In this passage, we are given the
image of Zion that is yet to come. This
image does not conform to the Israelite understanding that had become accepted
as right. The reason that this is the
case is because
However, this new portrayal casts
Zion in a religious light. In this description the foreign nations that were
once required to come out of force and fear, now “stream to”
The only caveat to this development is the four word phrase, “in the days to come”. The uncertainty that this phrase elicits cannot be underestimated, for people are left to wonder, if not now, when? If not the king of this present time, then who?
As Christians, we believe the answers to these questions are found in one person who was born to a teenage girl and her fiancé in nothing more than an animal shed. However, much like the people who Isaiah was speaking to, we also are called to wait, and in that waiting prepare for that which is yet to come. The scripture reads this way.
Isaiah 2:1-5
2 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning
days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.
3 Many peoples shall come and say,“ Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may
walk in his paths.” For out of
4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they
shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
This morning’s second passage continues the drumbeat about preparation, and since we have entered the season of Advent, the four Sundays prior to Christmas, this is not at all a surprise.
However, the preparation is not as we have come to interpret it in our current rendition of modernity. When we talk about Christmas preparation in the current climate people think about putting up the Christmas tree with all of its lights and decorations. We think of decorating the outside of the house in some way so that it might help to display the light of the season. We think of putting things up all throughout the house in order to create that special Christmas feeling. And, of course, we think of all gifts that need to be purchased, wrapped, shipped, ect., ect., in order to share our affection toward our friends and family. That’s what we think of in terms of preparation.
That is not how our scripture is calling for us to prepare. What our passage says to us is that it is time to wake up, time to wake up to the reality that the day of Christ’s return is ever closer to the day that we now enjoy. Some of you may be wondering why this would be the tact that is taken by the theologians who put the lectionary together, especially considering that we are trying to get ready for Christmas, the birth of Jesus, and not Easter, where we celebrate his resurrection. I answer such a query this way: we talk about this sort of preparation because our eyes should always be fixed upon where God is ultimately leading us, and while our Christmas celebrations are a wonderful reminder of where we come from and how we have come together, it is not where we are ultimately going.
Now sitting here in church on a Sunday morning, we can all give, at the very least, a half hearted, “yeah, I can go along with that. We need to stay focused on Jesus return”.
However, when we are faced with all of the societal expectations that do come with Christmas, is looking toward the end time really practical? I believe it is if we understand how we are to look at it, and our lives. This passage is a wonderful reminder of that very thing. The scripture reads this way.
Romans 11:13-14
11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; 12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; 13 let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
My mornings have always been a thing of routine. I can remember being in high school and the
alarm would go off at quarter to six so that I could listen to sports talk
radio for 15 minutes before going downstairs to have a bowl of cereal (cause
nothing says, ‘take on the morning’ like 15 minutes of sports talk at 5:45 in
the morning!). In seminary the alarm
would go off at 6:45 and I would climb down out of the loft to watch 20 minutes
of the news before having my bowl of cereal.
Even today, as soon as the mind wakes up at its prescribed time I
immediately kick into my routine. I head
downstairs, let Jim know that I want him to have a good day at school, and
empty the dishwasher. While I’m doing
that
I know that many of you have similar experiences in that you
go through those moments when you really aren’t even thinking. Stuff is getting done, but you’re running on
autopilot. I mean there have been times
when I’ll be out driving and all of a sudden I’ll realize that I’m 15 miles
farther down the road then I thought and I can’t remember any of the stuff that
happened those last 15 miles. We
disconnect.
Unfortunately, to a certain extent, I think the Christmas
season is experienced by many of us in the exact same way: we know what we have
to do and we get it done but we’ve done it so many times before that we do the
autopilot thing. Thanksgiving ends and
one of the first things that many of us think is, ‘time to get out the
Christmas tree and all the decorations’.
Paul, the author of Romans is picking up on this reality that
as the days, weeks, and months draw his readers and us here today farther and
farther away from the actually life of Jesus, we operate more and more out of a
prescribed reaction, rather than actually appreciating what is being revealed. This is why Paul says that, “we need to wake
from sleep”. He’s saying that we need to
wake up and stop doing the whole thing where we are just going through the
motions, that we need to plug into what is actually going on around us because
if we do that, then, from a position of faith, we will be protected with the
‘armor of light’. But again, we need to
wake up and focus on where God is ultimately leading us.
So how do we do that?
How do we plug into where God is leading us?
Well, to begin with, I think the biggest hurdle is that we
become focused on the wrong things. We
do one of three things, we either do the autopilot thing (that I talked about a
few minutes ago); Number 2: we see all the stuff that needs to be done in the
day and that that’s all we’re able to see; or, and this one may be the most
detrimental, we just say, “I’ll do what I want to do and the world will just
have to deal with that”. In each of
these cases we are not able to see God.
Speaking to the second response, and being completely candid
with ourselves, how many of us write the whole mental (or actual) list and
before we even get started doing any of it we begin thinking, “how am I ever
going to get this done?” We haven’t even
started and we are already a step and a half behind. When we approach the world this way the
likelihood that we will be able to see the movement of God is greatly
diminished, because we are not awake to God, only to the issues that face us.
The final response approaches the world from a position of
selfish desires. This can be articulated
in either a passive or an aggressive way (meaning that greed and sloth have one
focus: that particular person). But even
if these reactions are learned behaviors (meaning that we learned to live this
way because people around us lived that way), what we are perpetuating is a
mentality that has us at the center of the world we have created and if we’re
positioned there, then we know who won’t be: God.
In all of these cases, whether we be going through the
motions on autopilot, gripped by lists we have created, or focused our focus on
ourselves alone, we need to flip it! We
need to be focused on God first because as we do that we are then able to
experience God moving in the midst of even the mundane parts of the lives we are
able to lead. And here’s a simply story
that will hopefully help you to do that very thing.
As most of you know by this point, Jen and my youngest son
likes to sing…a lot…and pretty loud too.
And his songs of choice? Church
songs. He is as close to a one man
evangelical revival that you can get for a five year old. In a restaurant? Singing church songs. In a store?
Singing church songs. Pretty much
anywhere he goes? Singing church songs.
Of course this shows up at home as well. For the last couple of months one of his
favorites has been, “This Is the Day the Lord Has Made”. And with it having an echo part, he wants you
to sing with him (This is the day, this is the day).
Now take that reality and set it into the morning routine
that I was talking about at the beginning of the sermon. All of a sudden, in the midst of monotony the
light of God comes shining in through the insistent singing of a five year
old. And he’ll just start: this is the
day! And on those days when I’m not
quite going, he’ll come after me, “dad, sing!
This is the day!”
Now initially, I was like, “Okay Austin” and I’d go along
with it begrudgingly. But then I started
looking forward to it, even prompting him on the days when he was dragging a
little bit. I became amazed at how that
little daily foundational piece allowed me to get up and get going into the
day, not just go through the motions or becoming defeated by my lists, but
instead allowing to recognize that today is yet another opportunity to
experience the presence of God. Today is
the day that the Lord has made and I should rejoice and be glad in it.
I’ve also noticed something else: on those days when Austin
hasn’t been singing that song, I’ve felt more weighed down by the world. It’s not that I don’t know that God isn’t
there, it’s just that the world becomes heavier and when that happens, it can
be real easy to fall into one of those three descriptions that doesn’t have God
at the heart of our lives.
So as you hear those two options, which one sounds more
appealing? Waking up to be apathetic in
the midst of routine, overwrought under the pressure of obligations, or even
focused on your wants and needs exclusively; or being plugged into the Divine
blessings that are abundantly present if we allow ourselves to be open to
recognizing them because this is the day that the Lord has made? I’m taking the latter.
That is why, as a church, we’re giving you a couple of
options to do the same thing and start your day, or jump start your day, your
finish your evening with the Word of God.
No, we’re not sending
But what we do have are the printed Advent daily devotional
that was handed out to you this morning.
In addition to that, we also have a daily devotional Advent blog that is
written by five members of this congregation.
We have created ways to allow our lives to get up and be focused on God
first. This is the day the Lord has
made. Will you wake up to rejoice and
take advantage of ways that God is trying to declare that truth?
Paul called for us to wake up and place on the armor of light
for the day of salvation is rapidly approaching. I’m not going to stand up here and tell you
that I know when Jesus is going to return because I don’t. People have been making those predictions
since the day that Jesus has ascended into heaven and thus far, they’ve all
been wrong. Two thousand plus years
later we are still waiting.
And yet, we still have the call to remain prepared and
diligent, not living a defeated life that sees us stuck in autopilot, burdened
by the expectations that we have placed upon ourselves or by others, or so
singularly focused on ourselves that the world becomes about ‘so big’. A way that we can do this, both for this
season of Advent and for all the seasons of the year, is by starting out our
day by focusing on God.
So, as soon as you wake up, put on the armor of light. As soon as you wake up, focus on God. As soon as you wake up, recognize that this
is the day that Lord has made. In that
recognition we will be able to find the hope that we need to make it through
whatever the day may hold, celebrating all of the blessings that God is in the
midst of revealing!
We have a choice as to how we approach our days. We can go through on autopilot, we can become
burdened down, we can focus on ourselves, or we can rise above it by allowing
God to lift us up. Won’t you prepare to
make today, tomorrow, and the next the best days that they can be? Take a few minutes every day to remind yourself
to put on that armor of light. It’s time
to get up, focus on God, and become truly aware of what is happening in and
through the world. This is the day the
Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be
glad in it!
After Sermon Prayer
Holy God, in the midst of the very familiar, and the never-ending, we have a tendency to forget that You would have us be prepared for what You have in store for us. God help us to do that very thing by waking up and remembering You. God, You have given us each and every day as a gift. Help us to live them in such a way. It is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.