December 2, 2001
Isaiah 11:1-10
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Matthew 3:1-12
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“THE COMINGS OF GOD”

From the dawn of religious history, adherents of every persuasion have looked for appearances of Deity - occasions, when some manifestation made the reality and presence of God very real.  Usually, these longings occur after difficult experiences, when people were captured or imprisoned or oppressed or conquered or some calamity is present.

Often, in such circumstances, spokespeople arise who confront the populous.  Frequently, there is a note of censure followed by a plea and a promise.  Certainly, this formula is present in our Judeo-Christian tradition.  Prophets thunder to the people of the consequences facing them if they disobey God.  Such a warning is followed by a plea to repent and return to God, who is the source of comfort and understanding.

This sequence is followed by words to the affect that God will send a messenger who will proclaim the true nature of God and through that messenger will be the opportunity and the inclination to seek forgiveness.

Thus, the Old Testament is always looking for the coming of Messiah; only their perception was the coming would usher in the age of the restoration and glory of Israel as a dominant power.

In our Christian tradition, Advent is the season in the liturgical year when we remember those calls from the faithful of old and we turn our attention to the coming of God in Jesus Christ and the time when other comings may occur.  Wisely, the Church Fathers chose this time as the beginning of a cycle that is inclusive in presenting the life of Christ in all of its manifestations.

To understand Advent, is to understand its intent - four Sundays preparing us for the birth of Jesus.  Failure to understand this internal longing is failure to truly comprehend the meaning of the season.

Advent becomes a call.  Don’t miss the impact of the season.  The commercialism that precedes Christmas rushes us into the event with syrupy sentimentalism.  Such deprives us of hearing the echo of what transpired years before the event and what characterizes the longings of our hearts even today as we wrestle with the ambiguity, hatred and selfishness that seemingly is engulfs our world.

We don’t understand.  We need to be reminded.  We are preparing to meet God-over and over again.  That is what Advent means.  But alas, we are uncomfortable dealing with God: Santa, reindeers, jingling bells and Bing Crosby crooning for a white Christmas are easier for us to grasp.

Advent says, stop; linger awhile.  Remember God comes to us in many ways, many of which we do not understand.  Let us be sensitive to those comings.  They are very real, very mysterious—as mysterious as a baby being born in a manger while the faithful sing, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, which means, God with us.

Hymn 110 - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

ADVENT II

Dreams: over and over again the Bible speaks of dreams as being an avenue of revelation.  Jacob dreams and later his name is changed to Israel.  Joseph had a dream and became the secretary of agriculture for Egypt and was instrumental in stockpiling food to sustain the country through a great famine.  Solomon had a dream asking Yahweh for wisdom and realized that God had spoken to him through a dream.  Daniel had a dream, of praise to God in which he thanked God for the gift of interpretation.  Many are the illustrations of God’s revelation being given to humans through the vehicle of dreams.

In advent, again we are exposed to the reality and power of dreams as vehicles of revelation.  In an echo from the past, Luke tells us of Zechariah, the high priest’s dream in which he is told that he and his wife Elizabeth, both aged and childless, like Abraham and Sarah of old, will have a child.

Zechariah asks, how will I know this?  The answer comes that he will be struck dumb, unable to speak until the child is born and such happens.

Zechariah’s first words are to name the child.  He said, his name will be John and we are ushered into the story of John the Baptist - the forerunner of Jesus, the advance man, the publicity agent.  But more, Mary comes to this same Elizabeth and through Elizabeth learns of the greatness of the one to be born of her.  It is as if she cried out the words caught by Johan Rift, “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light”. 

Hymn 119 - Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light

ADVENT III

Advent is the time when we revisit the ministry of the Baptist.  His voice crying in the wilderness has the same terminology as that used by Isaiah.  In the wilderness, on the banks of the Jordan he utters his words about the coming of one greater than he - and those of you who have been there can attest to the fact that is hardly the place to hold an evangelistic campaign.

As the Jordan nears the Dead Sea, it meanders through some rugged and barren land.  This is where John the Baptist was preaching, “declare the way of the Lord, in the desert prepare a way.  Repent and be baptized.”

The miracle was that people did come.  They came without visible means of transportation.  His fame spread; it spread all the way to Nazareth where a young carpenter’s son named Jesus, left home and came to be baptized of John.

Jordan’s bank - the very name evokes images and concepts in our minds.  Dr. Tom Troeger, great preacher and scholar at Illiff Theological Seminary in Denver and a friend puts it this way.

“Jordan: the river that fed the green valley Lot chose for himself.

Jordan: the river that parted as the Red Sea had parted to let the wandering Hebrews enter their long awaited destination.

Jordan: the river where Naaman the leper washed and was healed.

Jordan: the river that flows from the ancient land through the heart of believers and pours into some of the most beloved hymns:

‘When I Tread the Verge of Jordan Bid My Anxious Fear Subside,’ 

‘I Looked Over Jordan and What did I See Com’in For to Carry Me Home, A Band of Angels Com’in After me Coming For to Carry me Home.’

And now, at Advent,

'On Jordan’s Bank The Baptists Cry Announces that the Lord is Nigh.'

Jordan’s bank marks a boundary - a crossing between two regions of existence: between wandering and home;  between illness and health; between death and life; between promise and fulfillment.  Jordan’s bank is a place in the heart, a realm in the imagination, a state of being that anthropologists call ‘liminal’.  Those times in our lives when we go through profound transition, leaving behind the familiar, the established world that we have come to accept as the real world to enter what is a different reality.  To approach Jordan’s bank is scary.  If we pass through the waters, if we plunge beneath the waves, what will happen to us?  Will we survive?  When someone we love dies and we grieve, then we stand on Jordan’s bank and tremble.  When we take on some great new project in life, a change in our career, a cause for justice, then we stand on Jordan’s bank and tremble.  When we have an encounter with the Holy Spirit that unsettles our comfortable notions of what faith means and requires, then we stand on Jordan’s bank and tremble.

We would remain on Jordan’s bank, unable to enter the water, unable to live through our grief or to meet the challenge of our new life or to grow into a greater knowledge of God, except that, ‘The Lord is Nigh’.  Christ is coming to meet us on Jordan’s bank, to join us in our grief, our challenge, our growth.  At the scariest moment, at the crossing point, in the liminal state, there we will meet Christ, who is coming, coming soon.  Listen to the Baptist’s cry and get ready for the One who hastens to Jordan’s bank.  For at the precise juncture of your greatest fear and hope, Christ will join you and will be with you when you plunge beneath the water…..and when you rise to new life.”    (Lectionary Homeletics, Dec. 1996, Pg 1.)

You see dear friends, Advent reminds us that Christ’s coming is not some distant historical possibility.  Christ’s coming is continual and now; it is in your grief and your sorrow, in your joy and challenge, in your fears and triumphs.  You will see Him in the gurgle of a new baby, in the smile of a friend, in the hug of a special friend and in the eyes of one you love.  Just when you think life is about to swallow you up, you will remember the cry of the Baptist and you will be triumphant over whatever it is that concerns you because, ’Lo, He Comes With Clods Descending,….God appears on earth to reign.”