Introduction
It is my hope and prayer that despite the circumstances of the global health crisis we find ourselves within each of you was able to find a way to have a very happy Thanksgiving celebration this past week. Perhaps you, like my family, spent hours on Zoom making connections with those who were far away, or even not so far away, but because of stay-at-home orders were further away than you wanted.
Violet and A.J. made the best of the situation, finding joy running back and forth between the two rooms where Julie had one device streaming our zoom gathering, and I was in another room streaming on another device.
Perhaps you, like my family, included doing altered versions of your usual Thanksgiving traditions. The Barkovichs still played Turkey Bingo and read our Thanksgiving interviews. The Rumburgs told again the story of the failed Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt’s house with the usual lamenting laughter around a hard lessoned learned.
Trying to make things as normal as possible helped, but no, it wasn’t the same. Everything was still upended and not how it was supposed to be and the prospects of our Christmas celebrations being impacted in similar fashion is hard to think about because Christmas might also be upended and not how it is supposed to be.
Today this reality is even more stark because we were ready to begin again in-person worship—albeit in limited fashion—on this the first Sunday of Advent, a favorite season of mine and yours too.
But as I often say, in times such as these we still have a choice before us. We can still chose how we will perceive and live into that which is the reality of the day.
We can chose to be those who see this reality as a time of oppression, or as a time that is preparing us for something new that is surely coming.
And what Advent assures us is always coming is the hope, peace, joy, and love of God found in the birth of Jesus Christ.
So let me say this right now, at the beginning of this Advent season, so that you can make the choice to or not to set this in your mind, heart, and spirit… No matter what…Christmas is coming and Christmas will come.
Say that to yourself. No matter what…Christmas is coming and Christmas will come.
Write it down if you need to. Put it on your refrigerator or bathroom mirror or in your pocket—but make it a constant fixture each day to remind yourself, and to give yourself the hope filled assurance that no matter what…Christmas is coming and Christmas will come.
Because when we keep this message front and center in our minds, hearts, and spirits, then what can potentially cause us to miss the sacredness that surrounds us during the Advent and Christmas seasons will not be missed. When we keep this message—Christmas is coming and Christmas will come—we receive the hope, peace, joy, and love that abounds no matter life’s varied circumstances.
Move 1
I am intentional in making this message front and center on this first Sunday of Advent because when facing a time in their history when everything was upended and not as it was supposed to be the prophet Isaiah told the people of God the same message. Isaiah is well known for his messianic prophecies because he is well aware of humanity’s need for a messiah as well as being aware of God’s love for God’s children.
Isaiah knows there is reason to hope, there is reason to believe, there is reason to have faith because God is going to do again what God has always done. And that means God is going to show up, meet us where we are, and make possible a pathway toward new and renewed life.
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In our text for today, Isaiah is speaking to a people who have been sent into exile, relegated there by a Babylonian invasion. This is the emotional, psychological and spiritual context of the Isaiah text before us. The glory of Israel had long faded. The northern kingdom of Judah had disappeared, and now the memory of life and temple worship was a faint memory, and life was far away from the way things used to be.
As a result they neglected religious observance, they lived in open rebellion against God, their rulers had set up false idols and corruption, and disregard for the poor and disposed was rampant. They refused to listen to the prophets—the voices of God imploring them to return to a focus on God and God’s ways—ways that bring forth hope, peace, joy, and love.
It was a long time since they had enjoyed life as they knew it, and God seemed far away, as though God had abandoned them: “You have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.” But with the help of the prophet, God’s people began to recall the glory of their past. They remembered how God had always intervened on their behalf, and they longed to know and experience the presence of God again. And so the prophet opens today’s reading with the anguished words: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.” That’s what the Hebrews were again thinking about and wanting. Where are you God? Can’t you please open up the heavens and come down and be with us? Can’t you come and make all this better? It’s exactly what we’re thinking and wanting—especially in light of a Thanksgiving that was upended and not how it was supposed to be, and the possibility of Christmas being the same. It’s what we are thinking as we sit somewhere other than our sanctuary on the first Sunday of Advent.
Which is why Isaiah is giving this message—to the ancient Hebrews of yesterday, and to us today. He is giving it because the Hebrews had forgotten God’s loves of God’s children. God loves to be with them in all times, all places, and all circumstances. Their God, our God, is always coming to us, but the Israelites had forgotten this because of all that was happening to them because life as they knew it was upended and not how it was supposed to be.
Which begs us to ask…are we forgetting too? Are we forgetting that our God, who loves to be with us in all times, is always coming to us? Have we forgotten?
If we have, Advent is the perfect time to remember.
Move 2
All throughout the bible we see time and again that our God comes to us.
The Bible begins with the Creator not only bringing creation into being, but visiting our first parents in the Garden of Eden. According to Genesis 3, God came walking into the neighborhood where Adam and Eve lived: “The Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (v. 9).
God has always sought out God’s children because God loves to visit us and be with us. From the very beginning, this has been amply demonstrated: God visited Abraham in the guise of angels who sat down for a meal. God visited Jacob, wrestling with him in the night and blessing him and changing him for the better. God visited Moses in the burning bush on Mount Sinai and elsewhere. God’s presence went with the Israelites through the wilderness in the form of fire and cloud. God visited Samuel as a boy, calling him in his sleeping hours. God visited Elijah in a still small voice.
Now, the prophet Isaiah cries, “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down” because the prophet knows it is in God’s nature to come to us. And this is still true. God is always willing and eager to come, and even to stay a while! This is why we, who are on this side of Jesus’ birth, can rejoice in, and cling to, the truth… Christmas is coming and Christmas will come.
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There is, however, some work needing to be done before this visit. That was Isaiah’s message then and today. Israel wanted God to come, but for far too long they had not been paying attention to God—they had other things they were focusing on and that focus had convinced them God had forgotten them. But it wasn’t God who had forgotten God’s children…it was God’s children who had forgotten God. And this is where Isaiah offers some of his most famous words ever… “Yet, O Lord…we are the clay, and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
The Israelites finally remembered that to focus on God and root their lives in God was to be made in God’s image of hope, peace, joy, and love. Don’t let the circumstances of life mold and shape you. Let God mold and shape your life.
Move 3
This is the first Sunday of Advent—the season that proceeds the Christmas season despite what retailers and advertisers tell us. We hear again the words, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel” which means, ‘God is with us.’”(Matthew 1:23). This assures us there is going to be a reopening—a reopening of the heavens and Jesus will again come to us. Christmas is coming and Christmas will come. We know this truth.
Yet we are, like the people who heard from Isaiah, a people in a strange land— exiles so to speak. We long for the heavens to be torn open and for God to come down. And this is what we will get because this is precisely the promise of Christmas: Immanuel! God with us. God is with us throughout shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders. God is with us throughout quarantine. God is with us throughout social distancing— God is always coming close. But we have to do the work of Advent preparations, and we begin that work when we ourselves ask… What kind of visit will it be? How will we receive the Messiah? How do we receive him now?
Conclusion
This Advent and Christmas season will not be what we are used to. It will not be what we expect or want. Things will be upended and not how they are supposed to be. But it can still be what we need at Christmas when we open ourselves to the work of Advent preparations and the Spirit of Christmas.
And we do such not by dwelling on what is not…but by being the clay God made us into, and letting the potter mold and shape us into what God is always at work making.
Christmas is coming and Christmas will come.
How we let it come to us… is up to us. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer: November 29, 2020, Advent 1
To you Lord, we lift up our heads, hearts and hands in prayer.
To you Lord, we give our trust, believing that your word is true.
To you Lord, we lift up our deep desire for spirits filled with hope in a bleak and depressing world.
We lift all these things to you on this first Sunday of Advent because today we are reminded that you promised hope to the Israelites and you kept your promise. You promised hope in the coming of your son and he was hope for the world. You promised hope to the early church and that hope was not denied. You promise hope to us and we pray for your continued faithfulness.
We want and need that promise to be fulfilled again, here and now, in our lives and in our time.
Lord, we pray for strength when our faith falters. We pray for you to pour out your love so it fills our lives and the lives of everyone around. Fill us with confidence of your presence in our lives. Fill us with your joy and peace as we go through this busy time of year, keeping our minds focused on you, our hearts filled with you, and our arms outstretched toward you.
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Lord God, you are the one who is, who was, and who is to come, and so we pray for the virtue of hope, that amidst the trials and difficulties of this world, we may keep our hearts fixed upon you.
So as we begin this season of Advent remind us again that in the midst of Advent’s dimness you are bringing us hope for better days. Turn our hearts again toward you. Make us ready to receive your Son our Savior. Slow our pace, and give us the blessing of your hope at work in our spirits.
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We pray that you now hear that which is on our hearts and minds here and now, as we share them with you in this time of Holy Silence.
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All this we pray in the name of our coming Lord, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray saying, “Our…”