Isaiah 64:1-9
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence--as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-- to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O LORD, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.
PSALM 80:1-7, 17-19
Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth: before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!
Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?
You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.
Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.
Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind--just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you--so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Mark 13
"But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. "From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."
The Message
Happy New Year. Today
is the first Sunday of Year B. Our
church calendar is broken up into 3 years, A, B and C. For each year, the Sunday readings focus on
the Gospel of Matthew, mark or Luke. The Gospel of John is spread out over all
three years. In addition, each year is
divided into different seasons and areas of focus. We have seasons like
Epiphany, where we look at the world figuring out just exactly who was born on Christmas and like
Easter where we concentrate on the witness and meaning of Jesus
Resurrection. Each year starts with Advent,
the wait for Jesus birth at Christmas and ends with Christ the King, the
proclamation that, when all is said and done,
Christ is king, no matter what, God's
will is going to be done.
This new years though, it does not seem like our readings
give us too much to celebrate. Select verses
from our readings give us a picture of a God who is filled with anger, judgment
and brutal plans, From Isaiah, we hear You have hidden your face from us and
have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity" and we learn about a God
who abandoned the people to their own self-caused trouble. In the Psalm, we hear
"you have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink
in full measure" and we learn about a God who leaves people to face the
consequences of their actions. Most frightening of all, in Jesus own words reported to us by Mark, we
hear that the sun, the source of light and life, will go dark, the moon will be
turned off, the stars will fall from the sky and even heaven itself will
shake. We have a vision of complete destruction.
Each one of these verses could make
quite a sermon, a message of damnation
for those who are not like us, a message of separation from those who are
suffering or in need, or simply that God is with the rich and strong, rewarding
their good deeds with nice houses and shiny cars, while punishing the lazy and
sinful with things like poverty and sickness. The judgment, urgency and alarm
of these readings (and many others) is very
real but their abuse to scare, trick or teach people something terrible and
untrue about God is also very real.
These verses were never meant to be read alone, understood
apart from their history and context, or shared with people who had no idea where
they were from or what they were about. Most importantly, these verses (or any
word of scripture) were never meant to be thought of away from the bigger
picture of a loving, caring, present, hope giving, world welcoming, active, all
powerful, listening and forgiving God.
That's why we have a whole year to tell this story. That's why its so
important to actually come here every week, that's why it's important to pray,
to give, to share our time and resources, to be part of a community of faith
and support, to fill our time with reminders of God's work in the world, to
fill our thoughts, words and actions with the whole story of Jesus and his
love.
This story starts today, with Advent, with the time of
waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled, of hoping for the birth of a
Messiah, who would redeem, restore, heal and help us. Let me start by saying I do not like waiting
and I assume you do not either, I get impatient with lines, frequently complain
when something takes longer then I think it should and get easily aggravated
with delays. If there is a wait, even a few minutes for a restaurant, I'm
likely to leave, If I do decide to wait, I spend the time fidgeting, pacing
around and complaining to anyone who would listen (or even not listen). I saw bits and pictures of the people waiting
outside stores for the black Friday sales and I was just puzzled, I mean I know
its cheap but really, the same sale is probably available online and they will
run it again, plus I cant think of much that's worth all that waiting around. Thankfully, Advent is a different king of
waiting. As church, we do not simply
wait, pacing back and forth, bored out of our minds, watching TV, looking at cat videos on you
tube, playing phone games and looking for something to do to pass the time. Really Advent is not about waiting around at
all, its about preparing, getting ready. As we approach Christmas, each week
helps prepare us for what God is about to do.
In a world where retailers and stores start preparing us for Christmas
with sales and decorations in October, We officially have 4 weeks set aside to
do this. Again, thankfully, the work of Advent, the preparing for Christmas, is
something we do all year in our worship, life and community together.
This week, the readings prepare us to stay faithful, The world is, will be, always has been, and
probably will remain a place a filled with violence, anger, separation, pain,
poverty, inequality and struggle. Life is not easy, aging is not easy, losing
loved ones, living in fear, facing doubts, facing violence, competing for
everything, change, helplessness, none of that is easy. If any of you join us
after church for the bible study on Isaiah, you'll see that his message was
shared with a place, people and world not all that different from ours
We
start this church year with the promise, that we are not at this alone, God has
given us the gifts needed to wait, to actively and faithfully wait while we
serve, teach, share, pray and welcome. To repeat the words of encouragement
Paul shares with the strife filled church in Corinth I give thanks to my God
always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ
Jesus, for in
every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every
kind--just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you--so that
you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end
Simply said, we
start the year with the promise that we have all that we need to get through
the year, that God is with us, in our lives, work and waiting.
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