Rev. Tom Lenhart
Sermon December 3, 2006
“Active Waiting?”
Jeremiah 33: 14-16 and Luke 21: 25-36

Let us pray.

“[A] coming or arrival”[1] that is how Webster’s Third International Dictionary defines the word “advent”. And for us as Christians when used with a capital “A”, Advent refers to those four weeks prior to Christmas day when we focus on Jesus’ coming into the world in Bethlehem.  So it is that Advent is fundamentally about waiting.  We are as a church waiting for that divine birth that changed everything -- a babe born to an ordinary family and laid in a manger because there was no room in the Inn or anywhere else.  Nothing special another baby born -- another number for the census, seemingly nothing out of the ordinary and yet this babe was pursued by wise men and feared by rulers. Of course, this was the birth of the prophesized Son of David and of God come into the world to change it forever as all so poignantly and brilliantly described by Luke and Matthew.

Waiting that is something that we all do on a daily basis – for a letter to arrive, for the train to come, for the light to change, for the sales to start, for the line to move forward. Ah, the list is long and in this world we have either become good at waiting or we take a lot of antacids or fill the air either silently or out loud with the most descriptive words in our vocabulary as we wait yet again for this or that. 

As I sat in the doctor’s office this week seeking to save my voice for today as I struggled with laryngitis – not surprisingly I thought about waiting. But it was not about the sometimes seeming interminable time it takes to be treated or how often the medical profession inexcusably leaves patients waiting more than necessary for the potentially critical results of a biopsy, a cat-scan or a lab test – somehow forgetting or ignoring how concerned a patient naturally is about them. Rather I mused on how the nature of waiting is affected by what we are waiting for. An obvious point you might rightly say, but then I don’t always do my most creative thinking in waiting rooms.  

If the doctor says, “I am concerned, I don’t like the looks of that, we better run this test” – almost every one is going to be sitting on the edge of their sit with worry and fear until they know the results. Compare that to waiting for the results of the same test but the doctor has said “its likely nothing, but I think we should follow up to be sure, so lets schedule this test.  That patient may still worry about the results but not with the same paralyzing impact. If we are waiting for something unimportant like the cleaning or for that same old thing, like the newspaper, we are hardly interested. But that first letter from a freshman in college or a postcard from camp – now those in my experience peak our interest. We wait with excitement and eagerness and rip open the letter eagerly and immediately, if possible. We never get to the other items before we read the postcard – at least that is the way I remember it.  Is it possible to wait with eagerness this Advent? We know what’s coming – it’s the same old story!

            The passages from Luke and Jeremiah that you just heard are   words spoken to communities waiting, indeed, to communities in which what was to come seemed dishearteningly bleak. I think these passages were chosen for this first Sunday in Advent because we too are a community in waiting in which the future at times seems uncertain and dark. Violence seems endemic both locally and globally, hatreds among people seem more virulent than ever and our precious planet seems under siege as never before. What are we waiting for? Does it excite us? Should it?  Perhaps, Jeremiah and Luke’s messages may help us with our waiting. 

 The prophet Jeremiah lived and prophesied as Jerusalem teetered under foreign domination and then was conquered by the Babylonians, leading to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem   and the exile of most of Jerusalem to Babylon. Our passage is a late addition to this book, coming hundreds of years later, when the remnants of the people of Israel had returned from Babylon. Jerusalem is no longer recognizable; the Temple is gone.  Most significantly there is no descendent of David on the throne, despite God’s promise that David’s line shall rule Judah and Israel forever. Times are bleak for the people of Israel. Our passage contains the prophecy that God has not forgotten his promise to the people and will intervene through a new leader.

                        The days are surely coming, says the Lord,

when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house

of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and

at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to

spring up for David … (Jeremiah 33: 14-15) 

Luke in today’s passage too is speaking to a community that is waiting in crisis. Though the words in Luke are ostensibly those of Jesus and were spoken before Easter – in fact the words are addressed to Luke’s community of largely Gentile followers of Jesus after his death and resurrection.[2]  They were written during the last 20 years of the first century-- again after the Temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed. At this time the followers of Jesus in Luke’s community were under siege, persecuted unmercifully by the Romans for their beliefs. Their future existence was in grave doubt. Our passage is the prophetic report of an apocalypse to come during which the Son of Man shall return in a cloud and with him redemption for those who follow. “Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near;” words of assurance from Luke to a troubled people.

So it is that our two texts are predictions of what is to come. Unlike the doctors who can only suggest what might come to us from the medical tests we take, Jeremiah and Luke remind us that the news is truly good about the future and we can bank on it. The divine test results are already in and the news is good,   -- the coming of Emmanuel -- God with us. God has and will come into our world in the flesh -- out of love for us – all of us -- to bring justice, love and the victory of life over death. As John poetically wrote, “What has come into being in him was life, and life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  Is there any doubt about why we rejoice at this time of year? Halleluiah! What a gift and we didn’t do anything to desire it, we don’t have to earn it and it overcomes all darkness. Yes, we know the story -- we know how it comes out-- but what story. We are waiting for something that happened but more importantly for something that is happening – that is transforming now. It has the power to be like the first letter home because it is transforming every time we read and live it.

So lets sit back and wait for Christmas basking in the certainly of these wonderful divine test results – that tell us that the light shall overcome the dark.  But that’s the catch you see. That is just what we must not do says Jesus in Luke. “Be alert at all times,” we are admonished.  We are challenged to be actively waiting during Advent. Why? Certainly while we wait for Christmas -- we also actually have already received the gift of Jesus’ birth.  Advent is an example of prolepsis, a lovely word that means what is expected has already happened at least in part. It is the concept of getting a foretaste of that which we will get at the full meal latter on. Jesus is to come but, indeed, Jesus has already come too. Seems even clearer that we can just sit back and wait, secure in the knowledge that the day will surely come.  But critically the gifts that we have been given in Jesus birth that we again await for this Advent season are not self-executing. Jeremiah tells us that what God is bringing is justice and righteousness to the land. And in Jesus we have seen justice and righteousness as we have never seen them before or since.  We have seen a justice that never lets power prevail over truth. We have seen a righteousness that demands action, beyond simple justice, on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the helpless and the weak. So it is that we have seen Jesus welcomed the tax collector, the prostitute, challenge the powerful scribes and others who abuse their power, and champion the Samaritan.  We have been given in the birth of Jesus that we again await --the paradigm of justice and righteousness – a template for what should be done. Yet we know it does not just happen on its own. Certainly, in our system of justice – justice is not always done as power and privilege prevail at times at the expense of truth. And this occurs in the fairest system of justice in the world. And what of the existence of righteous in our world? Are there in our world no people sleeping on subway grates and bus kiosks, no people subject to physical and psychological abuse, no people without adequate health care and no people divided one from the other by hatred based on differences of race and religion?   The answer is unfortunately obvious and confirmed by our daily papers. Jesus brought us these gifts and will bring them again but our actions make them living realities. The power of the promise of Christmas is heightened by what we do in preparation for it.

But this is a time of waiting, isn’t it? Yes, but what our scripture lessons are telling us is that it should be one of active waiting.  But some of you will say I am already too busy this season doing all that needs to be done -- trees and wreaths to be prepared, presents to be bought, cookies to be baked, services to attend and, yes, an occasional party to attend. Now let me assure you I not suggesting that all of those be given up. Everyone should have a cup of wassail at this time of year. But what I am saying is that Advent is about finding time for the other -- bringing justice and righteousness even in a small way into our world. For example, this is an extraordinary difficult time for some. Loneliness is no stranger in some homes at this time of year. There are empty chairs around the dining room table at meals and stockings that will not be hung. Reach out to those in darkness– that’s Jesus’ reminder to us.

Sometimes at this time of year we are mesmerized by the plenty around us. I for one have found myself on occasion trying to decide whether I need one more present for a family member to ensure present parity and family harmony. But there are too many with too little or none at all to be so foolishly preoccupied; find ways to make a difference, albeit small ones. That’s Jesus’ admonition in this Advent season. Live out the promise of what is to come and has already been.   A wonderful teacher of preaching, Halford Luccock, wrote in The Christian Century many years ago   that we should live during Advent on our tiptoes not horizontally on our couches.[3] We need to be actively, indeed excitedly, looking for ways to fulfill the gift that has come and for which we await again.

David Ruhe, the present minister of the church in which I grew up, recently retold a story originally told by his Professor at Yale Divinity School, William Muehl. Some years ago Muehl apparently made a visit to an historic 18^th century farmhouse in Connecticut: I suspect located not far from here. The host a descendant of the original owners showed Muehl around the various buildings that had been added over the generations – all of which had been magnificently joined together to form this treasure of a house. The host had saved the best for last taking his visitor into the oldest part of the house – the area with wide floor boards, low ceiling beams and an ancient fireplace. Above the fireplace there was hung a musket. Muehl pointed to it and the host explained

“That musket belonged to my great-great-great-great grandfather... He loaded that musket and put it right there in hopes that one day he would strike a blow for the freedom of the colonies.”

“What an interesting piece,” Muehl said, and reached up to examine it more closely.

“Don’t touch it! It’s still loaded and it could go off!”

             [Recovering Muehl said,] “But I though you said …”

[The host replied,] “Yes my ancestor was a great patriot and all and he was of course eager to do his part to throw off the British rule. But he never seemed able to muster any enthusiasm for General Washington’s ragtag uprising! [4]

So it is that it is not enough to wait passively for Christmas even expectantly, we need to pull the musket down and fire it at the injustice and oppression in the world. We need to be active, indeed, busy at this time of year but on the things that matter.

Another barrier to active waiting during Advent is that we sometimes are looking in the wrong direction. One of the challenges is the beauty and the pageantry of the story.  It is wonderful. I for one cannot hear the story retold too often or sing carols    too frequently. Yet, we must not make Advent a time of simply looking backwards. Advent must not be a time of memorializing an event that took place 2000 years ago. It should involve a backward glance and a forward focus. Our passage in Luke is Jesus’ reference to the second coming. For the early church this was an event that was just around the corner; it was coming any day to release Jesus follower’s from the persecutions of their times and to bring redemption. It was also the time of divine judgment. We certainly do not live in a world in which many of us think about the second coming generally or at Advent. But the promise of a second coming is a reminder that the gift of Jesus’ birth -- of the divine invention into history   -- is alive and transforming today, if we will let it be.  The wonder of Advent is that we are not simply celebrating a past event or a future hope but a present reality that ties the two together.

 The darkness does not overcome the light – that is the promise of this season.   But the first lesson of Advent is that it does help if we lift the blinds to let the light in. So over the next 4 weeks let’s every day get on our tiptoes and lift those shades and let the light shine. It will illuminate the way to Christmas and beyond if we let it. Amen