11/29/20

Sermon Notes:

The new joy that Advent promises is not afraid of our worst nightmares. Perhaps this is another reason the first Sunday of Advent always begins with an apocalyptic text.  This year, our passage is from the “little apocalypse” in Mark 13:30-37.

The season of Advent is about waiting for the Christ child. Something is coming into our lives, something good, something saving, someone whose birth and life and death are all for the love of us.

The wisdom of the liturgical calendar takes us through this waiting every single year. Four weeks of anticipation, beginning with our fears and nightmares, beginning with the farthest point away from joy.

I do not know how the promise of Advent is growing in each of you at this time. I do not know if that growth will exactly follow the calendar timeline of being revealed to you over the course of Advent and born into life on Christmas day.  I do not even know these things for myself. 

What I do know is this: As Christ followers we are people of the promise of new life.

Contrary to the biological model of life that depicts birth, growth, maturity, decline and death, the Christian model of new life tells us the spiritual beings in these bodies of clay is made new over and over again in  our lifetimes by the Master’s hand.

Even into the moment of death, God is bringing forth new growth in us. I confess I would feel foolish writing these words if I had not witnessed it time and time again in my work as a chaplain. God is full of surprises and overflows through us as we cultivate open, willing hearts throughout the trials of this life. 

What new life is God bringing forth in you…

            Despite the illness you are facing.

            Despite the sadness you carry.

            Despite the fact that you feel superior to others and are cut off from feeling the need for newness.

            Despite the resentment you feel against the people who harmed you.

            Despite the overwhelming goodness in your life of which you already feel unworthy.

            Despite the tragedy or trauma that haunts you still. 

            Despite the struggles you face.  Despite the fatigue. 

            Despite the forgiveness you have not yet been able to accept or offer.

What new life is God bringing forth in you? What is being born anew in you?

We do not have to know the answer, but it helps to find ways to soften our hearts and open our hearts to beauty and goodness, to the touch of God’s hand on our lives that is bringing forth newness and goodness even now.

The Advent season gives us words and models and ways of calling forth an open heart, open to the new life poured out by God’s grace and the coming of Christ into our lives.