was the first to arrive at the synagogue for worship. He wanted to get the choice seat where he would be the first one to see the messiah coming down the road.

He approached every Sabbath with almost breathless anticipation. He waited all day long. And at the end of every Sabbath, he was always deeply disappointed. Yet, early on the next Sabbath, he could be found in his seat waiting again with expectant hope.

(from Simplify and Celebrate, Alternatives for Simple Living, p. 174)

In the fullness of time, the Promised One did come. People like Simeon and Anna recognized who he was when he was just a baby, and many others understood it from Jesus’ life, what he taught and what he did. Jesus fulfilled those expectations.

But then he was killed, and raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven, and promised to come again. So once again the people of God wait. And during the season of Advent, we prepare the way for his coming.

When Web Ruble was a religion writer for The Oregonian, he interviewed a clergyman and asked him about the second coming of Christ. The man said, “I don’t think he’s coming back.”

Web says he didn’t know how to respond. He would have liked to say something profound but he couldn’t think of anything so he changed the subject.

This was a supposedly enlightened, modern, minister. Web found his remark disturbing. Why prepare the way for the Lord if He isn’t coming? It took Web a long time to probe his own feelings about it. He eventually prayed, “Please Lord, tell me you’re coming. Come take me home (someday) because I’m tired and in a land now so foreign. I can’t stand much more of this suddenly-everything-I’ve-ever-learned-is inadequate stuff issuing from the authoritative rude and restless.”

(from “Meditations for the Advent Season,” pub. SMPC, c. 2000)

If Christ isn’t coming back, there is no hope. But we know that he is. Jesus said,

men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds

The OT Scriptures were right, and so are the new. We remember the waiting of those ancient people, and we wait in expectation for Christ to come again. That’s why we sing “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” and “Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending.” If you don’t wake up every morning like that rabbi did, watching expectantly, Advent is the time to steep your soul in the waiting, the anticipation of the coming of Christ.

Advent reminds us that when we look around at the troubles of this world, when we are overwhelmed with our trials, that we can look forward with hope.

We are not only waiting, we are waiting with hope. And that’s a different kind of waiting than sitting around singing “Someday my prince will come.” It’s a different kind of waiting than sitting on a cold sidewalk in a sleeping bag waiting for the doors to open so you can get athletic socks at half price.

This kind of waiting is an active waiting. You know how it is when a guest is coming? It’s a “hopeful” kind of waiting. When Rachel and Laurel know that someone is coming, they watch at the window, then they run and change their clothes, they open the front door, they run and hide, they come back out, they set the table. Hopeful waiting means activity. When you are preparing for a houseguest – someone you just can’t wait to see – your waiting is busy and full of joy. Rooms are put in order, meals are prepared, ice cube trays are filled, furniture is dusted, carpets re vacuumed, lists are made.

Advent is waiting and hoping, knowing that something wonderful is really going to happen. And in the midst of our waiting, we may find a different kind of advent.

The first advent was Christ coming as a baby, God with us, in a manger. The second Advent will be the second coming of Christ, God with us, to reign in glory. But there is another Advent, and that is God with us, right now.

Have you ever had a moment when you felt that God was with you? During the Advent season, you may catch glimpses of God in different ways, but you may miss it if you are not looking.

In our house, we have a nativity set that we add to every year. It comes out the first Sunday of Advent. The baby Jesus is safely in a gift box to be opened on Christmas Eve. The wise men begin their journey at the far end of the house and don’t arrive at the manger until January 6.

Our creche provides some moments for creative Biblical interpretation. Like the time when Rachel was very small, maybe 3, that I found the figures arranged with Mary surrounded by all the animals and angels in a very tight group, and Joseph at the other end of the room. I asked Rachel about it.

“Well, Joseph wants to eat one of the sheep and Mary doesn’t want him to. Joseph wants to marry Mary, but she doesn’t want to marry him. So they are all protecting her.”

These are holy moments. You have your own. A holy Advent means celebrating the Christ child, looking forward with hope, and inviting God to touch your life right now.

So don’t ask if people are ready for Christmas, as if everything needed to be completed by a certain date. Advent doesn’t ask if you’re ready for Christmas. Advent asks, Are you ready for Christ?

So make yourself ready for Christ. That means that you have to be careful how you spend your Advent. The traditional activities of Advent can help you. That’s why they were developed.

Many of you will make an Advent wreath this afternoon. The evergreens remind us of the new life God’s love brings us all through the year. The light of candles reminds us of the light Jesus brought into the world by his coming, and the light he continually brings to our hearts. The blue candles stand for the hope that we have as we are longing for the coming of Christ. The pink candle of the third week stands for joy – our longing doesn’t make us sad, rather, it is a joyful hope.

Share the joy with your friends. Ask if they are enjoying the season. Ask where they have seen God at work. Ask what activities are meaningful. Share your hope with people who are in trouble, who are in need, who don’t have the hope you have.