November 30, First Sunday of Advent

Lessons: Isaiah 64.1-9; Mark 13.24-37

Sermon Title: Tear It Open

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INTRODUCTION

  1. This is the first Sunday of Advent.

    1. Time to get ready!

    2. Time to get ready for the celebration of Jesus' birth.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Isaiah cries out:

    1. O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.

    2. He did come down.

      1. You can read about it in Exodus 19.

        1. There was thunder and lightening.

        2. There was a thick cloud on the mountain.

        3. There was the loud, sustained blast of the trumpet.

        4. The whole mountain shook violently.

      2. The presence of God in all his majestic holiness was present to give laws and create a covenant.

  2. Isaiah's cry is for the people of his generation.

    1. O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.

      1. The circumstances are dire.

      2. They had all become like something unclean.

      3. They were fading as a leaf.

      4. Their iniquities like the wind were blowing them all away.

    2. They needed a new revelation of God.

      1. Come down so that your name may be made known.

      2. Come down so that there could be a reformation in the land.

    3. In time God did come down.

      1. He did not come down with thunder and lightening.

      2. He did not come down with fire and smoke.

      3. He did not come down with the loud sustained sound of the trumpet.

      4. He did not come down on a quaking mountain.

    4. He came down to a teenage mother and a faithful stepfather.

      1. He came into the world in a manger.

      2. He came in the midst of lowing cattle and the bleating of sheep.

    5. He came down as the prince of peace.

      1. You can read about it in Isaiah 9:6-7, NRSVA

6For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

      1. You can read about it in Luke 2:13-14, NRSVA

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
14"Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

    1. In his world there was no peace.

    2. There is no peace in our world either.

      1. Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death (1) By Robert D. Mcfadden and Angela Macropoulos

New York Times, November 29, 2008

The throng of Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night, filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police had to be called in for crowd control, and an officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order.

Tension grew as the 5 a.m. opening neared. Someone taped up a crude poster: "Blitz Line Starts Here."

By 4:55, with no police officers in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had become a rabble, and could be held back no longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in with the weight of the assault. Six to 10 workers inside tried to push back, but it was hopeless.

Suddenly, witnesses and the police said, the doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged through in a blind rush for holiday bargains. One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was thrown back onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in the stampede that streamed over and around him. Others who had stood alongside Mr. Damour trying to hold the doors were also hurled back and run over, witnesses said.

      1. We are overwhelmed with what has happened in Mumbai

        1. At least 174 people were killed.

        2. A Rabbi and his wife are murdered leaving their son an orphan.

      2. What about the other major violent centers of our world?

        1. Afghanistan

        2. Iraq

        3. Somalia Pirates

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    1. While waiting for Helga to finish working, I was having a conversation with a customer in the General Store and Café. The customer was praising Barack Obama and the things that he was going to do when he assumed the office of President.

      1. He has major revisions for establishing peace in Iraq and Afghanistan, major revisions in health care, stabilize and grow the economy, shutdown the prison in Guantanamo, reduce taxation on the middle class, and much, much more.

        1. I tried to point out that promises were not precepts.

        2. The person said in no uncertain terms that he was going to accomplish all that he said he was going to do.

        3. I was amazed at how much this person had invested in the President-elect.

      2. I remember a passage from the Psalms, Psalm 146.3-4, that warns about putting trust in princes, politicians.

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.

  1. The miracle is that where there is no peace, God will create peace.

    1. The ancient cry of the prophet reverberates in our own day.

1O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,

    1. He is really going to do it.

      1. I do not know when.

      2. Only God knows when.

    2. The when will become a peaceful reality.

      1. You catch a glimpse of it in the song: Thomas A. Dorsey wrote "Peace in the Valley" for Mahalia Jackson in 1937, which also became a gospel standard.

Well, I'm tired and so weary, but I must travel on
'Til the Lord comes and calls me away, oh yes
Where the morning's so bright and the Lamb is the light
And the night is as bright as the day, oh yes!

There will be peace in the valley for me some day
There will be peace in the valley for me, oh Lord, I pray
There'll be no sadness, no sorrow, no trouble I see
Only peace in the valley for me, oh yes!

Well the bear will be gentle and the wolves will be tame
And the lion shall lay down by the lamb, oh yes!
And the beasts from the wild shall be led by a little child
And I'll be changed, changed from this creature that I am, oh yes!

There will be peace in the valley for me some day
There will be peace in the valley for me, oh Lord, I pray
And there'll be no sadness and no sorrow, no trouble I see
There will be peace in the valley for me, oh yes!

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  1. The only think that I can do is prepare and remain awake for the coming of my Lord.

    1. How do we do this?

      1. Listen carefully to the words of Jesus.

        1. This is what the disciples did.

          1. They listened to the words of Jesus in Mark 13:

28"From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

32"But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. 34It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35Therefore, keep awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, 36or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."

          1. They not only listened, they applied them to themselves and their generation.

        1. It is difficult, but it can be done.

          1. It is hard to contemplate the coming of Christ when the adrenalin is flowing, the pulse throbbing, the blood surging, the ears ringing with the jarring sounds of home and work, and elevator music.

          2. The American Quaker, John Greenleaf Whittier, complained of a similar problem a century ago when he penned a poem, containing the following lines:

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of thy peace.

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      1. It's also important for us to remain connected to the community that Jesus intends to gather when he returns.

        1. The Christian faith is a covenanted community, not an individual activity, so it's critically important for us to continue to get together for worship, service, fellowship and fun.

        2. In an over-scheduled holiday season, it's tempting to skip worship and head to the mall, or choose a special concert over a routine small group meeting.

        3. But Jesus wants us to remain connected in community, where we will be awake to his arrival. "You do not know when the master of the house will come," he predicts, "in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn" (v. 35).

        4. Here is Henri Nouwen reflecting on his fiftieth birthday. (2)

Within a few years (five, 10, 20, or 30) I will no longer be on this earth. The thought of this does not frighten me but fills me with a quiet peace. I am a small part of life, a human being in the midst of thousands of other human beings. It is good to be young, to grow old and to die. It is good to live with others and to die with others. God became flesh to share with us in this simple living and dying and thus made it good. I can feel today that it is good to be and especially to be one of many. What counts are not the special and unique accomplishments in life that make me different from others, but the basic experiences of sadness and joy, pain and healing, which make me part of humanity. The time is indeed growing short for me, but that knowledge sets me free to prevent mourning from depressing me and joy from exciting me. Mourning and joy can now both deepen my quiet desire for the day when I realize that the many kisses and embraces I received today were simple incarnation; of the eternal embrace of the Lord himself.

      1. It's important for us to be alert and ready for his arrival, living in a way that is in line with Christ's will and way.

        1. The best approach is to be alert to Christ's will, living each day with faith and love and a spirit of service.

        2. "What I say to you I say to all," says Jesus: "Keep awake" (v. 37).

Camp Leech, of El Campo, Texas, tells of some friends who took their 5-year-old grandson, Christopher, to church one Sunday. Grandma Bettie took her place with the choir while Christopher and his grandfather sat in the congregation.

During the service, Grandma Bettie motioned several times to Christopher to poke Grandpa and keep him awake, but there was no response from him.

After church, Grandma Bettie asked Christopher why he did not do what she had asked -- especially since she had given him 50 cents. Said Christopher: Grandpa gave me a dollar to let him sleep.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. On this first Sunday of Advent, our cry ought to be:

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.

    1. I'm ready.

    2. I'm prepared.

    3. I'm awake.

Joyce Rupp didn't see a spider web, but she did see a frost-web. Here's how she describes the experience: (3)

One winter morning, I awake to see the magnificent lines of frost stretching across my windowpanes. They seemed to rise with the sunshine and the bitter cold outside. They looked like little miracles that had been formed in the dark of night. I watched them in sheer amazement, and marveled that such beautiful forms could be born during such a winter-cold night. Yet, as I pondered them, I thought of how life is so like that. We live our long, worn days in the shadows, in what often feels like barren, cold winter, so unaware of the miracles that are being created in our spirits. It takes the sudden daylight, some unexpected surprise of life, to cause our gaze to look upon a simple, stunning growth that has happened quietly inside us. Like frost designs on a winter window, they bring us beyond life's fragmentation and remind us that we are not nearly as lost as we thought we were, that all the time we thought we were dead inside, beautiful things were being born in us.

    1. It is not only inside us.

    2. It is outside us as well.

    3. Being awake allows one to see both inside and the outside.

Amen!

1. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29walmart.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

2. Gracias! A Latin American Journal (San Francisco: Harper and Rowe, 1983), 120.

3. Joyce Rupp in Praying Our Goodbyes, cited in Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 134.

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