“…do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus…”: Sermon 12/31/2006

Pastor David Nicol

1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26 Colossians 3:12-17 Luke 2:41-52

I want to ask you a question that I think we all need to ask ourselves from time to time—how much of your life is really committed to Jesus? How much of who you are and what you do grows out of your relationship with God-Come-in-The-Flesh? Have you so met God in Jesus Christ, that all you are and all you have is committed to the service of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Would someone know to look for you, with Jesus, in “your Father’s house?” To what degree are you committed to “…do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus…?”

As we all know, we have come to the end of another calendar year, to a time when many Methodist Christians are planning for Watch Night Services tonight. Watch Night was originally a monthly meeting in early Methodism—a time for confession of sin and reaffirmation of the covenant between Christians and God—held on the night of the full moon at Midnight. Since then, Watch Night has often been an annual celebration, held on New Year’s Eve, focused on Covenant Reaffirmation—a renewal of our covenant with God. I’ve been to a few Watch Night Services, and I’ve always found them inspiring—full of singing, praying and a call to renewed discipleship, they’re kind of like Ash Wednesday, only broader, and meant for a year.

As Americans, we have a broader tradition that parallels covenant renewal at this time of year. Many of you are probably thinking about New Year’s resolutions already…some of you may be planning to break them a few more times before Midnight tonight… Resolutions can be a wonderful thing. Our popular cultural wisdom tells us that we have “a New Year, and so a fresh start.” That’s probably a very good thing for many of us. I’ve heard people make resolutions to quit smoking, join a gym, actually start an exercise routine, find a new job, eat healthier, lose 50 pounds, give up Twinkies, and spend more quality time with their families. I’m sure many of you have heard these resolutions as well—some of us may have even made some of them in the course of our lives.

Many of us have probably found that New Year’s Resolutions work better when we have someone to hold us accountable for what we’ve committed ourselves to do. Watch Night Covenant Renewal worked best in this way as well—Methodist Christians were organized in to small groups, called “classes…” which sound educational but come from a Latin word meaning a small gathering or group. Each class met together regularly (often more than once a week) for prayer, and to ask one another “how is it with your soul?” a basic question for assessing how well each member was doing maintaining their covenant with God and living a Christian life. I’ve been healthiest in my walk with God when I’ve been a part of intentional or accidental small groups who have held me accountable for my spiritual well-being—I’m sure some of you can testify to the same thing.

I’m not going to pull punches today—if you haven’t noticed already, this is a “give it all to Jesus sermon…” If we really want to be followers of Jesus, this is a whole-life commitment. Just as you could expect to find Jesus in the Temple or in prayer when he wasn’t about “his Father’s business,” we as Christians should be found in prayer, praise, or service at all times, in our work, play, and family life, not just in our intentional time with God.

The Apostle Paul, in Colossians 3:13 urges Christians to “Bear with each other and forgive one another…” and in 3:16 to “…teach and admonish one another…” in the Body of Christ. Christian life requires a whole-hearted commitment, and cannot be entered into alone. Our covenant is first and foremost between God and ourselves—we are called into new and right relationship with God through Jesus Christ—but we live out our covenant with God in relationship with one another.

Even though it’s a little earlier in the day than Watch night would typically be, we’re going to pray together A Covenant Prayer. I want to encourage you to take our invitation to renewed Christian Living very seriously—as we pray, give it all to Jesus, and commit yourself, in the words of Paul, that “…whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the mane of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Living according to God’s covenant with us isn’t always easy, but I think it is vital! We who bear the name of Christ need to live like him—and to commit ourselves to follow him no matter what.

So let me ask you again—how much of your life is really committed to Jesus? How much of who you are and what you do grows out of your relationship with Him? Have you so met God in Jesus Christ, that all you are and all you have is committed to the service of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Would someone know to look for you, with Jesus, in “your Father’s house?” To what degree are you committed to “…do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus…?”

“The Faith of Mary—The Faith of Christians”: 12/24/2006

Pastor David Nicol

Micah 5:2-5a Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45

Over the last few decades, Protestant Christians have begun to rediscover the Virgin Mary. That’s odd, really, since she’s fairly easy to find—right there at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, throughout the Gospels actually, and again in the creeds. Somehow, we lost her when we still said the creeds, and when many Protestants have been saying the creeds less often; we’ve found her again!

I think finding Mary, blessed, faithful Mary, is a good thing for Christians. I’m not suggesting Protestants try to imitate Roman Catholic devotion to Mary—we don’t think about the Communion of Saints that way—but when we lost Mary, sometime during the Reformation, we also lost the examples of many of the saints who had gone before. We didn’t abandon the principle of imitating the saints; we just tended to focus it on the most saintly members of our congregations. That’s not a bad thing to do—in fact, learning how to live like a Christian is far easier when we have an example to follow—but in our drive to reform the Church, we’ve lost sight of some powerful examples in the Bible. These we need to regain, because the example of the lives of faith of Biblical saints helps us understand what to look for in good examples of faith in our own communities: while we still might have some work to do, I think rediscovering Mary, blessed, faithful Mary, is a good thing for Christians who want to know what the faith of Christians should look like.

When Christians have faith in the transforming power of God, through a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter who we are, how much money we earn, what education we have, or where we come from. When we believe that the Lord will fulfill his promises to us, we can do amazing things! God doesn’t measure using worldly standards—God measures based on faith, usually choosing to work through the least-likely people, in the least-likely places, because faithfulness does not come just to those people who expect to have it, and is often found in greater measure in those people who don’t expect to have it!

Luke tells us that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, the baby in her womb leapt for joy, and filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth praised God and prophesied about both Mary and Jesus! Finally, Elizabeth explained why Mary was blessed—“Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” Elizabeth cried out!

As Elizabeth said, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary was blessed; but Mary was blessed not just because she would become the mother of Jesus Christ, God-Made-Flesh, but because “…she…believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.” Mary believed, and so she was blessed! Mary, the unwed, teenage mother… the least of the least… someone whose life was forfeit according to the Law for suspicion of adultery, someone who if she lived would spend a life on the edge of society, without the guarantee of economic security, without any worldly guarantees at all…Mary, blessed, faithful, holy Mary believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her and so she conceived by the Holy Spirit and carried the Son of God!

While the genealogies in Matthew and Luke both tell us that Jesus came from the family of King David, a royal lineage, he didn’t come from the most-likely branch! Kings are born in capitol cities, in royal palaces, laid on beds of silk, and cared for by great physicians. Even in the Ancient world that would have been the case. It certainly was the case for the children of King Herod in Jerusalem, in the royal palace, surrounded by comfort and all the best that wealth and power could buy.

But the Messiah wasn’t born in a palace, or even in the Great City, Jerusalem. No, Jesus was born to an unwed mother, in Bethlehem, a town on the outskirts of the great city, in a stable, laid in a feed trough, surrounded not by doctors and nursemaids, but by shepherds—solitary nomadic shepherds, the poorest of the poor who lived much of their lives alone, out in the fields, caring for their sheep.

Jesus was born, so that by his life of righteousness, his death on the cross, and his resurrection and ascension, he could reconcile us to God. As Christians, as Disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to spread the Good News of what God has done for us and make more disciples. If as Christians we have faith like Mary, faith that ‘…believes that the Lord will fulfill his promises to us,’ then it doesn’t matter who we are, how much money we earn, what education we have, or where we live, with God, we can do amazing things! Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem, and if we have faith, then the power of God might begin to spread this Christmas, reaching people who have never had a life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. If we in this church have faith, here in Buxton, a small town, in the shadow of Portland, the great city, then God can use us to begin to reach a lost, lonely, hurting world that needs to know the true meaning of Christmas! Jesus was born in Bethlehem to change the world. Because Mary had faith, God used her, the most unlikely of people, to fulfill his purpose in the most unlikely of places. If we have faith like Mary, we, the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places might be used by God to bring the Good News not just to our families and friends, not just to Buxton and Hollis and Standish and Cornish, but also to Gorham and Portland! If we have faith, then the revival that shares the true meaning of Christmas, that offers a new and life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ can start here, and spread throughout the county, the State, all of New England, or even beyond!

God uses the most unlikely of people with faith! You can have that transforming relationship today, it’s never too early or too late! If we as a Church have faith, trust in God, and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will fulfill his promises to us—and anything can happen!

“Living Like the Messiah is Coming”: 12/17/2006

Pastor David Nicol

Zephaniah 3:14-20 Isaiah 12:2-6 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18

“‘His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’ And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.” Well—today’s text doesn’t have much brimstone, but Luke did seem to say that the Good News has at least something to do with FIRE! It may have been awhile since any of us heard a sermon that called us to flee from the wrath to come, but if I read this passage from Luke’s Gospel right, that’s a message that, while maybe not the whole of the Christian faith, does demand some of our attention from time to time.

I’ve heard a number of sermons that basically equated believing in Jesus to getting a “get out of Hell free card,” and that’s not where I’m going today—the fact of the matter is, Wesleyan Christians believe faith, Christian living, and “fleeing from the wrath to come” is something far more complicated than that. But for most of our history, Methodists have not shied away from preaching a message much like John the Baptists message in Luke 3. You see—John the Baptist’s message is a very full one, connecting faith and repentance with holy living. John asked his audience the question “who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” because he KNEW that the Messiah was at hand—today, I want to ask you the following questions, “are you ready to flee from the wrath to come?” and “are you living you life like the Messiah is coming?

For Methodists, these questions shouldn’t be new. “The General Rules of the United Societies” governed the first Methodist Societies in both Britain and America. According to these rules drawn up by John Wesley:

“There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these societies: "a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins." But wherever this is really fixed in the soul it will be shown by its fruits.”

Early Methodism wasn’t for the weak of heart! In a very real way, Methodists were Advent people—our focus was on the desire to flee the wrath to come, to be saved from our sins, and to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Today, it can be hard to imagine that Methodist Christians were once so serious about their faith as to be considered quite odd. It’s easy for us to blend-in to the world around us. Some of you might remember the days when more of the General Rules applied to how Methodists were expected to live—mostly the first section of rules about “doing no harm”—but over the course of our history we have let other standards determine how we are to act and live in the world. I sometimes still here folks complain about “The taking of the name of God in vain” and “The profaning the day of the Lord,” especially at the beginning of youth Football or Little League season, but many of the harder standards get little attention, and I’m not just talking about the Don’t Do List.

You see, both John the Baptist’s hearers, and the early Methodists were looking for a way to flee from the wrath to come, and both had ready excuses to avoid living out their faith in the radical ways they were being called to live. Early Methodists, by and large, were baptized Christians and so members of established churches. The Church of England officially called Christians to live transformed lives, but in a country where everyone was Christian, and many failed to live like it, the Methodist message of radical repentance and intentional Holy Living was far from ordinary! In the same way, John the Baptist’s hearers could have claimed to be descendents of Abraham, but John rebuked them, reminding them that God could find other descendents for Abraham, even by raising them out of the desert stones!

John’s message was truly radical—he called Jews to convert to Judaism![1] So too today, we as baptized Christians are being called to convert to Christianity! John’s message wasn’t really new—it was what being Jewish was always supposed to be. So too, being an early Methodist wasn’t really new—Methodist Holy Living was just living the way Christians always should have been living. Being born a descendent of Abraham wasn’t enough in the days of John the Baptist, and being born, baptized, and even raised in the Church wasn’t enough in the days of John Wesley. The same is true today. Faith cannot be inherited, it must be claimed anew by each member of each new generation. Faith can be caught, taught, and even sought, but a life-transforming, repentance yielding, fruit bearing relationship with God through Jesus Christ cannot be inherited!

We might begin life close to people of faith or far from them, but our original ties to the Church are fragile and must be claimed by us if we are to bear fruit worthy of repentance! John the Baptist warned his hearers, “the ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” So, are we ready to flee from the wrath to come? Are we today, in this place, living like the Messiah is coming? Are we concerned enough for the souls of those around us to call them into a new, right relationship with God?

John the Baptist’s hearers wanted to know what to do, and he told them “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same…” and to those with power over others John commanded “…don’t extort, don’t accuse people falsely, and be content with your pay.” Live like the Messiah is Coming!

Today, as Christmas is almost upon us, we too need to live like the Messiah is Coming! If you have more than enough, share with others! If you know of a need, meet that need! Don’t lay up treasure on earth, but in heaven, avoid drunkenness, live frugally, share generously, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit prisoners, study scripture, pray, join in public worship, and tell your friends and neighbors how great the Love of God is! Live like the Messiah is Coming! Do you wish to flee from the wrath to come and be saved from sin? Now is the time! It’s never too early or too late!

[1] Inspired by a sermon on this passage by the Rev. Dr. Carl P. Daw, Tuesday Eucharist BUSTH, 12/12/2006.

“The Materialism of Salvation”: Sermon 12/10/2006

Pastor David Nicol

Malachi 3:1-4 Luke 1:68-79 Philippians 1:3-11 Luke 3:1-6

Somewhere in a science-fiction future, where the machines have overtaken earth, a prophecy arises of a savior who will come and set right the world that seems so entirely broken. Reality is not what it seems—the machines use humans as biochemical batteries; having reduced their once-masters to a power-source, the machines have transformed earth from a home for animals and plants into a semi-toxic, forbidding terrain of metal and rock with an atmosphere filled with electrical storms. In this clearly fallen world, Morpheus has risen as a dreamer among the small group of humans free from machine domination, who await the day foretold in prophecy—the days of “the one who is to come.” In the world of The Matrix, nothing is what it seems.[1]

The Matrix stands as a powerful postmodern legend—telling of the dangers of human innovation, the risks of over dependence on technology, and speaking to our human need for our lives to be meaningful. In this story, Morpheus plays the role John the Baptist plays in several of today’s texts —he is the one who both foretells the coming of the one foretold, and who prepares the way for him. But Morpheus isn’t John, and Neo isn’t Jesus. Like many of the legendary accounts that have inspired people across human cultures, The Matrix takes place in an indefinite time, in an indefinite place. The truth of a legend doesn’t depend on its happening in a clearly defined time and place—in fact, most legends seem to gain from their lack of specific ties.

In the ancient religious landscape, gods were sometimes seen in relationship to particular locations, but for someone wishing to spread the worship of a particular god, this connection carried with it a distinct disadvantage. If Athena was the goddess of Athens, and Horus a god in Egypt, too much particularity would have made them little better than the water-sprites many ancient people believed inhabited their springs and brooks. Fortunately for the cause of Athena, Horus, and a host of other ancient deities, their worshippers found little historically specific, or particularly localized in the worship of these gods and goddesses. The historical rooted-ness of these stories didn’t seem to impact their truth.

But for Christians, particular times, particular places, particular people, and a very material, earthy reality impacts our faith in a profound and dramatic way, even before Jesus enters the scene. The prophet Malachi spoke of the day when “…the Lord whom you see will suddenly come to his temple.” Unlike Athena, who was goddess of wisdom in many temples, but at least in myth, isolated to Mount Olympus, the LORD of hosts is to be worshiped in a particular place, and will come to his temple on a particular day, but is God of heaven and earth, in the Temple, in Jerusalem, and in the whole of the created universe. Unlike Athena, the LORD of hosts is everywhere at once, and yet tied to a particular place, a particular people, and a particular history, because God chose to reach out to people through the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So it was “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” While these names and places might seem as foreign to us as Morpheus and Neo, or as far from historical markers as the myths about Greek or Egyptian gods, to the first readers of Luke’s Gospel this list was as much a distinctive historical marker as it would be for us to describe an event that took place “In the fourth year of President George Bush, when Paul Martin was Prime Minister of Canada, and Tony Blair was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Vicente Fox was President of Mexico, during the pontificate of John Paul II…”

John the Baptist not only preached a message to the people that required a timely response, but also did so at a particular time in a particular place. Unlike most other growing religions in the time of Jesus, the faith proclaimed by John the Baptist, faith in the God of Israel, was grounded in a historically experienced, documented, and rooted relationship between God who created the Heavens and the Earth and God’s chosen people. Christians affirm, with John the Baptist, but contrary to much worldly wisdom, that “…all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” It is for this reason that Paul writes to the Philippians: “And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that come through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” Unlike the supposedly higher forms of religious thinking found among intellectuals, ours is a very earthy faith. Unlike the so-called gods of the world, our God sent prophets at particular times, in particular places, to call us to repent of our sins; of the ways we mistreat one another, of the ways we abuse God’s creation, of the ways we fail to love one another. The One true God called John, son of Zechariah, out of the wilderness at a particular time to proclaim a baptism of repentance and forgiveness of sins to very real people, in need of God’s very real grace.

Today, in 21st century North America, we still need to hear the message that God has come in the flesh and that God will come again, ready to judge how we have lived in relationship to one another and all of creation. John preached a baptism of repentance because the people of Judea were not living holy lives. Paul prayed that the Philippians would live holy lives, “…so that in the day of Christ [they] may be pure and blameless.” If Jesus returned today to judge how we have managed living out our faith, would he judge you faithful? As Malachi asks “…who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap…” Are we ready now, in this life, to let God purify us so that we might be holy, so that we might offer our lives to God as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us? Are we willing to stand on Christ’s merits, and embrace God come in the flesh, accepting the materialism of our salvation, recognizing the scandal of God-in-history and the powerfully life-affirming way God has chosen to come to us?

As we come nearer to Christmas, which form of materialism will we choose—will you choose the materialism of the world around us, which tells us that we need to save for our futures, spend on our loved ones, provide for our needs, and leave religion and “spirituality” where it belongs—away from our decisions about everyday life? Or, will you choose the materialism of the Incarnation, that shows God’s great love for us in God’s coming as a baby, living like us, dying for us, and rising so that we can see we too shall rise? This materialism carries with it far more risk—Jesus calls us to give over control of our purse-strings, our creature comforts, and our security. Jesus calls us to keep only what we need and give what we don’t to care for those who cannot care for themselves. Perhaps Jesus is calling you to spend less and give more, to sell all you have and give to the poor, or to downsize and revitalize your spiritual life by discovering the real value of the material world… I don’t know where Jesus is leading you today—but as we come toward Christmas, John’s question is worth repeating anew—which materialism will you choose?

[1] Inspiration for this citation from http://www.textweek.com/movies/john_the_baptist.htm

Seeing Advent Anew: Sermon 12/3/2006

Pastor David Nicol

Jeremiah 33:14-16 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Luke 21:25-36

Wednesday morning at the Buxton Bible Study, I asked the question, “so why do we celebrate Advent?” I think it’s a good question, and if you haven’t heard the plug yet, I’m offering a 4-session Advent study that I think gets to the meaning of Christmas, and should help us understand the two natures of Advent. The easy one to discern for most of us is the preparation for our remembrance of Christ’s coming in Bethlehem. Christmas, sometimes called the Feast of the Nativity or the Feast of the Incarnation celebrates Christ’s becoming human, becoming one of us, because for Christ to be crucified for our sins, he first needed to be born in much the same way all of us were born. The second nature of Advent, which dominates our Scripture readings for most of the four weeks, focuses on Christ’s Second Advent—Christ’s Second Coming. It is in this context that we read today’s scripture lessons.

Jeremiah speaks of the coming of the Day of the Lord, when the Branch sprung from David will rule and all things will be set right. Here we have a vision of what will be when Christ HAS COME in Final Victory, and all things HAVE BEEN set right. This is a brief window of hope wedged into the notoriously dark prophesies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah provided the first jeremiads, but even he was given hope from God. This is the coming Day of the Lord, when all things will be set right, and the Kingdom of God will come.

It can be easy to write-off prophesies that speak of an eventual “Day of the Lord,” that seem to lead to an otherworldly future as irrelevant to our everyday lives, but that’s not what either Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, or what Jesus said in today’s Gospel lesson. Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians wrote about the Day of the Lord, but focused on our lives now. “…May he [Jesus] strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones…” Paul wrote. Paul’s exhortation to the church in Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 3:13, remains relevant for us today. The purpose of the coming Day of the Lord, of Christ’s second Advent as Judge, is to set the world right—and that includes us. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians that they might be blameless and holy in the presence of God on that day, because how we live now has great bearing on what will happen to us when Christ comes again. Paul doesn’t bother with details about what the signs of Christ’s coming will be, knowing that our human tendency will be to put off holiness of heart and life until we fear the time is at hand—instead, Paul sets prophecies about Last Things in the proper context: as motivation for Holy Living NOW. Because Jesus is coming, we want to be among the Holy Ones, the Saints…because Jesus is coming, we need to think not only of our own comfort and the pleasures we might offer to our families and friends, but we should consider Advent a reminder to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, heal the sick, and raise those in spiritual death, or who are physically near death due to homelessness or addictions that have ravaged their bodies, minds and souls and kept them from full life to new life in Christ and in Christ’s Body, the Church.

Essentially, Jesus’ message about his own coming, when all “…will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory…” speaks to the same message. If we are not careful, it is easy for us to become fixated on the details of Jesus’ prophecy. When will the time come? What is the meaning of the fig tree? What did Jesus mean when he said: “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. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken…?”

The truth is, none of this is so simple… Commentators vary in their interpretation of Luke 32-33 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” What is the precise meaning of “these things,” and who is included in “this generation?” Does “this generation” refer to Israel, the wicked, humanity, or the generation witnessing the end signs? All of these proposals have been offered by numerous scholars, and all could be correct—but the fact of the matter is, whether Katrina is a sign that the Kingdom of God is near, or whether war in Lebanon is a sign that the Kingdom of God is near, or whether unexpected tornadoes, or violent Nor’easters, or tsunamis or earthquakes, or mudslides, or devastating blizzards, or bird flu, or AIDS, or flooding are signs that the Kingdom of God is near, if we are living as Jesus tells us to live, it doesn’t matter!

Regardless of when Jesus might be coming, we are called to be careful not to waste our time or our resources, to avoid drunkenness, not to become overburdened by unnecessary anxieties focused not on God’s Kingdom but on gaining prestige in this life, because if we let this world determine how we should live, if we let the pleasures and enticements of this world determine how we should live, then Jesus warns us that “…that day will close on us suddenly like a trap.”

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, our calling is not an easy one! We are not called to be merely good people, good citizens, and good neighbors, but to be Saints, a Holy people set apart for a Holy God, serving faithfully as Christ’s hands and feet until he comes again! On this first Sunday of Advent, on this first Lord’s Day of a new Christian year, we await not only the celebration of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem long ago, but also Christ’s return in final victory! For some time now, the secular world has been tantalizing us with pre-Christmas sales, trying to draw our attention from our Lord and coming King, to the pleasures of this life. I don’t want to preach against the joy of giving gifts to family and friends—I will do that too, and I’ll enjoy the time together, the feasting, and even the giving and receiving of gifts. What I fear can happen, if we do not stay alert, is that we can easily lose focus on loving our neighbors, not just our families; we can easily lose focus on feeding the hungry, not just our children; we can easily lose focus on clothing the naked, not just those we see in our homes on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.

Despite what the young children in our midst might believe, the hardest thing this Advent is not likely waiting for Christmas morning, but probably keeping our hearts, minds, and lives holy, as we await the coming of Christ, and offer ourselves as a Holy and Living Sacrifice in union with Christ’s offering for us until he comes again. So, let us be ‘always on watch and pray…that we may be able to stand before the Son of Man.’ It is our task to proclaim the mystery of faith this Advent: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again…”