Rev. Dustin ParkerConcerning the Advent
Concordia Lutheran Church
Advent 1, November 28, 2010
Concerning the Advent
Matthew 24:36-44
IN JESUS NAME
May the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ so bring you peace and love and joy, that you eagerly anticipate the advent of Christ!
Advent isn’t about Christmas!
Christmas is a reminder of Advent!
You will have to hear this phrase several times, until it begins to make sense, but it will, and as it does, it will result in joy, and expectation, and a celebration of Immanuel – God is with us!
Here is the phrase – Advent is not as much about preparing for Christmas as much as Christmas is about preparing for the Advent.
Let me repeat that - Advent is not as much about preparing for Christmas as much as Christmas is about preparing for the Advent.
For many Christians, advent is the beginning of being prepared for Christmas, the signs of Christmas’ approach becomes the focus, as we decorate, and shop and plan, and party with those we love, and those we are related too, and sometimes, those are the same people!
But the joy of Christmas is nothing to be compared to the joy that we look forward to in celebrating Advent. Advent is not about looking back, it is not primarily about the stable, and the crèche, and the angels and shepherds in the field. Those things are the shadow of what is to come, and celebrating Christ’ mass, Christ’s gathering is remembering that God fulfilled that promise, that the Child was born who would be called the Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Advent looks forward to the coronation, the day every kneel will bow, not just those of the shepherds.
It is about the trumpet, and the Lord returning on the clouds, about the day that the angels have yet to know the timing of, and that the entire host of heaven anticipates – the homecoming of homecomings. The feast of Victory, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the Day of the Lord.
For some, it will be different, for the day will come.. and they will be asleep…
It’s not about timing!
The Cataclysm wasn’t about timing
It was about awareness
If you look around, you see the world preparing for Christmas. The music is haunting the stores, everything from Brooklyn Tabernacle and the Messiah, to the Chipmunks Christmas carols. The television shows all have their Christmas themes, from the old Claymation movies, to Miracle on 33 Street, to Hallmark movies. Even some of those classics have little to do with Christ’s incarnation, never mind the decorations that now resound for the “Winter Holidays”
It is not any different as we consider the Second Coming, the Second Advent. There are discussions of His coming, but they center more around the timing, than what it means.
So too was it in Noah’s day, when everyone was doing life. Not all the things they did were evil – though just like today, there were the usual sins against God and against their neighbor. The entire gamut sins existed from hatred and murder, to sexual perversions and unfaithfulness, to gossip and bearing false witness, to those sins caused by coveting and jealousy. Even as those sins exist today. Even as they did before Christ was born of Mary.
In each case, the darkness shrouded the world, darkness that was just not of the night, but the darkness of sin. It is hard not to notice the darkness today, Sometimes, it is not hard to notice the darkness that assails us from within, and without.
Talking about the end times, and desiring the coming of Christ is not about calendars and dates and prophecy check off lists. It cannot be, for Jesus said we cannot know the day or the hour.
It is about awareness, awareness and dissatisfaction with a life lived in the shadow of the darkness of sin, life aware that there has to be some light, and that light has to come from God.
It’s not necessarily about what you do…
As I watched the sun light up the sky this morning, there was a sense of awe…and powerlessness. I cannot by my own mind determine when the sun will rise, or how it will brighten the morning. I cannot change how quickly these weeks of Advent will flow by, and how most of us will have to rush to be ready for Christmas.
Being ready for the second coming, the Second Advent is like waiting for the sun to rise. It will happen, and probably before we, the church is ready for it. Being ready, and staying awake, as the gospel talks about, is not about our action, but our expectation.
I think we see this in the picture of the two men, working the field, and the women working at the mill. In both scenarios, the two are doing the same work, Yet one is gathered, and one is sent away. It doesn’t say one was in the field, and the other locked in church, praying on his knees . The two women were both doing their daily work as well, one wasn’t living in a nunnery. They were living the same kind of lives, yet one of each duo was prepared…
It’s about the Incarnation!
It is about the expectation that God will return, it is living in that hope, it is placing our trust in His promises and knowing that Jesus will come to deliver His people.
I said at the beginning of this sermon, that advent is less about the preparation for Christmas, than Christmas is preparation for the ADVENT, and that is the answer. We are prepared for Christ’s return, when we look to Christmas, and realize what it means for Christ to be incarnate, enfleshed, to dwell among us. For God to be with Us… Immanuel.
To know that He chose to come, to deliver us from our sins, to give us hope. To realize that its not just about the baby placed in manger, but the man placed on the cross as well. Events about 30 years apart, yet connected with one purpose.
Our deliverance. Our redemption, our being rescued from sin.
The message of Christ’s mass can never be separated from the purpose of the birth – that Jesus could die, to be the ultimate sacrifice, the high priest who would provide the purification of His people. That when He came back to reign for eternity, we would be ready.
Look to that birth, that poor scene where a young virgin gave birth to a baby in a humble setting. Think of the heavenly host, singing the praises of God to shepherds awake and watching in the field. That you were the reason for that scene. That you were the reason for the scene thirty years later…as the same man, who had been laid in swaddling clothes was nailed to the cross…
And one final scene, the Advent of the Christ, when with the sounding of a trumpet, with the blink of an eye, the same man, will return.
Having been united with His death, having communed with His body and blood, having realized that He is the way, and being entrusted to the care of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete,
You are ready… AMEN?
Advent 1, November 28, 2010
Concerning the Advent
Matthew 24:36-44
IN JESUS NAME
May the grace of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ so bring you peace and love and joy, that you eagerly anticipate the advent of Christ!
Advent isn’t about Christmas!
Christmas is a reminder of Advent!
You will have to hear this phrase several times, until it begins to make sense, but it will, and as it does, it will result in joy, and expectation, and a celebration of Immanuel – God is with us!
Here is the phrase – Advent is not as much about preparing for Christmas as much as Christmas is about preparing for the Advent.
Let me repeat that - Advent is not as much about preparing for Christmas as much as Christmas is about preparing for the Advent.
For many Christians, advent is the beginning of being prepared for Christmas, the signs of Christmas’ approach becomes the focus, as we decorate, and shop and plan, and party with those we love, and those we are related too, and sometimes, those are the same people!
But the joy of Christmas is nothing to be compared to the joy that we look forward to in celebrating Advent. Advent is not about looking back, it is not primarily about the stable, and the crèche, and the angels and shepherds in the field. Those things are the shadow of what is to come, and celebrating Christ’ mass, Christ’s gathering is remembering that God fulfilled that promise, that the Child was born who would be called the Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Advent looks forward to the coronation, the day every kneel will bow, not just those of the shepherds.
It is about the trumpet, and the Lord returning on the clouds, about the day that the angels have yet to know the timing of, and that the entire host of heaven anticipates – the homecoming of homecomings. The feast of Victory, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the Day of the Lord.
For some, it will be different, for the day will come.. and they will be asleep…
It’s not about timing!
The Cataclysm wasn’t about timing
It was about awareness
If you look around, you see the world preparing for Christmas. The music is haunting the stores, everything from Brooklyn Tabernacle and the Messiah, to the Chipmunks Christmas carols. The television shows all have their Christmas themes, from the old Claymation movies, to Miracle on 33 Street, to Hallmark movies. Even some of those classics have little to do with Christ’s incarnation, never mind the decorations that now resound for the “Winter Holidays”
It is not any different as we consider the Second Coming, the Second Advent. There are discussions of His coming, but they center more around the timing, than what it means.
So too was it in Noah’s day, when everyone was doing life. Not all the things they did were evil – though just like today, there were the usual sins against God and against their neighbor. The entire gamut sins existed from hatred and murder, to sexual perversions and unfaithfulness, to gossip and bearing false witness, to those sins caused by coveting and jealousy. Even as those sins exist today. Even as they did before Christ was born of Mary.
In each case, the darkness shrouded the world, darkness that was just not of the night, but the darkness of sin. It is hard not to notice the darkness today, Sometimes, it is not hard to notice the darkness that assails us from within, and without.
Talking about the end times, and desiring the coming of Christ is not about calendars and dates and prophecy check off lists. It cannot be, for Jesus said we cannot know the day or the hour.
It is about awareness, awareness and dissatisfaction with a life lived in the shadow of the darkness of sin, life aware that there has to be some light, and that light has to come from God.
It’s not necessarily about what you do…
As I watched the sun light up the sky this morning, there was a sense of awe…and powerlessness. I cannot by my own mind determine when the sun will rise, or how it will brighten the morning. I cannot change how quickly these weeks of Advent will flow by, and how most of us will have to rush to be ready for Christmas.
Being ready for the second coming, the Second Advent is like waiting for the sun to rise. It will happen, and probably before we, the church is ready for it. Being ready, and staying awake, as the gospel talks about, is not about our action, but our expectation.
I think we see this in the picture of the two men, working the field, and the women working at the mill. In both scenarios, the two are doing the same work, Yet one is gathered, and one is sent away. It doesn’t say one was in the field, and the other locked in church, praying on his knees . The two women were both doing their daily work as well, one wasn’t living in a nunnery. They were living the same kind of lives, yet one of each duo was prepared…
It’s about the Incarnation!
It is about the expectation that God will return, it is living in that hope, it is placing our trust in His promises and knowing that Jesus will come to deliver His people.
I said at the beginning of this sermon, that advent is less about the preparation for Christmas, than Christmas is preparation for the ADVENT, and that is the answer. We are prepared for Christ’s return, when we look to Christmas, and realize what it means for Christ to be incarnate, enfleshed, to dwell among us. For God to be with Us… Immanuel.
To know that He chose to come, to deliver us from our sins, to give us hope. To realize that its not just about the baby placed in manger, but the man placed on the cross as well. Events about 30 years apart, yet connected with one purpose.
Our deliverance. Our redemption, our being rescued from sin.
The message of Christ’s mass can never be separated from the purpose of the birth – that Jesus could die, to be the ultimate sacrifice, the high priest who would provide the purification of His people. That when He came back to reign for eternity, we would be ready.
Look to that birth, that poor scene where a young virgin gave birth to a baby in a humble setting. Think of the heavenly host, singing the praises of God to shepherds awake and watching in the field. That you were the reason for that scene. That you were the reason for the scene thirty years later…as the same man, who had been laid in swaddling clothes was nailed to the cross…
And one final scene, the Advent of the Christ, when with the sounding of a trumpet, with the blink of an eye, the same man, will return.
Having been united with His death, having communed with His body and blood, having realized that He is the way, and being entrusted to the care of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete,
You are ready… AMEN?
