A Sermon
Presented by Rev. Merlin T. Batt,
Interim Pastor of
St. Matthew’s United Church of Christ
At Maiden,
On the First Sunday of Advent,
December 3, 2006
Scripture Lessons: Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36
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This is a difficult time of year for some preachers, but not for the reasons you may be thinking. You see, the difficulty is not about the busyness of the season, with all the added programs and services. Nor it is about the heavier than usual pastoral responsibilities which come with caring for a congregation during the holidays. No, the difficulty, especially for preachers like this one, has to do with trying to encourage the observance of Advent when most everyone else is already celebrating Christmas!
Several years ago I came across a poem which describes the differences in theme and mood between Christmas and Advent. I can’t recall where I got it or who wrote it, but please listen anyway:
Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus –
Advent is about anticipating the promised return of Jesus at the conclusion of history.
Christmas is about fulfillment –
Advent is about longing.
Christmas is all brilliant light –
Advent is shadows and darkness.
Christmas is music played in major key –
Advent music is minor.
Christmas is clothed in white –
Advent in somber, royal purple.
Christmas is about experiencing God’s presence –
Advent is about the experience of God’s absence.
Now, let me say, I’m under no illusion about the likelihood of my helping the church to recover Advent as a season distinct from Christmas, especially since the church is set in a culture which begins “the Christmas season” on the day after Halloween! To imagine I could do that would be like thinking I could schedule a service on the evening of Super Bowl Sunday and expect a full congregation. I have learned a few things over the years, you know.
Nevertheless, for whatever its worth, my sermon today will be an Advent sermon. The focus will not be on the first coming of Jesus (Christmas, that is), but about his second coming, or in the words of the poet, about “anticipating the promised return of Jesus at the conclusion of history.”
This is a belief we affirm every Sunday when we repeat the Apostles’ Creed. Remember this phrase we said together a moment ago – “from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead”? Now, when I was a kid I thought it meant that it was only those who had died and those who could run fast would have to appear before Christ when he returned! That was some consolation for those who were slow of foot! That didn’t make much sense to me even then. But it was some time before I learned that “the quick” referred to “the living”. Thus the Creed is saying: from thence (that is, from heaven) he shall come to judge the living and the dead.”
Our two Bible texts for this First Sunday of Advent speak unmistakably about this expectation. In the first one, the apostle Paul, writing to the Christians gathered in the northern Greek city of
And then our Gospel reading, Luke 21, beginning at verse 25… Jesus is speaking, There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Make no mistake, Jesus believed that human history is going somewhere, that it isn’t just an eternal treadmill on which generation after generation tramp along. For Jesus and for those who have believed in Him, human history has a goal, and at that goal Jesus Christ will be Lord of all. Especially in the season of Advent, which begins today, it is toward this goal that we look with eager longing.
Almost two thousand years have passed since our Lord told His disciples to look for His return, and there is a chorus of skeptics who argue that those who still hope for His return are guilty of wishful thinking, unwilling to face reality. Albert Schweitzer, the great 20th century medical missionary, musician, and scholar, argued that, when Jesus urged the apostles to expect His return in glory, He was somewhat deluded. Others, like biblical scholar C.H. Dodd, assert that, when Jesus promised that He would return, He was not talking about a physical return, but a spiritual one in which He would be in and among us, nurturing and directing our lives, something we can experience while the years roll on without end.
In spite of those like Schweitzer who discount Jesus’ promise of return and those like Dodd who reinterpret His promise in order to make it fit within our modern world view, at the heart of the New Testament, and in the center of the Christian tradition, and in the beliefs of millions of everyday Christian folk, there is the expectation of Jesus Christ’s physical return to earth, after which He will establish His reign on earth even as it presently exists in heaven. Or, as the Creed says it, “he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”
Through the years of my ministry, I confess that I have been hesitant to preach often about the return of Jesus Christ. I suppose it’s because I didn’t want to be associated with those preachers who claim to know more than Jesus knew about all this. The landscape, particularly here in the Bible Belt, is littered with date-setters, preachers who talk obsessively about how current events fulfill biblical prophecies, and, therefore, about how they have figured out when, in the next little time, we should expect Jesus to return. They tend, therefore, to rejoice at bad news, even to welcome the prospect of disasters, as it provides yet more evidence for their misguided predictions about Jesus’ imminent return.
Maybe you know the name Tony Campolo. Tony is an American Baptist minister and popular author, an entertaining lecturer. In his book Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God, he tells of the time he was browsing in a used book store. He came upon a book entitled, Why Jesus Will Return in 1974! Campolo goes on to say, “I sometimes say facetiously that when Jesus was asked about when we should expect His return, He said, ‘I don’t know, you’ll have to ask some American evangelist.’” Actually, what Jesus did say about this business of his return was this: …about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. (Mark 13:32) Alas, you would think that would be enough to put a stop to all the end-time speculating that goes on in the name of Jesus!
In doing some reading in preparation for today’s sermon, I found this interesting question in something written by Soren Kierkegaard, the 19th century Danish theologian and philosopher. He said, “Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when every one has to throw off his mask?” Now, I don’t know that Kierkegaard had the Second Coming of Christ in mind when he wrote these words, but I like his image nonetheless. For the Scriptures do tell us unmistakably that “there comes a midnight hour,” a time when we shall stand before the Lord, a time when all that is hidden is revealed, a time of judgment, and a time of redemption for those who have loved Him.
If that is true, as the Bible claims unmistakably, then the pressing question for us who acknowledge “there comes a midnight hour,” who anticipate Christ’s return at the end of history is this: “How should we live now in light of His promised return?” The answer given by Reinhold Niebuhr in the middle of the last century remains in my view a balanced and deeply Christian one. Niebuhr said that we Christians should live as though Christ might return within the day, and that we ought to plan as though He might not return within our lifetime.
This is excellent advice! You see, living in the belief that Christ’s return is imminent creates in us a sense of urgency. There are things we have done for which we need to work at mending fences. There are people whom we should visit. There are family members to whom we should be reconciled. There are neighbors and co-workers with whom we ought to be sharing the good news of Christ. For these and other important matters of witness and service we may not have tomorrow. So we’d better get on with them now! That’s what Niebuhr meant when he said that we Christians should live as though Christ might return today, lending to each hour of the day a sense of Divine urgency.
But the other emphasis made by Niebuhr is also important if we are to live a balanced Christian life – we ought to plan as though Christ might not return within our lifetime. There are long-term commitments required of us if we are to care for ourselves and others, and for the coming generations. There are things we need to be doing to provide for the ongoing mission of the Church. There are steps to take now toward building a better society in the future. We must have a long-term perspective so we can live a life of witness and service for years to come. That’s what Niebuhr meant when he said that we Christians ought to plan as though Christ might not return within our lifetime.
So, brothers and sisters in Christ, in this odd season of Advent, misunderstood by many and ignored by most, we are reminded that “there comes a midnight hour when everyone must throw off his mask.” History is going somewhere. It does have a goal, and at that goal Jesus Christ will be Lord of all. When the goal will be reached, when Christ shall return and establish His kingdom on earth, none of us knows, not even the angels in heaven! But we should live as though it will be today, and we should be making plans as though it will not be reached within our lifetime. In the meantime,
Joy to the world! the Lord is come:
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.
