First Sunday in Advent

A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent

You know the signs. There's a growing excitement and some anxiety; the house is scrubbed clean and decorated to look special: someone's coming.


You know the signs: a faint, light headed-feeling, the swelling of hands and feet, changes in appetite, odd cravings, and nausea, especially in the morning. You know the signs: It's advent and we're pregnant again.


Someone's coming -- a whole new person to be part of our lives. The birth of a child changes everything. Radical change: Surprise. Earth shaking, all consuming. Nothing is the same . . . Are you willing to change that much?


When God decided to tell us what it's like to have God come into our life, we are not told a story of a conquering king. God tells a story of birth. Birth is what it is like for God's kingdom to come -- hard work & tears; fear & hope. Are you willing to change that much to have God come into your life?


When we read lessons like today's about Christ's Second Coming, we do so already knowing the surprise method God chose the first time Christ came into the world. Everything changes for Joseph and Mary. Everything changes for the whole of the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting. The kingdom of God is near - Are you willing to change that much?


Perhaps that is the change suggested in the bumper sticker I saw recently: "Jesus is Coming--look busy!" No one wants to get caught goofing off. Would you be ready if Jesus and all his saints were to show up right here, right now?


Looking busy probably isn't much help. Again and again Scripture reminds us that nothing we do can save us. We are told to hope in God's promises, not in ourselves. Salvation is God's work, not ours.


So when we see the signs are we to sit back and let God do God's thing? Our job then would be to wait for salvation, to wait to be delivered from our distress, to wait to be loved and given life. A bit like winning the lottery -- that's where most people look for their redemption -- to have everything paid off and all their problems solved. (That's literally what "redemption" means--being 'bought back.') We just wait and trust that our "redemption is drawing near." Just remember that we are to hope in God's promises, not in ourselves. Let God do all the work.


But we are Christians -- having been baptized, we are "in Christ." God's promises are for us AND in us.


The signs point to a new heaven and a new earth -- to a place of both justice and peace. And the signs point also to us -- to our judgment and our redemption. Perhaps the signs point not only to our redemption but also to our becoming Christ-like -- that sort of "Christ-likeness" that accounts for the joy that Paul feels because of the Thessalonians. This too is a sign that the kingdom of God is near: The world becoming Christ-like.


That’s our calling -- to become more and more like Christ. So, rather than expecting to be the passive recipients of salvation we are expected to be like Christ, like the one who saves us.


We're not going to win the lottery - we're asked to give it all away. In the coming of God's kingdom we are not so much to be rescued and loved, as to be rescuers and lovers. In this pregnancy we are not the much-loved and protected babies, being given life. We are the workers, the labourers who give birth.


Notice that today's gospel does not say that when we see the signs we are to relax. Jesus tells us instead: "Now when these things begin to take place, STAND UP and RAISE YOUR HEADS because your redemption is drawing near."


Birth is what it’s like for God's kingdom to come -- hard work, tears, fear & hope: New life that changes everything. Are you willing to change that much?


The signs say we're already pregnant. That's God's gift. We did nothing to deserve it. We can do nothing to avoid God's being born -- God's coming in this world and into our lives whenever God chooses. But we can work for it -- labour and delivery is our calling.


We can't make salvation happen. We can prepare ourselves for it. Get ready for the birth -- do what expectant mothers do: Eat healthy: Strengthening spiritual food is served here every Sunday. Get in shape: Try some spiritual exercises - like regular prayer. Listen to stories of experienced birth givers: Who brought Christ into your life?


In your own life, in the life of this church, and in the life of the world, we're pregnant. Are you ready to bring Christ to birth in the world?


You know the signs - Jesus is coming. "Stand up and raise your heads ---redemption is near"