Sunday, November 27, 2022
/The First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 2: 1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13: 11-14; Matthew 24: 36-44
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
“What you do Jimmy, is you fill out the online Social Security Application, attach the additional all the supporting documents, and click ‘Submit.’ And then you print out everything, and send all of it to the Social Security office certified return receipt. And then you wait…you wait for a really long time.”
That was part of how my friend, Michelle, who is the mother of a nineteen-year old son with special needs explained how she applied for government benefits for him. Lots of paperwork, lots of applications, and then you send it all into the government, and it’s like it goes into a black hole of wait – you wait until you get a response from social security, which is not known to be the fastest of our governmental entities.
Waiting may or may not be a challenge for you – it can be for me. I can be impulsive, and want the quick easy fast solution – anything that will keep me from…waiting. We are now in Advent, a four week-long season in the church that has as its central theme – waiting and expectation.
What are we waiting for in Advent? Two things. We are waiting for the birth of the Messiah, and we also are waiting for the Messiah’s return. In today’s reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is with the disciples on the Mount of Olives, that hillside which overlooked the temple in Jerusalem. He is there trying to explain to them that they will have to wait for his return, which he likens to, of all things, a thief breaking into a house at night. Not a very comforting image, is it?
I remember when I was about eight years old, our family returned home from a vacation, and we came to the front door of our house to discover that it had been broken into – the front door was ajar had been kicked in. The police came and discovered overturned furniture and other items, and declared no one was still in the house. I think I slept with one eye open the entire night!
Alarming though the image Jesus provides for his return, we need not fear. “Do not be afraid” is the most common message in the Bible. Some say it is stated three hundred sixty -five times in scripture – once for each day of the year. Do not be afraid. And yet, Christians I find that many Christians are some of the most fear-based people. Afraid God doesn’t love them, afraid of going to hell, afraid of other races, afraid of other religions, afraid of other genders.
Of all people, Christians should have the best case for not being afraid: the Savior will restore the world. . . nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” We hear this and yet we are bombarded with stories of violence occurring on college campuses, nightclubs, and in retail stores in our own country, and between countries outside our nation. Still, do not be afraid.
Wars will cease, and justice will reign, in God’s time. For now, we wait. We wait for the birth of the Messiah, and we wait for the same Messiah’s return. It will happen. It always does. We have heard the story, we have done our work, and now we wait. AMEN.