Sermon – November 28, 2010

Are We There Yet?

Isaiah 2:1-5         Romans 13:11-14         Matthew 24:36-44

Growing up, … this time of the year always meant travel for my family.  Both sets of grandparents lived away, so we would trade off Thanksgiving and Christmas back here in Nebraska.  In my mind, I always looked forward to these road trips.  Arriving late at my great-aunts in North Platte and then wandering through the woods and over the bridges to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  As we drove the last miles on country roads, it always felt magical and full of possibilities.

As I talk to parents today, maybe either my memory blocked out the grumbling and restlessness or the new laws involving car seats have changed the adventure I always anticipated with long distance car rides.  When I asked my niece how she liked the drive to Nebraska, she said, “Too long.”  My sister and husband described all the technology now available to distract and reduce the amount of complaining and repetitive questions, “Are we there yet?”[1] so the trip here was bearable.

I am sure I asked that question too, “Are we there yet?”  And, the only response parents have for most of the trip is, “Not yet.”  It is only in that last half hour; maybe you don’t even dare to make the claim until the last mile, but there is a time … a moment when the answer turns from, “Not yet.”  To, “We are almost there.  Get ready!”  In that moment, our attitude and attention shifts from just passing the time or distracting our attention from the mile markers slowly going by … toward the details outside our window, the anticipation of the hugs and stretching our legs and all the wonderful smells and spoiling that comes with arriving at Grandma’s house.

It is this moment, … this place in between “Not yet.” And, “Arriving.” That the season of Advent and our scripture lessons challenge us to live; … not just today, but everyday.  While the world around us draws us in with festivities, shopping, decorations, feasts, and entertainment; all offered as means to prepare us for Christmas Day and the celebration of Jesus’ birth, scripture and the season of the church offers another way to make this journey to the manger.  It takes a different route via the future and visions of Jesus coming again at the time when God’s kingdom, God’s reign, will be fully known and experienced by all creation.

These images of the future and statements by the prophets, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when …”, usually bring fear more than hope.  Because, many of these images from scripture speak of darkness and judgment and the great transformation of all that we know of this world, many rightly ask, “Are we there yet?”  None of us wants to be caught unaware.  So, when this season arrives we jump all in.  There is a part of us that thinks that this time we will get it right; that we will finally live the reason for the season.  That all our confusion, anxiousness, and frustration with this season would go away, if we were really faithful.  It is an assumption that too many of us make, that those who have real faith are never confused or unclear and therefore are ready; no, actually know when the day of the Lord will arrive so they never worry or doubt the way.  While, the rest of us ask, “Are we there yet? … I hope not, because I’m not ready … I had a plan, but now my kids are sick or I cannot do as much as I used to or I just need to clean the house or school activities, and then I will have more time for getting ready for God.”

The good news from Matthew is, “No, we are not there yet.”  And, not even the most faithful, God’s Son Jesus, knows when we will get there.  GPS, Garmins, Toms, not even angels or the holiest person we can think of … like Mother Theresa, knew when the hour or day of the Lord would come.  “No, not yet.”  “But, soon”, Jesus says.  Therefore, “Keep awake!  No sleeping in the backseat, texting, passing the miles glued to a DVD player.  You need to be ready for when your Lord comes.

For some, this news brings great joy.  But, for many, it feels like we are still in a very uncomfortable spot.  Hooked up in a five-point car seat harness with a parent who keeps replying to our question, mile after mile, “Are we there yet?” with “Not yet, but we are almost there.  Get ready.”  Or like our nation, we can only be on Orange alert so long, before we stop listening or anticipating any immediate need and start grumbling at the ones who are putting us on false alert.

So, what does it mean to celebrate year after year a remembrance of our God coming down to us and dwelling among us full of grace and truth; a baby born to us to be the Savior of God’s people?  While, also anticipating our future and what it will mean for Jesus to come to us again?  Does the past and the vision of our future change the way we live our present?  Or have the distractions, worries, desires, and pressures of our present drained all the promise and challenge out of this Word of God?  Where are we along this road to God’s high holy mountain and the heavenly Jerusalem being established in our midst?

First, before our minds draw us to far out of our world, we need to hear in the Gospel of Matthew that this surprise encounter with the Son of Man will happen in the midst of our everyday lives: as we are sitting down to dinner with our families, working at the field, preparing the needs of the household, … falling in love and committing your life to another.  It is here, in the places we are most likely to fall asleep, fall into the routine, fall into the expectation that nothing new will happen, here that Jesus says, “Wake up.”  Don’t take these moments for granted.  Be ready to jump in and join God’s work for God’s kingdom come.

But, God knows … how easy it is for us to fall asleep, get distracted, and grow weary of this, “Not yet, almost there … road that we are on.”  We grow confused or think we can find a short-cut or discouraged or too comfortable relying on cruise control, while God also knows our deep yearning and restlessness to be with God; this combination can make it difficult for us to live as God intended.  So, through the prophets God sent us a vision of what our life with God will look like.  The prophet Isaiah describes the days to come as a time when the holiest of ground is the highest mountain.  There God will establish his house and call all nations: Africans, Latinos, Asians, Canadians, Americans, Arabs, Israelis, Europeans, Russians, young and old, rich and poor, God will call them and in a reversal of the Tower of Babel, the peoples will encourage one another to climb the mountain, so they can hear the instructions of God and walk in his ways together; not to be God, but to fully be God’s people.

On this mountain, God will listen to all the nations joys, grievances, hurt, accusations, lawsuits, jealousies, and inequities that the nations make against one another.  The prophet says God will judge between the nations and hand out settlements for the peoples, giving just solutions to their problems.  Can you imagine this?  North Korea and South Korea standing before God and walking away able to be neighbors, no longer pointing guns at each other or lobbing bombs across each other’s borders?

Crazy.  Impossible.  Enemies, beating swords and guns into plowshares?  All the time, money, and energy used to build mechanisms of defense against one another, being transformed into what we need to feed and give life to one another?[2] God’s judgment pronounced in a way that paves the way for justice and peace among all nations?  “How can this be?”  And, what does this vision of the Day of the Lord have to do with Christmas or Jesus’ command, “Wake up!”?

Because, today, the Word and our ancestors of the faith extend us an invitation for this season, “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”  From our past, we know the light of the Lord is Jesus and for centuries we have confessed the crazy and impossible: the Word of the Lord became flesh and dwelt among us, he has already begun transforming the dead into life, the crazy into sanity, fear into love, and revealed violence on the cross is no match for the peaceful reign of God.  And because of God’s claim on our future and the promised future coming of this kind of King, we dare to hope and live by a new way, a road less traveled by.

So, no; we are not there yet, but we are close.  Wake up!  Get ready!  Salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.  The vision we see in Isaiah offers us a way to see how God is still at work in our daily lives, breaking down the walls that divide, pronouncing judgment to break open hardened hearts, and establishing a way of justice through Christ, so all may see a better way.  The day will come whether we are ready or not.  God will gather all nations and the far reaches of creation into His future.  This is God’s promise.  Yet, today … we are reminded that God cares how we get there.  No road is the same when we walk in Christ’s light, watchful and ready to cry out, “I spy with my little eye something that looks like justice, steadfast love, forgiveness, and a peace that surpasses all understanding.”  Amen.

[2] Paul S. Duke, Feasting on the Word: “Homeletical Perspective – Isaiah 2:1-5 First Sunday of Advent (WJK) pg. 4-7.