01 December 07 “The Nearness of Now” Matthew 24:36-44

It is usually the title that catches my eye. This week it was, “12 Ways to Take Back Christmas, Save Money, & Stay Sane” by Roger Wolsey. This is a piece to take seriously, I thought. Taking back Christmas, saving money and staying sane. What could I lose, except possibly a little time. So, I clicked in. Wolsey began, “I’ve made my peace with seeing Christmas decorations in stores well before Thanksgiving. I’m down with the pagan influences on the holiday. I’m cool with hanging greens, decorating with holly and ivy, lighting yule logs, and setting up Christmas trees. I’m hip to honoring the winter solstice.” He pretty much covered it all and seemed sensible and pragmatic. We just as well be at peace, down with, cool with, and hip to what surrounds our sensibility and is unlikely to go away anyway. This time of the year helps. We get a little rain, it gets a bit cooler. So we are easily drawn to holidays remembered, times when tradition carried over from generation to generation. These days we do things differently, but we still have our nostalgic moments. What Wolsey does not accept or accommodate is the “stressful madness and rush to “be ready for Christmas.” It is particularly irksome to him that some insist on making it all a contest. This is not the season to brag about all the gifts being bought, wrapped, and delivered by December 25th – as if that is the reason for the season. As if that is what this Advent time of preparation is for. One of his Facebook friends posted a status update that proudly reported, “Happy to have all of my Christmas shopping completed.” The posting was on November 22. Then came a flood of comments. Folk were either in competition – noting they too have most or all of their shopping done, or they were shamed by those braggarts with their own over-reactive confession they are “nowhere near ready and need to get busy shopping to be ‘ready’ for the big day.” Anxiety and frenzy and competitive shopping. Oh, what a delight we have become. Into this torrent these strange scriptures of Advent come. They are strange because of what is happening in the incarnation. God becoming human in Jesus, is strange and new. “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers,” says Paul to the church at Rome. God is coming near to us, this strange “Son of Man’ who comes life a thief in the night, according to Matthew. How are we to think and react to such strange newness? Wolsey points out, it was not until several centuries into Christian history that the birth of Jesus became something for Christians to celebrate. Starting in 336 A.D. celebrating the great joy of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter had always been the big event. For the longest Christmas was a rather low-key time without much hoopla, let alone anxiety. When a holiday marking Jesus’ birth was created the focus was on Advent – the five weeks leading up to Christmas. Advent is a time of “waiting” and is sort of a “winter Lent.” Christmas was originally a time of fasting and prayer reaching its triumphant birthing in a twelve day holiday of breaking the fast and feasting that ends the day before Epiphany. In 1823 when Clement C. Moore wrote his famous poem for children, “A visit from St. Nicholas” things began to shift. You may remember the poem. “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse . . . ” But, we should not fixate on the night before or the day of Christmas. Christmas is not a one day holiday. There are twelve days of Christmas and there is no Godly reason for any of us to have our shopping done before those twelve days have come and gone! Jesus, it seems, was probably born in the spring anyway. The coming of the Son of Man, according to Matthew, will be like the story of Noah and the flood. Those who are not awake, those who are unprepared, they will not hear the good news; they will not know Jesus is coming. We, however, are aware. We have heard the good news, we know Jesus is coming. Yet, each year, we allow ourselves to be distracted. Before all hope is lost, Jesus redirects us, again, to “keep awake.” This is critical; we are to keep awake for we do not know on what day our Lord is coming. Always be ready, Jesus says, the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. As we are sucked in to the holiday craziness and join the chorus saying how we are nowhere near ready for Christmas we come to church and find yet another thing we have forgotten to do. How do we ever add “keep awake” to an already impossible “to do” list? How do you ever check something like that off? Once checked off, our task is usually forgotten. Keeping awake for Jesus, watching for God’s presence, is not something we should forget. It is like remembering to take a breath every moment of the day and night. We might check it off, but we do not want it to go away. What then are we to do? This is Advent and the calendar says Jesus’ birth is in 25 days. I know, we can move “keep awake” to our worry list. There is always something on that list. Some things have been there for decades. Setting “keep awake” aside from our to-do list will free us to rejoin the rush to finish whatever we must finish before Christmas. I wonder though, are our mania and our worry in any way coming from a place of faith? I think not. Perhaps a better approach to “keeping awake” is to be hard-wired for Jesus. To be hard-wired for Jesus would be strange and new and have him be as automatic in our lives as our breathing, or our need to eat and sleep. If we truly immerse ourselves in and savor Advent in this new way we would always be prepared, so when Jesus comes we will not only be awake, we will be ready. What if we top our list with an Advent reminder to take some time to go inward and think about our life and our God. Just to think about God glorifies God. This Advent time is our time to slow down, to not allow our getting ready for Christmas to replace giving life to Christ. The coming of our Messiah and the intentional celebration of the amazing gift of Jesus’ life in ours requires our participation. Jesus will not be here without us. We are necessary for God’s participation in our world. God cannot be God without us. Brother Lawrence knows of this strange and new way to be Advent ready. He suggests, “God does not lay a great burden on us, (God only asks for) a little thinking of God, a little adoration, sometimes to pray for grace, sometimes to offer God your sorrows, sometimes to thank God for the good things God does. Lift up your heart to God even at meals and when you are in company. The least little remembrance will always be acceptable to God. You do not have to be loud. God is nearer to us than we think. You do not have to be in church all the time in order to be with God. We can make a chapel in our heart, where we can withdraw from time to time and converse with God in meekness, humility, and love. Everyone has the capacity for such intimate conversation with God, some more, some less. God knows what we can do. Get started. Maybe God is just waiting for one strong resolution on your part. Have courage.” We do not stop living when we make a chapel in our heart. Remember, in Matthew’s gospel, two were in the field, working. Two were grinding meal together. Life and work did not stop for contemplation and wandering in the wilderness. We go on living, knowing God’s desire is for us to know Jesus and to love him and celebrate him as the very fabric of life. God desires we recognize his thread, Jesus, as being God’s grace and be ready with hope when God’s Kingdom comes. In the 1980’s, before Vaclav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia, when his country was ruled by the communists, he wrote: “Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it’s a dimension of the soul . . . Hope in this deep and powerful sense is . . . an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed . . . It is also this hope, above all, which gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do here and now.” It may be we feel our conditions are hopeless. But Havel says we are to hope for something simply because it is good. Not because it stands a chance to succeed. This is the sort of hope which gives us the strength to live and keep going and see God’s coming as an enabling of that hope. The hope from God is a hope that realizes even though time is short and times are tough, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming into our lives to be our savior, to be our savior from the darkest of nights. That is a very good hope. It is a lifesaving hope. It is salvation nearer to us now than ever before. It is God coming near to us because God has great plans for our lives. Our duty is to be ready by realizing God is with us in the simplest of our day- to-day. To be awake is to see and feel and engage with God in those moments and receive God’s grace and peace. That, dear ones, is our Advent hope. It is not a great burden, it begins with a little prayer, a little pause for thanksgiving, a little courage, and fills us with such a profound calm we fear nothing. For what can frighten us when we are with God? Not a bad way to take back Christmas, save money, and stay sane. A twelve day party isn’t so bad either. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen 120113.gpc

28 November 10 “Nearness and the Newness of Salvation” Matthew 24:36-44

There is a certain comfort knowing we all do it, knowing it’s just hard wired into our brains. Without having to think too much about it we hear ourselves saying these familiar phrases - “Hurry home.” “Call your mother.” “Be careful.” “Watch out for cars.” “Don’t do that to your sister/brother.” “Leave the dog alone.” “Please, can you leave it on one channel, without flipping!” I hear several of these at my house.

  We may remember hearing another familiar phrase from our gospel reading this past Sunday. Jesus had just been nailed to the cross. There were two criminals beside him. The first one bullies Jesus, “You say you are the messiah, save yourself and save me too.”

The second criminal takes up for Jesus. “Leave him alone,” he says, “we were justly tried for our crimes. We are guilty. This man is innocent.” Then he prays. “Jesus, remember me.” That’s the familiar phrase, the automatic response, “Jesus, remember me.”

 Jesus does remember us. In the midst of his crucifixion, Jesus is still reaching out to us to comfort and teach us. To teach us, God’s grace extends to the depth of the pain and suffering of all people, even those crucified. Be it to addiction, to unrelenting pain, to abuse, injustice or loss.

God’s grace goes as deeply as our own pain and as high as our joy.

Actually, God’s grace goes deeper and higher than we can ever imagine.

 Matthew’s story this morning reminds us of another automatic response to life’s ups and downs, to another important truth. Keep awake.

Our story this morning is an Advent story. A story which reminds us to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ child. To recommit our life to Christ. What often gets lost is our need to also prepare ourselves spiritually to give life to Jesus. It is true; when we give our life to Jesus we give life to Him. Through our life, Jesus lives.  I’m not sure how we ever prepare ourselves enough to give life to Christ. But, we try.

Verse 39 of Matthew’s gospel reminds us of Noah’s story from the book of Genesis. About how God had predicted a flood, and how those who were not aware, those who were unprepared, knew nothing until they were swept away. Then it was too late.

  Our reading this morning from Matthew’s gospel says, the coming of the Son of Man will be like the story of Noah and the flood. Those who are not awake, those who are unprepared, they will not hear the good news; they will not know Jesus is coming. But we are aware, we have heard the good news, we know Jesus is coming. We have been prepared and waiting a long time. Yet, life distracts us.

 Life distracts us and it is Jesus himself who redirects us again to “keep awake”. This is critical; we are to keep awake for we do not know on what day our Lord is coming. Always be ready, Jesus says, the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

 Not knowing the day or the hour, doesn’t sound promising does it? As we look at our to-do list each morning are we expected to have “keep awake” as our automatic number one thing to do our entire life? How do you ever check something like that off? Once checked off, our task is usually forgotten. Keeping awake for Jesus isn’t something we should forget. It’s like making sure our heart is still beating every morning. We may check it off, but we don’t want it to go away.

What then are we to do? We know Jesus is coming. This is advent and the calendar says Jesus birth is in 27 days. We can always add this ‘keeping awake’ to our worry list.

 Oh, great, that’s what we do with everything else we cannot really check off and forget. What about the kids, what about my health, what about the economy, the war, my pension.

Perhaps a better approach to ‘keeping awake’ is to be ‘hard wired’ for Jesus. To be hard wired for Jesus would have him be as automatic in our lives as our breathing, or our needing to ear or sleep.  Then we would always be prepared, so when Jesus comes, we will not only be awake, we will be ready. We will be ready for the celebration, sure, but also ready to take up a new life. Where Jesus gives our life his grace, his love, his blessings, and we give life to him. What a celebration we will have when we realize these possibilities are coming.

 The gospel’s suggestion about how we prepare for Jesus’ coming may be different from our own. True, we have a lot to do and when we are honest with ourselves, whether we get everything done or not, the day of celebration will be truly that, a celebration.

 If we are to have the time to give life to Jesus, this is it. This advent time of the year is our time to slow down, to not allow our getting read for Christmas to replace giving life to Christ. The coming of our messiah and the intentional celebration of the amazing gift of Jesus’ life in ours requires our participation.

 To this end, our preparation for Jesus’ birth should be different. Our preparing in a different way comes to honor the gospel when we take a little time away from planning and shopping for Christmas and live for the moment in advent time, a time of quiet and prayer and reflection and thanksgiving and rededication of our lives to follow and serve Jesus Christ. To give our life to Jesus so life will be given to Jesus.

We don’t stop living during our times of prayer and thanksgiving. No, and perhaps this is the most difficult part. Advent should weave its message into our everyday as we go about our life work. Remember, in Matthew’s gospel, two were in the field working, two were grinding meal together. Life and work does not stop for contemplation and wandering in the wilderness.

We go on living, knowing God’s desire is for us to know Jesus and to love Jesus and to celebrate him in the very fabric of life, to recognize that thread as being God’s grace in our lives and be ready when Gods kingdom comes.

 As we work and live and love we are to watch with hope and longing for this coming again, this one in 27 days when we celebrate the birth of our Christ child.

  Vaclav Havel was the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia, he wrote about hope in the 1980’s, while his country was still ruled by the communists.

 This is what he said, “Either we have hope within us or we don’t: it’s a dimension of the soul…Hope in this deep and powerful sense is…an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed…It is also this hope, above all, which gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do here and now.”

 It may be we feel our conditions are hopeless, but Havel says we are to hope for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance  to succeed. This is the sort of hope which gives us the strength to live and keep going, and see God’s coming as an enabling of that hope. The hope from God is a hope that realizes that even though time is short and times are tough, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming into our lives to be our savior, to be our savior from the darkest of nights, and that is a very good hope. It is a life saving hope.

 Paul reminded us of this truth in Romans when he said, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers.” God is coming near to us because God has great plans for our lives. And our duty is to be ready and to realize God in the day to day, to see and feel and engage with God as we live and hold on to hope.

 This is God’s desire for us these hectic days before Christmas.

 You see, the powerful teaching we have before us this morning is that God desires more for us than we desire for ourselves. God wants us to be with him. Remember that second criminal, he prayed that Jesus would remember him and Jesus promised him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” This is our advent hope, that we will keep awake so that today, if need be, we will be with Jesus in paradise. Jesus is forever awake to us, waiting for us, desiring for us, desiring more for us than we desire for ourselves.

When we think we can accomplish our desires and dreams and our reason for living without God, we worship ourselves. We live in sin. We bully Jesus just as that first criminal did. When we live this way we actually short change our lives. We settle for less than what our life can be. We limit the hope and the blessings and the joy in our lives to what we alone can achieve.

 When we take up with Jesus, we have a clearer path to God. Being awake to Jesus’ coming into our life reveals to us Gods desires for our life, desires always greater than our own.

  God’s desire for our lives is greater than our own when we are awake to his calling in our lives. When we realize we give life to Jesus when we open our lives to following him and turn to listen to God’s hope for us. Jesus lives when we know God as God reveals God’s self to us. It is then that we have clearer access to God’s desire in our lives. When we remove the clutter of our solutions and desire, we will hear God’s. And they are always greater than ours alone.

 Then we will know the peace of the coming of the Christ child. Then we will hear and know God more deeply than ever before. Then we can take great comfort knowing that to be alive with Christ is truly the one relationship God desires for us. 

 To be alive with Christ, to be one with God, to be ready for Jesus’ coming into our lives bringing the salvation that comes to each of us a gift. A gift we cannot earn, a gift greater than any desire we can achieve on our own, the gift of God’s awakened presence in our life. The gift of the birth of Jesus.

Be, therefore, forever ready, for through the birth of that babe on Christmas Eve, God comes for you and for me. And with you and with me, Jesus lives.

 Now, there’s a phrase worth living for.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Additional Helps:

Lectionary Homiletics, Volume XIX, Number 1, pgs.5-12.

Pulpit Resource, Volume 35, Number 4, October-December 2007, pgs. 45-48.

The Minister’s Annual Manual, 2007 - 2008, pgs. 159-161

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