Advent 1

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
December 2, 2012

1 Advent C

Yesterday, Christ Church was honored to be one of three churches in the Turner Foundation’s "History Hymns and Holly" event. Every year the Foundation selects three or four of Springfield’s architectural jewels to showcase in this holiday walking tour. The idea behind the tour, and much of what the Turner Foundation does, is to help us appreciate the great history and treasures of our community. I know I drive down High Street all the time with barely a glance at Foos Manor, or the old Bushnell home, or the Buchwalter house, all of which actually have historic connections to Christ Church. The challenges our community faces are often much easier to see than the reminders of the community Springfield once was.

As I thought about our participation in the "History Hymns and Holly" tour, I realized that looking at our past is much more than a trip down nostalgia lane. Looking back does show us an era when Springfield was a growing, thriving city on the cutting edge of manufacturing and industry. But if all we do when we look back is long for the past, then our view in the rear view mirror accomplishes nothing. If our view of the past inspires us to imagine our future and how we get there, then we accomplish something. Then we begin to dream about what we would like the future to look like and make plans to make that future a reality. So, while I love talking about the history of this church, for me the real value of things like the "History Hymns and Holly" tour is how our past calls us to imagine our future.

As we begin Advent today, our thoughts naturally go back to the birth of the Christ Child so very long ago, and to all those who foretold his birth. In fact, you might have come to church today expecting to hear Isaiah say "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." Or to hear Micah say "But you, O Bethlehem...from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel." Or to hear Elizabeth greet Mary in Luke’s gospel and feel her child leap in her own womb. We probably expected to hear something this morning that points back to the birth of the Christ Child.

But here, on the first Sunday of Advent, three of our four readings point forward rather than backwards. Jeremiah says "the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah." The apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians "And may the Lord so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints." And in Luke’s gospel, we hear Jesus predict the signs of his return, and those signs are ominous. Distress among nations confused by the roaring of sea and waves, and people will faint with fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. Why, on the first Sunday of Advent, do we look to what sounds like an ominous future rather than the glorious past?

In the case of both Jeremiah and the writer of Luke’s gospel, all of the evidence is that their worlds are coming to an end and God is no where to be found. Jeremiah writes after Judah and Jerusalem have fallen to the Babylonians in the 6^th century BC, the Temple has been destroyed, the land has been ravaged, and the people have been taken from the Promised Land and exiled in Babylon. Life as they knew it had come to an end. What had happened to the God who led them out of bondage in Egypt, through the wilderness and into the Promised Land? Had that all been a hoax? Where is God now? The first century Christians to whom Luke wrote did not have life much easier. The Romans had destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, both of which had been rebuilt after the Babylonians destroyed them the first time. The people had been exiled again, the Holy Land had been destroyed, again. Jesus had promised to return, but where was he? Life was about as bad as it could get, and Jesus was no where to be found. The first century Christians wondered if Jesus’ promise was a hoax.

While we, as people of faith, are not under direct assault as the Jews of the 6^th century BC or Christians of the first century were, we do live in a world that does not feel very stable sometimes. Between natural disasters, wars, illness, and an uncertain economy, we, too, can wonder if God is asleep on the job. Where is the God who led the Hebrew people out of Egypt, who sent Jesus and promised his return?

On this first Sunday of Advent, we hear Jeremiah say to the Hebrew people "the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promises made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah." We hear Jesus say, after describing the signs in the sun, the moon and the stars that will precede his coming, "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So, also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near." Both Jeremiah and Jesus point the people to a new beginning. We look to the past so we will see the signs of the new beginning God is creating among us. The Hebrew people in Babylon remembered the way God led them out of exile in Egypt into the promised land, not to glorify the past, but to remind themselves of the signs that God will do likewise again. The disciples were to remember all that Jesus had said about the Kingdom of God, not to glorify the past, but so that his followers would know see signs of the Kingdom of God at work in their midst again. The days are surely coming...the Kingdom of God is near. The promise of the past is that there will be a new beginning when the old has passed away and the new has become. We look to the past to know that the promise that God is about to do something new is true and not a hoax.

Advent is about resting in the promise that God will do new things. The Psalmist prays "Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long." That is the prayer of new beginnings as we look to the future and what God is doing among us. We look to the past, in Scripture, in our own lives, in our life together as Christ Church and in our collective life as Springfield, not to glorify the past, but to point to the future. The past is the promise that God will act again. In Advent, we prepare for the birth of the Christ Child, not by looking backwards as if God only acted that one time, but by asking God to lead us in God’s truth and teach us, to that we may look forward and see what God is doing in our midst, where the fig trees are sprouting leaves, where God’s promise to do a new thing is being fulfilled.

Amen.