Isaiah 35.1-10
Psalm 146.5-10
James 5.7-10
Matthew 11.2-11
It's so close. It's SO CLOSE! The season
we've all been waiting for...
So here's my question. ARE YOU READY? Are
you ready for ADVENT?
I know what you're thinking. "Wait.
We're IN Advent. Don't you mean 'are you ready for Christmas'?"
But no. The question stands. Are you ready
for Advent?
The reason I ask this today is that often
times, we're not. We're not ready for Advent. We don't often give it the time
and care and prayer that this season rightly deserves. Instead, we get caught
up in the season of hustle and bustle and frazzle and dazzle and lists and
lights and baking and buying and wrapping and ... well, we're all living in
December right now, we all know about all of this.
We miss Advent because we're caught in the
season of pre-Christmas. Yup, I just created a new season. It's cultural, it's
common, and it's stressful.
And our society has decided that it's good.
It's expected. It's a season that equates dollars spent with love.
And it Completely. Misses. The. Point.
Because Advent is none of those things.
Advent is NOT pre-Christmas.
Pre-Christmas is a season about judgement.
Judging ourselves. Judging others. Judging gifts, judging parties, judging food
choices, judging clothing choices, judging house decoration, judging
everything... it's all about judgement.
And seldom are things "good
enough" when compared to the neighbours, or the next community, or last
year, or...
Judgement. Deeming others unworthy so that
we can feel better about ourselves.
And here's a sad reality: it's what many
Chrstians are known for. A study by author Gabe Lyons showed that in the 18-29
year old crowd, 87% of them viewed Christians as being judgemental. Christians
are being perceived by the outside world not as loving and caring, but as
judging.[1]
This is not who we want to be. This is not
what we are called to be.
And Advent - not pre-Christmas - Advent
invites us beyond that.
Our scriptures this morning invite us to
move beyond judgement and into love.
Isaiah tells us that the pathway to God
will be a place of safety and comfort for all who revere and respect the Lord.
God's people will be able to move beyond all barriers (they're still there, the
lions and beasts, and the road is still long, but "the redeemed shall walk
there" and return to God and come to Zion with singing and joy. It's a
journey worth taking.
The Psalmist invites us to engage in the
world in a way that shows we are God's people. We're invited to open our own
eyes to the world around us and see the injustices that happen - and then to
take action against them. The Lord gives food to the hungry and seeks justice
for the oppressed and lifts us those who are bowed down and watches over the
stranger - all of those good things - through us. Through God's people. By
giving us every opportunity to open our hearts and lives to celebrate the power
of God in our lives - not judging, but engaging in real and meaningful ways.
James encourages us to be patient and to
strengthen of our own hearts because the coming of the Lord is near. "Beloved,
do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged." Instead, James writes, learn from the example set by the prophets,
and speak in the name of the Lord, in the name of love.
In the gospel, Jesus himself encourages his
followers to shift their thinking, to realise that what society thinks is okay
is not always the way that God is working. Here they are, lovely folks, who had
heard the message of John the Baptiser - yet now a bit later on they're
grumbling about him. Can you imagine their comments: John? THAT guy? He hadn't
had a shave or haircut in YEARS. Eating bugs and honey! Wearing camel skin! And
don't get me STARTED on the SMELL! Why on EARTH would we actually listen to
what HE had to say?" This is what Jesus hears. Judgement. Closed hearts,
choosing not to love. An unwillingness to accept that the way of the Lord is
not always the way of humankind. And how very blunt and earthy is Jesus'
response: what did you THINK he would look and speak and smell like? "What
then did you go out to see?" Of course he wasn't dressed as you expected
or as society would accept - but that does not diminish the weight of his
message. Repent. Pray. Believe. Love.
Our messages this third Sunday of Advent
are therefore, very clear. We are invited to move beyond ourselves, beyond our
comforts, beyond our societal norms, beyond trying to change others, beyond
judgement.
We are invited beyond "pre-Christmas."
We are invite to become people who love.
To love those who look like us, and those
that don't.
To love those who do things our way, and
those that don't.
To love those whose opinions we agree with,
and those we don't.
To love those we would invite to our homes,
and those we don't.
To love those who expect our love, and
those who do not.
To love those whom Jesus, the Christ our
Saviour loves, and those -
ah
- that's just it. There's no one that Jesus does NOT love.
So if Jesus loved all - and we are truly
preparing to welcome Jesus into our hearts and minds and lives - then we are
called to love.
THIS is what Advent is. A time of getting
ready to love everyone as freely and as honestly as Jesus does. It's a time to
love more than the world says is enough. More than the world expects. More than
anyone at any time is prepared for.
THIS is what we're invited to do in Advent.
To love. To see the presence of the divine in every single person we encounter.
To welcome anyone who comes through our doors with the same hospitality as we
would welcome Jesus. To assist anyone we are able to, as openly as if Jesus
himself was asking this of us.
It's a season that invites us to prepare -
truly prepare - as we wait for the Lord's coming. We are preparing not things
or places, but the space in our own hearts; the Advent journey is a time of
transformation deep within ourselves. Looking inwardly, not outwardly, at how
we might make the world a better place - a little more welcoming for that
glorious moment of Love made manifest in the person of Jesus the Christ.
And this is why Advent is so difficult for
so many; and pre-Christmas is (comparably) so easy. Preparing our hearts and
souls for Christmas is not something that can be put on a to-do list, or fit
into a budget, or scheduled in a calendar. Rather Advent is a careful,
prayerful, adventurous journey into the transformative delight that comes with
welcoming Jesus.
So in the next few weeks, I invite us to do
the unexpected, the unconventional, the unimagined: let's counter the judgemental,
pre-Christmas world with an unencumbered, uncontainable Advent love.
[1] http://wwv.group.com/refresh-the-church/blog/the-antidote-for-judgmental-christianity/#.WExPOBRjzdl Accessed 08 dec 2016
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