Service for November 30 First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 2:1-5

2The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!

There is wisdom in the cyclical nature of the church year! As the church understands time, the story of God and humanity are embedded within the rhythms of creation and the rhythms of life; the seasons of life: spring, summer, fall and winter. Birth, growth, maturity and death. Everything in creation participates in that cycle, that circle that flows from one death into new life and begins the cycle again.

The church year is deeply embedded in the wisdom of that cycle so in the season of Advent, the first four weeks of our new year, we use the time, much as nature itself does at this time of year, to slow down. We prepare our hearts, our spirits and our lives for the coming of Christ again today and in the fullness of time. This is the way all humans prepared for the quiet unfolding of the hidden work of winter before the invention of 24-hour lighting that allowed us to extend wakefulness from the wee hours of the morning and deep into the night. 

Advent encourages us to slow down and rest in the rhythms of nature participating in the long sleep of hibernating mammals, and shortened hours of light.  We’re encouraged to wait, not resisting the quiet and the stillness but relishing it as what is proper and right and even what is necessary right now for our bodies and for our spirits to be calmed, rested and even rejuvenated.

In the early days of the Christian church, Roman observers wrote that one of the things that set Christian people apart was their odd commitment to restraint - to holding back, and waiting. Those Christians weren’t extra virtuous. But those early believers were filled with a sense that they had enough to be satisfied, enough to share, enough that they didn't need to viciously compete for things or for affection or for recognition.

Faith does that for us; it satisfies. It gives us confidence that as God's people we are enough, we have enough, and we have each other so that when there is need, we are not alone. God is providing everything we need for life.

Americans of the 21st century find this so very hard to do. So many people find it hard to wait that Christmas shopping that used to begin after Thanksgiving now begins on the day set aside for Thankfulnes or even earlier. Before we’re don’t giving thanks for what we have already received we’re lured into the search for “more.”

Instead of feeling satisfied with what we have and who we have around us; we feel the need to jump into the frenzy of the next event.  Which is not so bad in and of itself. But it does violence to the wisdom of the rhythms of which we are a part, emotionally, spiritually and physically. We need rest in our bodies and in our spirits. We need time to simply give thanks!

We need rest in our minds and in our spirits and Advent invites us into that rest. While the rest of the world is frantically rushing into Christmas we’re invited to wait; to notice; to stay alert; but this waiting is waiting for something in particular. We are waiting, alert, looking for the signs of God among us.

We’re alert to signs of God so that we can remember what is real; what is truly important. When we are alert to God, we aren’t satisfied with the glitter and flash that Amazon or Walmart are selling. We settle for nothing less than the peace that passes all understanding. We settle for nothing less than the peace that beats swords into plowshares and creates a table that is so long and so bountiful that it feeds every hungry body and spirit.

Advent offers wisdom to the wider world. It reminds us that joy is trivialized if we do not first acknowledge all the pain and destruction in the world; the sorrow in the world and in our own lives so that our celebration is not just a bloated exercise of denial.

This Advent in the spirit of restraint for the sake of recognizing what is real, what is from God, let us focus our attention at least once a day on the needs and desires of our friends, our neighbors, and the world. This year, let our prayers and our practice focus our attention on expecting the very best gift to come: God coming into the world with all the hope of God at work in us and among us to make God’s dream more and more a reality here as we anticipate that time when everything is made new, all people have what they need, and the weary world has real reason to rejoice.

Then, rather than settling for escapism, a syrupy act of delusion, we will be able to turn to the season of joy as a deep, rich and meaningful celebration; a defiant act of hope.

As we rest in the quiet, we’re encouraged to pay attention to what is happening right here, right now around us, among us, and within us.

The church, after all, reserves 12 whole days for feasting and festivity during Christmas. Both darkness and light are real, and our church calendar gives us time to be attentive to both.

In our Scripture, when angels appear they often begin by saying, “Be not afraid” Then they go to make some proclamation beginning with the word, BEHOLD. Like in the gospel of Luke when the angel announces, “"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy" (Luke 2:10).

Behold is an archaic word that means much more than “look” or “see”. It means to “hold on to completely.” To ‘grasp with deep understanding’ what is happening, what God is doing in our world.  We’re called to “behold” with the eyes of faith what is not only on the surface but what is deep in the fabric of reality – the reality that God is creating God’s peace and justice for all people even among us here now.

When we BEHOLD with the eyes of faith, we join with the peoples of all nations that Isaiah described streaming to the mountain of God to learn from God about God’s ways and how to walk in God’s path. When, together, we grasp with deep understanding, then we will learn to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. We’ll learn how to lead nations so that they will not take up swords against other nations; we will no longer learn how to make war.

Come, …  Behold! Let us walk in the light of the Lord, together.

Amen

Pastor Val Metropoulos