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11/27/05
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1st Sunday of Advent B
November 27, 2005
Delivered by Reverend Sandy Stayner
Isaiah 64:1-9
1 Cor. 1:1-9
Mark 13:24-37
Lo, in the silent night
A child to God is born
And all is brought again
That ere was lost or lorn
Could but thy soul, O man,
Become a silent night!
God would be born in thee
And set all things aright.
15th century
Long before the sun came up on Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, I awoke to the sound of a woman’s voice whispering in my ear. “Sandy, do you still want to come shopping with us?” “Yes” I replied, reluctantly wiping the sleep from my eyes as I struggled to sit up in bed. It was pitch black outside, and the ground was covered in snow. I glanced at the clock – 4:30AM. I slipped out of bed and hurriedly got dressed before quietly opening the door and heading for the kitchen. David’s sister, cousin and another woman were waiting for me at the back door. It was 4:45AM as we climbed into the car – my first experience of “Black Friday.” We had spent hours the day before poring over the advertisements and knew exactly what bargains we were after. At last we were on our way, hoping to beat the hordes of other people who would soon mob the stores hoping to find the special bargains promised the early shoppers.
We arrived at the store shortly after 5:00AM and joined the long line of people flooding into the store. Once through the door we immediately split up, each one heading for their of us it didn’t seem possible that we would find the things we had come to get. So I felt my stomach lurch with relief as I picked up the I-pod I wanted to buy - $50.00 cheaper than it would be after 12 noon.
“Black Friday” as the day after Thanksgiving has come to be known seems to have become an almost essential part of our culture. Merchants watch their sales carefully as a way to predict how the economy is going, what profits they can hope to make this season. Shoppers watch the advertisements eagerly, hoping they will find a way to buy what their loved ones most want for Christmas. Christmas preparations have begun in earnest as we actively seek out the gifts that are designed to bring our families the joy and peace promised by the angels at Christmas time.
God, however, is looking for a different kind of response – a different kind of watchfulness than that developed by shopkeepers in the mall. The scriptures read during the season of Advent were originally written for the nation of Israel, a tiny nation in the Mediterranean basin that had long been oppressed, taken over by one mighty nation after another. The scriptures alerted the people of Israel to the need to remain alert for the signs of the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in their midst. The faithful were urged to watch very carefully for the signs of God’s presence all around them, marking the beginning of a time when they would be released from the oppression of foreign Lords. The new reign of God would come secretly, like a thief in the night, would come when and where it was least expected. The people must keep each other awake, alert, lest they miss the coming of the Messiah.
We also are enjoined at this time to become one of the faithful who throughout the ages have been keeping watch for God. We are asked to keep in mind the many in our age who desperately long for the coming reign of God. These are the people, who if we have eyes to see, will remind us of our longing for God’s kingdom – the innocent families in Iraq whose children are terrified to go out of their homes for fear they will be blown up by a suicide bomber – displaced people from New Orleans who are living among strangers in a strange culture after their lives were completely disrupted by the floods that deluged their homes – people right here in our midst who are struggling with chronic illness or taking care of elderly family members – each one a reminder of our own desperate need for release, for healing, for freedom from pain and sorrow, for the deepest longing held in our hearts for the coming reign of God.
There is a deep longing in every one of us, to be returned to a harmonious relationship with God and with one another, to become the person we somehow sense we were created to become. That’s why we work so hard to make the season of Christmas live up to the promise it contains.
Yet if only we would search the community of faith for signs of the coming reign of God as eagerly as we search the advertisements for bargains, I think we would find that God’s reign has already begun to erupt in our midst – broken relationships are restored - the sick are healed – people living in darkness catch a glimpse of God’s love. Those of us who, like the church in Corinth “have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be holy together with those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours” (I Cor. 1:2) have been charged with a special responsibility to show forth the possibility of God’s redemptive love, by the way we live in relationship to one another as well as the way we care for the sick, the elderly and the poor. We must remain alert to the signs of God’s love breaking into our midst and continue to watch and pray for the day when Christ will return in glory and all the nations will see his light.
When Christmas comes this year, in the darkness of the early morning, before the world is awake, the Christ Child will be born in a stable in an insignificant little village called Bethlehem. Will you be there to greet him?
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