A Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent
The Rev. Pat Gillespie
Isaiah 64:1-9a
Psalm 80
1 Corinthians 1:1-19
Mark 13:24-37
"Ready or not, here I come!" Today's reading suggests that Jesus might do just that.
What do you do when company's coming, but you don't know when? And this is really important company. Someone who knows all your little strengths and weaknesses.
It's like when instead of "over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go" suddenly things shift, and instead of packing up the kids to go to grandmother's, your parents, and maybe the in-laws too, are coming to your place.
Been there? Done that? Remember the judgment-day anxiety? Will you be able to make that perfect pie, just like Mom's? Will every inch of the living room be as dust free as your mother-in-law's? Have you mastered the technique for turkey carving? How can you possibly do any of this with the kids underfoot? And they didn't even say when they would arrive!
We did that to two of our daughters this year – showed up at their homes, expected, but time uncertain. The younger daughter keeps her apartment neat and clean all the time, she's always prepared for guests. The older daughter has other priorities than housecleaning, a visitor is lucky to find a place to sit among the piles of books. But they were both there, ready welcome us; each had prepared in her own way. The younger one, having nothing else to clean, had polished up her new cat, and her sister, having read somewhere that it was my matron saint Gertrude's feast day, had bought chocolate to celebrate, Of course my attention was caught by the cat and the chocolate rather than the surroundings. But most of all, what we saw was two loving young women, who wanted us to be there.
But now we're told JESUS is coming. Can we do something like clean the house, groom the cat, or buy chocolate ... and somehow avoid God's judgment? How can we possibly be ready? How much do we need to do to be ready?
The problem with that way of thinking is that we're trying to control God – if we do this, God will do that. But remember this is God who is notorious for not punishing as we deserve, thank God; God who showers grace wherever God pleases, on both good and bad. We can't do anything to make God show up at the party. Neither can we delay God's arrival or control God's judgment.
God will show up when and where God pleases, regardless of whether we're ready. Jesus will arrive in hearts that are well prepared, and those that are broken. When the time is right, which only God knows, Jesus will come and judge our lives. Suddenly, unexpectedly, "Ready or not, here I come." And then the Light of the World shines into all the dark corners of our lives.
Judgment Day – a great intervention confronting the truth of our lives. God only knows when that may be. Today's gospel is clear about that . Maybe it's January 1, 2000. Or maybe a year later. Or maybe another thousand years later. Maybe it's Christmas. Or maybe next week. Maybe it's the moment of our death. Or maybe right now. Are you ready to pass the inspection? Is the house of your soul in order?
"No way," I think. "I'll never, ever be ready." Sure, I've done a few good things. But there's always something I really messed up. There's always something more that I should be doing. So I don't want to hear all that Bible stuff about judgment and God's wrath.
If you take it seriously, fear and trembling is an understatement for how it feels.
But I believe in a God who loves and forgives us all. And so I don't want to believe in a wrathful, angry God. Yet it's there in the book that I do believe speaks the truth about God. Over and over again, and not just in the Old Testament, we hear about the wrath of God.
So we wait like the master's slaves, for Jesus to arrive with power and glory and judgment. Be ready, stay alert. The master IS coming. And it sure sounds like those who are caught sleeping are in trouble, maybe even facing wrath.
Has the master given you something to be doing while we wait, something to keep you awake? Are you trying to do what you believe God has asked of you? Loving God and neighbor? Following God's commandments? Or maybe you have tried and failed? Or maybe you tried and did the wrong thing, or were mistaken about what you were supposed to do? Or maybe you even failed to begin at all?
So now, when Jesus arrives with great power and glory, Will you be prepared and alert enough to welcome him? Or might you be sleeping and miss his arrival? Or might your attention be somewhere else ... turned away from God?
And that's were God's wrath seems to flare up. The wrath is not for the mistakes and failures and things left undone. When judgment comes for those things, one need only turn to God, and the response is mercy rather than wrath. Over and over again, far more often than noting the wrath of God, the Bible repeats "Turn to God and be forgiven" On the other hand, it seems that those who turn away from God and refuse that mercy may be confronted, by their own choice, with God's wrath.
It is God's love that gives people the freedom to turn away from that same love; AND it is God's refusal to force God's love on God's people that is experienced as wrath.
The love is always there to be accepted. When we choose to turn away from it and refuse to accept it, we feel unloved and experience it as God's anger. We bring the wrath upon ourselves by turning from God's love.
Our master Jesus is coming. Keep alert. It means keep turned toward God and avoid God's wrath. Keep alert. It may not mean we need everything ready and in perfect order.
None of us is every truly ready for God to arrive in our lives. Even Mary and Joseph – for all that they were expecting Jesus' arrival in their lives, they weren't even ready enough to have a bed for the him to sleep in, they probably hadn't even groomed the cat or bought him chocolate, but they wanted him to be there.
Babies arrive on their own schedule, without consulting those whose lives they change. The timing of Jesus's second coming in our lives will be as uncertain as his first arrival in Bethlehem. And, likewise, as expected and certain to happen as the birth of a child. The world and our hearts cannot groan in labor forever awaiting his coming.
Mary and Joseph weren't quite ready for God's arrival in their lives, but they did welcome him with joy. Jesus, it seems, makes himself at home in the messy disorder of our lives. Our preparation is simply to be awake enough to invite him in.
And then, when we welcome his arrival, Jesus himself cleans up the mess. The apostle Paul, well aware of human weakness, assures even those mixed-up Corinthians that "God will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be BLAMELESS on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Keep alert ... Jesus is coming. When he shows up, be ready to welcome him with joy.