Sermon: Luke 21:25-36 Advent 1 Getting Ready For... ?

Today is the first Sunday of Advent,

a season of waiting, hope, and expectation,

            a time to get ready for the special day that is Christmas.

I love Advent, as you probably remember.

My favorite stories and songs of the church year happen at this time.

I like the planning, the getting ready,

the anticipation, the looking ahead.

But I know I’m weird that way.

Most people don’t like waiting, and for you,

luckily our culture does not require us to wait.

We know Dec. 25 is just around the corner,

and has been since October.

There are signs all around us to remind us of its imminence,

and advertisements counting down the shopping days.

In recent years I have a new strategy for this co-mingling of holidays:

I have separated secular Christmas from religious Christmas, 

rather than lamenting Santa’s presence too early.

This way I can enjoy the music, food, parties, decorations,

and festivity of the season,

while still doing my waiting and watching during Advent

for the Christmas season of the church year.

So, despite the persistence of this holiday surrounding us,

Advent comes and calls us to get ready, to watch, to wait.

But what are we waiting for, exactly?

Christmas calls to mind a baby in a manger on a quiet, peaceful night,

with stars shining above him.

Well, we know how to get ready for a baby.

You do have to wait for a baby, like it or not—they come when they

will, hopefully at the end of a full-term and healthy pregnancy.

There are specific things to learn and to acquire

in order to be ready for a baby,

to be able to care for, feed, and protect this vulnerable infant. 

There are specialized furniture, food, and accessories for babies,

and choices to make about birthing methods and names.

There are people who’ve done it before

who are happy to share their experience and advice,

and books and blogs published on the subject.

We know how to get ready for a baby!

However, nowhere in the gospels is there a description of what the

people did to get ready for this baby.

We know Mary will go to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth,

but even they marvel about the miracles of their pregnancies 

rather than doing anything practical to get ready for the babies.

There are no shower invitations, no descriptions of the nursery layout,

no debates over breast or bottle.

Instead, we have warning words in Jesus’ adult voice

about getting ready for something else.

Maybe the baby isn’t really what we’re called to get ready for this Advent.

What are we waiting for, then?

People living in first century Palestine were waiting for the Messiah,

someone God had chosen and would send to save them.

They were oppressed, they lived in fear,

they were randomly executed on false charges,

their religious life was impeded by the government,

their access restricted,

their liberty to govern themselves was stripped from them,

they were watched with suspicion and targeted as terrorists. 

The world was not right, and they knew it.

They waited for a messiah to come and turn it right-side-up.

And THAT is what we are waiting for, too, this Advent.

In a world where clean, uncontaminated water is still not available

in Flint and other cities that haven’t made the news;

where we throw away tons of food while people continue starving

for real around us;

where daily activities like driving to school are dangerous

for brown-skinned boys;

where fleeing for safety from gang violence and poverty

brings Central American refugees into more violence;

where people die from preventable diseases

or from exposure to extreme heat and cold;

where one person’s opinion and a gun get to decide life or death

for another—

this is the world that waits for a Messiah.

This might not be our reality, but it is reality

for beloved children of God

whom we claim as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And it is to this reality that Jeremiah speaks God’s promise:

“14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

It is into this reality that the Messiah comes,

to turn the world right-side up,

to renew the creation to look the way God designed it.

There are signs all around us that Christ is coming,

because we need redemption.

So, how do we get ready for that?!?

If we are not getting ready for dinner, or for family,

or for Santa, or for a baby,

but are truly getting ready for the reign and justice of God

to enter life as we know it—how do we get ready?

There is not a list, not an answer;

but there is a season, four full weeks of Advent.

Perhaps we use this time to pray,

to listen to where the Spirit is inviting us

into this universe-changing work God is doing.

Perhaps we examine the ways we benefit from the powers that be,

and how our lives and choices do or do not contribute

to what God is doing in the world.

Perhaps we get to know Jesus a little better,

to wonder about what needs to be turned right-side-up

and how he does that.

Perhaps we look for the signs,

that God IS here already,

that God is invested in how we live this life together,

that God’s dream for this creation is

grander than we can imagine and greater than what life is now. 

Advent is a time for getting ready,

even when we don’t know for what;

for waiting, even when we don’t know until when.

Advent teaches us to trust God,

and to watch for the promise of justice and peace

to be fulfilled.

Amen. Come Lord Jesus!