Holy Surprises
A sermon preached at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Durham, NC
Sunday, December 2, 2007
The Reverend Paul Ransford Jr.
Since it is the first Sunday of the Advent season, it is fitting that we start out with a short quiz. Don’t be afraid. It’s multiple choice and the results won’t count towards your final grade.
Ready?
What does Advent mean?
a. Christmas Preliminaries—which seem to start earlier each year in the stores, or is it....
b. The excitement of the Advent wreath which grows richer in color and warmer in light each Sunday, or is it...
c. The annual The Chipmunks Christmas concert at Wal-mart, or...
d. None of the above
Correct answer is …none of the above.
Advent has to do with the coming of Christ. It is the anticipation of the triumphal return of Christ, in the clouds, in power and glory.
One preacher kept a file of “when.” While he was in college the focus was was on Hal Lindsay and the “Late Great Planet Earth.” Then there was the whole Left Behind series—bad writing, bad theology. Then Dr. Charles Taylor, in his book Get All Excited, Jesus is Coming” set the date of Christ’s return at September 6, 1975. Leland Jensen of Missoula, Montana, predicted the end would come with atomic bombs dropping on April 29, 1980, at 5:55 p.m. mountain time. The next year there was the full-page ad in The New York Times that read “Deadline 1981: Mockers Beware. Absolute proof that we are in the last days”...predicting that the end would come.
Our expert this morning, Matthew, tells us—“You don’t know when your Lord will come.”
The angels do not know. Jesus does not know. God only knows.
But, you say, Matthew said right there in the first verse of our scripture lesson “I promise you that some of the people of this generation will be alive when all of this happens.”
Yes, yes, he did. He said that. Now remember these two things.
1.) Matthew’s gospel was written fifty years after Jesus death. So, many of the folks who were living in Jesus’ day are already deceased.
2.) The mission of going to the ends of the earth with the Gospel before the Son of Man would return in glory was far from finished. It was just getting started.
The biblical signs of advent are when the mission of the church to spread the good news is at flood tide and the powers of evil are at a fever pitch. Well, what do you think? Are we there yet? Scripture’s counsel is that 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. There it is. Forget the odds makers and fortunetellers; they look busy. Or as the old slave poem has it “And he’ll find me hoein’ cotton when he comes. Yes, he’ll find me hoein’ cotton when he comes.
Or, here!
I’ll give you a real life example—a woman 83 years old. She’s a great grandmother—a woman of faith. She’s been on 63 mission trips. Does not take vacations—just mission trips. And on these trips—she likes to do roofing. Doesn’t like drywall, hates drywall, but loves roofing and that is where God is going to meet her when he comes—up on the roof—nailing shingles. She lives each day in the now, waiting for God’s holy surprises in a sunrise, in a cup of cold water and new friends in Christ.
Living in advent means that each day is a day full of possibilities of holy surprises for those who stop, look, and listen. There’s a great movie out right now called August Rush, about a little boy who hears the music. He hears it everywhere. And if you watch the movie carefully, you start to hear the music.
In the days of Noah, remembers Matthew, people trudged by the ark on their way to work looking at this crazy man pounding away. Noah, preparing for the advent of the Lord.
When we press forward today, we give a signal to the rest of the world that we live for God’s holy surprise, just like the watchful shepherds on the hillside in Bethlehem. —When we come forward this morning to this table, we get to eat and drink with Jesus “in my Father’s kingdom.” In the eternal now of this Sacrament, Jesus comes to us in all of his glory. Your purposeful movement down the aisle is a walk of faith—Matthew’s faith—that history is going someplace. We are not hamsters on a treadmill. We are not in a chaotic cycle full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
What a wonderful way to begin our Christmas celebration… God’s holy surprise in receiving bread and cup in the now. Embrace the life that God has given to you on this day.
Resist the temptation to save your best for tomorrow. Pour it out in the wine today. Refuse to live yesterday over and over again. Leave that burden behind you in the pew as you partake in the cup of salvation poured out for you.
Who knows? We may be the generation that lives to see Christ return in glory. Or, we may meet him as other generations have before us when death closes our eyes, and we join him at the throne of grace.
Either way, birthday prayer people, what is it we say every month? “ Our times are in Your hands.”
Now, if you’re done pondering on the end of time, pass me a shingle.