Isaiah
2:1-5
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In 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.
Many 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.
He 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.
O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!
Psalm 122
I was glad when they said to me, "Let us
go to the house of the LORD!"
Our feet are standing within your gates, O
Jerusalem.
Jerusalem built as a city that is bound firmly
together.
To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the
LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
For there the thrones for judgment were set
up, the thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May
they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls, and security
within your towers."
For the sake of my relatives and friends I
will say, "Peace be within you."
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God,
I will seek your good.
Romans
13:11-14
Besides this, you know what time it is,
how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.
For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers;
the night is far gone, the day is near.
Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of
light;
let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness,
not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.
Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Matthew
24:36-44
"But about that day and hour no one knows,
neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark,
and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away,
so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.
Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will
be left.
Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is
coming.
But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of
the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let
his house be broken into.
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an
unexpected hour.
During the season of Advent, we celebrate
Christ’s coming into the world and watch with expectant hope for his
coming again.
The Book of Common Worship describes it this
way:
“In Advent we expectantly wait for the One who
has already come.
We anticipate the promised justice of God’s
new world,
yet
we praise God who raised the “righteous branch”
to
rule with justice and righteousness.
We hope for the restoration of the afflicted,
the
tormented, and the grieving,
yet
we delight that healing has come in Christ.
We long for the beating of swords into
plowshares,
yet
we rejoice that the Prince of Peace has appeared.
We yearn for the barren deserts of our inner
cities to flourish,
yet
we laud the desert Rose that has bloomed.
We dream of the land where lions and lambs
live in harmony,
yet
we acclaim the child born to lead us into the promised land.
In our communion liturgy, we say words like
these:
Christ was born! Christ has died! Christ has
risen! Christ will come again!
We must be ready! Christ will come again.
There is a bumper sticker I occasionally see
that says,
“Jesus is coming: Look busy”.
Lots of attention gets paid in some circles
to
whether or not we are in the last days.
Signals get pointed out and interpreted,
calendars
made long ago are tested,
happenings
both natural and man-made are identified
as
“signs of the last days”.
Why do we do this?
Why don’t we live each day, instead, as if
Jesus is coming today?
And does that mean we should just look
busy,
or
we should actually be busy with the work of God’s kingdom?
The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that without
God’s promise,
the
future is bound to be a repetition of the past for Judah,
for
the people of God.
But with God’s promise,
the
future is based on the faithfulness of God.
Tomorrow will be different from yesterday.
There is a break with the way things were.
The future is based upon the promises of God,
which
are always new.
God’s word always comes as law and gospel. In
the Hebrew Scriptures, it is not in a suggestion but in a proclamation: The
people will make peace, as weapons become, instead, tools for growth and for
food from the land.
The enemy is preparing for war, but the word
goes forth that God’s will is peace, and the people are called to join God in
God’s work of peacemaking.
As part of his commentary in Feasting on the
Word, the Rev. Dr. Noel Leo Erskine points out that “the prophet sees the
word of God, because he has his eyes on God and not merely on the situation.”
The warning for God’s people that is in this
passage is not to focus on the present situation in such a way that they lose
sight of the God who speaks and acts. Who is always speaking and acting.
God promises us that as God’s gift of peace
becomes real among us, all people, Jews and Gentiles alike will seek God, to be
instructed and directed by God. Those who are taught by God, and who follow
God’s word, will seek peace and will practice violence no more. One day this will
come to pass.
But when? In what days? How?
Here and now, two thousand years since Christ
was last seen in the flesh, it is much easier for us to pin our hopes on
Christmas gifts and holiday feasts than it is to open ourselves to the
possibility of believing in the seemingly impossible.
The invitation we are given from Isaiah is to
live toward that day, to walk in the light of the Lord, one step at a time, one
day at a time, trusting that God will provide enough light for each
step, enough light to live in gratitude for and obedience to God’s law and
God’s gospel.
As Paul says, get up, and live honorably in
the light. Get dressed in the Lord Jesus. Lay aside the works of darkness. Put
on the armor of light. It’s a new day - Wake up already! You know who you
are, you know whose you are and you know who is coming to make all things new.
So get up, all of you, people of God, and live in this new life! Live now as
though the day of God’s peace that Isaiah foretold has already begun.
Dag Hammarkjöld, former secretary general of
the United Nations, wrote in his journal, “For all that has been - thanks! To
all that will be - yes.”
His “thanks" dissipates regrets for the
past, and his “yes” dissipates fears for the future.
And what does it mean to live in obedience to
the gospel? It means to love as Christ commanded;
to love, not as a warm fuzzy feeling, but as
an act of pursuing good for a person, regardless of how we feel about that
person emotionally. When we love our neighbor as our self, we do as little harm
to our neighbor, and as much good for our neighbor, as we do to and for
ourselves. Emotional states are not what this is about.
To be awake is to not passively sleep
through our lives of faithfulness, but to make the most of each day in obedience
to Christ.
When we consider that every day could be the
day that we stand in judgment before God, as Jesus points out in the gospel
today, our response ought to be that God’s radical claims are for us here and
now. We live between the times! God has made all things new, and God is coming
to make all things new. How are we living in the way of Christ? How are we
doing at trusting him alone? How much are we allowing ourselves to be
distracted by our own cares and needs?
God has a plan. God’s plan is us. We
participate in the new future, God’s kingdom, every day, in order for it to be
seen through a glass dimly; in order for there to be glimpses, more and more,
standing next to and standing against the powers of evil and futility, of
hopelessness and hatred.
Every day gives us opportunities to be the
people of God, to live out our faith, to live as citizens of the kingdom of
God.
Every day gives us opportunities to walk in
the light of the Lord, to put on the armor of light.
Every day calls us to speak peace to those we
encounter, to use not a spear but a pruning hook, to nurture and to nourish for
growth rather than to tear down and destroy.
Every day we can show that we are indeed awake
and aware and ready for the Lord Jesus Christ to come again.
There are plenty of chances for us to step
into the middle of a confrontation or a hurtful situation and show we are
Christians by our love.
Mister Rogers told children a story about when
he was a child, how when bad things happened, his mother always told him to
“look for the helpers”. That’s us – the helpers when bad things happen. That’s
what we are called to be.
Here’s just one example of what that can look
like.
This is a story about a grocery store in
Albuquerque NM the day before Thanksgiving.
We’ve been given fair warning;
we
don’t need a calendar date.
Rather than keeping count of the number of
days to Christmas,
and
focusing on our shopping,
why not live today and every day
as
if this is the day we have been preparing for,
and
turn our selves more completely toward Christ,
seeking
always to reflect the body of Christ
in
our hands and feet and thoughts and words
and
hearts and minds.
Today is the day, dear friends.
Today is the day to do what we can.
Today is the day to do what we can in a spirit
of hope and trust.
Today and every day we can act in Christ’s
love in everything we do.
Now is the time.
We know the drill.
Even as we wait, praying “Come, Lord
Jesus!”
we
cannot wait to do what is right.
No comments:
Post a Comment