Advent 1 "Feasting on Hope"

Readings: Psalm 122, Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13-11-14, Matthew 24:36-44
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, November 27, 2022

Having feasted on good food for Thanksgiving and looking forward to feasting again at Christmas time, I invite you this morning to feast on hope as we worship God together.
 
The particular hope that our lectionary readings point us to today is the hope of God’s Coming Kingdom. This includes the hope of Isaiah’s vision when God shall “Judge among the nations: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” The hopes of a world where the living Christ is given His rightful reign in people’s lives and darkness will be abolished by the light of His glorious presence.

• Isaiah visualizes a Kingdom where the ways of God will be lifted high and justice be restored to all, in such a way as there will no longer be cause for war among the nations.
• Paul calls his Roman readers to wake up and change their ways of living, because God's salvation was just around the corner.  
• Matthew’s gospel tells us that the day of the Lord will arrive unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, and cautions us to be ready for the kingdom to come.

Each reading has wonderful images of hope to feast upon

First of all feast on Isaiah’s vision.

Things Isaiah spoke of had a habit of coming to pass.  Some of his visions had to do with the immediate future of the life of Israel.  Others foretold of Christ.  Other visions concerned the distant future of all the world.

He tells us that the day will come when God’s rule towers above all other principalities and powers. The instruction of God will be the highest power of all. People from all around will want to know God’s direction in their lives.  He tells us that justice and righteousness will be restored, that war will be at an end and that nationalism will be no longer a cause to fight about.

This fills me with hope.  For at the present time God is dethroned from many people’s lives. At the present time many are not looking to God for direction. At the present time people are ready for war at the drop of a hat. At the present time our world is a place of injustice and unrest.  It is good to know that these things will not always be so.

Armed with this hope every time I see someone opening their lives a little more to the love of God, every time I hear of an initiative towards peace, every time some injustice is put right, we hear a whisper of greater things to come. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Such is also a tremendous incentive for us to be involved in initiatives to create a fairer and more justice world in the present. To work towards the fulfillment of the glorious vision of peace and justice that Isaiah proclaims. To support all those efforts that feed the hungry, bring good news to the poor and bring light to those held captive in the darkness.

Such  actions are not of this world but carry the trademark of God’s Kingdom. Whenever we commit ourselves to change, we are declaring ‘The Kingdom IS coming.’  Maybe as Bob Dylan said in one of his songs, it is “A slow train coming,” but every now and again you can hear a distant rumbling on the tracks. The glorious hope in this passage from Isaiah is the knowledge that one day all will be well. That our efforts make a difference.

Secondly, Feast on Pauls wake up call

Not only shall all be well in the wider world, but there will also come a time when all will be well with our own lives. Those Paul wrote to in Rome were surrounded by all sorts of ungodliness and subject to all the problems that being sinful human beings’ places upon us.

Although they had converted to Christianity, they still struggled to truly live a Christian life.  They often found themselves paying more attention to bodily appetites than to their spiritual diet.  From what Paul tells us they had a battle going on in the area of self-control. Some struggled with alcohol abuse. Some had no control of their sexual lives.

Some were argumentative and couldn’t control their words.  Others were consumed with jealousy. Some just couldn’t resist a chance to party the night away. You’d think he was writing to guests on the Jerry Springer show, not the members of First Presbyterian Church in Rome!

Take heart from this passage. From the raw material of imperfect human lives God builds the church. Never despair of yourself or of others. Be hopeful. If at times you feel your life is about as far from being holy as it could be, realize you have friends in high places and low places! If at times temptation wins, well, you’re not the first and you won’t be the last to lose a battle with temptation.  Put your hope in God. Listen for God's alarm bells and wake up calls and respond to them.

Thirdly, Feast on the unpredictability of it all

Many times, the return of Christ is presented to us in terms of cold analysis and as though it were a doom-laden fact. At various times across the Christian centuries there have been groups of folks convinced that their generation was the last and that Christ was coming especially for them, right then and right there to rescue them from the evil world around them.

Such certainty of instant redemption obscures for us the really important element of Jesus teaching. The motif of surprise. There is a glorious sense of tension in Jesus words. On the one hand He tells us get ready, the Son of Man is coming, like a thief in the night, one will be taken, one will be left behind.  But on the other hand, He tells us, “Well if you think you know when all this is going to be going on, you are completely and totally wrong”. “The Son of man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will” (Matthew 24:44).

So rather than speculate about dates and times, I suggest we interpret our passage from Matthew in this way. “Always leave room in your life for God’s surprises.” Never close your soul to the unpredictable nature of God’s love. Never let your Christian life become a humdrum routine affair that leaves God’s Spirit no room to move.  Never think that God is through with you or that you have reached the end of the road in your spiritual journey or that there is not more you can do to bring about change in our world.

As our lives go through their different seasons there comes times when we can no longer serve as we would wish. This element of surprise is an incentive for us to seize the day. To do what we can with what we have while we still have the opportunity to do so.

As we move through Advent towards Christmas it is worth reflecting why Jesus was born and the nature of the mission He pursued. When invited to preach His first sermon in Nazareth he unrolled a scroll containing the words of Isaiah and proclaimed: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Whenever we work towards such aims, we are working with Christ, surprising the world with His presence and spreading His hope where it is desperately needed. As we do so, we find our own lives are challenged and changed. We are called to not only believe in the coming of the Kingdom God, that great vision of Isaiah, but also to work towards making God’s Kingdom a present reality.

Today we can hope to have our broken lives renewed through God’s Holy Spirit.
Today hope can spring eternal and life be made new.
Today we can look forward in hope to the coming of God’s Promised Kingdom.
Today we look forward in Advent hope.
Today we can recommit our lives to being carriers of the hope of Jesus Christ.
Praise God!
Every worship service is truly an opportunity for feasting on hope.
Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.