Sermon Tone Analysis

What exactly is advent?

Today we are in the second Sunday of advent.

I want to take the time to make it clear what exactly advent is.

As I said last week, the word advent comes from the Latin word adventus - which means coming.

When it began, the purpose of the season was to look toward the coming of Christ to earth, it was a season that focused on waiting.

Throughout history, as early as the 4th century AD there is record of Christians fasting during this season to focus on Christ.

They would end their fasts with celebrations.

Today we use the advent wreath and candles, 3 purple, and one pink and a white candle in the center.

Each of the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas a candle is lit.

Christians throughout history have embraced this season of spiritual preparation using Advent readings—short Bible passages read during the lighting of the Advent wreath.

This sacred time invites us to slow down from all the holiday preparations and parties, take a deep breath, and remember the reason for the season: the eternal Jesus Christ taking on human flesh.

Advent is meant to be an intrusion into our busy schedules, busy lives.

Advent is meant to link our hearts with those of the prophets who so earnestly desire for a long promised Messiah, but passed away before His arrival.

Advent is meant to remind that we too are waiting.

God has sent His son, Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again, but there is still brokenness in our world.

Our western world has really capitalized on this brokenness.

Think black Friday, which is actually mostly on Thursday now.

The desire for more, for better is preyed upon.

No cart full of bargains can fix the problem though.

There is a deeper hunger in our souls that no plateful of goodies can fill.

With Advent, we embrace as Paul writes in Rom 8

Through advent we embrace the groaning.

We celebrate Christ’s coming, and await His return.

Through advent, we have a yearly reminder of the meaningfulness of waiting.

We need these reminders.

We are forgetful people.

Advent reminds us that time is far too precious to be killed.

Advent asks us, what are we doing in our waiting.

There are a few different variations on the advent tradition as to what the candles represent.

-

The one I am following this year is

Hope

Preparation

Joy

Love

Last week, we talked about the first candle and its’ representation of Hope.

This week, we will look at the 2nd candle which represents preparation.

Many of us go through our own version of preparations to get ready for the Christmas holiday.

We set-up Christmas trees and decorate them with lights, fancy ornaments and perhaps a star on top.

We purchase gifts for our loved ones in honor and remembrance of the gifts brought to Jesus by the wise men.

We may even put decorations on our laws of a nativity set or other Christmas cheer.

We prepare for the holiday by setting many physical reminders of Christmas all around us.

But, we are not alone in the preparations.

Department stores, malls and shopping centers all have their own activities to get ready for Christmas.

Some set up extravagant trees decorated with colorful balls and tinsel.

Others have large wreaths hanging on walls and from ceilings.

Santa and snowmen, ice skating and caroling are all a part of the celebration.

We all have our own way of preparing for Christmas.

Have you ever thought of the fact that God had his own way of preparing?

His preparations took longer than a day or a week.

God was not last minute shopping on Christmas eve.

His preparations required thousands of people and centuries to complete.

He sent the savior into the world at a specific time of his choosing, to a specific woman with her betrothed.

A certain town, in a certain country, at a certain time to a certain family.

There was nothing by chance as to when, where, who and to whom the coming messiah would arrive in this world.

It was not an accident that this all occurred that this moment in history.

It was not a fleeting response to a nice situation, but a meticulously planned event that was designed to change the history of the world.

The coming of the Christ was well rehearsed, projected centuries earlier and all by the knowing hand of God.

He had this idea from the very beginning.

Prepare, for God is coming to shepherd His people.

The situation that Isaiah is speaking to in this and the following chapters is quite bleak.

Isaiah is writing to people who have been conquered.

People asking questions like

Have the Babylonians defeated God?

Have our sins defeated God?

Does God want to deliver us from exile?

Can He deliver us from exile?

Will he?

The leaders of Israel had progressively gotten worse it seems, there were a few good eggs so to speak but there was a definite downward trend.

God’s people had been lead away from Him, which lead to the split of the kingdom of Israel and the fall of both the northern and southern kingdoms.

Early chapters of Isaiah establish that The Lord is trustworthy and will deliver his servants when they trust him.

They demonstrate the Lord’s absolute holiness.

What this chapter introduces into Israel’s situation is God’s divine grace.

Chapter 40 begins

Comfort, comfort my people says your God.

Speak tenderly, cry to her.

God desires to deliver his people.

Withing these verses we see God’s intention - to comfort

His coming.

3-5

Humanities weakness.

6-8

and The Lord’s rule.

9-11

Each of these is set off with a voice.

One these voices leads us into the story of Jesus.

Did you recognize the verse?

The birth of John the Baptist is told in chapter 1 of Luke.

At the end of the book, when his father Zechariah’s voice has returned, he is filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesy’s as the to the role that John will play.

His life is witness; he’s a sign pointing to something coming around the bend.

He doesn’t claim to possess anything that he can give; all he has is an act of preparation, the baptism of repentance—so the people will be ready when the holy one comes.

His calling, as one who announces the coming of the Lord, is to make space among the people where Christ, the Messiah, may be received.

Clearing space, preparing a place—That’s how we see John’s mission when Luke links his life to

The repentance John was beginning to preach and the salvation that Jesus will bring is for all flesh, not just for Israel.

The mountains are lowered, the crooked ways are straightened, the rough ways are smoothed, so that all flesh, all people, might see and have access to salvation.

Make way for the Lord has come to call all of his children.

EVERYTHING will see God’s salvation.

This was John’s purpose, to officially introduce the savior of the world to His people.

Preparing for Christmas or preparing for Christ

What does this mean for us?

How should this second week of the advent season impact our lives, not just until Christmas, but until our Lord’s return or He calls us home?

Advent is often described as "a time of waiting."

But as we look at the example of John the Baptist, we see that we actually have a model of "waiting" that tells us we are to "prepare a way" for the Lord through our actions, our love, and our treatment of those who need God's presence.

We have all experiencedwaiting, whether it be at home for the repairman to arrive, a doctor’s office for an appointment, the DMV for a driver’s license, school during those final minutes before the end of the semester, end of a workday, the end of this sermon so we can get some lunch.