The Hope of Redemption

Advent I - The Feast of St. Andrew

November 30, 1997

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

Luke 21:28 Raise your heads!

Your redemption is drawing near.

Three simple statements about God emerge from the scriptures for this first Sunday of Advent. "Advent," the word, is about anticipation: appearance, approach, arrival, coming, commencement. The basic message of the Bible is that we have a God who comes to where we are. The three wonderful statements, then, about our God are simply: God comes! God comes looking! God comes loving!

I. GOD COMES

If you can believe that, then every other question is secondary, and can be dealt with later. If God gets involved in human affairs there is hope. If you do NOT believe that, if God never comes to where we are, then everything else is chaos, and we may as well go home now.

The miracle of miracles is that God IS, and that he associates with his creation. If you believe Genesis 1:1, and John 3:16, then the words of our text from the lips of Jesus: "Look up! Your redemption is near!" can also be believed.

The miracle of miracles is that God has made us, and has made us for himself. We may not know where we are in either time or space, but God comes! God knows! God cares! God knows where this tiny planet earth orbits a little star in a small galaxy among countless galaxies— and more than that, God knows and cares where you slept last night, and why you came to church this morning! Our God comes!

II. GOD COMES LOOKING

In the Beginning -In the creation story, in the Garden of Eden, after man and woman had lost their innocence God came striding through the green glory of his creation calling, "Adam! Where are you?" God was very evidently calling in love. The story makes it clear that Adam and Eve and God had had some sort of fellowship; walking in the cool of the day. After the guilty pair had hidden in shame God came looking for them. There was an accountability, yes. But there was concern, and love, and provision.

Not Just in the Beginning - That call to Adam and Eve is repeated in your life and mine over and over again. If we stop just for a moment, even if we are hiding somewhere in shame, we hear that Voice calling our name! God comes looking! God comes calling! The First Advent of Jesus was when God came looking for every one of us. By the Cross of Christ where Jesus died for our sins, and by his Holy Spirit God still comes looking for men and women who will walk with him.

At the End of Time as We Know it - Advent reminds us that there will be a Parousia— a time of revealing, when all the world will hear the call: "ADAM! WHERE ARE YOU?" That is what the Luke 21 passage is saying. These words of Jesus have been a source of controversy across the centuries. Distress, and fear, and the shaking of the very powers of heaven, and in the same breath redemption and great glory. Taken literally, they seem to say that before the people Jesus was talking to had died the end of the world would come. Two thousand years later, the earth is still here. Still Jesus said: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. We can get hung up in trying to find some esoteric code, or we can plunge into the truth that we live by trusting Jesus, and He is coming again to meet every one of us.

One person's hope is another person's terror. When Jesus calls we will run with joy to meet him, or we will go looking for fig leaves to cover our nakedness.

Jesus wants us to lift up our heads and greet Him with joy!

III. GOD COMES LOVING!

How do we go about lifting up our heads— anticipating our meeting with God with JOY?

This whole Christmas Season is about one kind or other of anticipation— or, in most cases, some mixture of both kinds. The climax of the Christmas Parade this afternoon is the coming of Santa. Santa has a list, and he checks it twice— to see who is naughty and nice. But it doesn't matter— he is always jolly, and doesn't really intrude into your personal life.

The climax of Advent anticipation is a little different. One who came as a Baby in a Manger is coming this Second Time as a King. The king is coming— he is coming, looking for you. He is coming in love, calling your name and mine! "Adam! Where are you?"

One person's dread is another person's anticipation. People who tell exactly how the Second Coming will take place will always have a following— and will always be wrong. [ The end was eminent in Scotland in the year 700 A.D., in Italy in 1260; in Holland in 1533; in England in 1843; in New York City in 1914; London in 1934 and in Grannis, Arkansas in 1976. A person named "Edgar Whisenut" wrote a book called 88 reasons why Jesus will come in '88— September 11,12, or 13!! But NO ONE except the Father, can know the time and place when Jesus will come.] Before Paul had written 1 Thessalonians people had already started having trouble with the idea of Christ's Coming. Peter also spoke exactly to this mystery: (He wrote)

(2 Peter 3:3-) "... scoffers will come . . .saying 'Where is the promise of his coming? ...all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation..." But then he goes on to say, "But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."

A key word in both Paul's and Peter's handling of the Second Coming is the word blameless. They both tell us exactly HOW we can we genuinely look forward to meeting Jesus Christ face to face without shame! "Add that which is lacking in your faith," writes Paul (I Thess 3:10), "so that you can be blameless at Christ's coming." Peter says exactly the same thing:(2 Peter 1:1-5) He writes: "Add to your faith!"

Are these men saying we aren't saved if we aren't perfect and complete? Are they saying we need something beside faith to be saved? No, rather they are saying a genuine faith will be a living, growing thing. If our faith brings us into saving relationship with God, then it will be a living, growing faith.

Peter says, "Add to your faith virtue— and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness— and top it all off with love, genuine love!

There is a great deal of difference between being blameless and faultless. By God's grace we can run to meet this God who comes when he comes calling for us! God comes! He comes looking! He comes looking for your love!!

Prayer

O Father God, grant us grace to turn away from all the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light. Now in this mortal life, in which your Son Jesus Christ came be one with us in great humility, help us know and love you; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge all the peoples of the earth, living and dead, we may rise unashamed to join him in the life eternal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (prayer adapted from American BCP)

#554 - It is Well with my Soul (or, Jesus, You are My Life)