A sermon based on Luke 21:25-36 and Jeremiah 33:14-16
Don Friesen
December 6, 2009
Ottawa Mennonite Church
www.ottawamennonite.ca
Thanks, Patty, for changing the banner. I forgot all about it last week. It was so busy here, what with the Ten Thousand Villages clean-up, that I forgot all about changing the banner.
There's so much to do in the Advent season. Don't you find that? I thought it might be different this year, because Dorothy gave me an iPod for my birthday. It's so cool! They've got apps for everything! I downloaded an app with a great to-do function ... although I must admit, I could have been doing some of these things while I was learning to use the program!
Oh good! I see Willy got the Christmas tree set up. I'll have to get Sue to sweep up the needles ... oh, but Sue's sick! Must get someone else to do it.
Oh, Ghenette ... I mean, Grace! Did you call Heidi about decorating the tree? ... and also about setting up the creche? ...it being yet another thing I forgot last week.
Must add that to my To-Do list: Practise ...calling ...Ghenette ...Grace....
Oh, and I need to call Eric about the music for the "Hallelujah Chorus".
Ron, you're helping with ... Where are you sitting this week, Ron? Last week you were over there. Anyway, can you pass this note to Bonnie about the Christmas pageant? Turns out we rented the sanctuary to another group that night.
OK ... OK ... What else? There's something I'm forgetting ... Let's see. I need to call the readers for the candle lighting each Sunday. ...call Eric about the"Hallelujah Chorus" ...freshen the greenery mid-week; ...put those little Christmassy thingies in the windows ... if I can find them! ...Oh, and I need to buy candy canes for the kids at the Christmas Eve service ... also, some more candles for the Christmas Eve service ... from that Liturgica place. ...but there's something I'm forgetting...
Oh, Grace! Hey, I remembered! Can you call Carla about singing "O Holy Night" on Christmas Eve?
What else? What else? I'm forgetting something.
Oh, I better leave the bill for the new Advent candles in Kathy's mailbox. The year's almost over, and she'll want to close the books. That reminds me, I better write a cheque to OMC this Sunday. ...wonder if we'll meet our budget this year. ...oh hi, Monty!
Bet you thought I wasn't coming back! But I just remembered what it was I forgot! One more thing I need to do – I need to prepare, and deliver, another Advent sermon!
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare!
Christmas requires a lot of preparation – shopping; cooking; writing the Christmas letter; helping the kids get ready for the Sunday School Christmas programme; packing for a trip, if you're travelling; and if you're hosting any social events, there's that much more to prepare! It requires a To-Do list!
Our Advent Scripture readings also require a To-Do list! They all echo the same refrain: Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! The Old Testament prophet Malachi insists there is something afoot, and he wants us to prepare for it. God speaks through Malachi, saying, "I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight – ...he is coming...." (Malachi 3:1)
Centuries later an elderly couple – Zechariah and Elizabeth – receive assurance that Malachi's prophecy is true – redemption is coming! A mighty Saviour from the house of David! (Luke 1:68-69) ... And ... Zechariah and Elizabeth's son, John, "will go before (him) to prepare his ways...." (1:76)
Then, two chapters later, we meet John. Now, John's not my idea of an advance man. He's a little rough around the edges. Oh, he's colourful! Luke skips over John's weird wardrobe, but it's a gap two other gospel writers are only too happy to fill. (Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8) John's speech was uncouth ... but ... people flocked to hear him! And they had to go out to him to hear him. He stayed in the wilderness. None of this going to where-the-people-are-at business. No, out in the wilderness, away from the city, away from the crowds, but attracting a large crowd himself. What he said resonated with his people's imagination and memory. It rang the bells of messianic hopes. They remembered the prophet Isaiah's words, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord...." (Luke 3:4) John's voice was the one to listen to; it would prepare them for the promised redemption, for which they were eager to get ready.
If we were to put together a To-Do list of things to do, based on today's readings, it would be a list of three things: Prepare, Prepare, Prepare. John's voice was the "voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth...." (Luke 3:4-5)
Heavy-Duty Construction
Sounds like heavy-duty construction! When we built the last addition to this church, we had to demolish the house that was standing just about where I'm standing now. Don T, our project manager, allowed me the honour of operating the large back-hoe, and after about ten seconds of instruction Don told me to get rid of the house! It was very early in the morning, but the Werschler boys, wanting to see this awesome event, were here bright and early. Don told me that I could strike the house any which way, but to keep the debris off the building supplies, which, given my lack of experience, is where most of the debris landed up! In my defence, however, when you're doing heavy-duty construction – or destruction, in this case – you're not dealing with tools of precision.
When I was studying engineering, there was a poster in the lunch-room that read: "When planning vast projects, do not use half ...........vast ideas!" Large construction projects take a lot of planning and a lot of work. Some years ago the city of Pittsburgh wanted to build a bridge to ease the traffic in a city where two rivers meet to form the Ohio River. Those in charge of the project got approvals from the city, got the funding in place, prepared a budget, contracted with architects to design the bridge, lined up contractors, and were all set to go when a lawsuit was brought against the city. For two years the work was halted, with a partially-constructed bridge suspended over the river. In local stories it became known as "the bridge to nowhere". (story told by Thomas Tewell )
John the Baptist had vast changes in mind, and he wanted them completed. His To-Do list had four things on it:
Luke was quoting Isaiah, and they both knew that it wasn't road construction God had in mind. It was a vision of a new social order, much like the one Jesus' mother, Mary, envisioned when she sang her song of praise! She wasn't singing about decking the halls with boughs of holly-Fa-la-la-la-la! She sang about God scattering the proud, bringing down the high and mighty, and lifting up the lowly. She sang about filling the hungry with good things, and turning the tables on the rich! (Luke 1:51-53) Fa-la-la-la-la!
Luke, Isaiah, and Mary had in mind a new social order, and it doesn't take much imagination, even twenty centuries later, to guess what they had in mind. If God were to scatter and bring down the high and mighty Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, and Herod and his ilk, that would go a long way toward social change. If God were to lift up the lowly, those dispossessed by the big landowners, and feed those left destitute by land expropriation, that would go a long way toward a more just society. If God were to treat the rich with the same disdain and disregard with which the rich treated the poor, we might see some spiritual transformation in the hearts of those with luxurious comfort and power.
Are we Preparing for a Holiday? Or a Holy Day?
One of the questions Advent poses to Christians is this: What are we preparing for? Are we preparing for a holiday? Or are we preparing for holy day? Well ... yes and yes. Christmas is a holiday, and adding touches of seasonal beauty to our homes is a nice festive thing to do. Baking cookies, making gingerbread houses, and getting in touch with faraway friends through Christmas cards and letters is a good thing.
Advent, however, also invites us to prepare for a holy day. Christian communities also prepare for the miracle of the incarnation. We prepare for Christ to come into our homes and into our hearts. We prepare for the miracle of the Word becoming flesh, when our own words are challenged to become more than words.
We're preparing for a holy day that is also a holiday, and perhaps we need two To-Do lists. We need one To-Do list for all the things we have to do to prepare for the holiday: shopping, baking, cleaning, decorating and such; and we need a second To-Do list for the spiritual preparation needed to prepare for the holy day. John the Baptist tells us to take a good hard look at ourselves and our world. I wanted to say that he invites us to do so, but he doesn't; he tells us to take a good hard look and to make some radical changes of heart and mind.
Where is there a valley that needs filling up? Well, grab a shovel! Where is there a gap that we could fill with the talents and resources God has given us? Where is there a mountain that should be levelled? Places where we could help remove barriers for those who would like to enjoy the privileges that we enjoy? Where are the crooked paths in our communities that need straightening? Where are the rough roads that could be smoothed out by people whose Christian character fills them with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23) Where are the rough places that could be smoothed out by people whose care deeply about that which "is true, ...honourable, ...just, ...pure, ...pleasing, ... (and) commendable...." (Philippians 4:8)
When we prepare for Christmas company, we look at our home with a new perspective, wanting to be ready when they arrive. So too Advent invites us to prepare our hearts, our relationships, and our world for the arrival of some very special company – the King of kings! So let's get ready! There's a lot to do!
Slightly more ambitious than our own city crews, who don't get around to filling pot-holes until we've all wrecked our cars!
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.