The text for this sermon is Isaiah 2:1-5. Pastor Jim Kniseley presented this sermon at
Resurrection on November 28, 2010, the First Sunday of Advent.
Dear Friends in Christ,
This
is the day we pastors face quite a challenge.
How do we convince our congregations to be “counter-cultural”? How do we motivate our members to get ready
for the real meaning of Christmas instead of what the world is tempting us to
celebrate?
Here are some key words for Advent: Ready!
Set! Wait! We’re used to doing the first two
words. It’s that third word “wait”
that is the hardest thing to do. And yet
it is the most important thing we are called to do in this Season of
Advent. Wait!
What are we waiting for?
·
The end of the
world?
·
Our hearts and
spirits to receive again the coming of the Christ child into the world?
·
Another
month-long shopping spree that will assault our bank accounts?
For those who observe “consumer”
Christmas, Advent is the inevitable prelude to disappointment. For the majority of folks who observe this
kind of Christmas, the holiday hardly ever measures up to one’s fantasies.
The advent we celebrate in Church –
the one that has nothing to do with the number of shopping days left until
Christmas – is all together different. During these coming 4 weeks of Advent,
what you will be hearing from the prophets of old, in the advent music of
longing and waiting, in our sermons are hopes and expectations of dreams of a
better world, of allowing ourselves to have visions that have nothing to do
with sugar-plum fairies dancing in our heads.
Advent invites us to fill the cup of
today with a full measure of tomorrow.
It asks us to think what the world will be like when the whole world is
at peace, when the rule of God is the way of the world, when God’s ways are
recognized by everyone as excellent and honorable and just and true. I’d like to think that such contemplation
just might make us live today in a different and better way…
Our Sunday School children today are
studying the words of the prophet Isaiah.
Their curriculum is based on the lessons in worship. So, today our children in Sunday School and
all of us in worship are reading from the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah. This is what he prophesied:
In the last days (days of the
Messiah), people from all across the earth will come to the mountain of the
Lord’s Temple (that is Mount Moriah in Jerusalem where the Temple will again
stand someday). The reason people from
all across the earth come is to the holiest of places is to learn God’s ways so
that they might walk in his paths. The
whole earth will be at peace because
God’s ways will be used to settle disputes.
There will be no more fighting.
In fact, swords will be beat into plowshares and spears into pruning
hooks. No one will even train for war
anymore.
Some
of us here today will lose our jobs at that point, it is true. No more military, for the whole world will be
at peace. I also realize that there will
be no more pastors, for our work will be done and everyone will fully be in tune with God and his son Jesus.
A
wonderful image that emerges in Advent is that of “light.” In the Prayer of the Day we prayed, “Enlighten our walk in the way of your
salvation.” In the second lesson,
St. Paul compares the second coming of Christ to the coming of the dawn. He
encourages all Christians to live our
lives now as the light of Christ’s coming in the future.
Isaiah
gave his vision of the future world at peace and then ends his vision with
these words for us today: “Let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
There
is a story that has been circulating on
the web about a church Christmas pageant.
The day of the presentation finally arrived. A young girl named Jana was so excited about
her part that her parents thought she was to be one of the main characters,
though she had not told them what she was to do.
The
parents of the children in the pageant were all there and one by one the
children took their places. Jana’s parents
could see the shepherds fidgeting in one corner of the stage which was
evidently intended to be a field. Mary
and Joseph stood solemnly behind the manager.
In the back three young wise men waited impatiently. But still little Jana sat quietly and confidently.
Then
the teacher began: “A long time ago,
Mary and Joseph had a baby and they named Him Jesus,” she said. “And when Jesus was born, a bright star
appeared over the stable.”
At
that cue, Jana got up from her chair, picked up a large tin-foil
star, walked behind Mary and Joseph and held the star up high for everyone to
see.
When
the teacher told about the shepherds coming to see the baby, the three young
shepherds came forward and Jana jiggled the star up and down excitedly to show
them where to come. When the wise men
responded to their cue, she went forward a little to meet them and to lead the
way, her face as alight as the real star might have been.
The
playlet ended. They had
refreshments. One the way home Jana
said, with great satisfaction, I had the main part!”
“You
did?” her Mom asked, wondering why she thought that..
“Yes,”
she said, “cause I showed everybody how to find Jesus!”
Dear
Friends in Christ, that is what it means to walk in the light. It is to show the world how to find
Jesus. It is to prepare our hearts and
minds the year round to love the babe at Bethlehem. It is to actively wait for Jesus’ return to
this world. We actively wait by
reflecting the light of Christ in what we say and act and do now.
I
would like to present some practical suggestions that might help us focus
better on the real meaning of Advent and
Christmas. Take these suggestions
for what they are worth :
·
Decide to make
Christmas in your home more about Jesus and less about Santa;
perhaps give your nativity set a more
prominent place; perhaps make sure to have a prayer and read from Matthew or Luke about the birth of
Jesus at your Christmas meal.
·
Do something in these coming weeks that will
help people in need and be a sign of Christ’s light and advent hope to
others. If you want some suggestions,
just look in the narthex after worship today.
·
Prepare your
heart and mind by feeling closer to God with time spent in reading spiritual
books and viewing spiritually uplifting movies;
·
Spend more time
at worship, either here when you’re in town or at another church if you are
away from home.
As
we say to those being baptized when the candle is presented, “Let your light so shine before others that
that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” May your Advent waiting and walk prepare you
for the true meaning of Christmas.
Amen!