Advent Anticipation: Live Like There’s No Tomorrow!
Luke 21:25-36
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Georgetown Presbyterian Church
Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins
December 3, 2006
Maybe you've heard the story of the little boy who decided to write a letter to God one Christmas. He started out by writing: "Dear God, I've been a really good boy this year." Unfortunately, he remembered that God was all knowing and all seeing and he decided that he couldn't lie to God. So, he crumpled up that letter and started over. This time he wrote: "Dear God, I know I haven't done everything I should have, but I really tried to be good." He stopped and crumpled up that letter, too. It was obvious that he was struggling with what to write to God.
As he sat there thinking he looked up and saw his mother's favorite piece of sculpture on the mantel. It was a beautiful rendition of the Madonna, the mother of Christ. The boy perked up and ran out of the room. He came back with a towel and a shoebox. He walked over, carefully picked up the Madonna, gently wrapped it in the towel, carefully put it in the shoebox and then hid it in the closet. He immediately went back to the table and wrote: "Dear God, if you ever want to see your mother again . . ."
Every year when I notice that the packet of fliers that come with the Sunday paper is thicker than the newspaper itself, I realize that our world has taken Christmas captive. And every year at this time I am determined that it’s time that the church recapture the true meaning of the season.
And so we arrive at the first Sunday of the Christian year, the first Sunday of Advent. Of course, this is the time of the year when we remember the birth of the Christ child. And we gather around and sing soothing carols that tell the story: a little baby born in a stable because there was no room at the inn, the angels breaking into our world with songs of rejoicing, the shepherds who were among the first to see the newborn king... But if Advent were nothing more than the act of remembering what took place two thousand years ago, then it would be little more than a heart-warming exercise in nostalgia.
But Advent is more than just remembering the birth of Jesus. To be sure, the act of remembering is crucial, but it is remembering with an eye to the future. Advent is a blend of memory and looking forward. Advent is a season of anticipation that looks forward to more than the 25th of December; it also looks forward to the second coming of Christ, when the kingdom of God will be fulfilled finally and completely.
Advent is one of the ways that we are reminded that God isn’t finished with the world just yet. And so we enter into this season with a spirit of hope, an attitude of anticipation. Advent anticipation is filled with the expectancy that the way the world is today is not the way the world will always be. Advent anticipation is filled with the expectancy that God has something infinitely better planned for this world. Advent anticipation is filled with the expectancy of redemption and salvation for the faithful people of God.
That’s why we look forward to the second coming of Christ, because his coming again into the world will usher in once and for all the kingdom of God. I know we don’t feel comfortable talking about the second coming of Christ. We don’t know how to handle the mysterious language of the apocalyptic literature in the Bible. We’ve already been waiting for over two thousand years, and so we really don’t know how to keep on waiting for something that hasn’t happened in so long. And we don’t really like to think in terms of the supernatural, because it’s beyond our ability to control and our ability to predict. So we simply let our thoughts about the second coming sit on the shelf, gathering dust.
But apathy and resignation are not the right attitude to have, says Jesus. Hold your heads high, he says, because the second coming is not something for Christians to fear, but to welcome with joy. Hold your heads high, because the second coming is about redemption and salvation. If you read through what Jesus says in this 21st chapter of Luke, you will see that Advent anticipation is about assurance, it’s about waiting and watching, and it’s about faithful living.
Advent is about the hope that the way the world is, is not the way it will always be. Truthfully, even when things are going well for us personally, we don’t have to look far to realize that our world is in need of redemption. The death toll mounts daily in Iraq, to the point that we have long become numb to its magnitude. This whole story of the former Russian spy who was poisoned with a radioactive substance--what a sinister side of humanity has been exposed as we have seen details unfold. And for every story that hits the news stands, there are thousands of others that take on a more personal nature--stories of marital unfaithfulness, of abuse and addiction, of criminals who are just children, of fraud and deceit and theft. It doesn’t take much to recognize that our world is in need of redemption. It seems like evil and sin and brokenness have the upper hand.
But the hope and assurance of Advent tells us a different story. "Stand up and lift up your head," says Jesus, "for your redemption is drawing near." It is a story that says that God has other things planned, that evil will not always have the upper hand. As the psalmist says, "the scepter of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous..." We look forward to the second coming of Christ because it means that "the present sinful state of the world is not going to last forever. Our wars and violence and hatreds, our sufferings and heartbreaks and fears--all will be abolished when the Son of Man comes to usher in the final rule of God. Our ‘redemption’ from evil and sin and death will finally come..." and that, my friends, is cause for joy, not fear. Advent anticipation is about hearing the assurance of Christ, and finding in his words comfort and hope.
Advent anticipation is also about watching and waiting. This is the part where people often get into trouble. Watching and waiting is not the same as predicting. Elsewhere, Jesus warns us not to try to predict the day and the hour. Watching and waiting is not about predicting; it’s about preparing our lives and our hearts. We don’t know when Jesus will return; yet the call to us today is the same as it was to his disciples: Look for the signs of the coming kingdom so that when it comes, you’re ready.
Waiting and watching is the posture of the people of God. But how are we to wait? The kind of waiting that Jesus describes would not be a passive waiting, but a vigilant waiting and true watching.
I want to share with you an example of just such an active waiting. Now, most of you are aware of my affinity with the University of Texas Longhorns. But in the spirit of Christ, and to show that it is possible to love even the enemy, I will share with you an example that comes from the Texas A & M Aggies. If you go to an Aggie football game, every Aggie fan will stand during the entire time that the team is on the field. This tradition is tied to a legend that describes a game many decades ago when the Aggie team became decimated by injuries, to the point that only ten players remained on the field. So to keep the Aggies from a decisive defeat, one of the spectators leapt from the stands, dashed onto the field and joined the team; subsequently he ran for a touchdown, leading the team to a victory. Thus was born the tradition of the 12th Man. And so the Aggie fans to this day stay on their feet as long as the game is being played, ever prepared to leap into action if the need arises.
That, I believe, is the kind of waiting and watching to which Jesus calls us. Watch for the time, so that when it comes you’re ready. That’s what Advent anticipation looks like.
The third thing that Advent anticipation looks like I would describe as faithful living. Jesus encourages us not to get weighed down with intemperate living, or drunkenness, or anxiety. In the letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul urges us to a life where our hearts are "strengthened in holiness, that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all the saints." You really can’t have a serious discussion about the second coming without considering the kind of life you ought to live in anticipation of the arrival of our Lord. It’s not that we want to be found doing good works because those good works are what will save us; instead, it’s that we want to be found doing good works, because good works are what honor and please our Lord and our God. I liken it to making yourself and your home presentable for the arrival of an honored guest--you want things to be their very best, because the very best is what shows honor and respect and devotion to that guest. In the same way, we want to be found living holy and righteous lives, lives that honor our God. Even more, we want for our lives to be a witness to the world of the hope that we proclaim. Let your life show the world what it means to live into the hope of redemption. Let your life show the world the kind of Savior you serve. Live into the faith that you profess.
John F. Kennedy was fond of telling the story of Colonel Davenport, the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives. On May 19th, 1780 the sky of Hartford darkened ominously (later it would be determined that it was a solar eclipse that had taken place). Some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared that the end was at hand, and some clamored for immediate adjournment. Colonel Davenport, though, was unmoved. He rose and said, "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought."
You see, Advent anticipation is about grasping onto the hope that God is not yet finished with this world. It’s about actively watching and waiting, ever preparing ourselves to be ready when our Lord calls our name. And it is about living faithfully in the meantime.
Choose to be found doing your duty. Live faithfully as if today is the only day that matters.
Instead of fearing what is to come, let us be faithful until Christ returns. Amen.