Happy New Year!: A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent

Happy New Year!

A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44

Happy New Year!

Last week Suzanne directed us to write down our new years resolutions and place them in the offering plate. That’s the way I heard. As we were making our stewardship commitments for the coming year, we were to write down a personal commitment related to our relationship with God or our involvement with the church. We then sealed our notes in envelops and placed them in baskets on the communion table. The notes will be mailed back to us in May so that we can see how well we have done. Suzanne also reminded us that last Sunday was the last Sunday of the church year, and this Sunday, today, marks the beginning of Advent and is the first Sunday of a new Church year. So, that’s why I greeted you, this morning with Happy New Year!


In many ways it has felt like the end of one year and the beginning of a new year. Traditionally, as the calendar year winds down there are plenty of remembrances of the past year. What celebrities died during the past year? What big news events happened? What are the things for which we are grateful, as the year winds down? Once all that is done, we are ready for a fresh new start, for the new year to begin. And to start the new year we make our New Years Resolutions.
The month of November began with All Saints Day and we, too, remembered those folks special to us that have died over the past year. On Veterans Day we honored a unique group of folks and remembered some major events of the past. And with Thanksgiving we took time to reflect on those people and situations for which we are truly grateful. So, then, last week we wrote down our commitments, our resolutions for the coming year.

Making New Years resolutions is a peculiar practice. Mostly, people will make a half hearted commitment toward a major change in their lives. If they attempt to keep their resolution, it’s usually over after about the first two or three weeks. Even when the resolutions are made with such little resolve, there is something quite remarkable going on. You see, we have a vision for the way life can be, perhaps even should be, if we had the true resolve to see it through.

Having done an informal survey of some of my closest friends and associates, I would venture to say that most of our New Years resolutions would fall into one of two categories. First are the resolutions to be healthier. The top two in this category would be to go to the gym more regularly (or start going to the gym, to begin with), and make better selections about food. Essentially, tending to our own well being.

The second major category for new years resolutions would be in terms of relationships: Spend more time with family, spend more time with friends, spend more time with meditation (which I would understand as one’s relationship with the Divine). I have never known anyone to resolve to spend more time at the office. Have you?

We know the things that make for shalom, for our own well being, for our health, the health of our relationships, indeed the health of our planet. We know what makes for shalom, and with this vision we make our new years resolutions. We have a vision for our lives and we make choices. It boils down to something that simple. We have a vision for our lives and we make choices.

In our reading from Isaiah we see the theme of vision, a vision for peace as swords are beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. But as we read this passage as part of our regular Advent journey, we don’t usually recognize how odd this passage is here at the beginning of Isaiah. This first part of Isaiah is the prophet’s preaching to a community that has turned its back on God and is about to be carried off into exile. The first chapter opens with words that liken the people of Judah to totally rebellious and evil children: “Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged!” (1:4) If you think that is harsh, Isaiah goes on to compare Judah to a body that is filled with disease from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. He even calls the city of Jerusalem a whore..

And here, in chapter 2, this same city is held up as the destination of people who seek the righteousness and justice of God. Even as the people have their corruption and selfishness exposed, they are also reminded of what God sees. God’s vision sees Jerusalem as the city from which the peace of God reaches around the earth to all nations and peoples. From Jerusalem all the peoples of the earth will learn about true justice, justice for all, not just the powerful, justice that leads to such lasting peace that implements of war are of no use, at all. Tools of war are obsolete and are refashioned into something useful, like tools for developing food, tools for health care, tools for education, tools for the well being of all people. Granted, this is a vision that has not yet come to fruition, but it is a vision that remains before us, today.

Our other passage for the First Sunday of Advent is from Matthew, and it begins with a reference to “the days of Noah.” Now these “days of Noah” were not the days that Noah and his noisy passengers were safely in the arc. The days of Noah does not refer to when they stepped off the arc to view the beautiful promise of the rainbow. The days of Noah refers to the time before the flood when all of life seemed ordinary. People were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. No one, but Noah, understood the disaster that was about to come. The days of Noah is presented as a warning to pay attention to the choices we are making. Our choices, our actions, our in-actions, all have consequences.

This point is made again with the image of two people working in a field. One is take and one is left behind. Now, I will readily admit that the popular notion attached to this parable of Jesus is not one that my feeble brain can wrap around. The popular notion is written about in the series of books known as Left Behind. The idea is that our choices make a difference, our actions have consequences. That much I can understand. But the fictional account of Left Behind strikes me as a bit fanciful. It is outside of my personal experience, so it is hard for me to relate to.

Having said that, I have a great appreciation for Jesus’ warning. As you may know, this summer I was diagnosed with a coronary blockage. It was described as one that if untreated would most certainly lead to my death. If I had not gone for that routine stress test, I can imagine that one day Melissa and I would be out in our back yard cleaning up the vines in the trees and I would collapse to the ground. One taken. One left behind. And that is the kind of scenario we are likely to see on any given day of the year. One is taken and one is left. First, there is a vision for how good life can be, and then there is a warning that other choices also have consequences.

On this First Sunday of Advent we are presented with a vision and with an urgency about our choices. The vision is of how God sees the world and how God sees our lives and how God sees the church. The vision is of the arrival of God’s Shalom, of true peace and the well being of all life. The vision is of the arrival of Jesus, the very presence of God, in the midst of our routine everyday existence. The choice is whether we will live toward that vision. The choice is whether we will shape our living to reflect God’s vision. The choice is whether we will join together as a community of believers to strengthen each other and encourage each other to be an outpost for God’s Shalom in the heart of the Westside of Jacksonville. The urgency is that we never know when we will be the one who is taken and when we are the one left behind.

A Jesuit priest and peace activist, Daniel Berrigan, captures the tension between how we often see the world and how God sees the world. He holds these two views in tension and he invites us to take sides with God’s vision, not just in our words but with our lives. I will close with Father Berrigan’s “Advent Credo.”
 

Advent Credo
(posted on journeywithjesus.net by Dan Clendenin)

It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—
This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;
It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction—
This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.

It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever—
This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world—
This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers—
This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.

It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—
This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.

So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.

[From Testimony: The Word Made Flesh, by Daniel Berrigan, S.J. Orbis Books, 2004.]


Jess McCrosky
St. Andrews Presbyterian Church
Jacksonville, Florida
November 28, 2010