Sermon Tone Analysis

Lord, May the words of my mouth and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our strength and our redeemer – Amen 

The days are surely coming, …

What does that mean to you?

The days are surely coming…

Today is of course the first Sunday in Advent, and therefore, here, in this place, we would say “/it is Christmas/” Christmas is coming in less than a month

The days are coming toward the time of the year when honour the incredible gift, in fragile packaging, that is the Baby Jesus

That is of course why this piece of scripture was chosen for today

                                    It speaks of the pending season that we are all anticipating

 

It was also chosen for the clear prophetic message of the messiah

/“A righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.

And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”(Jeremiah

33:15b-16)/

 

However if you were to be walking along the streets of your neighborhood this time of the year, and made the statement /“the days are surely coming/”

You might get a frazzled, glazed-over look from one that is considering the mountain of preparations that go into this special time of the year, when many of us gather with family and friends

For some that idea of ‘the days coming’ might be the inevitable winter that is looming in the near future

You might be hoping that the gardens will weather the winter well or wondering on the right day to put the snow tires on

Last winter was an anomaly, the snow /will/ fly and the days /will/ be colder

 

So what was Jeremiah thinking about – when he was called by God to be His spokesmen and make the statement “The days are surely coming”!

* With the northern kingdom of Israel haven fallen to the Assyrians over a century ago.

* With the land of Judea (the southern kingdom) being taken over by the Babylonians,

* Many of people taken out of Jerusalem and forced into exile,

* With prophets for the last several generations and earlier prophecy *from* Jeremiah speaking of how the Jews had failed God in the covenantal relationship,

How they were being plucked up, broken down, overthrown, destroyed, punished for their sins against God,

That God was using the Babylonians, to punish them.

I am sure that Jeremiah and the 6th century B.C. Jews were thinking about their situation, seen a plainly and hopefully as possible,

That God would begin creating something new.

“The days are surely coming” would have been seen as a message of hope in a time of exile.

Which of these ways are we to understand the Jeremiah’s prophecy?

Do Jeremiah’s words speak to each of those situations, and others?

Is there a right way to understand the notion of the fore coming days?

“Yes” – all of the above … and many more situations

 

For the ancient Jews, it certainly meant a message of hope, in the face of deep despair

For the Christian 2600 years later, it certainly speaks an Advent message

It is true that just over 2000 years ago Jesus of Nazareth was born, lived by a miraculous birth and then proceeded to teach the good news of God.

To re-right the ship, change the understanding - to a righteous understanding of the relationship that we are to have with God.

He taught – and healed – and challenged the established order

                                                            And He died – died for each one of us

                                                            Died for each sinful act of: thought, word or deed that we daily commit

                                                                        And then the greatest of all miracles, He rose from the dead

                                                                                    Thus defeating death for evermore

 

And so we *are* a people of the promise… *fulfilled*

                                               

As is said in some Eucharistic prayers – /who made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world (BCP-prayer of consecration)/

 

Christians – people of the promise fulfilled

 

And yet, it does end there does it?

Yes, Christ sacrifice never needs to be repeated

– However the story goes on

– Life goes on

 

Life, 2012 years ago, in so many ways *began* *anew*

           

And here is where we meet up with our gospel passage today

On first reading, it is a strange reading, it is deeply apocalyptic reading

 

/“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves.

People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

(Luke 21:25-26) /

 

These are the words of Jesus – they are weird yet compelling – odd yet fantastic 

They tell of how God’s way invades the normal with a mystery – they tell of the impossibility of God

These are just prior to the passion narrative – the story leading up to the cross

We, who know the ending, might think that Jesus is prophesying His victory over death

                                    But that is not what Jesus is doing

What Jesus is doing is going deeper in Hebrew prophecy,

In fact Jesus is declaring /His/ second coming

 

We, Christians are people of the /promise realized/ *but* we are also people of the /promise to come/

            We live in the /now/ and the /not yet/

 

There is a theologian named Oscar Cullman (who has) a vivid image, useful for understanding Advent, taken from World War II.

It is the image of the relationship between D-Day and V-Day

V-Day was the day of victory in the war.

For the cause of God, that day has not come.

But D-Day has come.

The day of God's decisive battle with the forces of evil in human history — the day when the battle began with the advent of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now the structure of the Christian life is that we live between D-Day and V-Day

— Not in the fulfillment of victory, but in the assurance of victory because that is the meaning of the advent of Christ — the battle began back then and is on now.

Christians live in the expectation and enjoy the wholesome psychological advantages of knowing that we are fighting and working and living in a cause that is fated to prevail.[1]

When we Christians proclaim the gospel, the good news of God – the good news of Jesus Christ

            We can and should take great comfort in the fact that Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light

                        That Jesus has achieved for us, what we could not do on our own

                                    *BUT* we also live in the hope of the promise to come

/The days are surely coming/ speaks not only of the righteous branch of David – of the celebration of our Messiah’s birth

It also speaks of the fact that Righteous branch will come ultimately and finally at the end of the ages

            A Christian, properly understood – is perpetually an Advent person

                        Until our Lord comes again for the final time

                                    We are people of /the promise fulfilled/ and /the promise to come/

 

As people that exist in both plains – How are we to live our lives?

I think that easiest answer to that comes from our Lord’s prayer

                        /Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven/

                                    We are to live our lives as a heavenly rehearsal

                                                With the goal to: view, to visualize, to see, earth as it could be – as heaven

                                                            *And to do!*

If we believe the words of our Lord – the words that we say more than any others

If we are to have integrity as followers of Christ as Lord – we have a job to do

                                                            We have a role to play

It is not ours alone – but prayerfully walking with God

 

/As advent people – pregnant with expectation – and partnered with God/

 

One of the mysteries of raising roses, rosarians tell us, is the riddle of why some buds never get beyond the budding stage.

A promising bud appears on the stem but never opens;

It fails to unfold into a beautiful and mature rose bloom.

You might say it is one of the mysteries of human life, as well.

Some lives never unfold beyond the budding stage.

They start off well, but something mysterious within the person holds it in check and the mature person never develops.

This disappointment is analogous to Advent, too.

What we have on this first Sunday of Advent is a bud, a promise, a beginning of something that can enlarge and gradually unfold into the glory of Christmas.