Waiting Expectantly
12/02/07
Advent 1
Matthew 24:36-44, Romans 13:11-14
Dear friends in Christ,
When I was a child, the longest day of the year was not the summer solstice, when we have the most hours of daylight. The longest day was always Christmas Eve, which is one of the shortest days of the year in terms of daylight. That day seemed to me to take forever to pass by.
Our family tradition was to always have a big family get together on Christmas Eve. It was sometimes at my aunt’s in Minneapolis, and sometimes at our house. It was the night we had Christmas dinner, got to see the cousins, and most importantly of all for a young boy, the night we opened our presents. I just couldn’t wait for that night to come. It seemed like the day took forever. “When can we go?” I’d ask my mother. Or, “When will they get here?” I’d ask if they were coming to our house. And I’d sit and look out the window, watching, waiting, for their arrival. And then finally I’d see lights from the car in the driveway. “Here they come! They’re here!” and I’d run to the door to greet them. We’d pile the presents under the tree and then we’d wait some more for dinner and then for the adults to clean everything up until finally the time to open presents had come. This is what I had been waiting for. The time had finally come!
That childlike sense of expectation has carried over into adulthood as well. There are still times when I can hardly bear to wait. Most often it is when I’m getting ready to go on an out of town vacation or special trip. The two trips I’ve taken to Tanzania in East Africa would be a perfect example. There’s a lot to plan, not only for the trip itself but also to take care of at home before leaving. Going to a foreign country is so special. What will it all be like? As the day to leave approaches, I can hardly stand the wait. Will the day ever come? Will it ever get here? Will I ever actually get on that plane to go? The anticipation drives me crazy!
Yesterday we had our first major snowfall. Every year it’s a big deal, even though many of us have been through snowstorms before. The weather people draw in their low pressure areas and track the storm. We try and get everything ready. We listen to the radio. We get out the shovel and snow blower. We find the boots and gloves and sleds. Snowmobile enthusiasts get their machines ready. We wonder if the snow will ever actually come. There’s lots of anticipation before that first major snowfall.
All of these are examples of what the season of Advent is meant to be. It is a time to patiently wait and live with heightened expectations of God’s coming into our lives. As the American culture pushes us to get ready for the celebration of the holiday, Advent pushes us to be ready for God’s presence, now and in the future. A few years ago, the B.C. comic strip had a Christmas cartoon that read like this: One small ant said to his father, “Dad, who is Jesus? The father ant replied, “He’s the reason for the season.” In the next panel the small ant says, “But Dad, I thought Santa Claus was the reason.” And the father ant replies, “He is--if you prefer Nintendo to everlasting life.” Ideally, in Advent, we have that feeling of great anticipation, not only for the gifts and family gatherings, but for God and Jesus being born in our hearts anew.
You can really feel this sense of spiritual anticipation in all three lessons for the first Sunday in Advent. It’s like they are written on the brink of something new. Paul in Romans says, “Now is the moment to wake from sleep!...the day is near!” Now I don’t know about you, but when the alarm sounds in the morning, I don’t always bound out of bed, excited for the dawning of a new day. It’s cold in the house, especially this time of year. I am often stiff and sore from working out over doing it in some other way. There may be things I have to do that day that I really don’t want to do. But sometimes, I get up and I’m ready to go. Sometimes, what lies ahead is something I’m really looking forward to doing. On even rarer occasions, something I’m going to do is so exciting, I can’t hardly sleep at night. It’s that type of excitement Paul is getting at when he says “Wake up…the day is near.” Get going, The Lord God is at hand!
The same idea comes through in the gospel lesson, where Jesus says, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” There’s anticipation, a sense of readiness, a looking towards that day. That’s how we’re to live.
It’s there in Isaiah’s words in the Old Testament as well. “In the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills: all the nations shall stream to it.” And then, “O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” Something new is breaking in and taking place. Live each day with anticipation for what is to come.
Advent teaches us that we are to live life expectantly, watchfully, anticipating the ways God might work in our lives. Do we always do that? Of course not. We’re human. That’s precisely why we need the Advent season. These weeks leading up to Christmas are the time for heightened awareness of God’s coming into our lives.
Now, if we live this way, with heightened awareness of God’s presence every day, I see two key applications for daily living that come from the lessons. The first is a somewhat somber, but realistic thought. The second, a more hopeful and optimistic one.
So first, the somber thought. If we live in that place of anticipation of God’s presence, we all always ready for the Lord’s coming, however that happens for us. I was never more ready for Christmas Eve to come than when I’d sit by the window and look down the street to see if my cousins were coming. I’m never more ready to go on a trip, than when I’m packing my bags to go. I’m never more ready for a snowstorm than the hours before, listening to the radio and watching the news.
If we live expectantly, waiting for God’s presence in our lives, we will be ready when Christ comes, however that happens for us. The gospel says we don’t know when. Two will be in the field. One will be taken, one will be left. It seems so unexpected, even random. And sometimes, and this is the somber thought, that’s exactly the way life seems to be.
On August 1st of this year, Melissa and I went to Brainard from the cabin, which is about 30 minutes southeast. We had some errands to run in town, and decided we’d go see the movie “Hairspray” with John Travolta, and then go out to eat afterwards. When the movie was done, we went to Perkins for supper. We sat down in the booth, and the waitress asked us if we knew anything about a bridge collapsing on 35W in Minneapolis. We hadn’t heard, and thought that was a strange thing to ask. Bridges don’t jus collapse. What bridge might it have been? Maybe it was part of a new one under construction. Well, we called one of the kids, and soon learned it was the 35W bridge over the Mississippi, the bridge we all have traveled so many times. Once we knew everyone in our family was safe, we couldn’t help but think of the randomness of this tragedy. There will be human reasons discovered for the failure. But that’s little comfort for those that perished or were injured. We don’t know when bad things might happen to any one of us.
When we live with anticipation of Christ’s coming, we simply do not have to fear such events. Do they happen? Yes. Do we need to be afraid? No. God is always with us. Nothing separates us from God’s love. Our hope is beyond the tragedies and sorrows of this life. Our hope is eternal.
The second application has to do with the way we live right now. If we live with daily anticipation of Christ’s presence and coming in our lives, we will naturally want to live as God would have us live. We always want to be ready for the Lord. As a kid waiting for Christmas Eve, I’d put on my good clothes early, anticipating the arrival of my aunts and uncles and cousins. If my mom needed help with something in preparation, I’d do it. Maybe my helping would cause them to get here earlier. You begin to live your life in anticipation of what was to come.
This is what Paul seems to be saying in Romans. Wake up, the day is near. Since that’s the case, “Let us lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, let us live honorably as in the day.”
Living honorably means living and serving and cooperating with others. He says don’t do selfish and self serving things, like reveling and drunkenness, or sexually immoral things like debauchery and licentiousness. That’s not what life is for. Rather live in the light, live as if you’re anticipating Jesus, put him on, and live accordingly.
There’s a reason why people are more generous and thoughtful of others this time of year. Some of it is motivated by guilt, feeling it necessary to justify our good fortune by helping others. But I hope some of it is Advent, having a heightened awareness of the coming of God to our lives and the world. Living in that anticipation causes us to live and act differently, as God would have us live. And, unlike guilt, which we can set aside after Christmas for another year, the anticipation of Advent can be lived throughout the year, believing that God is always coming to us and calling us to service, no matter the season.
There is a scene in the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown in which Queen Victoria’s advisors make a bold plan to help the Queen deal with her depression over the death of her husband, Albert. They hire a young soldier, John Brown, to bring the Queen’s favorite pony to Balmoral. They hope that riding will take her mind off her grief. Each day, John Brown stands outside her window and waits for the Queen to ride. But she refuses. One day, she sends him a message that she may never come down to ride. His waiting is useless, she let him know. John Brown sends back the reply, “When her majesty does wish to ride, I shall be ready.”
Advent is about anticipating and always being ready for the coming of the Lord to us. When we live that way, we live by faith, and not fear. When we live that way, we live for others, not just for ourselves. May we all receive anew this Advent that childlike anticipation of the presence of God entering the world. Amen
Matthew 24:36-44, Romans 13:11-14
Dear friends in Christ,
When I was a child, the longest day of the year was not the summer solstice, when we have the most hours of daylight. The longest day was always Christmas Eve, which is one of the shortest days of the year in terms of daylight. That day seemed to me to take forever to pass by.
Our family tradition was to always have a big family get together on Christmas Eve. It was sometimes at my aunt’s in Minneapolis, and sometimes at our house. It was the night we had Christmas dinner, got to see the cousins, and most importantly of all for a young boy, the night we opened our presents. I just couldn’t wait for that night to come. It seemed like the day took forever. “When can we go?” I’d ask my mother. Or, “When will they get here?” I’d ask if they were coming to our house. And I’d sit and look out the window, watching, waiting, for their arrival. And then finally I’d see lights from the car in the driveway. “Here they come! They’re here!” and I’d run to the door to greet them. We’d pile the presents under the tree and then we’d wait some more for dinner and then for the adults to clean everything up until finally the time to open presents had come. This is what I had been waiting for. The time had finally come!
That childlike sense of expectation has carried over into adulthood as well. There are still times when I can hardly bear to wait. Most often it is when I’m getting ready to go on an out of town vacation or special trip. The two trips I’ve taken to Tanzania in East Africa would be a perfect example. There’s a lot to plan, not only for the trip itself but also to take care of at home before leaving. Going to a foreign country is so special. What will it all be like? As the day to leave approaches, I can hardly stand the wait. Will the day ever come? Will it ever get here? Will I ever actually get on that plane to go? The anticipation drives me crazy!
Yesterday we had our first major snowfall. Every year it’s a big deal, even though many of us have been through snowstorms before. The weather people draw in their low pressure areas and track the storm. We try and get everything ready. We listen to the radio. We get out the shovel and snow blower. We find the boots and gloves and sleds. Snowmobile enthusiasts get their machines ready. We wonder if the snow will ever actually come. There’s lots of anticipation before that first major snowfall.
All of these are examples of what the season of Advent is meant to be. It is a time to patiently wait and live with heightened expectations of God’s coming into our lives. As the American culture pushes us to get ready for the celebration of the holiday, Advent pushes us to be ready for God’s presence, now and in the future. A few years ago, the B.C. comic strip had a Christmas cartoon that read like this: One small ant said to his father, “Dad, who is Jesus? The father ant replied, “He’s the reason for the season.” In the next panel the small ant says, “But Dad, I thought Santa Claus was the reason.” And the father ant replies, “He is--if you prefer Nintendo to everlasting life.” Ideally, in Advent, we have that feeling of great anticipation, not only for the gifts and family gatherings, but for God and Jesus being born in our hearts anew.
You can really feel this sense of spiritual anticipation in all three lessons for the first Sunday in Advent. It’s like they are written on the brink of something new. Paul in Romans says, “Now is the moment to wake from sleep!...the day is near!” Now I don’t know about you, but when the alarm sounds in the morning, I don’t always bound out of bed, excited for the dawning of a new day. It’s cold in the house, especially this time of year. I am often stiff and sore from working out over doing it in some other way. There may be things I have to do that day that I really don’t want to do. But sometimes, I get up and I’m ready to go. Sometimes, what lies ahead is something I’m really looking forward to doing. On even rarer occasions, something I’m going to do is so exciting, I can’t hardly sleep at night. It’s that type of excitement Paul is getting at when he says “Wake up…the day is near.” Get going, The Lord God is at hand!
The same idea comes through in the gospel lesson, where Jesus says, “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” There’s anticipation, a sense of readiness, a looking towards that day. That’s how we’re to live.
It’s there in Isaiah’s words in the Old Testament as well. “In the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills: all the nations shall stream to it.” And then, “O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” Something new is breaking in and taking place. Live each day with anticipation for what is to come.
Advent teaches us that we are to live life expectantly, watchfully, anticipating the ways God might work in our lives. Do we always do that? Of course not. We’re human. That’s precisely why we need the Advent season. These weeks leading up to Christmas are the time for heightened awareness of God’s coming into our lives.
Now, if we live this way, with heightened awareness of God’s presence every day, I see two key applications for daily living that come from the lessons. The first is a somewhat somber, but realistic thought. The second, a more hopeful and optimistic one.
So first, the somber thought. If we live in that place of anticipation of God’s presence, we all always ready for the Lord’s coming, however that happens for us. I was never more ready for Christmas Eve to come than when I’d sit by the window and look down the street to see if my cousins were coming. I’m never more ready to go on a trip, than when I’m packing my bags to go. I’m never more ready for a snowstorm than the hours before, listening to the radio and watching the news.
If we live expectantly, waiting for God’s presence in our lives, we will be ready when Christ comes, however that happens for us. The gospel says we don’t know when. Two will be in the field. One will be taken, one will be left. It seems so unexpected, even random. And sometimes, and this is the somber thought, that’s exactly the way life seems to be.
On August 1st of this year, Melissa and I went to Brainard from the cabin, which is about 30 minutes southeast. We had some errands to run in town, and decided we’d go see the movie “Hairspray” with John Travolta, and then go out to eat afterwards. When the movie was done, we went to Perkins for supper. We sat down in the booth, and the waitress asked us if we knew anything about a bridge collapsing on 35W in Minneapolis. We hadn’t heard, and thought that was a strange thing to ask. Bridges don’t jus collapse. What bridge might it have been? Maybe it was part of a new one under construction. Well, we called one of the kids, and soon learned it was the 35W bridge over the Mississippi, the bridge we all have traveled so many times. Once we knew everyone in our family was safe, we couldn’t help but think of the randomness of this tragedy. There will be human reasons discovered for the failure. But that’s little comfort for those that perished or were injured. We don’t know when bad things might happen to any one of us.
When we live with anticipation of Christ’s coming, we simply do not have to fear such events. Do they happen? Yes. Do we need to be afraid? No. God is always with us. Nothing separates us from God’s love. Our hope is beyond the tragedies and sorrows of this life. Our hope is eternal.
The second application has to do with the way we live right now. If we live with daily anticipation of Christ’s presence and coming in our lives, we will naturally want to live as God would have us live. We always want to be ready for the Lord. As a kid waiting for Christmas Eve, I’d put on my good clothes early, anticipating the arrival of my aunts and uncles and cousins. If my mom needed help with something in preparation, I’d do it. Maybe my helping would cause them to get here earlier. You begin to live your life in anticipation of what was to come.
This is what Paul seems to be saying in Romans. Wake up, the day is near. Since that’s the case, “Let us lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, let us live honorably as in the day.”
Living honorably means living and serving and cooperating with others. He says don’t do selfish and self serving things, like reveling and drunkenness, or sexually immoral things like debauchery and licentiousness. That’s not what life is for. Rather live in the light, live as if you’re anticipating Jesus, put him on, and live accordingly.
There’s a reason why people are more generous and thoughtful of others this time of year. Some of it is motivated by guilt, feeling it necessary to justify our good fortune by helping others. But I hope some of it is Advent, having a heightened awareness of the coming of God to our lives and the world. Living in that anticipation causes us to live and act differently, as God would have us live. And, unlike guilt, which we can set aside after Christmas for another year, the anticipation of Advent can be lived throughout the year, believing that God is always coming to us and calling us to service, no matter the season.
There is a scene in the 1997 movie Mrs. Brown in which Queen Victoria’s advisors make a bold plan to help the Queen deal with her depression over the death of her husband, Albert. They hire a young soldier, John Brown, to bring the Queen’s favorite pony to Balmoral. They hope that riding will take her mind off her grief. Each day, John Brown stands outside her window and waits for the Queen to ride. But she refuses. One day, she sends him a message that she may never come down to ride. His waiting is useless, she let him know. John Brown sends back the reply, “When her majesty does wish to ride, I shall be ready.”
Advent is about anticipating and always being ready for the coming of the Lord to us. When we live that way, we live by faith, and not fear. When we live that way, we live for others, not just for ourselves. May we all receive anew this Advent that childlike anticipation of the presence of God entering the world. Amen