SERMONS

Luke 21:25-36
The Reverend Angela L. Ying
Bethany United Church of Christ

November 29, 2009
What is Advent?

We know Halloween and even Thanksgiving.

But what is Advent?

Do we know?

Advent is a time of preparation.

You heard me. We actually need to prepare for this season called Advent.

So, if we need to prepare for the season of Advent — the first thing we know about Advent is that it is not a last minute exercise — which you can cram, like a final exam and then forget shortly afterwards.

Advent is a time of preparation.

It is intentional and requires that we carefully think things through without attempting to rush ourselves or each other.

Advent is, as anything in life we find worthwhile, a time to practice.

As I shared last week, faith in community takes practice. Practice, practice, practice.

Everyone who is on a team needs practice.

No one in community who is part of a team gets to just show up for the game and expect to play well. If you do, you may find yourself off course or running in the direction of a different goal.

And Advent is the beginning of when we as a team, in community, come together. Advent is when the practice season for the church begins before the big game of Christmas, Epiphany and Easter.

Advent is the preparation and Advent is the practice — so that when God hands you the gift of Jesus Christ, you do not fumble — filling yourself up with more anxiety, more stuff and more senseless indulging, all of which will leave you, ironically, more hungry and lost, than you were before.

Advent is the preparation and Advent is the practice so that when God hands you the gift of Jesus Christ, you know who and what is of God and can receive the gift when it comes.

Advent is the four weeks before Christmas or twenty four days, not counting the four Sundays or days of Sabbath before Christmas.

A journey of the community in preparation, anticipation and expectation to lead us closer to Jesus Christ and all that Jesus had faith in.

Notice that in the Scripture reading for today, Jesus gives us two action verbs to begin our Advent journey. Stand Up and Keep Watch.

Stand Up and Keep Watch.

Both require faithful action. Remaining passive or worse yet, passive aggressive, is not an option Jesus gives his disciples and us as a community of faith.

Stand Up.

Stand up as in you will need to get off your right and left buttocks and step up to the work at hand in our community, so together we can carry the ministry into the world.

Stand up as in your two feet are deeply planted and your body is grounded in God’s holy ground.

In standing up, you are in touch with the earth and how you are capable of both healing and harming God’s creatures, not to mention – healing or harming yourself.

Stand up as in you cannot get too comfortable with the ways of the world or you will transform into a couch potato – plump, misinformed and easily fried under any given circumstance.

Jesus teaches his disciples that even during these tough times, we need to stand up as a church — as a community.

Stand up to be counted and to be counted on in the community — to help people grow in a faith that does justice, loves kindness and walks humbly with our God.

And in standing up together, we need to be ready and willing, open and flexible, to serve in these difficult times.

For anyone that chooses to know it all, do it all or remain rigid in their thinking will grow stiff and eventually faint, by standing in the same place too long.

In our preparation and practice this Advent, we need to stand up together, and yet, not think we have it all together.

Stand up together, yet not think we have it all together.

For whom did Jesus ask to stand up alongside the disciples?

If we look to scripture, it is:
The poor.

The oppressed.

The prisoners.

The blind.

Remember Blind Bartimaeus.

Didn’t have it all together. Couldn’t even see, and yet, he is willing to stand up and call for the one who could give him faith. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Many people heard him and told him to keep silent, but he cried out even more loudly, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

And Jesus stood still, grounded on holy ground, and said, “Call him here.”

And when Jesus said that, the people in the community called the blind Bartimaeus and said to him, “Stand up, he is calling you.”

Stand up, Jesus is calling you.

As we learn to stand up and stand up together as a church, we hear Jesus also tell his disciples to keep Watch.

Keep Watch.

Keep Watch — as in being awake and aware of everything and everyone who is in, out, over, under, and around you that breathes and has being in God’s creation.

Aware of who and whose you are, as one of God’s people.

Aware of the joy you feel

The tension

The hope you anticipate

The brokenness you experience

The longing you hold within

The possibility of new birth

The faith needing to grow

The love that needs nurturing

Preparation and Practice:

Being in community every week

Jesus’ Preparation and Practice:

As we look to Jesus, we see that Jesus was in community by being in the church or temple every week.
Perseverance:

Staying to our purpose from the prophet Micah: to help people grow a faith of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with our God.

Jesus’ Perseverance:

His purpose, recorded in the gospel of Luke, from the prophet Isaiah: to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives/prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free and proclaim the year of God’s favor.

Jesus came to see that it was not about him —not to do his own will, but what God wants and wills —which at times can be a genuine struggle as we see in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Take this cup from me, but not my will, your will be done.”

Presence:

Staying to purpose yet awake and aware of everything and everyone who is in, out, over, under, and around you that breathes and has being in God’s creation.

Jesus’ Presence:

Staying to God’s purpose yet he was aware of everything and everyone who is around him that breathes and has being in God’s creation.

Taking time to be in the temple, taking time to be with the disciples.

Taking time to turn tables when people in the community were engaged in exclusion and exploitation.

Taking time to be interrupted by those who called to him for healing.

And taking time to go to a quiet place to be still and know God.

Which leads us to that of Prayer.
Prayer:

For only after hours and hours in prayer will be find the courage to stand up and keep watch.

Only in prayer will be find the courage to call upon and follow Jesus and be made whole.

Only in prayer will be know what God wants us to be in this community.

And what about Jesus?

Jesus prayed.

He prayed on Mount Olives.

He prayed in a lonely and quiet place.

He prayed with his disciples.

He prayed that he could carry out the ways of God even when he did not feel like it and thought he could not.

He prayed and prayed and prayed.

As we are called to pray and pray and pray.

For then, our prayers will not only be what we want from God. Our faith and our lives will be a prayer for God.

Our faith and our life will be the prayer.

So during this season of Advent, let us dare to make this journey that leads us closer to Jesus Christ as we stand together and keep watch.

A journey of practice, perseverance, presence and prayer – that only after we walk it faithfully each week, together in community, will we know for the long haul was worth every step of the way.