2019 Advent 1 – Waiting

Here’s the sermon for the first Sunday in Advent, lectionary year A, preached November 30 and December 1, 2020. I found helpful this reflection by Michael J. Chan at WorkingPreacher, as well as Jim Somerville’s sermon (PDF) at A Sermon For Every Sunday. This week’s Gospel text is Matthew 24:36-44.

Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Happy Advent.

[1 minute of silence]

Waiting is hard, isn’t it? Especially when you don’t know what you’re waiting for, one minute of waiting can feel like a really long time.

I feel like I’m living in a world of to-do lists right now. Part of it’s the reality of this being the busy season for people who work in churches. There are extra worship services to plan, extra Bible studies, and annual reports. I’m not complaining – most jobs have times that are busier than others, and I love this season. But there’s enough going on that I need to-do lists in order to not start forgetting things, or missing visits.

At home, Christin and I are very much in a season of preparation. This weekend’s to-do list included assembling the crib and putting up the Christmas tree. I think we’ve purchased everything on the list we need to bring baby home from the hospital, but I’m sure there are things that haven’t even made it on the list. We’re at the point where we’re intentionally checking in with each other every day on what needs to be accomplished today, and then what’s the plan for tomorrow?

This season of Advent is about waiting and watching, anticipating and preparing, getting ready for Jesus’ coming.

The color for Advent is blue. Specifically, it’s intended to be the color of twilight, the deep blue color of the sky in the moments before the sun comes up in the morning. Advent is the time right before the dawn of the light. It’s the moment of anticipation before the light breaks into the world, before Jesus is born at Christmas.

I know most of you aren’t spending Advent doing the same kind of literal nativity preparations, but you still have a lot going on. This time of the year is busy for everyone. The world doesn’t see Advent as a pause before dawn; it sees this season as a brief window to rush and prepare everything for Christmas. And the point isn’t so much to prepare to welcome the Son of God into the world as it is to sell as much as possible. There’s nothing wrong with sales and giving presents at Christmas. I love trying to find good prices on things, but it gets to be overwhelming.

I wonder, what’s on your to-do list? What are you thinking about right now that you need to do? For some of you, maybe it’s preparing for the cantata this/tomorrow afternoon, making sure you have everything ready to sing or to serve refreshments. Maybe it’s marking off people on a Christmas shopping list.

For two families in our congregation, it’s trying to prepare for funerals this week, and then to try to find a new normal with someone missing, figuring out how to navigate a holiday season that’s nothing like what it was expected to be. Maybe that’s true for you this year too. That’s a whole new kind of waiting and preparing.

The fascinating thing is Advent is not just about getting ready to celebrate Jesus’ first coming 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem; it’s also about getting ready for Christ’s second coming in glory.

We are living in an in-between time, waiting for Jesus to return, waiting for God’s kingdom to be realized. And it’s hard to wait, especially when we don’t know how long we’re waiting for, or exactly what it will look like.

In the Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples no one knows the day or the hour of his return. How do you plan without a deadline? How do you know if your to-do list progress is adequate if you don’t know how long you have to get through it?

It would be nice to know, wouldn’t it? As Jesus says, if you know the hour when a thief is coming to break into your house, you’ll stay awake and not let your house be broken into. But we don’t get to know. We only get to wait. And Jesus tells us to be ready.

Which brings up the question, what does it mean to be ready? How do you prepare for the end of the world? How do you get ready to meet Jesus?

As I was preparing for this evening/morning, I thought about handing out paper and asking you to write down your Advent to-do list; having you write down your priorities for getting ready for Jesus’ coming, the things you need to do before Christmas and the things you need to do to be prepared in case Jesus comes back tomorrow.

But I don’t think this season is about adding to a to-do list. I don’t think this is about us trying to work harder or be better people as if perhaps by our doing more to get ready we’ll be in better shape when Jesus shows up. It’s true; we do not know what day our Lord is coming. We do not know how long we’ll be waiting, and it’s hard to wait. It is hard to trust, instead of trying to prove ourselves. It’s hard to be, rather than to do.

But remember who we’re waiting for. We await the coming of our Savior, our Redeemer, the One who loves us enough to give his own life for us. The coming of our Lord is not something to be dreaded, but anticipated. We long for the coming of God’s kingdom, because we have already been claimed as children of God. We have been given new life. We are citizens of God’s kingdom.

In this season of Advent, as you wait and prepare for the coming of the Lord, remember it is Christ who makes you ready. The light is coming into this dim world. Ready or not, the Lord is coming. And be at peace, for the Lord’s coming is good news for us and for all of creation. May God bless you as you wait. Amen