Stop: A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent

Advent 1- December 1, 2012

I’m going to pick on my daughter Alexis for a moment- I have her permission- and of course she has negotiated lunch out at Five Guys.   So don’t feel too bad for her.

When Alexis has had enough of someone picking on her, when she has had enough of her little brother Caden poking her in the ribs- when she has reached her boiling point, when she doesn't want to hear something you have to say-- she in a very serious- in a very “I mean business" voice says “Stop!” – “Stop!”  “Dad, Stop!” “Caden, Stop!”    Her message is loud and clear—Stop and I mean right now. 

The church season of Advent- the season that kicks off today -  is the church in a loud and clear voice says it’s time for us “STOP!”  Advent is a time to put on the breaks and stop. To take a deep breath-- It’s time to stop and prepare for the coming for the savior, It’s time to stop and draw deeper into relationship with God. 

 

I have mixed feelings about advent—on the hand I want to say -Yeah right— the church wants me to stop--have you seen my schedule? Cooking, cleaning, baking, decorating, traveling shopping, year- end reports, there are parties family functions, traveling -Christmas cards- preaching three sermons in three days--  You want me to stop. I’ll stop when I’m dead--- on December 26^th.  

Anyone else feel that way-- wonder where ever are we to find the time to stop?   

 And then on the other hand I almost crave Advent- I look forward to the intentionality it invites into my life- Advent offers me opportunity to take Sabbath- to stop, to begin again, to put my relationship with Jesus back where it should be on the front burner. Advent gives me the excuse I need to stop-  I rationalize – well I have to stop it’s Advent- it’s what you do in advent- you carve out a few moments of every day- to spend some time doing something- that is going to better prepare me for Jesus’ coming.

This year-I am going to be spending some time reading scripture daily and then tweeting about my experience using Twitter and social media to share my Advent journey with others. 

Today Jesus is all about stopping too, but for a very different reason.  The world that Jesus is preaching about is a little bit different than the one you and I inhabit.  In the passage that Deacon Lee just read- Jesus has taken his congregation- into the future- he has taken them to the apocalypse- to the end of time-  he’s preaching about that day ---when the earth will begin crumble ,   about the day when the sun and the stars will be ripped from the sky- when there will be distress among the nations – when people with quiver and shake with fear and foreboding ---Jesus is preaching about when time will end – when he will be seen returning riding on the clouds.  

These are very scary images- and maybe even more scary given  that the Mayan calendar ends in just twenty short days-- cataclysm has been predicted I read recently that  the earth is scheduled to get sucked into some giant black hole on Dec. 21^st. 

The images that Jesus is preaching today seem to be images lifted right from the pages of Revelation, in which death and destruction reign.   But there in the midst of all of the doom and gloom-  there in the midst of the earth crumbling and the stars falling-people fainting Jesus say to his followers- when you see these things beginning to take place- Stop- stand up- raise your heads  to  the heavens-  because your redemption is drawing near. 

What you and I see as image of terror- Jesus is saying those are images of hope- because those things they signal that  Jesus is  close by, that soon he will be seen  riding on the clouds, soon he will be seen gathering everything together—making everything will be  made right, be made new.

But the only way to see to see that “redemption is drawing near” -- is not to circle the wagon is and worry about what’s going on around us – is not to do our best chicken little impersonation— running around announcing that the sky is falling, but rather to see redemption- to find hope— Jesus says stop--- look up—look heavenward, open are arms, our lives to Christ.  That is really the invitation of this season.  Stop so that our lives can be split open and God might fill them. 

How will we stop during this advent- how will we look heavenward during this advent-- where will we carve out a few moments here and there to prepare for the coming of our savior?

The church is inviting us in its most serious-  in its most I mean business like voice to stop, our spiritual well-being depend on our stopping- on our taking times of Sabbath—our physical health demands stopping—Jesus is telling his followers to stop--  because it is  only in stopping it is   only in lifting our eyes heavenward  will be able to find that our redemption is drawing is coming near- that Christ is coming and that our salvation is near and to see that- to know that is absolutely life giving.   AMEN