"Advent"Dr.
James L. Mayfield December 1, 2002
Text: Isaiah 1-9 The passage we read from Isaiah is one of the traditional passages of Advent. In the sermon today, I want to try to get inside these verses to see what this poem has to say to us today. This poem is a plea to God: O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence. The poet who wrote these verses longed for God in intervene in life. Any of us who have longed for God to come solve the problem that is robbing us of sleep, understand what the poet meant. Any of us who feel a deep emptiness in our gut because we cannot see that our lives matter or that living is really worth the effort, understand what the poet meant. Any of us who have experienced the painful, knot-in-the-stomach grief because someone we love is whirling out of control in self-destructive behavior, understand what the poet meant. Any of us whose eyes reflect the pain in our souls because of the mess we have made and the hurt we have caused, understand what the poet meant. Any of us who have seen tragedy unfold before our eyes and helplessly watched as dreams died and hopes shattered and futures were crippled, understand what the poet meant. All of us who long for peace and helplessly watch the endless cycle of revenge deepen bitterness and expand hatred in the Middle East, understand what the poet meant. All of us who have loved ones who may have to go in harms way if there is war with Iraq, understand what the poet meant. "O God, tear open the heavens and come down." This prayer is at the heart of what Advent is really all about. Advent is not merely time to prepare for the Christmas holidays. The purpose of Advent is greater and deeper than shopping, sending cards, decorating our homes, going to parties, hosting parties, negotiating with family members about who is going to visit whom and when. Advent is about longing for God to enter life --- to enter our lives. Advent is the longing for healing, redeeming grace to transform life --- to transform our lives. The concerns of Advent run deeper than merely getting ready Christmas holiday celebrations. These concerns give rise to our Advent prayers and the Advent hope that are reflected in passages such as the one we read. This is why we read these passages during Advent. They reminds us what is at the heart of Advent: the longing for God and God's grace. "O come, o come, Emmanuel." Advent has a great deal in common with the season of Lent. Just as the purpose of Lent is not a preliminary celebration of Easter but rather a soul searching preparation for Easter, the purpose of Advent is not a preliminary celebration of Christmas. Advent is not a time to hide truth under colorful Christmas wrappings or behind happy plastic Santas. Advent is a time to look into the depths of our lives and into the depths of life in order to face the way life really is on this side of the Garden of Eden. Advent is the time of deep longing for and soul-searching preparation for all that is revealed in Christmas. I am not talking about wallowing in the pain and problems of life. Advent has nothing to do with masochism or indulging in self-pity or playing games of "ain't it awful." Advent has to do with facing the truth about our human condition and our need for God. "I Need Thee Every Hour" is not a traditional Advent hymn, but its message fits the Advent season. At the heart of the Advent message is deep longing for God to come among us and help us because life is not what God intended life to be. The season of Advent is a time for facing the truth that life is in a mess, and it is a bigger mess that we alone can handle. We look at the truly significant problems between nations, between groups, between persons, within ourselves, and we discover these truly significant problems defy quick and easy solutions. If there were quick, easy solutions, they would have been used a long time ago. And so the plea of Advent is: "God, tear open the heavens and come down, we need your help." Of course, when our plea to God is an earnest plea, we soon find ourselves having to face what the poet faced. Much of the mess we are in, is of our own making. It is of our personal making, or the byproduct of the sin of others -- the result of the dysfunction and sin in our family and in the human family. And so, the poet wrote: "We(humans) have all become like one unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like filthy cloth." The poet was aware of his sin and the sin of his people, He saw all too clearly that much of what passes for righteousness is really sinfulness -- like going to church for networking reasons. "We fade like a leaf," the poet wrote, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away." What started out as a poem that pled for God to come fix the mess we are in, evolves into a prayer of confession. The poet, in his profound honesty, faces the truth that we who cry to God: "Please clean up the mess out there," need God to clean up the mess inside ourselves. That poet knew that while our neighbor may not deserve all his pain, the undeserved pain our neighbor suffers and we suffer is pain caused by us human beings in our refusal to live as God intends. I may quibble that my sin is not as great a sin as his sin, but finally, that is merely a quibble, trying to avoid the truth about myself by focusing on the faults of others. Advent is a season for facing the truth about life -- about life in general and most especially about our own lives. And when we face the truth, we become aware of our need for God, not merely to fix things out there, but to bring healing to our souls, so that in the midst of the mess we are able to live as God intends. This passage is not without its element of hope. The hope in this poem, this prayer, is the same kind of hope that is in Advent. It is hope in the coming of God -- not merely to fix things out there, but to bring renewal deep within. "O Lord," the poet wrote, "you are our Father; we are like the clay and you are our potter." His words sound as familiar as this old hymn: "Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way! Thou art the potter; I am the clay." This prayer is more than a confession of need. This prayer is declaration of hope. One cannot honestly pray such a prayer unless one has hope in God, hope that God will not merely focus on all the ways humans have sinned against God and one another, but hope that God is one who does come among us to reclaim and to redeem. It is hope in God as Father, --a Father who cares for His children, and does not abandon His children, even when they have made a mess of life. The hope is in God. The hope is in the Father. The hope is in the Creator. The hope is the hope of redemption, the hope of renewal, the hope of new life. This is the hope that is central to Advent. It is the hope that is fulfilled in the coming of Christ -- both the coming of Christ into the world and the coming of Christ into our lives. The purpose of Advent is greater and deeper than preparing for the Christmas holidays. Advent is about placing our hope in God and out of that hope longing for God to enter life --- to enter our lives. Advent is the hope driven longing for healing, redeeming grace to transform life --- to transform our lives. Let us pray. God, help us not waste this season of Advent. Amen. Pastoral prayer: Let us thank God for the gifts and blessings we have received. We have come here with a variety of concerns and problems. Let us ask God for guidance and help. God, this time of year, we as individuals, as families, as a nation, need your help, in a variety of ways and at many levels. As we move toward the birth of the Prince of Peace, we are painfully aware of the possibility of war. We pray for the leaders of Iraq, that they have the will, the courage and the grace to cooperate in doing away with weapons of mass destruction. Give to all leaders of the world and especially to our President wisdom to say and do what you want said and done. God, we earnestly pray for peace. And during this season of the year we also pray for families who are pulled in many directions - especially we pray for the children who are caught in the crossfire between multiple parents and grandparents. We also pray for those who long for the gift of food and for those who long for the blessing of warm shelter. We pray for all those who struggle to smile during the holiday season but who secretly long to cry. God show us who to turn our prayers into actions that will make a positive difference. We thank you for Cheryl Crain and Kathy Smith who will represent this congregation in ministry among prisoners in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area this coming weekend. Bless them in their efforts. May those to whom they minister be able to receive the grace that is offered. Bless the efforts of each of us as we try to follow the one who taught us to pray: "Our Father ...."
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