Getting into Advent - A sermon for Advent 1
Readings:
Psalm - Psalm: 122
First Reading - Isaiah 2:1-5
Second Reading: - Romans 13:11-14
Gospel - Matthew 24:36-44
What I want to say:
What is the season of Advent
preparing for coming of Christ in history, mystery and majesty ->
explore
themes of advent – this week hope
-> what is hope and what do we hope or yearn for?
ask what do our readings from Matthew, Isaiah, and Romans say to help us with all this
What I want to happen:
- What is hope?
- What do we hope or yearn for?
- How do we live hope?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
welcome to advent
-
4 Sundays where we get to do purple
-
marks new church year
-
new gospel – Matthew
what do we know about advent? ask
2. Advent is big – really big!
Advent IS time prep for Christmas
o like lent time prep for Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter
But it is more than that
Advent is really big
-
how big
-
lets explore
+ Advent is time reflect on Christmas
-
coming of Word of God in Jesus as one
of us (the incarnation) at Christmas
®
how we experience this Christ in our lives and in our world
®
how that shapes how we live?
+ in advent we
are always reminded that Christmas points us to the coming of Christ at the end
of time
when God’s aroha
me te rangimārie – God’s peace or shalom comes to be in God’s love
-
when all is as God desires it,
-
when all is built on God’s infinite love for creation and all who share
this world with us
o when God’s will is done on earth as in heaven
o (Kia tae mai tou rangatiratanga:
Kia meatia tau e pai ai ki
runga i te whenua, kia rite ano ki to te rangi)
®
invited to think about how that shapes what we think Christmas is about
®
and again – how that shapes how we live today
®
asks how we live in hope for
®
in the midst of all this where we are met by joy
sometimes Advent
described as preparing for the coming of Christ
-
in history, (Xmas),
-
mystery (now)
-
and majesty (2nd coming)
often use the
four themes of hope, peace, joy and love
Theme this
week hope
We are given these
readings help us into that theme and into advent
As we begin I
wonder
- ® What is hope?
- ® What do we hope or yearn for?
- ® How do we live hope?
3. Matthew – put it back
This one Jesus’
response to disciples wanting to know more Jesus’ response to their amazement at
the grandness of the temple
“Do you see all these things? I assure that no stone will be left on another. Everything will be demolished.”
now sitting
across from temple on other side of Kidron Valley
looking across
and down into this magnificent building
-
symbol of Jewish identity as people of God
-
and of God’s grace and presence among the people
-
their turangawaewae
what we heard today
small snippet teaching that lasts for 2 chapters.
which for Matthew’s
hearers is both past tense
-
temple had been destroyed by the
time Matthews gospel as we have it was finished
and future –
urgent looking to coming Christ
-
which by now is becoming way less urgent
-
hasn’t happened as expected
-
now trying to live urgently in the long term
-
as we still are today
this whole
section is a warning to be ready
this section - as is whole gospel
also born out
of Jesus’s deep unrest and dissatisfaction with how things are now
urgent waiting
for God to put it right
inviting disciples
and all he meets in joining that work of healing community and restoring
creation
-
living into the kind of future God has promised in hope.
4. Isaiah
given to people living
judgement on their leaders
in city of Jerusalem
surrounded by Assyrian Army that
has laid waste all before it
including northern kingdom
of Israel
in contrast to those leaders
who chose injustice, greed, self-promotion and war
outrageously idealistic
image of God’s reign
where tingled sounds of
jingle bells are replaced by sound of hammer on anvil
weapons of war are beaten into
farming instruments
5. Romans
Paul’s letter to Roman’s
Paul carefully lays out his
theology to church that is deeply divided between Jewish and Gentile
invites them to join in God’s
ongoing work of healing in Christ together
lays out how they might be
community that lives God’s hoped for peace and reconciliation now as a
reconciled community
-
each retaining who they are
-
held in God’s aroha
-
source of joy and healing for all
so that they might then
support his ministry to Spain
Invited to live watchfully
and hopefully
living urgently in the present
is not easy
it is easy to get disheartened
and to let what is happening around us to sap our hope.
But Jesus, and Matthew,
Isaiah and Paul all urge us to hold hope
hold before us all God
yearns for and works for
6. Hope
What
then is hope?
and
what do we yearn or hope for?
one
favourite definitions of Hope is “Hope is believing in spite of the
evidence, and then watching the evidence change.” ― Jim Wallis
hope as a spiritual and
active choice, not just a feeling,
requires perseverance
and is rooted in God’s
promise and faithfulness
He emphasizes that hope is
the belief that change is possible, even against the odds, and this belief
fuels action that can make that change a reality.
7. Tikkum Olan
very similar
to Jewish concept of Tikkun olam
-
a Hebrew term meaning "repair
of the world" or "healing the world".
It is a Jewish
concept that involves social action and the pursuit of justice to alleviate
suffering and improve the world in preparation for coming of messiah.
- What is hope?
- What do we hope or yearn for?
- How do we live hope?
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