Advent 1/ 2019

NLT

here.

Christmas fatigue has the potential to take the happiness out of your holiday because, by the time you're really celebrating, you may be tired of the music, decorations and overall atmosphere.

I am going to be honest this message has been very difficult for me to put together. Not because there is some sort of deep problem to be solved.

The people of God that live in the future promise of God do so with a joy powerful enough to propel us through even the most difficult times of life.

It was hard because of the familiarity of the passage. I have probably preached this passage a dozen times in my ministry but at the end of the day the main point has not changed.

Potential is often used as a positive. Such as when people open a new business. They open it because they see the potential of growth and making money. They use this potential as motivation to sacrifice time and resources to achieve in the future.

The word potential is also used in the church as well. People see potential in the ability of the church to grow. They see potential in people and use this idea of potential growth to continue to invest in people.

But this idea of potential can be a curse when we focus too much on potential risk instead of not being the people God needs right now.

When we focus too much on potential we can lose the motivation to live the best we can in the right now.

When we live this way potential becomes a burden instead of a promise.

It can be a curse not because of our faith in our ability to achieve but it can blind us to the importance of being our best self now.

The people of God that live in the future promise of God do so with a joy powerful enough to propel us through even the most difficult times of life.

In our passage today we are reminded that our feasting and comforts are tenuous, temporary and mere shadows of the joys that are yet to come. 

Mister Rogers movie quote...

At the beginning of the Christian year, we are pointed to the end; to the second coming of Jesus. We are reminded that our feasting and comforts are tenuous, temporary and mere shadows of the joys that are yet to come. 

Matthew does start this passage by talking about potential But this passage does not speak potential only…

It points out that we do not know when the second coming is happening, no one does.

Matthew warns that potentail must never be taken for gratned.

In the midst of ordinary life Jesus will arrive and gather the faithful to his presence leaving the other in the middle of the daily grind.  

Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

For those enduring the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century, the idea of the thief in the night carried with it shades of warning and comfort. 

It is implied in our text that the thief comes to steal away something valuable and that the solution is for the homeowner to stay awake and alert, not allowing the thief to steal. 

A day is coming when Christ will arrive and our eyes will behold him.  A day is coming when peace will rule in places where terror and war were commonplace.  A day is coming when the night is all gone and we will be fully united through Jesus to God’s glorious light.  

Matthew’s hearers needed to remain awake with expectation that Jesus would come and like the bridegroom thief stealing them away for a new life of joy in a kingdom set right and made whole.

Losing sight of the promise of Christmas can lead to wishing the season over before it even starts.

The the scriptures just previous to this passage is full of warnings and admonishes to be aware of the signs of the end of that age. It is a passage that fills us with both hope and quite honestly fear.

This is a sad thought especially when we look back to our childhood. I know there are exceptions to every rule but for most of us not only could we not wait for Christmas day we could not wait for the Christmas season.

But is it this general busyness alone that’s making us so tired? Or is there something more to it?

“Generally we get a break over the Christmas-New Year period, but by December we’re so worn down by the running of daily life over the year that December is a lot harder,”

Dr Clarke continues by saying.

“But then we add on top of that all the expectations. Things are on a quicker schedule at work, but then we’re also trying to fit in all these social gatherings, plus then trying to be prepared for Christmas.

“And emotionally Christmas can be a hard time for people, so knowing you’re going to spend 10 days with your family, or with your in-laws and there’s tension – that can be a bit of anxiety that adds to that mental load that impacts us around this time.”

This pressure sucks the fun out of things we’d normally enjoy, compounding the issue.

In essence many of us fall into Christmas fatigue not because it is not the most wonderful time of the year but because we lose sight of the reason for Christmas and focus on the getting as much in as we can.

Yet as we move on to what we read today we see that it is possible to live our current life looking forward to the second advent. (Second Coming of Jesus)

What if instead of trying to rush and get in everything we think we need to get in we simply enjoyed right now??? What if instead of

I can remember how excited I got when this time of year came around because I knew that prime time specials like “A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer would soon be on tv at prime time. And a long with those things came hot chocolate, popcorn, home made sweets and of course presents.

We just need to live every moment every second ready for the eminent return of Jesus to make all things right!

I looked forward to hearing Christmas music decorating the tree and just enjoying the season. Maybe I was oblivious but I do not remember anyone experiencing Christmas Fatigue…instead I remember people being happier, kinder and more excited about life than they normally were at any other time of the year.

While it WAS TOTALLY EXCITED about Christmas morning the journey toward it held an excitement as well.

When was the last time you were excited about the journey you were on called life?

When was the last time you took every day as a gift from God to experience instead of something to get through?

When was the last time you approached Christmas not as a season to get through but a reminder of the promise of God?

A day is coming when Christ will arrive and our eyes will behold him.  A day is coming when peace will rule in places where terror and war were commonplace.  A day is coming when the night is all gone and we will be fully united through Jesus to God’s glorious light.  

The problem however comes with the fact that we do not know when that day will be…Even Jesus claims in this passage to be ignorant of this day.

This is a glorious thought to the follower of Jesus that lives with their eyes wide open to the leading of Holy Spirit.

Not only do we not know when this day will take place we are also told that the day will take us by surprise because it will happen in the midst of the normalcy of life.

It gives freedom from the thought that we can create out own salvation…that we must hasten the coming of Jesus.

Yes there will be signs but the signs will not be so dependable that we will have time to get our house in order before this great and glorious day.

It allows us to live everyday knowing that if today is the day of the second advent we will be a part of that most anticipated moment where Jesus comes and restores everything.

So if this is true there are couple of things that we should take away…Right away.

It allows us to live with the knowlege of potential not the burden of it.

If Jesus does not know the day and time we should not waste our time trying to figure it out.

December of 1903, that after many attempts, the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were successful in getting their “flying machine” off the ground and into the air at Kitty Hawk. Thrilled over the accomplishment, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.” Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” He totally missed the big news-for the first time in human history, man had flown!

That means we should stop taking things we hear on the internet as signs that Jesus will return in a day or two. Blood moons, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados a word of the Lord giving the time date or whatever new theory you have have heard are not going to give us a definitive time to point to…

it could be 3 days from now 3 min from now or 3000 years from now…and while some of these theories can be fun to think about in the end they are nothing but distractions for what God really wants us to do right here right now.

Brian and the Blood Moon…all kinds of other conspiracies…these took root because He was listening to all kinds of voices claiming to be God’s voice but he was not spending time listening to the word and giving himself to the mission of God....

At the beginning of this new Christian year, we need ears to hear both the warnings and the wonders of this text.  We need our eyes open and alert, for as Gregory the Great reminds us, “To watch is to keep the eyes open, and looking out for the true light, to do and to observe that which one believes, to cast away the darkness of sloth and negligence.”[2]  As followers so Jesus we must not allow our consumerist comforts to leave us so full that we fall asleep spiritually, satisfied with our temporary pain relieving messiahs.  We must not allow our feasting to rob us of expectation.  The advent of our Lord Jesus challenges us to open our eyes to his true light that shines even in the midst of the ordinary and the mundane; the dark and the tragic.  We must recognize that waking up to the coming of Jesus is about more than just offering critiques and corrections from the sidelines.  To be awake to Jesus coming means actively casting away the dark deeds of sin that deaden us.  To be awake to Jesus coming means doing what we believe by taking up those virtues which we have avoided in our sins of omission.  Be awake and ascend the mountain of the Lord that he might teach us his ways so that we can walk in his paths.  Be awake and do the works of peace that come as we walk in the Light of Jesus Christ.  Be awake and stand in the gates and offer prayers for peace.  Be awake and put on the very life of Jesus as armor against all evil and despair.  Be awake and be ready for our Lord Jesus Christ is coming at an unexpected hour.

As followers so Jesus we must not allow our consumerist comforts to leave us so full that we fall asleep spiritually, satisfied with our temporary pain relieving messiahs. 

Advent can

If ware not careful the meaning of Advent can get lost as easy as the fact the the Wright brothers has just flown.

A day is coming when Christ will arrive and our eyes will see him.  A day is coming when peace will rule in places where terror and war were commonplace.  A day is coming when the night is all gone and we will be fully united through Jesus to God’s glorious light.  

This means that we should not look as the Coming of Jesus as a reward for right living but as a privilege.

This is a glorious thought to the follower of Jesus that lives with their eyes wide open to the leading of Holy Spirit.

We must recognize that waking up to the coming of Jesus is about more than just offering critiques and corrections from the sidelines. 

It gives freedom from the thought that we can create out own salvation…that we must hasten the coming of Jesus.

To be awake to Jesus coming means actively casting away the dark deeds of sin that deaden us. 

It allows us to live everyday knowing that if today is the day of the second advent we will be a part of that most anticipated moment where Jesus comes and restores everything.

To be awake to Jesus coming means doing what we believe by taking up those virtues which we have avoided in our sins of omission. 

But this leads to the second take away from this passage.

We are to live our life in such a way that we will be ready regardless of its timing.

I can tell by your nodding and the smiles you have heard this before. It is a fantastic promise for God’s people. However the problem come when we try to determine what that looks like. This is more than living a moral life…it is more than believing right things and having right thoughts.

This is important but doing these things alone is not what Jesus means by live ready.

Living a life that is always prepared for this glorious day can only happen if we are free of selfish and worldly distractions and fully engage in the Mission of God. (Possibly repeat this point)

Otherwise we will be in danger of being one of those men and women that will be left still toiling at the second coming of Jesus. There will be some people that are in the church that will miss the second advent because the lost sight of what is really important.

December of 1903, that after many attempts, the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were successful in getting their “flying machine” off the ground and into the air at Kitty Hawk. Thrilled over the accomplishment, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: “We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas.” Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, “How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas.” He totally missed the big news-for the first time in human history, man had flown!

When we are so wrapped up in our own reality and our own preferences we set ourself up to miss what God is doing.

Social media seems to be filled with Christians that are unwittingly allowing themselves to focus on things the distract them from living in such a way that they are ready for the second coming.

I have friends who experience people in their congregations publicly talking about how their church constantly fails to meet their needs…they talk about longing for days gone by and in so doing they unintentionally (I hope) discourage their pastors and leaders to the point where some have questioned if they could continue to lead them.

Matthew is reminding us with this passage that we should not long for days gone by but look forward to the promised coming of Jesus and live in such as way as to be ready by engaging in the mission to make others ready.

That is the point of advent…looking forward in joyful expectation to the fulfillment of God’s promise…

Looking forward to the new things God want to do in us…

Looking forward to new ways of drawing close to Jesus.

Mission

Looking for new ways of Connecting people to God and others by creating a space

where everyone can belong

Looking for ways: To be a multiplying community developing deep, growing relationships with God, our world, and one another.

To be a multiplying community developing deep, growing relationships with God, our world, and one another.

JAMES

God wants to pour out His spirit through us everyday. God wants us to lean into the mission he has for us. He wants us to be the living embody meant of the vision He has placed in our hearts.

Are there things that need to change in you to accomplish this? (Take time now to repent and ask God to fill you with optimism and peace with where he wants to take you.

Are there things that need to change in you to accomplish this? (Take time now to repent and ask God to fill you with optimism and peace with where he wants to take you?

Are there things that need to change in you to accomplish this?

Maybe you are here today and you are one that has never really thought about the second coming of Jesus. Today you want to start your journey with God.

Raise your hand and fill out a communication Card.

God wants to pour out His spirit through us everyday. God wants us to lean into the mission he has for us. He wants us to be the living embody meant of the vision He has placed in our hearts.

God wants to pour out His spirit through us everyday. God wants us to lean into the mission he has for us. He wants us to be the living embody meant of the vision He has placed in our hearts.

God wants to pour out His spirit through us everyday. God wants us to lean into the mission he has for us. He wants us to be the living embodiment of the vision He has placed in our hearts.

He wants us to live everyday ready for his coming.

Communion helps us to remember his promise to come again.