It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas?

Sermon for Advent 1-November 30, 2014-Mark 13:24-37

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas?        

                  This past week the Selma Times Journal posted a few pictures on Facebook of downtown Selma lit up with wreathes and ribbons and white lights and the caption said, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”  The truth is that this caption would have probably been accurate if it was posted the week before Halloween!  It seems the countdown to Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year.  If we continue on at this pace, we will be buying our Christmas presents with our back-to-school gear!  But thankfully, in the church, we can always depend on the countdown to Christmas to start on Advent 1, about four weeks before Christmas, every year. 

                Another picture has been burning in my mind all week.  The photograph was taken late into Monday evening in Ferguson, Missouri.  In the foreground of the picture are protesters who are throwing bottles and rocks at a line of police officers who are dressed in full riot gear.  You can see one of the protesters kneeling on the ground as smoke bombs flood the air.  To the right of the protesters is a police cruiser that is engulfed with fire.  And in postcard like fashion centered in the skyline, is a lighted sign that says, “Seasons Greetings.” 

                It was striking to me how out of place this sign seemed.  In the middle of all that chaos, how can a sign like that, a sign that promises hope and joy be taken seriously?  The sign almost seems laughable considering the circumstances.

                I stayed up way too late watching the news coverage following the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Wilson on criminal charges for killing Michael Brown.  As you probably know, this decision came after months of tension between the community and the police department.  Most notably, this incident became a flash-point for a conversation surrounding racial tensions that still exist in our country.

                The more I thought about the situation in Ferguson the more my heart began to break for everyone involved on all sides of the issue.  I woke up Tuesday morning feeling very disturbed.  I didn’t sleep well.  My heart was mixed with feelings of anger and sadness and frustration.  I had that feeling you get in your stomach after you've just had a nightmare.  Even at a distance, somehow I felt like I was caught up in the tragic story. 

                I spent a lot of this week asking the Holy Spirit to help me sort out these feelings of sadness and anger and frustration.  I believe a part of God’s answer to my prayers is our gospel lesson for this morning.  God has put before me and before you Mark’s “little apocalypse” as we try to make sense of the events of this week. 

In response to the disciples question about the return of the Son of Man, Jesus gives them a terrifying answer.  Jesus says, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”  So on this first Sunday in Advent, during the season when we prepare for Christmas and for the baby Jesus, Jesus gives us an image of the world falling apart.  Like the picture of Ferguson, Jesus’ prediction of the end times is hardly a scene that looks a lot like Christmas.

  Jesus is telling his disciples that chaos will ensue before the reign of Christ can be established on earth.  Jesus is saying that our way of life will be turned upside down in order to make way for God’s kingdom come on earth.  Jesus is making it clear that things will get much worse before they can start to get any better. 

The question for all of us know, 2,000 years later is, when will things get better?  Haven’t we seen enough?  Enough tears?  Enough violence?  Enough hatred?  Enough excuses?  Enough self-righteousness?  Enough finger pointing?  Enough senselessness?  Come, Lord Jesus, Come.  Come quickly.  We are tired of waiting for things to get better.  But here we are during the season of Advent, a season when we are called to “keep awake” and wait for the Lord. 

You may notice that we are using blue instead of purple this year as the color for Advent.  Traditionally, purple is a color for repentance, and Advent is certainly a season for repentance.  However, it seems more accurate to also say that Advent is a season for waiting and preparing for our Lord.  And as you may know, the one who waited and prepared for our Savior in her own flesh and flood is known by the color blue. 

                We, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, eagerly await the coming of our Lord during this season of Advent.  We, like the Mother of our Lord, know too well the pain and suffering of this world.  We, like the Blessed Mary, hope for peace on earth, if not for us, at least for our children.  And like Mary, God has given us reason to hope for peace with the promise of Jesus. 

God has given us reason to see past the chaos into a world that looks different, a world that promises peace among all people and nations.  As our scripture says this morning, “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”  Even after the world has fallen apart, even when the sky has fallen in on top of us, we can hold fast to the promise of God’s Word that something better is waiting for us.

But we are still on this side of Eden; we are still on the fallen side of God’s world.  The sure and present hope of God’s new world is breaking into our world with the advent of Christ, but we can’t quite see the fullness of God’s redemption and reconciliation.  Not yet.  We still have to wait.

As hard as it may be to do at times, I have found waiting to be energizing under the right circumstances.  Sometime this summer I started getting up around 5:00 a.m.  For a while, Jamie thought something was wrong with me.  In the end, we decided I was more tolerable to be around if I had that hour to myself every morning.  There is something energizing about waiting in great anticipation for the new day, for new possibilities, for new challenges, and for new opportunities.  And of course, this period of waiting is only energizing if you have something good to look forward to.  And in this season in my life, thankfully I do.

Thankfully for all of us, no matter what season you are in, God is promising us that we have something good to look forward to in the kingdom that Jesus is creating.  God promises a place where peace reigns.  God promises a place where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sorrow, but life everlasting.  God promises a place where he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, a place where death will be no more. 

As Christians, this is the world we get to wait eagerly for.  This is the world what we get to look forward to with great anticipation.  This is the world that we can be energized by right now, in the here and now, even when all the signs seem to say otherwise.  We don’t have to wake up in despair to what the future holds.  Yes, the events in Ferguson and events like it might look like the end of the world.  But we can live in hope of a resurrected world, in a world where all things are made new even hatred and violence. 

I believe the reason I woke up Tuesday feeling so awful is because I spent much of my time Monday night trying to figure out who was right and who was wrong.  I found myself liking what that reporter said and then getting angry at what that reporter said.  I got swept away by all the finger pointing and excuses and expert opinions.  In reality, I was trying to justify myself.  I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t a part of the problem.  Turns out, this is exhausting work.  Turns out, there are no winners. 

Ultimately, I realized that this self-justification had me living in the same old world of anger and frustration and sadness and judgment.  My efforts to justify myself, to set myself apart from "those sinners", only led me to a darker place.  Trying to align myself with the "winning team" only led me to a world that will never achieve peace and redemption. 

When I admit that I am a part of the problem, that I am a part of the same system that creates fear and injustice, I am reminded that sooner or later the systems and institutions of this world will fail me.  When I make this confession, I remind myself that the only way forward is to live in a world based on God’s justice and mercy.  The only way forward is to step into a world that is being created through the one who we nailed to the cross in the name of justice, through the one who is making all creation new. 

Above anything else, the events in Ferguson this week should drive all of us to our knees.  These events should be a call to repentance for all of us no matter who you are or what you have done or haven’t done.  As the long-haired, locust eating, sandal-wearing, John the Baptist will say next Sunday, repent for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.  For it is in the general confession of our sins where we find common ground, where we are reminded of our common humanity and brokenness, where we are reminded of our common cry, “how long?”.  It is also through our confession where we find that God is touching and changing all our hearts through the world that Jesus Christ is creating for us, a world based on mercy and compassion. 

When we kneel before our perfect judge, when we make our confession to the only one who can grant true justice, when we bow down before our crucified Lord, we are given the grace to see that God is preparing for us a place that is complete, a place where all may know wholeness and healing, a place where only the justice and mercy of God can give us a world worth living in.  Amen.