I have good news to share with you this morning. Advent has arrived and with it a new liturgical year begins. Today we begin a new journey that invites us to once again hear the story of God’s presence among us, as that presence is revealed in the life of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. If we pay close attention to the story as it unfolds, we discover that when God visits us, God tends to shake things up. In the words of the third prophet we call Isaiah, in his prayer of repentance, he calls on God to tear open the heavens and come down so that the mountains would quake and God’s name would be made known to a distracted world. Yes, when God comes down, the nations tremble.
The season of Advent invites us to prepare for the coming of the Lord. The Gospel of Mark begins with the announcement that God is sending a messenger to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord by making the pathway for the Lord straight (Mk 1:1-3). According to Mark, that messenger was John the Baptist.
This morning our reading from the Gospel of Mark invites us to listen to Jesus, who speaks of the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds with glory to gather up God’s people from the four corners of the earth (Mk. 13:24-27).
When we think of Advent, we usually connect it with the upcoming birth of Jesus, but Advent also calls on us to prepare for a second advent. The first Advent took place two millennia in the past, while the second Advent has yet to arrive. Our annual journey through the Christian year reminds us that we live between these two advents.
Now, there is a reason why we focus on the first Advent. That’s because it precedes Christmas. So, we tend to spend Advent getting ready for the Christmas holiday. After all, there’s so much to do to get ready for Christmas. There are presents to buy, and travel plans to make, food to prepare, and parties to attend.
While Christmas is on our minds, the message of Advent runs counter to much of this seasonal activity. That’s because it invites us to slow down, stop, and look inward to check and see if there are spiritual things that need to be dealt with.
As Isaiah reminds us, if we’re not careful, we can lose sight of God’s presence in our lives. Isaiah speaks at times as if God is absent, though in reality, God isn’t absent, we just get so caught up in daily life that we can forget God is present. We call this practical atheism. I know how this works because it happens to me. So, Isaiah offers us this prayer of lament and repentance so we can reconnect with the God who at times seems absent.
It is said that this season between Thanksgiving and Christmas, this season of Advent, can be a time when many feel this absence most keenly. This is one of the reasons why we are holding a Blue Christmas service this coming week. It serves as an opportunity to find solace by remembering that even when feel alone God is present with us.
While our readings from Isaiah and Mark remind us that when God acts, things can get shaken up, Isaiah also reminds us that God is our maker. Yes, God is the potter and we are the clay. When Isaiah reminds us that we are the work of God's hands, the prophet takes back to the second creation story, where God forms the first human from the adamah, or clay. After God fashions this first human, God breathes life into this new creation (Gen. 2:4-7). Because God is our maker, we are God’s people. This offers us a word of hope because even when we feel alone or feel as if the world is in disarray, we are members of God’s family.
In the reading from Mark, Jesus not only tells us that when the Son of Man comes in his glory to shake things up, but he also will send out the host of heaven to gather up God’s people from the four corners of the earth. But, since we don’t know when this second advent will take place, Jesus asks us to patiently keep watch. Stay alert, because the day of the Lord may come suddenly, without warning.
Over the years, I’ve chosen to begin the Advent season by singing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.” Yes, “O come, though Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by thine advent here; disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death’s deep shadows put to flight.”
This hymn reflects the message we find in both Isaiah 64 and Mark 13. Isaiah speaks of exile, while Mark speaks of God’s realm breaking into our lives, often unexpectedly. But, when God arrives, God creates something new. The coming of the Dayspring will cheer our spirits.
Both readings address the question of God’s apparent absence by letting us know that God is coming for God’s people. So be prepared. As Isaiah lets us know, we must pay attention to the ethical dimensions of God’s covenant with God’s people. As Rabbi Barry Schwartz points out, for Isaiah and for Israel, this “is the only way to move forward—the only path of light in a dark world, the only hope in an age of travail” [Path of the Prophets, p. 211]. This is why we have this opportunity, during Advent, to look inward and discern those areas we need to address before the coming of the Lord. As we do this, we can call out to God, “Lord, have mercy on us.”
Although Advent invites us to look inward and deal with the disarray in our own lives, it also offers us a word of hope that is symbolized by the first Advent candle we light. The opening verse of a Brian Wren hymn declares: “Hope is a star that shines in the night, leading us on till the morning is bright” [“When God Is a Child,” Chalice Hymnal, 132].
The past several years have been challenging. We’ve experienced COVID and watched as violence and political upheaval mark the world stage. Many of us are concerned about the state of our own nation which has become so polarized that anger is the most prevalent emotion among the populace. We may feel as if God is absent as we watch the ongoing war in Ukraine and the horrors present in Gaza and Israel. Many of us struggle to make sense of it all. The brazen attack on Israeli citizens and others by Hamas, followed by Israel’s devastating response, leaves us uncertain as to how we should respond. Then there is the politics of our own nation that worries many of us. So, it may seem as if darkness has enveloped us. In moments like this, many ask, where is God?
This was a question that both Isaiah’s and Mark’s audiences were asking. It’s a question many living today are asking. Our journey toward an answer begins with lament and repentance so that we might be ready when the Son of Man arrives in our midst shaking everything up in order to set things right. As we wait for that moment, let us put our trust in the God who may seem absent, but who is always with us even when we don’t feel that presence. Whether that presence is made known through earthquakes or still small voices, as we move through this Advent season, let us pause for a moment, and listen for God’s voice that speaks a word of hope in the midst of a noisy world. Then we can shout for joy because we’ll know that God is at work in our midst.
In a moment we’ll sing a song that declares:
Though the nations rage from age to age, we remember who holds us fast:
God’s mercy must deliver us from the conqueror’s crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard is the promise which holds us bound,
till spear and rod can be crushed by God, who is turning the world around
[Rory Cooney, “My Soul Cries Out with a Joyful Sound”].
So, when the Son of Man comes in glory shaking things up to get our attention, let us join together in praying: “O come, Desire of nations, bind all peoples in one heart and mind, bid envy, strife and quarrels cease; fill the world with heaven’s peace.”
Yes, let this be our Advent prayer so that we might commit ourselves to joining with the God who shakes things up, so we might participate with God in the work of Tikkun Olam. That is the Hebrew phrase that means “to heal the world.” This is our calling as spiritual descendants of Abraham and Sarah, through our spiritual kinship with Jesus our Lord.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
First Presbyterian Church (USA)
Troy, Michigan
December 3, 2023
Advent 1B
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