Anticipating the Things to Come
Scripture References
Isaiah 64:1-9
1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— 2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. 5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. 8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people.
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Thanksgiving
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Mark 13:24-37
The Coming of the Son of Man
24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
No One Knows That Day or Hour
32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
Sermon Script
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and redeemer. Amen.
Anticipating The Things To Come
December is here, the most wonderful time of the year. Well, for many of us anyway. Are you making a list and checking it twice? Do you still need to put up the tree, string lights on the gutter, carry the boxes of decorations up from the basement? Oh, did you hear the news? Christmas is now going to be at your house… Oh my… now you need to clean, and prepare a grocery list… let’s see… peppermint, cranberries, pecans, white chocolate, and potatoes. Oh, don’t forget the spiral ham. Indeed, a very busy time of year as we anticipate the coming of Christmas… Anticipating the things to come.
That is what we are to focus on this first Sunday of Advent. Not the anticipation through cleaning or decorating but looking forward to much more important things to come.
The word Advent comes to us from the Latin word for “coming.” … Not only do we anticipate the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the nativity, but we also anticipate the coming of our Lord in His second coming. With the beginning of Advent, this is the reason for the season.
The reason for the season…
Yes, Christmas is on its way. But much of the time it seems the reason for the season is lost somewhat in the hustle and bustle of shopping, wrapping, and decking the halls. Hearing the tune of “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,” in stores that have been promoting Santa since Halloween… lost even further amongst all this… is the reason for Advent.
You see, as we begin this Advent season, it is not about preparing for Christmas. In our Gospel lessons the last few weeks and today in Mark, we learn that it’s about preparing for the coming of Christ and what our response will be with this anticipation. How we should really sing “Joy to the World,” as we transition the next couple weeks of Advent to the coming of Christ in a lowly manger in Bethlehem… For now, on this first Sunday of Advent, we must turn our focus to our preparation… as we wait… for Christ to come again.
Looking Back
If we take a closer look, our readings today reflect the beginning of Advent as a time to remember what God has done for us in the past… a look for what God is doing in the “here and now,” and a glance at what God has in store for us in the future.
In the Old Testament reading, Isaiah reminds the people about what God has done in the past, especially bringing them out of their slavery in Egypt.
I read to you again from chapter 64, verse 3 “When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.”
In the Epistle reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul begins with a reminder of the gifts and enrichment received through Christ. He writes in verses 4-5, “I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him.” The gift to us in the here and now.
Looking Forward
Then we get an apocalyptic glance of the future In the Gospel lesson of Mark 13…
We read starting at verse 24, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the starts will be falling from heaven. —- And the angels will come to gather Christ’s own into the Kingdom.” Anticipating the things to come.
Therefore, for a moment, we shift our Christmas thoughts from a little baby in a manger, who with cosmic proportions was heralded by a star, who is and always will be our guiding light … to when Jesus will come again one day, and when He does, the stars will fall.
“But when” we ask… In the world we live, there have and continue to be predictions when this might be. These predictions are seemingly justified by star alignment, various wars such as the one in Israel.
Global scares like the pandemic, ongoing political ramifications, or just the high level of evilness in general that seems to surround us.
One that comes to my mind that drew global anticipation… and some of you might recall… was Y2K. This was an Armageddon prediction in the digital world. Millions of people including corporate and government leaders, feared that the internet was going to crash on New Years Eve, 1999. Devastating much of civilization along with it. This is because computers around the world were not software equipped to deal with the fact that going from a number 1999 to 2000 would be digitally recognized. Thus, reverting all systems to the year 1900.
Power was going to go out in cities. Bank vaults and prison gates were going to swing open. Hospitals would have to shut down. Airplanes, railway systems, shipyards, would all be shut down as well. Data would be lost in all businesses, large and small. Riots would evolve and result in a revolution. A panic was in the works as no one knew to what extent the consequences would be until that hour of midnight ticked by.
The New Year’s celebration that year was overshadowed by the anticipation of things to come. So, we waited, and waited. The first minute of the new year came, then the second. Nothing happened………. This is just one example of the fragility of our environment and how easily it is to lose focus on where our anticipation must lie.
Stay Awake
Jesus tells us in Mark 13:32-33 “But concerning that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.”
So, we wait. As we begin another Advent, we wait with the anticipation of the second coming of our Lord. And what does Jesus say we must do with this anticipation?… Stay Awake. This doesn’t mean we should run around like Chicken Little or worry about worldly things that may or may not happen.
But for some reason there are still those that lose focus on where our anticipation must lie. Of all the things that seem to consume our minds about the day of our Lord… we are reminded throughout scripture about how we must wait… We are told that we must stay awake. And Jesus is looking for our response of how we keep awake… But it is important to know exactly what we are staying awake for.
When I think of staying awake, I think of the many times in the middle of the night when something is weighing heavy on my mind. But this isn’t what Jesus is talking about here. Staying awake refers to our spiritual posture, keeping alert. Staying awake when the world wants us to fall back to sleep in sin. When we are alert, we see things, and notice things we might not notice otherwise. If we stay awake and live spiritually alert, waiting for Christ to come, we will see Him so much better when He enters our room… When He dwells with us through the sacraments… Or when He guides us down a well-lit path He has prepared.
Season Of Advent
This is where our anticipation must lie as Advent begins. It is the antidote so to speak to the madness of the mall, the amazon frenzy, the proverbial Santa train. Advent is the time when we look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Are you ready for the Christ child to come?” Instead of “Are you ready for all the guests to come?” We are reminded that we live in between what was and what will be… The here and not yet.
Yet while we dwell in the Advent of our lives, other important questions might surface. Will I find my way forward when the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light? What do I do when the world seems to be falling in all around me? What about those who might not have the finances to jump on the Christmas train? Those who do not have a family, who might be spending the holidays without their loved one. Or the one who is battling cancer or knows someone who is. For those of you whom this describes, this doesn’t seem like the most wonderful time of the year.
This in fact is the reason for the season of Advent. Every time we tell the Advent story of our life, we echo the prophet Isaiah’s cry in verse 1, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.” And God does. God is faithful. God gives us strength to the end and that is where our anticipation must lie. I paraphrase Paul’s words in the Epistle lesson, verses 7-9… Amid our losses, we lack nothing as we await the revealing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Advent is a time to reflect on God’s timing… God’s time to lovingly prepare our heart, to reconcile our thoughts, words, and deeds.
A time for us to realize that we cannot change what has happened in the past, but also a time we will be able to change what we do going forward. A time for our spiritual bell ringer to wake us up and remind us to keep awake.
Anticipate The Things To Come
It is not easy for all of us, and it is common to wonder if staying awake or dozing off places you or me, on the naughty or nice list. As a child I tended to think that the kids on the “nice list” were always good, while kids on the naughty list were always bad. In my perspective I was always on the nice list… Then as I become a parent, I realized a child is not always on the nice list. What list would you put yourself on right now? What list would God the Father say you are on? I would venture to say we are all on the naughty list and by keeping awake, it gives us that realization.
So, what is our response going to be? This is the question for us on this first Sunday of Advent.
Yes, we were washed clean through our baptism, redeemed, and sanctified by His grace, then repeatedly forgiven as we continue to lay our sins at the foot of the cross. Because of all this through faith we know we will dwell with Him for eternity. Yet while we dwell on this earth we continue to sin, off and then back on the naughty list. Keep awake, for you do not know the time or the hour. When Jesus comes again on the last day, we will sin no more and with the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, we will be on the nice list for all eternity.
This is why Jesus commands us to stay awake. This is why we start the Advent season anticipating the things to come. For this is where our salvation lies, the reason for the season.
So, whether you are shopping or cleaning. Decorating or cooking. Maybe sitting by the warm fireplace, sipping eggnog, Let the meaning of Advent be part of your most wonderful time of the year as we anticipate the things to come.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ… may this glorious Advent season “keep you awake” as we anticipate the things to come. For one day we will follow Christs star to eternal glory.
And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen