Sermon for First Sunday of Advent 2011: Waiting and hoping

Old High St Stephen's, Inverness
Sunday 27 November 2011: Year A, The First Sunday of Advent

SERMON
Texts: Isaiah 64:6-12
Mark 13:24-37

Waiting and hoping
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Today we are celebrating faith. We are welcoming people into a community of faith. Serena, Roberta, David and Neil have chosen to identify themselves as part of the community of faith. Today we welcome them and celebrate with them as they join with us on our journey of faith.


We colloquially call it, 'joining the Church'. And when we do so, we might think it's a bit like joining the golf club or the National Trust. But clearly there's more to it than that. Our new members today are doing two things which are counter-cultural, which their contemporaries find hard to understand or act on.
Firstly, they are making a commitment. People seem less and less ready nowadays to making commitments. People are joining things less- whether it's the golf club or the National Trust, never mind the Church. We seem to be shy of making commitments to causes or organisations- and the Church is part of that trend. Even in our personal lives, commitment seems to count for less, so that people have even become wary of marriage or even having children, because we imagine these are things which will tie us down, leave us with commitments- and we don't want that.

But when we choose to become members of the Church, we make a commitment- a commitment to join the Christian community, the Church. There are those who claim you can be 'religious' or 'Christian' without being part of the Church. But the experience of Christians down through the centuries has been that the Church- despite its many faults- is the place where faith is nurtured. Without the support and love of Church members, without church services and sacraments, without preaching and teaching, I am sure I would never have become a Christian, or remained one. From the very beginning, the followers of Jesus Christ have understood that Christ says to them, 'Follow me'. That is a very personal demand he makes of us, and each person has to decide for themselves whether they answer yes or no. But if we answer yes, then of course we join with others who have said 'yes'. It may be an individual decision, but once we have said 'yes', we join a community- a community which transcends space and time, a community of faith. We cannot be Christians, followers of Christ, alone- if we try, we will soon give up. To truly follow Christ, we have to take part in his community of faith- yes, the Church, with all its flaws and mistakes and failings. For only in a community of faith can we hope to maintain and grown our own personal faith.

And then the other commitment we are thinking about today is the commitment to live a life of faith. Faith is also something which is out of fashion nowadays. For faith is a much-misunderstood word. So today I want to have a look at our Bible readings to see what they can tell us about faith, and what it means to live a life of faith. 

But first, a definition, which comes from another part of the Bible. The author the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament offers a classic definition of faith. He wrote, 'To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for' (Hebrews 11.1). Now today, that is a very appropriate way to think about faith. For today is the first day of the Church year- the first Sunday of Advent. You see, a different seasons of the year, we remember different aspects of the Christian faith. At Christmas, we remember Christ's birth, and Easter, his death and resurrection, and so on. Advent- the four weeks leading up to Christmas- is the time when we think particularly about hope. For this is a time when we are looking forward to seeing God do great things in the future.

Perhaps children teach us best about hope at this time of year. These four weeks leading up to Christmas are magical, because children are looking forward with hope. And even in our materialistic culture, their hopes are not, I think, simply material hopes. Yes, they hope longingly that the presents they have wished for will be below the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. But do they not also love the magic of the tree, glistening in the corner of the living room? Do they not also enjoy the counting down of the Advent calendar to that magical 25 December morning? Are they not really looking forward to the love and joy which they will feel in their family when the magic day comes? Their hope only makes sense because of their childish faith that their parents will make Christmas day a special, magical day. For those of us who are parents, it's a big responsibility!

For adults, Christian faith and our hope in God go together. Ours is a faith which lives in hope. We adults know that Christmas is going to come whatever happens- and we might hope that it will still have a bit of the old magic to it! For the grown-ups, Advent is a time to look forward to remembering the birth of Jesus at Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. But it's also a time when we look forward to Jesus coming again- this time as a king, bringing justice and peace to the world. So Advent also points us forward- with hope- to see what God might still have ahead for us.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus offers three pictures which speak about the time when God's reign will truly be seen in the world. He imagines that this will be a cosmic event- the sun and the moon will darken and the stars will fall from the sky, before the Son of Man- this is a title which Jesus applies to himself- arrives in way that no-one can fail to acknowledge him- with great power and glory. And when this future age begins, everyone will know that God's kingdom has finally arrived. Whereas today we can ignore God, refuse to live as God wants, can pretend that God doesn't exist... in this future time, everyone will know that God has arrived! God will gather his people from the ends of the earth, says Jesus. From other, similar passages in the Bible, we know that this is the time when tears will be wiped from faces, when the poor will have enough to eat and drink, when love and joy will reign instead of injustice and cruelty... and peace, God's peace, will reign, as violence and wars come to an end.

This is picture language, the language of dreamers and prophets, the language of someone who believed that however it looks now, God's purpose will not be thwarted. It's an interesting contrast to our Old Testament reading. The reading from the prophecy of Isaiah is, you might think, a rather downbeat reading for our day of celebration! It comes from a time when the people of Israel really were wondering whether there was any point in continuing to have faith in their God. God had promised that Israel were his special people. But the nation had been thoroughly defeated in war. Isaiah laments, 'Your sacred cities are like a desert; Jerusalem is a deserted ruin, and our Temple, the sacred and beautiful place where our ancestors praised you, has been destroyed by fire. All the places we loved are in ruins'. The prophet thinks that the people themselves have been to blame for all this: 'All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy through and through', says the prophet. What has happened to the looks like God's punishment for their sins: 'Because of our sins we are like leaves that wither and are blown away by the wind'. But even in these dire circumstances, the people do not look to God for help: 'No one turns to you in prayer; no one goes to you for help'. But perhaps that's not surprising- for God seems to have walked away from them: 'You have hidden yourself from us and have abandoned us because of our sins'.

For the prophet, this sense of being abandoned by God is the worst of all- worse than defeat in battle, worse than cities being ruined. And so he cries out, 'Lord, are you unmoved by all this? Are you going to do nothing and make us suffer more than we can endure?' It is as if God as hidden himself, is trying to avoid us. When disaster is everywhere, the prophet cries out to God: where are you? Are you unmoved by your people's suffering? Are you going to do nothing to save us?
Now, if the prophet had tried to live his faith on his own, as many people do today, I suspect he would have given up there and then. For it certainly looked as though God had failed the prophet, and all the faithful people of Israel. Yet the prophet somehow holds on to his faith. 'you are our father, Lord. We are like clay, and you are like the potter. You created us'. The prophet believes that even although things look very bleak, God is still, somehow, at work.

As I said, this part of the Book of Isaiah comes from a time when Israel was literally in ruins. Much of the population was taken off into exile in Babylon, the conquering power. Not only their cities, but their religion and culture were ruined. The Temple in Jerusalem had been the great centre of their religion. Now, if their faith was to survive, it would be in little communities of faith, communities of exiles in Babylon. 'How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?' they asked. But somehow, they found a way of doing so. Judaism developed among those exile communities- a kind of faith which depended, not on the Temple worship, but the small communities of faith- what we now call the synagogue.

We all of us face crises of faith, times when everything seems in ruins. Left to ourselves, we are tempted to give up on the life of faith. But the Church should be for us as the synagogues were for the exiles in Babylon- a place, a community, a people of faith, where our own faith can be rescued from despair. I often say that one of the main reason I remain a Christian is because of other Christians. Admittedly, there are people who call themselves Christians who make me despair of the faith. But there are many other people who I have known down through the years who have kept me committed to Christ. There are people whose intelligence reminds me that my doubts can be answered. There are people whose faith is fairly simple, but whose personalities and way of living make me want to at least try to live like them. And then there are the folks who encourage me, whose friendships I value because we have Christ in common. How can I not be a Christian when I am surrounded by examples like these?

The Jews of Babylon rediscovered their faith when they came together, when the prayed together, when they retold the old stories again, and when they assured each other that however bad things might seem, however strange God's way with them at the moment might be- still, was not God their father, were they now like clay in the master-potter's hands, did they not know that God truly did love them. And their faith contained that element of hope- that better times would come, that war and poverty would one day end, that God's promises would indeed come true for them. We cannot know when that might be- as Jesus says to us today, no-one knows the day or the hour. We just have to be watchful and waiting. We are to wait, but with hope!

Meanwhile, there are signs that God is at work, that God's kingdom is coming. Look at the fig tree, said Jesus- you can tell the summer is coming when the green shoots start to appear. In the same way, we can see the signs of the times. It had began already when Jesus spoke those words- his teaching, his healings, his effect on people meant that the Kingdom of God was already underway. And it's still underway when Christians- Church members- continue to share God's love with the world for the sake of Jesus.

So what is faith? How do we continue to live in faith? For Christians, it is firstly about following Jesus. We try to live as he would have us live (which is very difficult- but thankfully Jesus also spoke a lot about God's willingness to forgive us!). And then it's about being part of God's people, the Church- the community of faith which- through friendship and encouragement, praise and prayer, worship and sacrament- can enable us to keep faith, to stay committed. And then faith is also closely associated with hope- it helps us to look forward to better times, to the time when God's justice will finally fully reign.

And now, as a Church, we gather around a table which reminds us of all these things. When he was alive, Jesus often met with his friends around meal tables. In our house, the family meal table is a place where we all meet together, to receive nourishment, but also to encourage and discuss and learn from one another. This is what Jesus offers his people, for he is the host at his family meal table now. Here his people gather, a community of faith, and meet with him. Here we look back to his life and teaching, and celebrate with thanksgiving. But here we also look forward, for this table reminds us of the time when God will gather his people together- the old prophets sometimes said it would be like a great feast, with food and wine for everyone, without exception, with no-one left out. Here we are all invited, the community of faith, gathering to strengthen our faith, at the table of Christ, the founder and the great hope of our faith. As we wait and hope, here is food for the journey!

Ascription of Praise
Now to God
who is able through the power
which is at work among us
to do immeasurably more
than all we can ask or conceive,
to God be the glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus
from generation to generation for evermore, Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (REB)

Biblical references from the Good News Bible
© 2011 Peter W Nimmo