First Sunday in Advent

Let me begin by telling you that traditionally the first Sunday in Advent is not a day of high celebration. For instance, the gospel lesson for today, the Sorensens made reference to it when they let the Advent candle, presents an image of bleak despair. The truth is, “advent begins not on a note of joy, but of despair. Humankind has reached the end of its rope. All our plans for self-improvement, for getting ourselves out of the traps we have set for ourselves, have come to nothing. We have now realized at the deepest level of our being that we cannot save ourselves and that, apart from the intervention of God, we are totally and irretrievably lost.

“Advent also takes us back to the beginning of things. It takes us back to that time long ago when men and women of faith yearned for the first coming of the Savior. So the season attempts to capture that spirit of hope in the midst of hopelessness, a spirit of yearning for what can be: some new and unique expression of God’s intention to save a world gone wrong” (Texts for Preaching: Year B. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, p.1). We wait in hope as we move toward the lighted stable and all that lies beyond. In these days of Advent, we build day by day toward the coming of Jesus Christ into our lives again.

Advent is a time of waiting. We wait in this season for Christmas. We know, as we wait, even as we do it, that Advent and Christmas are not about shopping, and fighting crowds and all the traffic around our favorite stores. As much fun as it is to give and receive gifts, and to be part of the busyness of this season, Advent is not really about shopping. It is always good to break bread with good people, but this season is not about food either. We decorate our homes, and we decorate our churches; we wear purple and blue, colors of expectancy and anticipation; the colors of royalty. But it is not about decorations and stoles either. It is about our season of hope. These weeks of Advent leading to Christmas are about waiting as we answer the question, “what child is this?” I want you to know today that the answer is, this is Jesus, our hope.

Jesus is our hope because he is the one for whom our spirit’s long. Advent is about preparing ourselves to receive again into our lives God’s own son, the Messiah, the Savior who will enter this world not with a warrior’s cry, but with an infant’s sigh’s and gurgles. We wait for Jesus our hope.

Perhaps it is true that “we value Advent simply because hope is sweet and despair is bitter. It just may be that we have found in the season’s mood of anticipation the first, even the best, gift of Christmas, the one we get to open early” (www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso, p. 2 “Advent Alchemy by John Stendahl).

While we wait for Jesus, that first and best Christmas present, we are invited to act. This is no time for waiting passively as if we were standing in line at the grocery store. This is a time for prayer, for worship, for acts of kindness and compassion, for receiving the great gift of the love of God. That is what Paul wants the Corinthians to know, it is what we are reminded of today. Then the word was given to people convinced that they had it all together. They were prosperous, they were pious, in their own minds, they were more spiritual, more righteous, more of everything than the rest. Paul says, “no, it is not so, you are not there yet, the date of your arrival to spiritual perfection has not yet come.” Neither has ours. So we wait, and while we do, there are some things we can remember.

We remember that we desperately need the sense of hope Jesus will bring. We need the confidence and peace that only God can give us in these days that are so filled with hopelessness, anger, and the dis-ease that we long to replace for all that we love, our family and friends, our most intimate relationships, our church and our nation, indeed, we want the whole world to know tranquility and hope.

Jesus is our hope because through him, we know God. Surely, we can remember to thank God, and to praise God, and to honor and worship God in these days. Has God been good to you, has God brought you out of a bleak and awful place, is God worthy of the best we have to give? Absolutely. Just wait and see what God is going to do next.

Jesus is our hope because he helps us live in these between times. Remember that we live between two Advents. We recall the first Advent that we celebrate in December as we wait for the Savior of the world to be born, and we live with the promise, at a time that God will choose, for his return. Paul declares that we wait for Jesus Christ to be revealed, to do again what he did before, to heal and teach, to proclaim and live justice and love, and inclusion so wide that none who have loved God with their whole heart, mind, and soul will be turned away from him. Will he come in judgment? Certainly, every one of us will be accountable and responsible for what we do in our lives. But Jesus Christ be praised, we need not fear this time. Our God is a God of justice and righteousness, and in Jesus Christ that justice is always tempered with grace and mercy.

“We fall short of God’s intentions for us, and yet we find it difficult, if not impossible, to give ourselves to God. And so, the prospect of a coming judgment leaves us helpless and vulnerable – except for this promise that we will be continually sustained so that we may be ‘blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (v.8). The plans God has made for us are plans for good and not evil, and the promise is not condemnation but vindication” (Texts for Preaching, pgs. 6-7).

In this in between time, we know the grace of Jesus Christ that visits love on us way in excess of any judgment. Don’t believe it? Just say to yourself, Jesus loves me this I know. I am blessed by him, encouraged by him, empowered by him, made compassionate by him because I am held closely by him, and that is why I have hope in him. That is hope in grace.

But it is not hope and grace for us and nobody else. “The time in between is not a time for passivity or for selfish pursuits, but for exercising our God-given gifts in the cause of the larger community. First Corinthians is the book that speaks about concern not only about our individual rights, but about the rights of everybody; of attending to the weaker sister or brother; of a worship that edified the entire congregation; and of love that ‘does not insist on its own way’ (13.5). These are the ingredients that make for unity of purpose and for living faithfully and hopefully. It is what puts us in the company of those ‘called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’” (1.9).

Jesus is our hope because he is at the center of who we are. In this in between time, Jesus, the one who is coming and who has come into our hearts already, calls us to fulfill our hope in him by being in community with one another. We have a wealth of resources we can use in these days. Some of them are financial to be sure. But we also have the ability to speak words of support and care. The words we use can build us up or tear us down. Let’s use what we say to build up this body of Christ. Let’s use our knowledge about the church, about what best helps us fulfill our vision and mission, about what God has given to us for the good of this whole congregation to lift us up high enough to be seen by people looking for a church like this one. Use the gifts God has given you, your song, your work experience, your ability to build, and cook, and teach, and nurture, your skill on a computer, your ability with numbers and personnel, your ability to plan and implement, your capacity for prayer and play…use it all to be witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ in this place. Show anybody who wants to know that we are a people with hope.

Must we be in community really? Well, we are here, so our answer is yes. But others ask that question and here is my answer. It is possible to believe in Jesus Christ and never cast a shadow over the threshold of a church. It is possible to read the Bible and talk to God and be moved to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, without ever becoming a member of a congregation. It is possible to perform random and planned acts of compassion because your faith compels it, without ever coming to church. Millions of people do these things every day.

But people are made for one another and community, that is why loneliness is such a strong emotion. Loneliness is not the same as wanting to be alone, we all need time by ourselves sometimes. Loneliness is that ache for human touch and companionship, it is the longing to know that we are not isolated and left on our own in the world. We are called to live our hope in community. So we can believe in Jesus, read the Bible and pray daily, give of ourselves, all by ourselves, but we need the gifts of each other along with the gift of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to be the church. It is the community of the disciples that prayed and studied and waited for Pentecost to come, together. It was the community in Rome, and Philippi and Corinth, and now in Columbus and in every corner of the world where Jesus Christ is proclaimed that waits now, in this time between, together. It is the church gathered together putting all that it has together that is stronger than any of us all by ourselves.

Jesus is our hope because he is the fulfillment of the promises of God. This in between time is a good time. It is a time to say publicly that our hope and trust is in God, and to sing with the Psalm, “The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27.1) The implied answer is no one and nothing, not even his death or my death will be able to separate me from his great love for me. No human being can consume us with fear as long we have hope in Jesus Christ.

Thank God, it is God that beckons us to the Temple, to this church, to wherever it is that we seek God, and find God, and know that with God we are safe. It is God who, as we wait hears us, is made known to us, stays close enough to touch, who will not turn away from us, who will not cast us aside, who will be present for us (27.7-10).

It is God on whom we wait to bring us Jesus one more time. Advent is like Easter, we wait even as we know how this story will end. It is a powerful life-changing, soul saving story and it does not end in that stable, or on a cross and an empty tomb. It is the sign of God breaking into history to give birth to something new and amazing. It is after all God who will help us answer the question we ask, what child is this?

Don’t be anxious as we wait. God will do for us what God has done. God will give us Jesus and in him, our hope will be fulfilled.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Dr. LaTaunya M. Bynum
Senior Pastor