Sermon Tone Analysis
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ADVENT 1C
December 2, 2006
Two-year-old son Jack leans on his father’s knee.
His rumpled baseball jersey bears a fresh spaghetti sauce stain from that night’s dinner.
"Daddy, tell me a bunny story."
Rob tears his gaze away from the computer screen.
"What was that, son?" asks Rob.
"Tell me a bunny story," says Jack. "One with a truck in it."
Rob sighs as his glance swings back to the screen.
His paper is due in two days.
His professor tries to be sympathetic, but there are only so many times she’ll let her students stretch a deadline.
On the other hand, there’s only so much time before his little boy grows up and stops listening to his dad’s stories.
"A bunny story?" asks Rob.
The little blond head bobs happily.
"With a truck in it."
"With a truck in it," repeats Rob.
"Okay, climb up here."
And placing Jack on his knee, Rob begins spinning a tale about a mischievous bunny who gets into all kinds of trouble while zipping around in his great, big truck.
Every great story has to have an obstacle or a villain.
And to keep from overtaxing his imagination, Rob uses the same stock villain in every bunny story--the bad, old Wolf.
And so Rob, begins introducing the wolf to this tale as well.
"No wolf, Daddy!" Jacks insists.
"No wolf!"
How can you have an adventure story without a wolf?
"Jack, how does the Bunny story always end? ‘And the Bunny lived happily ever after,’ right?
I know the end of the story.
The Bunny’s going to be just fine."
Jack covers his father’s mouth, and in the sternest manner a toddler can manage, he repeats, "No wolf!"
Not wanting to create strife just before bedtime, Rob sighs and replies, "Okay, Jack.
It’s okay.
No wolf."
"Already," says Robin Meyers, the author of this powerful story, "at the age of two, the little boy has an understanding of evil.
If he had not already been introduced to evil, he would not have feared the wolf.
But since he perceives its destructive nature, he thinks nothing of editing the world to make evil disappear."
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That would be nice, wouldn’t it?
Editing the world to make evil disappear.
Some of you probably saw a recent Adam Sandler motion picture, "Click," in which he used a television remote to alter not only television, but also real life.
What a nice gift that would be for the first Sunday in Advent.
A world without evil.
A world with no Big, Bad Wolf.
Biblical faith acknowledges the reality of evil.
That’s the truth of the matter.
The Bible is candid.
There is no place on this earth that evil and suffering and heartbreak cannot access.
Americans were stunned when Islamic terrorists struck on 9-11.
We hadn’t stared evil in the face like that before.
Oh, sure, we knew there were demented individuals like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
Oklahoma City should have prepared us.
But it didn’t.
We thought it was a freak, an anomaly.
Who could imagine that a small group of committed terrorists could wreak such violence, such destruction as occurred on September 11, 2001?
"No wolf!
No wolf!"
They called it "the day that changed the world."
At least, it was a reminder to us that evil is very real.
We’re never prepared, are we?
Either on a societal level or a personal one for the coming of the wolf.
A diagnosis of cancer or Alzheimer’s.
An automobile accident or a fire.
The failure of a company.
A son or daughter addicted to drugs.
"No wolf!
No wolf!"
And there suddenly in the room with us is this awful monster from which we cannot escape.
We turn to scripture for help and reassurance.
And we come to these words from Luke 21: "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars.
On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
Biblical faith acknowledges the reality of evil times.
Most scholars classify this text with Jesus’ apocalyptic teachings about the last days of earth’s existence.
That is why we find this imagery at the beginning of Advent.
Advent is the celebration of Jesus’ coming into the world.
The second advent is when he will return in power and glory.
When will that be?
No one knows.
But one thing is clear: Before it happens there will be many trials and tribulations: "nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.
Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world . .
."
This can be a very cruel world, and we are never prepared.
In November 1963, seventeen-year-old Laura Welch borrowed the family car to attend a party with some friends.
A few hours later, the Welches received the kind of telephone call every parent dreads: staff from a local hospital were calling to tell them that Laura had been in an accident.
She never saw the stop sign, so she drove through the intersection at normal speed, plowing through a car that had the right-of-way.
Laura suffered only bruises.
The driver of the other car, a track star at the local high school and a good friend of Laura’s, died on impact.
Laura would later say that this tragedy shaped her perspective on life at a young age.
She gained compassion and wisdom from it.
Friends and family alike marvel at her "serenity and strength.
" You also have grown to respect her qualities as an adult.
For Laura Welch went on to become Laura Bush, wife of the President of the United States.
This can be a very cruel world.
And no one’s exempt.
Wealth can’t exempt us.
Position can’t exempt us.
Even a loving family cannot exempt us.
Saints and sinners alike eventually have to acknowledge that a wolf is loose in our world--a wolf that brings heartache and suffering, even to the best of people.
Why this is so, we do not know.
Why does God allow suffering?
We don’t know.
Some think it is because that is the only way God can make us what God means for us to be.
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