Sermon for December 24th (Christmas Eve)

Life is full of little interruptions. You have your life all planned out, or at least your day planned out, or at least your evening planned out and suddenly everything changes. You’re walking out the door right on time for a meeting and the phone rings—Pardon the interruption—but someone would like you to buy another credit card with a very low balance transfer rate for the first fifteen minutes you own it. After politely saying no three times you hang up only to discover that you are now late—Pardon the Interruption. You get out to the car and realize that, yes indeed, it is December in Connecticut and there is ice covering your windshield. You forgot it had snowed--Pardon the Interruption—but you’ve got to scrape it off before you start going anywhere and now you are going to be even later. Of course, by driving a little dangerously, a little faster than usual, you make it to your meeting pretty much on time only to read a note on the door—“Cancelled due to bad weather.” Pardon the interruption.

Life is full of little interruptions. Some people handle them well, some people don’t, but everyone has to deal with them. They can be little interruptions, like tests of the emergency broadcast system, or they can be big interruptions, like notices of foreclosure. They can be wonderful interruptions that have been hoped for and planned on, “Honey! I’m pregnant!” And they can be scary interruptions that have not been planned on, “Honey. I’m pregnant.” Interruptions can change your life drastically, like losing a child, husband or mother in a sudden car accident. Or they can simply change your view on life, like watching a good movie for the first time. Interruptions happen every day of the year, 24/7 and they even happen on holidays and weekends. And, in case you haven’t noticed, if you haven’t had a big one yet this year, interruptions love to happen around Christmas time. The first Christmas was, in fact, one great big interruption.

“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered to Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child.” I’d reckon that any decree from Emperor Augustus would have been at least a little interruption in a person’s daily life, but demanding that every man, woman and child be registered must have been a huge interruption, especially when you consider that people sometimes had to leave their town to get it done. So here are Joseph and Mary, a very pregnant Mary it seems, riding to Nazareth instead of preparing for the birth of their first child—Pardon the Interruption.

“While they were there [in Nazareth] the time came for Mary to deliver her child.” Pardon the interruption! Yeah! Anyone here have a baby while they were away on a trip? I can’t imagine that woudn’t be a surprise. You’d think that when the Angel told Mary she was pregnant, it could have given her a little head’s up as to the timing, but God likes interruptions as you will see for yourself. “And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

The world had been moving along swimmingly for a long time. Sunrise, sunset. Seasons would come and seasons would go. But Pardon the Interruption, God becomes flesh. Jesus Christ is born. Up to this point in the life of the world, God created human beings, he breathed life into human beings, but he had never become a human being. One night in Nazareth he did. And from that moment on, even though it was two thousand years ago, your life was forever changed. Pardon the Interruption.

“In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” Pardon the interruption shepherds, sheep and Cornwall, Connecticut. God was born as a human being. After this kind of an interruption, your life will never be the same.

“This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and, and on earth peace among those he favors!” Martin Luther once said that if you want to see God in his most glorious state, don’t look up into the clouds for any heavenly throne—you need not look any farther than Jesus Christ, a babe in swaddling clothes, nursing at his mother’s breast. THAT is God himself—pardon the interruption.

This interruption of God upon your life doesn’t come to you in a series of grand ideas that you can mull over and consider for the rest of your life as a great philosopher. Jesus Christ is much more than a nice idea. God’s interruption into your life isn’t always some grand experience that you will be forced to try to recreate over and over again in your life like some kind of religious drug addict in search of another good trip. Knowing Jesus Christ is more than an awesome experience. Jesus Christ wasn’t given to you as an idea and he wasn’t given to you just to make you feel good. Jesus Christ was given to you as a baby human being: touchable, seeable, kissable and, we will later find out, killable, just like you.

Many people talk about “peace on earth” at Christmas time, as if it were some kind of wonderfully abstract idea. Give a little more to the Salvation Army bell ringers and maybe it will happen. Give another present, maybe you’ll be a part of it. But peace on earth crawled before he walked and he is as present today as he was in that manger, though we trust he is here in faith and not by sight. Peace on earth came as an interruption, wearing the same diaper as Jesus Christ. And faith in this Jesus gives you peace not just on earth but in the eyes of God himself.

Many people talk about the “spirit of Christmas” as a warm, fuzzy spirit that brings happiness and joy, but the “spirit of Christmas” is God himself and he is a lot more than just some superficial sort of love. He is all about a heartsplitting kind of love that ends up dying for the very people who murder him. Christmas is about God becoming flesh and bone not just to love people in a general way, but to love you, a sinner, who has no future, no hope and no life apart from God’s forgiveness. Pardon the Interruption, but, for you, Christmas is much more than cookies, holiday cheer and presents. Christmas is God’s gift to you, that no matter how naughty or nice you are, Jesus was born and died so that you would live with him forever. Through the life and death of Jesus Christ, you are put at peace in God’s eyes, for he has favored you through the birth of his son.

Pardon the Interruption, but when your life has been interrupted by Jesus Christ, nothing else is ever the same. Life is full of little interruptions, but Jesus Christ changes everything. He’s the biggest interruption this world has ever seen. He even interrupts the holiday created in his name by doing more than just talking about love and peace and goodwill towards all people. He gives you love by forgiving your sins. He gives you peace by promising you eternal life. Pardon the interruption, but Jesus Christ was born for you. Your life and your death will never be the same. You have a Savior now. Amen.

Sermon for December 21st

Last week we talked about how important it was to realize that Jesus’ virgin birth has a lot to do with Jesus being truly divine. While the “virgin birth” has often been criticized for being just a silly doctrine or outdated, it is, in fact, extremely important to understanding who Jesus was and is for you. As I said though, many people do not like the idea that Mary was truly a virgin and so they figure that they can just not believe it while still believing in some kind of social revolutionary Jesus.

But while some people want to criticize Mary’s virgin status at the conception of Jesus, there are also others that place Mary on a high, high pedestal in the church and the reasons and the consequences for this are just as bad. The reason for their devotion to Mary is, in fact, found in this same text that we studied last week, but you’d almost miss it if you weren’t paying enough attention. Remember the story, the angel Gabriel had come to Mary and told her that she would become pregnant with a child by the Holy Spirit and that she was to name him Jesus. Then, at the end of all the explanations, at the end of all the amazing and miraculous prophesying about Jesus, Mary says this, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” And THAT, my friends, is what all the fuss is about.

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.” There are many who see this statement of Mary’s to be a crucial aspect in the birth of Jesus Christ. They argue that Mary was a very special person to allow such a thing as the virgin birth to occur. She was going to become pregnant before marriage for goodness sake! She was going to be dealing with a lot of stigma and suffering on account of this peculiar situation and yet, instead of arguing with Gabriel, instead of asking a bunch of questions, she says, “ok. Sounds good to me.” This response, on Mary’s part, is one of the biggest reasons for how much respect and devotion she gets.

Now, believe me, I think Mary was probably a wonderful woman, but I have a couple of questions to ask before I spend too much time in awe of her statement. My first question is this: what other choices did she really have? I mean, God had sent an angel to tell her she was going to be pregnant. If she had said she didn’t want to be pregnant, do you think that would have made much of a difference? Remember Moses? Moses made up several excuses when God called him into ministry and yet he ended up becoming the most celebrated leader of the Israelites. Moses didn’t want to lead, he said he couldn’t speak, he said he wasn’t the right one for the job, but God had other plans.

Do you remember Jonah? God called on him to preach about repentance to the Ninevites, but Jonah didn’t agree. Jonah bolted. God had to send a whale to spit him back on shore in order to get this guy to say even a little peep. Jonah didn’t want to do what God said, but God found a way to convince him. Then there is the famous Saul, who was persecuting and killing Christians before God knocked him off his horse and caused him to go blind briefly in order to change his life and make him one of the most celebrated apostles in the history of the church. Saul became the apostle Paul even though he, if you’d of asked him at the time, probably wasn’t too thrilled with the possibility.

So, back to Mary, should we really give HER all the credit when it comes to being the mother of Jesus? Was it because she was so humble and obedient to God’s will that she became Jesus’ mother? No. I’m happy that God blessed her with a strong faith willing to endure the hardship of a surprise pregnancy and then of motherhood, but whether she “willingly accepted” at the time, or argued till she was blue in the face, I don’t believe it would have made any difference at all. What was the angel supposed to say? Oh, you don’t want this to happen. Ok, I’ll tell God to pick someone else. No. God was the one in charge. He had the plan to carry out. Gabriel told Mary she was blessed, and so she was, but we don’t need to make Mary out to be any more amazing than any person when they are blessed by God. When God chooses you, you are chosen—like it or not.

This is important for you and I to remember at Christmas time. This time of the year is really a special time in the world where the sacred becomes intensely intertwined with the secular all over the place. It might be easy to feel a little bit of pride, or feel a little arrogant when we see thousands of people lining up in WalMart and Target to get presents when “they don’t even seem to understand what Christmas is about!” Christmas is about Christ, right! Christmas is about baby Jesus being born. Not about presents! Not about overeating! Those are great and fun to do, but it’s sometimes so easy to feel like Christians are so special because we believe when, really, Christians are special because they have been blessed, given an amazing gift, and that is it.

The celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas morning is truly amazing. The fact that you believe in his name, if you do, is also truly amazing, but it doesn’t say that much for you does it . . though it does say a lot about God. In John’s gospel, Jesus puts it quite bluntly, “You did not choose me. I chose you.” In other words, as Jesus puts it later, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them out of my hands.” God, that is Jesus himself, is the actor and subject of all of those verbs. You are his object. That’s definitely something to celebrate, but it’s not something to be arrogant about. We are celebrating what God has done and not what we have done.

As you have the opportunity to share with others this Christmas season, keep this in mind. Christmas is about God giving himself to people who don’t deserve him. We are simply receiving his gifts. So, when it comes to telling others the story of Jesus Christ just give it to them. Don’t expect a pious response. Don’t expect a faith upbuilding conversation. You can’t expect everyone to come to church even if you nicely invite them. But even if they refuse, argue about it or reject God’s call on their life over and over again it isn’t something God hasn’t dealt with before. He is used to his sheep getting lost. He is used to his people disobeying. He is used to his prophets complaining.

This is also important when you stop thinking about others and realize that you are not much different. I bet if you asked Mary, she wouldn’t think much of what she said; I mean, what else could she do? I may have told you all this before, but I’m going to tell it to you again, a little conversation I had once will a wonderful woman named Edna. She was taking care of her husband who was dying of cancer and I asked her once how she dealt with a life full of the responsibilities of caretaking. She said, “I love him. What else can I do?” You see, she did have a choice, didn’t she. Just like Mary, I guess, she had a choice. She could have said no. She could have divorced her husband when he became such a pain to have around. But when it comes to love, you don’t really have a choice, do you.

When Gabriel told Mary that God had blessed her with the Messiah, Mary was given something that is very much like falling in love. She was given faith; faith that God had indeed kept his promise to send a Savior for his people. And so, she didn’t really have a choice, did she? She was given faith She gave her Amen to God’s word.

That’s why, as I was preparing this sermon, I realized that what I am doing up here is NOT trying to motivate you to be like Mary. To be a humble and obedient servant. I’m not trying to convince you to be devoted to God and willing to sacrifice and suffer for your faith. Why not? Because God doesn’t show up without giving you his gifts. He doesn’t expect you to make the first move, he does it for you. He sends you a preacher to tell you his promises, “jesus Christ was born and died to forgive your sins once and for all.” He tells you the story and gives you faith that, indeed, on Christmas day, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, your Savior, was born. And not just born to a mother and father, but born to a world, to a nation and, to you, though you didn’t deserve him. It is my job as your pastor to give you Jesus Christ, the promise of his life, death and resurrection, so that the Holy Spirit can create faith. Some people call faith a choice, but how can you really call falling in love a choice at all? For know this, God says to you, “I love you forever and ever.” And my prayer this Advent season is that, within your heart, just as in Mary’s womb, faith is born from God above. Faith in Jesus Christ. Whether you wanted him or not, he’s yours. Amen.

Sermon for December 14th

If you haven’t noticed, I have printed out next week’s gospel lesson and placed it in your bulletin this week. Next week is our Christmas Pageant and, so, I won’t be giving a sermon. But, next week’s reading is a very important one as we get ready for Christmas day and I wanted a chance to reflect on it with you. So, turn to your insert and read along with me, from the Gospel of Luke the first chapter (Read Luke 1:26-38)

Most of us have heard this passage once or twice before, but I wonder if we realize how radical it really is. I mean, at Easter time, the drama is pretty obvious isn’t it? Jesus is dead and then, after three days, his is alive again! Raised from the dead! An amazing miracle that really gets people talking! In comparison to Easter day, this Advent text seems boring and quaint. But, in fact, this text is just as full of miracles as the text for Easter day.

The angel Gabriel says to Mary, “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” That’s right! Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, was a virgin mother. How can that be? How is that possible? Well, as the angel later says, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”

Unfortunately, many people have a problem with believing that Mary was a virgin mother. They say that it’s not that important to believe; as long as you believe Jesus was born and died and was resurrected, you’ve got the gospel.” They say, “There ain’t no way you can have a baby and still be a virgin.” In fact, if you’d read much ancient history, you might notice that a lot of important and famous people were SAID to have mothers who were virgins. Egyptian Pharaohs, Roman emperors and even Alexander the Great were said to be “virgin births” to make them seem semi-divine in nature. Some would argue that that’s probably what happened in the story of Jesus’ birth as well.

Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? And if not, why not? You’ve heard that Jesus walked on water, healed lepers and was raised from the dead? Why is the virgin birth such a pickle to believe?

We argue that Mary couldn’t have been a virgin. It’s impossible! We know how babies start out and that’s not how. But our real problem isn’t with Mary, it’s with Jesus. We have trouble believing that Jesus is truly God. You see, if Mary isn’t truly a virgin, then how can you believe that Jesus is truly God? If Mary is anything but a virgin when Jesus born, you just can’t be sure who his father is, can you? And if Jesus isn’t truly God, then Christmas isn’t much of a holiday at all for you and me.

Mary is an easy scapegoat for our doubts. It’s a lot easier to try and figure out how the story might be wrong about Mary than to have to believe that the story is correct. We imagine that maybe Mary was just embarrassed by a little mistake that was made with another man while she was engaged to Joseph and made up this whole angel story. Or worse, maybe she was raped, as some people have speculated, but couldn’t bring herself to tell anyone! It’s been argued over and over that believing in the virgin birth of Jesus isn’t necessary to believe in Jesus, but I would like to know what Jesus you are referring to.

There are many people and, perhaps, many of you, who think a lot of Jesus, what he stood for and what he did, and would like to emulate him as a person. Jesus is a wonderful, powerful example of what one person can do to change the world. But, a radical social revolutionary Jesus doesn’t need to be God, does he? A Jesus who stands up to the religious and political leaders of his time and gets killed for it doesn’t need to have a mother who gave birth to him as a virgin, right? All those miracles of his are interesting stories but, when push comes to shove, you wouldn’t have to believe any of them as long as Jesus is a good example to follow in your life. You wouldn’t need a virgin birth to worship a Jesus like that.

But while Jesus was very radical and political and revolutionary in his time, and in our time, the Bible argues that he was even more than that. The Bible says that he was, in fact, God. Or, as the Lutheran Reformers put it, “Apart from this man, Jesus Christ, there is no God.” And if you miss that little detail, you’ve missed the most radical, the most political and the most revolutionary detail of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. God, the creator of your universe, became a human being and all that comes with it—even to the point that Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was cursed on the cross and became sin itself. So that you might trust that God, the creator of your universe, isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and has the power and the love to stick with you from your conception, to your birth, throughout your life and even in your death. God was born, died and was raised from the dead not so that you could follow him by example but so that you might worship him as your God alone.

But there is also another problem we often have with this story about Mary being the virgin mother of Jesus. This problem isn’t so much scientific or physical but theological. Even if we can accept that God can supernaturally impregnate a human being somehow, someway, isn’t it kinda disgusting and degrading for your God, the creator of the Universe, to float around in a uterus for ten months, even if it is Mary, who we assume was a nice upstanding lady. Even the best theologians throughout history have had a hard time with that one. One famous church leader named, Nestorious, even argued that while you could say that Mary was the mother of Jesus, you shouldn’t say she was the mother of God—no birth canal for my Lord, no sirreee! That would be too gross, too dirty and, to be more precise, too close for God to get to a sinner.

But God got so close to you that he experienced amniotic fluid, hiccups and active labor. God didn’t choose to create himself out of nothing as a newborn baby or even as a thirty-one year old man. He became an zygote, then an embryo and then a fetus and waited ten months to be born and breathe fresh air. How? I haven’t a clue. But, as the angel Gabriel says, with God anything is possible.

You see, Christmas day is a wonderful day full of joy and happiness, but the real miracle isn’t Jesus’ birth. It is a wonderful event, just as every birth is, but the fact that Jesus was born, after ten months gestation, isn’t the most amazing thing of all. The most amazing thing is that God chose to have the chance to be born after waiting and growing for months just like all the rest of us. In Phillipians, we hear one of the oldest Christian hymns talk about this wonderful miracle, “though Jesus was in the form of God,” the book of Phillipians says, “He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”

If God DIDN’T intend on becoming a human being, then the virgin birth would not have had to truly have happened. If God WASN’T willing to suffer life as a human being, then the virgin birth wouldn’t have had to be true. But if Mary was NOT the virgin mother of Jesus Christ, then not only do we have a problem with the words of Scripture, but we have a problem with God himself. For if God himself was not in Mary’s womb, then God himself was not truly born. And if God himself was not truly born, then God himself did not truly die. And if God himself did not truly die, then we should have all slept in this morning and enjoyed some more pillow time. For if God DID NOT truly die for your in the form of Jesus Christ, then you have no hope for eternal life.

Despite the craziness and unlikeliness of it all, I encourage you to hold onto God’s Word with joy, awe and wonder—even when you hear that Jesus was born to a virgin. Remember that Jesus was not born to the virgin Mary to make the story harder for you to believe, but so that you might more easily believe—so that you might be given faith that Jesus was born both truly human and truly God. So that you might have faith that he has truly saved you from your sins. But, in fact, the most remarkable thing is not that Jesus was born to a virgin, or that he healed thousands, or that he died, or that he was raised from the dead. The most amazing and wonderful thing of all is that he did all of this for you. For only now that you have heard that God truly became a human being to a virgin mother, can you wait expectantly not just for the story of little baby Jesus, but to hear the story that God himself was born on Christmas day. And that is worth waiting for. Amen.

Sermon for December 7th

In last week’s gospel, there was a little passage that I did not address, but which many of you may have heard and wondered about. If you remember, Jesus described the signs that the last days were approaching, “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 he says, “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.” What do you think about that? Does it bother you? Doesn’t it bother you that Jesus says that these things, these awfully weird and scary things, are going to happen before a generation passes away . . . and that was 2000 years ago! As far as I know, everyone Jesus was talking to is long dead and buried. So was Jesus kidding, or wrong, or just misunderstood?

Well, I’d like you to imagine, for a moment, what it must have felt like to be a person in that generation Jesus spoke to. What must it have felt like when Jesus still hadn’t returned and they were about to die? What about the next generation? How do you think they felt? Betrayed? Confused? And how did they deal with the fact that they were still waiting? Fast forward many, many, many generations after that to the generation you are living in. Doesn’t it bother you that Jesus has not returned yet? Why take so long? Is it something you did? Something you didn’t do? Why isn’t Jesus back yet? What can you do about it?

The fact that Jesus didn’t return within a generation, defined as the time between a group of people’s births and their deaths, is tough to deal with. However, there is a good argument that when Jesus said “this generation would not pass away” he was likely referring to the Jewish people as a whole and not just to the specific lifespans of his listeners. BUT, the problem still isn’t solved EVEN IF we accept that Jesus wasn’t talking about lifespans but a longer span of time. Jesus still hasn’t come again, we proclaim each week that he will, but he hasn’t yet. We are still waiting and THAT is tough to deal with. The problem still exists.

And we certainly aren’t the first people to have this issue, our passage from the book of second Peter is dealing with the same problem. Today’s passage is Peter’s answer to those who were troubled by Christ’s delayed return. They think Peter and his merry band of Christians are wrong about Christ coming back. They say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!” Where is the promise of Jesus’ return? Where indeed?

In our day and age, lots of people are upset by the fact that Jesus has not had his “second coming” yet. How do you know? Well, just look at how hard they are working to get him to come back! I went online and typed into Google: “getting Jesus to come back sooner”. Here are some examples of what people are doing as they wait for Christ to come.

On BringJesusBack.org they have one interesting idea. Here’s a quote from their website, “We can help speed the return of Jesus by making a cassette tape in every language spoken on earth. Since the Bible is inspired directly by God, we can trust that there is great truth in this quote from the book of Matthew chapter 24 verse 14. Here we will quote it from the New International Version: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." 97% of people have heard according to BringJesusBack.org (how they might prove that is completely beyond me). But, they figure that if 100% of people have heard then the end will come. Jesus won’t have any more excuses I guess.

The Second Coming Project is trying to use technology to get Jesus to come back. They had hoped to find an original relic and get Jesus’ DNA from a hair left on a thorn from the crown of thorns or some skin from the shroud of torah or something, to make a clone of Jesus. Not quite having Jesus return, but a Jesus clone would be the next best thing I guess!

Then, of course, there is the “Rapture Index”. Just as a quick note if you haven’t heard about this before. The rapture is believed to be a time when some Christians, (the really good ones it is assumed) are taken by God out of this world (leaving their clothes and dental fillings behind) while the rest of the world is left to suffer awhile on earth before Jesus comes again—finally! This understanding has been created and taken from several disjointed Bible passages and commercialized into books like the Left Behind series so popular years ago. Of course, while Jesus often says THAT he will return again, he doesn’t say HOW. Surprisingly, however, people who expect the rapture will argue that they do know how and will be more than glad to tell you.

Anyway, Bill Moyers, an American journalist and public commentator, had this to say about the group making up the online Rapture index, “They are sincere, serious, and polite as they tell you they feel called to help bring the rapture on as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That's why they have declared solidarity with Israel and the Jewish settlements and backed up their support with money and volunteers. It's why the invasion of Iraq for them was a warm-up act, predicted in the Book of Revelation where four angels 'which are bound in the great river Euphrates will be released to slay the third part of man.' A war with Islam in the Middle East is not something to be feared but welcomed - an essential conflagration on the road to redemption. The last time I Googled it, the rapture index stood at 144-just one point below the critical threshold when the whole thing will blow, the son of God will return, the righteous will enter heaven, and sinners will be condemned to eternal hellfire.” Just as a note, as of December 1st, the Rapture index was, in fact, even higher 158! And you can imagine why: unemployment and financial unrest are up, even though floods are down, and a gentleman in Florida has made news recently claiming to be Christ. These are just some examples of how this index decides when Christ is on his way and, as the site recommends, you’d better fasten your seatbelts.

It’s hard to be patient, isn’t it? It’s especially hard to be patient when waiting for Jesus to come back when we have to watch so many people hurting, homeless, going hungry and dying. It’s hard to be patient when people are referring to the rapture index. Why is Jesus taking so long?

Well, first off, Peter makes a distinction in today’s passage. You AREN’T called to be patient. You’re just supposed to wait. GOD is the one being patient. “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness,” Peter says, “but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” In other words, while you and I think we are being sooooo patient waiting for Jesus, God says, “You’re not being patient with me, I’m being patient with you!”

When I’m impatient, I look at the clock. I want to know what time it is over and over again. That’s the same question asked by those of us waiting for Jesus to come again: what time is it? What time is it? Between when Jesus ascended into heaven from our sight and when he will come again in the clouds? What time is it? Are we close or not so close?

Peter says that now is the time to wait and to hasten the coming day of the Lord. He first says to wait. While God is actively being patient, he asks you to wait . . . just wait, and that’s a very passive thing to do, isn’t it? If you were the one having to be patient with God, it would be up to you to forgive God for taking so long, but, instead, God says, “I am being patient with you. I am the one doing the forgiving and I want all to come to repentance. I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that they would turn to me and live.” We are passive. We can’t make Jesus come back any later or earlier than God has planned. When it comes to Jesus’ second coming, you and I have absolutely no power to force his hand.

But Peter also says we should “hasten” the day of the Lord and that sounds like a pretty active thing to do. Yet, it’s important to remember that while we are passive in our relationship to God, we are very free to be active in our relationship to others. While it can be very frustrating to focus on when or how Jesus will come again; instead, you may focus on your neighbors, the ones God has planted on this earth for you. God is actively seeking the lost and the forsaken and through his Holy Spirit uses you.

Now is a time to actively listen and to proclaim the promise of God’s salvation. We wait on God and hasten his coming by calling people to both repent and believe that Jesus Christ has forgiven their sins once and for all. Not so that Jesus will come sooner, but so that people might find their Savior. We are not called to “Bring Jesus Back” as the website I referred to earlier says; instead, we are called to bring PEOPLE back to Jesus by proclaiming God’s law and his gospel so that the Holy Spirit can create faith.

What time is it? It is time to hear the good news! It is a time of salvation. God’s perceived slowness shows his love for all humankind. Not just for others, but also for you. Jesus ascended into heaven but his words have not passed away, just like he promised. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” The time has come and the kingdom of heaven has come near to you; repent and believe in the good news. Jesus Christ has come again, as he does every time that you hear his promise; He has come again, in his words, for you. And one day, as he has promised, he will come again in the clouds and you will see him face to face. Until then, he’ll be patient and we’ll wait. Amen.

Sermon for November 30th

One of the most important religious movements in America was the Great Awakening. The movement started in eighteenth-century New England and became associated with well known preachers such as Gilbert Tennant, George Whitefield and, most importantly, Jonathan Edwards. At its foundation, the Great Awakening was about a way of preaching, not necessarily a new way of preaching, people had made the same arguments many times before in the church, but this time the arguments seemed to resonate with the people of the new world. In our text today, Jesus says that we must “Stay Awake!” That’s where the term “Great Awakening” comes from. These preachers set to wake people up to their sin and, in turn, wake them up to the truth of the gospel.

The preachers of the Great Awakening were very gifted orators. They led revivals at a time when society seemed to have lost its moral grounding. Here you have a whole new world and a bunch of men trying to survive in it. Things got ugly pretty quickly. What did these pastors preach about? Hellfire and damnation—to scare people into changing their life. My church history professor explained that this technique really could only work before the civil war because, after the war, people couldn’t be scared by hell anymore since they felt they had already seen it and experienced it.

Experience: this was the key. The Great Awakening was about people EXPERIENCING God. The fear, the pain, the awe, the joy, the ecstasy and peace of a relationship with God. One of the mottos at this time denigrated the practice of infant baptism saying, “Christening does not make a Christian.” You needed to EXPERIENCE a CONVERSION according to these new preachers. Nothing less than a true religious experience could prove that you were a true believer.

The Great Awakening placed a lot of focus on something theologians call “Sanctification”. Just in case you’ve never heard of this word before, let me quickly explain what sanctification means. You’ve heard about creation: God created you and all that exists. You are also, probably, somewhat familiar with the word “justification”: being made right with God. When you hear that your sins are forgiven, you are justified in God’s sight, not for what you have done, but because of what God has done for you.

Finally, you get sanctification: being made holy. Sanctification is often talked about as what happens after your sins are forgiven. First creation, then justification and, finally, sanctification. The preachers of the Great Awakening looked for tears during a sermon for instance. They looked to see if people were laughing uncontrollably at the joy of knowing God for the first time. Or, perhaps they simply watched and waited to see if the newest church member had really changed their life around or was already backsliding. That’s the way sanctification is often talked about in churchy circles: what signs can you point to in order to prove someone is actually a Christian. That they are walking the walk and not just talking the talk. And after you’ve figured out who is really a Christian, the fun part becomes deciding who really isn’t.

Those who take this approach toward sanctification hear Jesus’ words in a very particular way. When Jesus says “Jump!” You say, “How high?” When Jesus says, “Keep awake!” You say, “What must I do to keep awake?” How might you keep awake? Many Christians have come up with ways to help you “stay awake” and be ready for Jesus’ return. Sometimes they are simple. Weekly Bible studies. Weekly church services. Having an extra service Sunday nights. Saying prayers at bedtime and in the morning. Sometimes they are a little more complex. Going to confession once a week. Flogging yourself for your sins. Or maybe going on a peace march against the war? Every church has different ways to encourage people to “stay awake” for Jesus but, when that is THE goal, there is a problem with all of them: You just can’t be sure these spiritual disciplines are working can you?

What spiritual contortions have you put yourself through recently in order to prove to yourself, or to someone else, that you are indeed awake for Jesus? Converted? A Christian? A good Lutheran? And yet, the problem is, no matter how hard you try, you can never be sure what you are doing is enough. You know what the most difficult part of staying awake is? The need for sleep everyday. I don’t mean this allegorically or poetically, I mean this completely literally. How in the world am I supposed to do anything spiritual when I am asleep? I can’t stay awake all night long, and I can’t imagine God wants you or me to do that, but how can I be sure I am not dreaming up some horrible sin right when I am the least able to do anything about it and down comes Jesus Christ like a thief in the night! I know that Jesus isn’t demanding that I become sleep deprived, but this scenario does bring the issue to a head: We cannot always feel spiritually awake. And furthermore, most of the time, we don’t even want to. And still Jesus drones on: Stay awake!

If Sanctification means proving to God or to anyone else that you are truly awakened and converted you will fail. No matter how much Bible study, prayer or flogging you participate in. But I believe there is a much more helpful definition of sanctification, penned by the Lutheran theologian Gerhard Forde. He said Sanctification is getting used to being forgiven. Getting used to justification. Getting used to how it feels to be awake. Getting used to being a Christian in a world of sin with other sinners like yourself. Getting used to trusting in God’s Word.

In Elementary school I lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota. My parents had divorced when I was ten and so I was living with my dad at the time. One night, after much pleading and pouting I convinced my dad to let me go on a quick bike ride before he had to go out to work for the night. He made me promise to be home early so he would not be late. But about ten minutes into my ride I must have slid on some gravel because I woke up a ways away from my bike on my face (I can’t remember what happened because I received a concussion). I knocked out my front tooth, chipped another and skinned up my face a great deal. I spent several days out of school due to my injuries and, I assume, made my dad miss whatever it was he was going to.

But the most traumatic experience of the bike accident was much later, after the sun had set and I was fast asleep. You see, my dad had been given instructions to wake me up to make sure I was ok after having my concussion. And so every hour on the hour my dad woke me up, which was a feat in itself considering I was a heavy, heavy sleeper. Then once he woke me up from dreamland, he shined a big bright flashlight into my eyes! Hour after hour he would come back in, shake me awake, force my eyes open, shine that stupid flashlight into my eyes and I would scream and yell at him until he left. Again he would return like a sadistic human alarm clock risking bodily harm while he shined that dumb light in my eyes. Finally, by 3:00, he and I were beyond what we could handle at that point, and he just left me alone to sleep. I still don’t remember what caused the accident, but I remember him waking me up again and again to shine that insanely bright light at me.

Well, that, my friends, is the best example I can give you of what the Christian life is like. Having someone who is supposed to love you wake you up from a perfectly wonderful night’s sleep again and again and again in order to shine a huge, extremely bright flashlight directly into your eyeballs at close range in order to see if your pupils are dilating. Then coming back in what seems like two minutes, once you are comfortably back to sleep, to do it all over again. Jesus Christ, the light of world, comes into your darkness, into your sleep, where you are only too happy to stay sinfully ignorant and unaware, to shine the light of his truth into your eyeballs. You are in bondage to sin and cannot free yourself. He has come to bring life so that you might have it abundantly! What must you do? Nothing. Get used to it.

The first thesis of Luther’s 95 said this, “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” I think that the same holds true for many other things as well. For instance, “When your Lord and Master Jesus Christ says “Keep awake”, He is calling for your entire life to be one of waking up.” Not one Great Awakening. Not one conversion. Not a onetime amazing experience. Waking up again and again until you finally get used to doing what you do while being awake. While living in the light of Christ. When Jesus says, “Keep awake!” You no longer need ask what you must do. Christ has already awakened you. Now it’s just a matter of getting used to it. As Forde said, “Now that you know that you don’t have to do anything, what are you going to do?”

Jesus wakes you up over and over again in your life. Ironically, you are only fully awakened to faith once you fall asleep for good, once you’re dead and Christ’s awakens you once and for all. During this Advent season, when Jesus says, “Stay awake!” don’t focus on how to make yourself more holy, but get used to opening your eyes to how Jesus has made you holy. God gets the glory. Jesus holds the flashlight. And when you fall asleep, even at your death, you will have gotten used to being awakened by your annoying and irritating heavenly Father standing in your grave and shining his light into your eyes and whispering into your ears: Wake up! Amen.