Tag: Advent

#CHRISTISNOWHERE: Can You See Jesus As Your King This Christmas? [First Sermon of Advent]

Christians around the world today are beginning their preparation for Christmas by observing the First Sunday of Advent. Enjoy this sermon series called CHRISTISNOWHERE – a reminder of the difficulty but possibility to see the presence and work of Jesus in our world, not just at Christmas, but everyday.

What is Christmas really all about?

Sometimes we can become so familiar with a story that we forget or forgo the details of the story, which is what originally made it so compelling and transformative.

And that’s what the Advent season is for in the church calendar.

There is wisdom in the church taking a few weeks to prepare for our Christmas celebration. And if you think that odd or overkill, then that may be a sign that you’ve become unfamiliar with some of the key elements that make the Christmas story so enduring.

What is Christmas?

It’s the story of Jesus coming to fulfill the story of Israel in the most radical and unexpected way possible: their God will become their king!

He will personally deliver Israel from exile and place his Word in their heart, that they might become the nation they were called and created to be: a blessing and light to the world.

Thus, God emerges into the world through the infant Jesus, born into scandal and poverty, into a diminished, oppressed, and powerless family of royal descent.

But: Why does Israel need a savior? Where is their king? Why are they in exile? Where has God been? Why has he been absent?

In the days of Caesar Augustus, the people of Israel were enduring their fourth empire, and it seemed to them that God was no where.

So when the angels announce in the birth of Jesus the Christ (the anointed King) that God is now here, it was good news indeed!

And yet – the arrival of God was not like they had expected, nor did it initiate the rescue they had prayed for.

In our day, the church is the new Israel, we are the people of God, those who pledge allegiance to Jesus as King, our Lord, Savior and Christ.

We are into our 21st century since the ascension of Jesus to his throne at the right hand of God the Father, and though God the Father and Jesus the Son sent the Holy Spirit to be in us, it still feels at times like Christ is no where.

Christ the King of Israel came unexpectedly and saved his people in an unexpected way.

And now we who yearn for Christ to return can begin to empathize with the waiting of Israel as they waited for God to rescue them.

They had no idea how much longer it would be until God came to save them. We have no idea how much longer it will be until Christ returns to set the world right.

Do you ever get tired of waiting for God?

Do you ever lose hope about all that is wrong in our world? In your life?

Do you ever grow weary of waiting for Christ to show up and save you from your troubles?

You and the children of Israel both.

The season of Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas.

What is preparation? Active waiting: you work while you wait, you prepare as you anticipate.

And our four weeks of preparation and anticipation are to be a picture of what our larger life is to be like as we wait and work for Christ to come again.

When it seems like Christ is no where, that’s when faith becomes crucial and you choose to believe that Christ is now here.

We can all be like Thomas, and refuse to trust that Christ is here; and yet like Thomas, we need to hear the words of Jesus to him: you believed because you could see, blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.

I don’t know what you’re waiting on this Christmas.

I don’t know what you are waiting on God to do for you this Christmas.

I don’t know what what you are praying and pleading Christ to fix for you.

Maybe it’s health, or your job, or family, friends, your habits, your heart?

Maybe you want Christ to do something about the loneliness of Christmas, the grief and sadness of Christmas, the hassle and hustle of Christmas, the unfulfilled hopes and expectations of Christmas, the stress and busyness of Christmas, the commercialism and shopping of Christmas, the pain and suffering of Christmas?

To prepare properly for Christmas is to be honestly aware of what you want rescued from in your life.

For Christmas to be a proper preparation for our anticipation of Christ’s return, we must be clear on why we yearn for Christ to come back now and not later.

The people of Israel had a word that was both a cry of suffering and a cry of hope: Hosanna! Lord save us!

It’s a word you pray, it can be a word you shout, it was a word on Israel’s lips and hearts as they labored and lived under the oppressive cruelty of the empires – Rome, Greece, Persia, Babylon, Assyria.

The early Christians had a word for that pain and yearning: Maranatha. Come Lord!

It’s the perfect word for Christians at Christmas.

Depending on how you see and say the word, you can say it Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus! Or you can say it Mara natha: Our Lord has come!

The first Christians looked back to Christmas and declared: Mara antha: Our Lord has come!

And then they would look ahead and declare: Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus.

For you, when you begin to feel like Christ is no where, you can cry out like Israel, Hosanna, Lord save me! You can cry out like the early Christians, Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus!

And when you have been reminded that Christ is now here, you can declare with faith, hope and love: Mara anatha: Our Lord has come!

And this begins to get at the heart of what it means to see Jesus as your king this Christmas.

It means understanding his story and the story of Israel so that you can grasp the first story of Christmas.

By delving into this original story of Christmas, you begin to remember what Christmas is all about, and thus you can prepare and anticipate properly.

Christmas is not about celebrating a day, but an event.

But more than that, it’s celebrating and remembering the one who caused the event, and the one about whom the event is about: the God of Israel who becomes King through Jesus – the Christ of the masses.

Christmas is the beginning of the reign of God through Jesus in the world.

That’s what we are celebrating: the genesis of the kingdom of God where Jesus becomes Lord and Christ and establishes the church through whom he will be present in the world.

No wonder we need words like Hosanna and Maranatha at Christmas.

If God became present in the world through Jesus, and now God and Jesus are present in the world through the Spirit, and if God, Jesus and the Spirit are present in the world through the Church, which is the body of Christ, no wonder we despair and feel like Christ is no where.

It’s easy to see how the church has failed God and humanity and us in so many ways.

But we must remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against dark powers and evil forces throughout the heavens and the earth.

The church is the one people on earth where God chooses to dwell by the Spirit of Christ to demonstrate his redeeming love.

God’s design for the church is that they be a people on earth through whom he can bless all the peoples of the earth.

The church is to be a light to the world of what the kingdom of God can look like – a community where righteous justice prevails alongside humble mercy.

The church is the one people on earth that calls on Christ as their Lord, learning to be led by him, learning to serve him, and be his servants of blessing and rescue from evil.

When the church fails, and it seems Christ is no where, we cry out Hosanna, God save us!

When the the church gets it right, and it seems like Christ is now here with us, we can cry out Maranatha, Our Lord has come!

When we lose our way, we can look back to Christmas and remember where our story begins, but then we can also look ahead and remember where our story goes.

Just as God came once through Jesus to renew the kingdom of God through the church, so God will come again with Jesus to fully establish the kingdom of God on earth, and finally justice and peace will kiss.

(Sermon based on 2014 Lectionary Reading for the First Sunday of Advent: Isaiah 64, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1Cor 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37)

Prayer With the God Who Keeps His Promises

“Personal prayer is the meeting place between the Eternal One and me; the Blessed Sacrament is the visible sign of my covenant with him.

That is why I believe in personal prayer, and why everyday I wait to meet him in Eucharist. To pray means to wait for the God who comes.

Every prayer-filled day sees a meeting with the God who comes; every night which we faithfully put at his disposal is full of his presence.

And his coming and his presence are not only the result of our waiting or a prize for our efforts: they are his decision, based on his love freely poured out.

His coming is bound to his promise, not to our works or virtue. We have not earned the meeting with God because we have served him faithfully in our brethren, or because we have healed up such a pile of virtue as to shine before Heaven.

God is thrust onward by his love, not attracted by our beauty. He comes in moments when we have done everything wrong, when we have done nothing…when we have sinned.”

– Carlo Carretto, The God Who Comes

#AGuideToPrayer

What strikes me most about this reflection on God and prayer is the humility and grace it evokes and presumes. Particular, the emphasis on God keeping his promises to us – that being a stronger force for how and when and why he makes himself known or acts in or through us. This perspective helps undermine prideful piety and controlling attitudes meant for good.

Prayer is more than dialogue and listening, more than wanting or waiting for answers. It can also be about hoping and seeking, coming to terms with God’s promises, submitting to them, and attending to the means of grace he has made available, the mystery, the agape, the beautiful communion.

Daily prayers are good and helpful, even keeping the divine hours or as St Paul insists, without ceasing. But in our work, rhythms of life, our schedules, our busyness, what is the space I make for myself to be present before the God who has come, is coming, and will come again?

In my spirit, with my mind, through my body, I can cultivate habits that aid me in experiencing life Eucharistcly. As the wind blows, so does the Spirit; my communion with the Lord is fueled by his love for all that he has made. It is never just me and God; his loyalty to me is tied up in his commitment to fulfill his promises to renew all things. Saints from ages past and those yet to be born, those around the world and throughout my neighborhood – and sinners whom God loves redemptively – these are all who Our Father works to keep his promises, always, unceasing, faithfully. Prayer is built on trust, even when as small as a mustard seed.

What Comes Next?

What Comes Next? As the seasons change, we reflect on our choices and where they are taking us. A YMCA devotion for members and friends.

There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged.

[St. Paul’s Letter to the Christians in Rome, 5.3-4, The Message]

It’s that time of year when it’s natural to look back over the previous seasons and reflect on what did and didn’t happen. With a mixture of grief and gratitude, we look ahead to the approaching winter and the year beyond.

What comes next for you?

This isn’t a plug for making new year’s resolutions. Rather, it’s an invitation to consider during Advent the kind of choices you have been making. Past decisions profoundly determine what often comes next for us.

For Christians around the world, this season is named Advent, which begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day. The first Sunday of Advent is New Year’s Day for the Christian church, the emphasis being on the much anticipated coming again (advent) of the Lord Jesus Christ to our world.

Advent focuses on the promise that Christ will come again soon to make right every wrong and personally lead the world into justice, truth, beauty, and love. Not coercively, but courageously, embodying in himself what was originally intended for humanity – for Jesus, the means are the end.

Imagine how this belief can shape how you interpret your past and present decisions, as well as your future expectations and fears. Christians can be motivated by a beautifully compelling vision of the future which we strive to embody now in everyday life.

When we muse on what is next, it is not a blank slate. Christians around the world can count on the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost to shape our prayers, our perspective, and our participation in the complicated and often painful world unfolding in front of us.

We are not adrift in a world of random chaos or hopeless unhappiness. But it can sometimes seem like that if we keep our eyes on our selves.  Rather, trials and troubles can keep us alert for whatever God will do next, as embodied in the Christian calendar.

It may seem cheesy or naively spiritualistic to suggest that the Christian calendar can be a source of courage for how we look into the future. Maybe it is.

But consider how submitting to Christ and the Scriptures through it can develop a patience perspective in us, which in turn can forge much-needed virtue:

The twelve days of Christmas focus on the mysterious way God keeps his promises to his people – people that disbelieve him, mock him, reject him, and ignore him. Christmas is first about loyalty, faithfulness, reconciliation, and new beginnings that have not just a lifetime in mind, but millenniums.

These days are followed by what Christians call Epiphany, a week of Sundays where we pay attention to the stories of men and women awakening to the reality of Christ Jesus in their world. The wise men, John the Baptist, the wedding miracle at Cana. They all experienced epiphanies, eyes to see the ways Christ has already come, ways he is becoming real and present in our world.

After this is Lent, 40 days, not including Sundays, when Christians reflect on their present existence in penitence and humility. In light of how stubbornly prideful and passively aggressive people tend to be, we need this season more than we want to admit.

This preparation ahead of the Easter season give us context for 49 days of breathing new life into what is good and beautiful. It’s a season to renew our energy for acts of justice and mercy so that in our community life flourishes for all.

The seven weeks of Pentecost that come next inspire Christians with the expectation of God keeping his promises to empower his creative and redeeming love to flourish in the world through the body of Christ – his people fueled by the Spirit of God.

It is Advent now: what is coming next for you? Or, who is coming next?

As you’ve probably begun to realize, what you choose to do eventually begins to choose for you.

Sometimes our failure to control our future stems from not understanding the inherent consequences of past decisions. We live in an existence exuding entropy – everything eventually declines into disorder.

Unless an outside force resists the dis-bonding of people, where does the energy come from to reconnect, reconcile, and courageously forge a renewed future together?

May it be Christ in you.

This Advent, may Christ Jesus come to you (again), his holy and courageous love surrounding you; may he be to your left and your right, Christ above and below, behind and ahead of you, Christ next to you as you exude patience, forge virtue, getting ready for what comes next.

The earliest Christians prayed “Mara natha!” – Come, Lord Jesus!

This Advent, (re)choose Christ. 

This Advent, “Mara natha.”