Sermon Notes first sunday Advent 11

Another Advent begins. Originally, it meant the arrival of a great personage, like the arrival of air Force One or getting to meet David Frees. Just like the origin of January, and the Roman god of two faces who looked forward and back, Advent looks forward and back. It looks not only back at the first Advent of Jesus Christ but also toward the second Advent when at some point God’s vision for the world comes to a completion.

I am with the writer of this chapter of Isaiah. He is writing to people to people who were promised better days, but they have not seen them yet, and they are getting frustrated. On 9/11 I prayed aloud why the plane cold not be turned as the red Sea had parted. I get so fed up that I do wish that I could see a sing of God wiping away the injustice and pain all around and putting us on new and better footing. I pass by a sign for a bankruptcy attorney on the road and it promises a fresh start, a second chance for people drowning in unpaid bills and debts. When I am in a down mood, I review the news and want to give up. Wouldn’t it be great to see the power of god clearly on the side of right in power? Isaiah begs God to remember all of the prayers and good deeds of the people. They were promised that punishment was closing down after the terrible events of the destruction of Jerusalem.When is enough, enough? When would they see some good from God’s hand.?

We who watch movies have better sense of apocalyptic material than previous readers. we are used to images coming at us quickly, and we learn a film grammar that helps us to make sense of them. i remember when our girls were little they knew when a commercial was coming up by camera angle changes and the music.When I was a kid saxophone music and a fire signalled a romantic interlude.

Mark’s 13 uses end time imagery to once again imagine in a biblically tutored way, the shape of things to come. Rahner sees our passage looking ahead to a reality that will come without fail (without specific timetable) and a person who unhurriedly works at a task within each day granted.” Over time apocalyptic material said the new creation would be prepared by the shaking of the old creation. The order of Genesis one would be shaken. Lenin said to make an omelet the chef has to break some eggs.

Ched Myers argues well that the turn of the ages is connected to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. the new age means that the powers of the world will fall like leaves on a tree. That means any power structure, economic, political, even religious that does fit god;s vision for a world fit for human beings.the times they are a changing, as Bob Dylan, someone familiar with apocalyptic thought wrote when a young man.

Facing a new church year, or a new page on the calendar can cause affirmation, perplexity, or fear.I don;t know if I want to get pinned down that advent means that the world is moving toward God’s constant reweaving the new creation, or that God is always on the move toward us. At this point in the life of this congregation, we do well to deepen our spiritual lives with advent devotions and rituals. Together we do well to consider where we are moving to meet God. Where God is coming toward us? What is on the horizon? What would we like to see on the far boundary?