First Sunday in Advent: November 28, 2004.Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalm 122 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 First Reading Happy New Year! Once again the church proclaims a new beginning (of a church year) by looking forward to the ultimate new beginning too often seen as "The End": the coming of the Son of Man. A first reading of our texts for today from Matthew and Romans reminds us that, as we anticipate the coming of the Son, we ought to stay awake and turn to light. Jesus tells his followers followers see dairy herd. , "Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (v. 42). The past several weeks have given us many perspectives on how the faithful people of God are to respond to any anticipation of the end-times, of the coming of the Son of Man. As we begin the new year and the Matthean Jesus provides words of counsel to disciples, we hear that we are above all else to "keep awake." We are told that we cannot possibly know or predict the timing: only the Father knows. Not even the angels of heaven, not even the Son, know. How, then, could we possibly know? Jesus tells his disciples that they could not know the time, therefore they need to keep awake because it could come at any time. The symbolism Symbolism In art, a loosely organized movement that flourished in the 1880s and '90s and was closely related to the Symbolist movement in literature. In reaction against both Realism and Impressionism, Symbolist painters stressed art's subjective, symbolic, and decorative of awareness and being awake as opposed to being asleep connects with symbolism of day/night and light/darkness in our Romans reading. On the First Sunday of Advent, as the days in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. are growing shorter and darkness is gathering even as the church prepares to welcome the Light into the world, these contrasts are powerful ones for us indeed. Paul calls on the people of light to live as is proper for the daytime. Paul provides a list of sin, activities that are more appropriate to the dark and nighttime, and calls on the church to give those things up and "make no provision for the flesh, to gratify grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. its desires." In doing so, Paul proclaims "the flesh" to be negative, dark, and appropriate to the night, building on and reinforcing his belief, expressed elsewhere, that Christians are to forsake the flesh and focus only on the spiritual. This distinction and devaluation devaluation, decreasing the value of one nation's currency relative to gold or the currencies of other nations. It is usually undertaken as a means of correcting a deficit in the balance of payments. of the flesh is a concept that may be unhelpful in our time and may need some interpretation for our congregations. Hold this Pauline injunction in the context of the God who created us nephesh--body and soul together--and called it "very good." Pastoral Reflection The First Sunday of Advent seems to me to be a good time to preach about the lectionary lec·tion·ar·y n. pl. lec·tion·ar·ies A book or list of lections to be read at church services during the year. [Medieval Latin l , to preach the church year. You might choose to remind your congregation that this Sunday in November is the beginning of the church year. As Christians we live in, but are not of, the world; we, therefore, live according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. two different time systems. We Christians begin our year of worship by looking forward to a new beginning, a time when the Son of Man will return. In the readings from both Matthew and Romans we hear a great deal about staying awake and the call to live in ways that are appropriate to the light. It is possible to issue this call and proclaim pro·claim tr.v. pro·claimed, pro·claim·ing, pro·claims 1. To announce officially and publicly; declare. See Synonyms at announce. 2. this message without degrading TO DEGRADE, DEGRADING. To, sink or lower a person in the estimation of the public. 2. As a man's character is of great importance to him, and it is his interest to retain the good opinion of all mankind, when he is a witness, he cannot be compelled to disclose the flesh and setting up an unhelpful opposition between things of the flesh and things of the spirit. Or perhaps it would be good or helpful to bring that up, to preach against Paul's "make no provision for the flesh" while maintaining the call to live lives that are appropriate to the light and appropriate to those who keep awake. Most helpful, it seems to me, is Paul's proclamation An act that formally declares to the general public that the government has acted in a particular way. A written or printed document issued by a superior government executive, such as the president or governor, which sets out such a declaration by the government. that "the night is far gone; the day is near" (v. 12). As the days grow shorter and the darkness grows longer in our world, we are called to place our hope in the truth that God's light is entering the world and growing brighter. Through this season of Advent, the light will continue to grow, just as the number of candles on our Advent wreathes An advent wreath is a ring or set of four candles, usually made with evergreen cuttings and used for household devotion by some Christians during the season of Advent. Many churches illuminate these candles in succession through the four weeks leading up to Christmas as part of grows, until the Light of the World comes into our world. And so we use the season of Advent to prepare for--and to encourage our congregations to prepare for--marking the entrance in the past into our world of the Light of Lights and Prince of Peace as we continue to await with eager anticipation the Son of Man's entrance finally at the time of God's choosing. SM-K |
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