The Christ of Advent Points forward, toward a Day and a Way of Peace

Isaiah 2: 1-5, Romans 13: 11-14, Matthew 24: 36-44

1st Sunday of Advent, Dec. 2, 2001

In the cathedral of Lisbon, so I’ve read, there is a wonderful depiction of the mother Mary and her baby Jesus. But there’s something unusual about this Mary. She isn’t looking down at her baby, adoring him, loving him, the way we often see her in religious art. No, this Mary holds her child but she is gazing off into the distance, as if she’s trying to glimpse the mystery of what his life will be.

I’ve never seen that art work, but I can imagine it, and I am trying to keep it at the forefront of my imagination as this Advent season begins because I need this forward-looking Mary will to me to remember what Advent is all about. It’s hard to remember what Advent means, in part because we are immersed in a tidal wave of celebration that has nothing whatsoever to do with God, Jesus, Advent or Christmas - and about this I won’t even bother to say very much, because it’s so obvious. The commercial aspects of December are so laden with greed and guilt, so amazingly out of touch with the story of Jesus life - and yet so attractive and appealing to children, and - I must confess, to me too. I enjoy eggnog and Christmas cookies, and family parties, and giving and receiving presents, and decorating the house, and getting letters from old friends, and even the secular stories that surround Christmas. I like those things. But, as we all know, it’s a struggle to keep this massive tail from wagging the dog - to help our children, and to help ourselves discover and celebrate the meaning that is at the core of all this busyness. I believe it is possible to enjoy some of those secular things - remembering (as I always tried to say to my kids when they were little) that they are simply “fun things we do when we are celebrating Jesus’ birth,” - but it takes effort, great effort.

But even when we are serious about searching for the spiritual meaning of Advent and Christmas - as I hope and assume you will be - it would be helpful to have that forward-looking Mary as a companion in our imaginations. We miss a great portion of Advent’s meaning because most of our celebration looks backward. We tell the wonderful story of Jesus’ birth in so many ways - in music, art, drama, preaching, in the Sunday School pageant, and countless other ways - but why? Isn’t it all ancient history? Don’t we already know that he was born in a stable and visited by shepherds and wise men? I’ve heard that story for 50 years. Could I possibly have forgotten, so that I need to hear the whole thing again?

There’s a reason to tell the story again and again, and to ponder its meaning. In Advent we remember how God came to earth, in the presence of Jesus, revealing so clearly for us God’s nature, teaching what God expects of us, giving us the gift of grace through his dying and rising. Remembering the way he came the first time can help us to be ready for when he comes again. We sometimes say “Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas,” and that’s partly right. But what Advent is really supposed to be preparing us for is something much bigger any holiday, bigger than Dec. 25^th. Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of Christ, for the time when the one who first came as a baby in a manger, comes again.

I want to keep this forward-looking Mary in my imagination. I want to hear her saying to me “This baby of mine is just the beginning. He will come again. Look forward, as I do, and be prepared.......”

Both of the readings we heard from scripture today point us toward God’s future, the future that will come when earth’s history is completed. We can’t know the timing, nor can we cause this to happen, but both of these readings make it clear that something is expected of us in the meantime. What’s expected of us? The Second Coming, the Fullness of the Kingdom of God, the Endtimes - whatever you call it - is beyond our predicting. Jesus plainly said that he didn’t know when it would be, and that we couldn’t know - but that hasn’t stopped certain preachers and writers from producing a steady stream of books and videos and cassettes that all claim to teach us what Jesus said we couldn’t know - namely the details and timing of the second coming. I have to say that to me such efforts seem pointless.

But if it’s not prediction about the timing of the endtimes that counts, what does God expect of us as we join with forward-looking Mary and look for Jesus return?

According to the Matthew reading, Jesus wants us to be alert and ready. He said that his return would be as in the time of Noah, when people were eating and drinking and marrying, unaware of the coming flood. He said that if people would be working in the field, or grinding meal some would be taken and others left behind. The point here is not great sinfulness or wickedness. There was nothing wrong with eating and drinking and having marriages in Noah’s days; nothing wrong with doing farm work and grinding corn. The problem was ignorance, inattentiveness, lack of readiness - just as in many modern lives the problem is not great evil and immoral behavior but simply a secular indifference to God. Few people in our world hate God - but many are just too busy with other things, so that they become practicing atheists, regardless of what they say they believe. And what Jesus is saying to us in this passage is really very simple - though some preachers make it very complex. Jesus is simply saying “Remember that I’m coming again and live as if you expect me........ Keep doing the things I’ve taught you. Keep living by the values I embodied. Stay connected with me, and with the God who sent me, in a life of devotion and worship...... Do all these things, knowing that this is what I expect to find upon my return.....” As Matthew 24:46 puts it “Blessed is that slave whom the master finds at work when he arrives......”

The Isaiah passage speaks about God’s future in a different way, in a beautiful vision of a world at peace, words we read with special poignancy as we think about the violence we have suffered in this land, and the warfare in which our nation is involved. What moving words and images - the nations gathered before God for instruction and humbly submitting to God’s judgment; swords turned into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, etc. “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore,” says Isaiah. Where is this world?

I’m sorry to admit that it’s not the world as we know it, and since we’ve failed to achieve such a world in the 2500+ years since the prophet’s words, it’s hard to feel any optimism about the human race’s ability to make it happen. Creation of such a world is as far beyond our capacity as is predicting the return of Christ. It’s a new creation the prophet is talking about, that will come “in the latter days,” which is the Bible’s way of describing the time beyond our history. Isaiah is proclaiming, in different words, and with different imagery, the world which God will bring, the Kingdom of God in its completion - in other words the same culmination Jesus was proclaiming.

That peaceful kingdom won’t come in our time by our efforts. It’s God’s to bring, but like Jesus’ words in Matthew, this vision does require something of us. It doesn’t allow us to say “We can’t do anything, so we’ll just be as we’ve always been until God does it.” The prophet paints this picture of the world God intends - nations looking to God for judgment, weapons that kill turned into agricultural tools, nations living at peace - and after describing God’s ideal world, what does he say? The words immediately after this vision of peace go like this: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Isaiah 2:5). In other words the prophet is saying “This is what God intends; this is what God wants to create. And if you have seen the world in the light of God’s vision, you have a responsibility to live - as fully as you can - by that light, not by the dim light of this fallen world.

Advent says that Christ will come again. Both of our scripture lessons say “Live as if you expect it. Live as if you believe that God wants all people and nations to live in harmony - and if you can’t bring harmony to the entire world, what about peace in your house, your church, your school, your community. What about walking in the light of the Lord in these places? Live as if you believe Christ is returning tomorrow - so that if he in fact does, he will find you a truthful, prayerful, compassionate servant, doing exactly what he instructed us to do.

With that forward-looking Mary we know that Jesus is more than a baby born in the stable. Advent reminds us that the one who came as a child will come again.

I close with a little parable from William Barclay, a British Bible scholar of the last generation. He said that there were three apprentice devils who were being sent out by Satan, and before they came to earth to confuse and corrupt us they were asked about their plan of attack. The first apprentice devil said “I’ll tell the people that there’s no God,” but the Satan said “No, that won’t work. They’ll see right through it, because most of them know there is a God.” The second one said “I’ll tell the people there’s no such thing as punishment for sins,” but the Satan said “That won’t work either. They know in their own experiences that many sins carry immediate consequences with them.” But the third one said “I’ll tell the people that there’s no hurry to have faith.” To which the Satan said “Go, and you will ruin them by the thousands......”

Advent says “He came and we rejoice. He will come again, so live in a way that shows you are prepared. He will create a new world, so live in the light of the world God has promised to create.” We don’t know when that might be. It could be tomorrow. It could be a thousand eons from now, but that doesn’t matter or diminish our urgency. There is a blessing in living as God intends. There is blessing in living God’s future now. So as Advent begins, with that forward-looking Mary, we remember the baby that was born, and look ahead to the future he has promised.