November 30 2003 -First Sunday of Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16/
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Luke 21:25-36
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“You’d better watch out. . .”

“You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout, I’m tellin’ you why – Santa Claus is coming to town.” The prophet Jeremiah and Jesus in Luke’s Gospel are talking about a different “coming to town.” They call us to “watch out” for the signs of the times that point us to the coming of God’s kingdom among us. Now, I’ve been watching out and what have I seen? I’ve seen signs of the times – Christmas decorations that went up shortly after Halloween and Christmas music that started on store intercoms even before Thanksgiving. These are signs of the coming of the commercial time. Jesus, however, is calling us to stand up and raise up our heads because our redemption is drawing nigh. Where is redemption to be found in the mall or in Wal-Mart or Toys R Us? We better watch out, because believe it or not these are signs of the times in which we live. We better watch out, because one far greater than Santa Claus is coming to town.

Advent is the church's New Year’s celebration. It's a season that focuses on beginnings, but to have a beginning implies that there's been an end. The prophet Jeremiah was looking to the end of Israel's exile in Babylon. Luke recalled Jesus' words about the ending of the world which would mark the beginning of the new kingdom of God. Both of them reflect the longing, the hoping for something that has almost been extinguished. Yet, lingering there is the voice of promise. Something better is to come.

Most of human life is that way, isn't it? Part of being human seems to be always looking forward to the beginning of something. The beginning can be just about anything. We can look forward to the birth of a child, to the beginning of the school year, a new job, a marriage, retirement, and some even look forward to death. We look forward to these new things, these new beginnings because they hold out the hope that the new will be, in some way, better than the old.

Those who had heard Jesus speak of God's new kingdom were waiting for the "signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars" which would herald the kingdom's arrival. The early Christians were waiting and waiting for these signs and for the promised coming of the Lord. Their waiting had grown difficult for them and so the Gospel writers, and later Paul, wrote words of encouragement, words of affirmation to them. Over the centuries Christians have, again and again, fallen into the same despair that those early Christians experienced. How can we be affirmed in the promise, if we never experience its fulfillment?

When God at first made man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
Let us, said he, poure on him all we can:
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beautie flow'd, then wisdome, honour, pleasure
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone all his treasure
Rest in the bottome lay.

For if I should, said he,
Bestow this jewell also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts in stead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature.
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest.
But keep them with repining restlessnesse:
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,
If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast.

The prophet Jeremiah spoke to this chafing Israel knew as it languished in exile. Here, as in chapter 23, Jeremiah reaffirmed God’s covenant promise to the people – the promise of never-ending presence. These people were alienated, literally, from their homeland and from their spiritual center. It’s difficult for us to identify with these people since we’ve never experienced anything like what they did. Until the events of 9-11 occurred, we had not known any hostile attack on our soil for more than fifty years. In truth, we’ve not experienced foreign invasion since the War of 1812 and we’ve never been a people in exile.

Still, one could say that we have become a people alienated – more from ourselves and from our sense of national identity than in any physical sense – and we question our safety, perhaps in much the same way the people of Israel did. We seem fragmented as a people and that fragmentation extends even to our churches. We see denominations and associations, even our own, dealing with conflicts and agendas so troublesome that there is even difficulty getting people to sit down and talk.  Jeremiah’s message to Israel does then relate to us, because it declares that God is in charge. God’s voice calls us to relationship, first with God and then with one another, and bids us to look to the bigger picture.  Life and all that is good is more than achieving one’s own personal agenda and we begin to see what we’re watching for when we affirm God’s presence in ourselves and in those with whom we relate.

Here both the prophet and the evangelist show us what this Advent season of affirmation is really about, because God is affirming, making new beginnings for his creation, and for us, each day. We are called to watch out because God is at work among us right now, if we can lift our eyes from the narrow focus of our situation and look to what God wants to do.  We better watch out, because God is not only coming to us – God is already here. Perhaps the best way for us to "be alert," to "be watchful," and "be ready" in this season of expectant waiting is to apply those warnings to the way we live? We should be on guard for how we hurt each other, instead of affirming each other. As we wait for the coming of the Prince of Peace, perhaps we should work on bringing peace to the everyday workings of our world?

A couple moved into a small town in Massachusetts. Norma, who was new in the community, grumbled to a neighbor about the poor service she received at the library. It hadn't been that way in her old town. She hoped her neighbor friend would repeat her complaint to the librarian.

The next time Norma entered the library, the librarian was indeed all smiles and extremely helpful! Norma reported the miraculous change to her neighbor. "I suppose you told her how poor we thought the service was?"

"No," confessed her friend. "I hope you don't mind, but I told her that you were amazed at the way she had built up this small town library, and that you thought she showed good taste in the new books she ordered."

Now here's one from William R. White:

A farmer was working in his field when a stranger approached him. The traveler asked, "What kind of people live in the next town?"

Without pausing from his work, the farmer replied, "What kind of people lived in the town you just left?"

"They were horrible," the traveler said waving his hand for emphasis. "People were dishonest, selfish and inconsiderate."

Looking up, the farmer shook his head, "I'm sorry to say that's probably what you'll find in this town, too."

The stranger moaned and walked away.

Late in the same day another man happened down the same road. When he saw the farmer he called out, "What kind of people live in this town?"

Late in the same day another man happened down the same road. When he saw the farmer he called out, "What kind of people live in this town?"

Without looking up the farmer returned with a question, "What kind of people lived in the town you just left?"

"They were thoughtful, friendly, and kind," the traveler beamed. "I hated to leave them."

The farmer put down his hoe, extended his hand, and smiled. "I'm pleased to say that is about how you'll find most folks here," he said.

The traveler returned the smile, shook the farmer's hand, and headed towards his new home.

What point do these stories make? Simple, we better watch out for God among us and watching out begins with watching ourselves, our actions, and our attitudes. We can run from all sorts of things, even from ourselves, but we can’t get away – we take ourselves with us wherever we go. As we live in the already but not yet of the Lord’s presence, we have to watch out that we become what we’re destined to be – God’s people living God’s life in God’s world. The signs of the times point us inward to honest self-realization and then outward to loving relationships.

You’d better watch out because Advent is the season of new beginnings and of affirmation. God, again and again, affirms God’s love, God’s confidence, and God’s belief in us. Our gathering for worship today is a continual reminder of God's affirmation and faithfulness. Each time we gather to break open the Word, and next week to break the bread and share the cup, we are once again brought into God's presence and reminded that we are to rest in God. Advent reminds us of the service of affirmation that we are to bring to each other in the community of faith and to all the world around us. God has done something for us, taken a risk for us, and now we are to go forth and to do the same. If we go expecting new beginnings, looking for the best that there is in every person we meet, we may find our waiting, our longing fulfilled in ways we never dreamed possible.

Let me leave you with a story that touched me about watching out for meeting God in ways we don’t expect. A pastor was tending to a flower bed outside the church building when a drifter came up and began to talk to him. The pastor offered the man a meal and some money, but he didn’t want it. He only wanted to sit in the nave for a while. More than a little cautious, the pastor led him into the building and waited. As he left the church building, the man looked deep into the pastor’s eyes and said, “Peace be with you.” The pastor had to find a place to sit down, suddenly he felt very unsteady. Deep inside himself, he knew he had been in the presence of Christ – who had come as promised “unawares” – and he had felt a touch of rapture.