December 2 Sermon – The First Sunday
of Advent
Get ready for Christ’s coming, His Advent
The word “Advent” means “to
come to, to appear”. Advent is the
season when we celebrate the bold assertion that almighty God, the Lord of the
universe, has come among us in human form in Jesus of Nazareth - That God is
not far away from us, but that the Lord comes to us and is among his people.
Not only do we celebrate that
God has come, in the past in Jesus, born of Mary in Bethlehem, but also that
His spirit continues to be present with us, that God still comes to us in Word
and sacrament. And finally He will come again in glory and power at the end of
the age.
Past, present and future: God came to us in the man Jesus in the past,
God comes to us through His Holy Spirit in the present, and God will come to us
in glory in the future.
Since God has, is and will
come to us, therefore we need to be ready to meet him. Our task is to be fully awake, as Paul wrote
in our 2nd lesson:
“It is time to awake. . . For salvation is nearer to
us now than when we first believed.” Romans
13:11
Martin Luther summed up these
Advent themes, and their message for us in a single
sentence: “We ought to live and love and
work as tho’ Jesus Christ died last Friday - not that
good Friday long ago - but died this past Friday;
and
as tho’ Jesus rose from the dead today
- early
this Sunday morning -
and as tho’ He is coming again in glory as our judge tomorrow.”
Live as if Christ died Friday,
rose this morning and is returning in glory tomorrow.
This Advent theme is implied
in the response we make during the service after the account of the Last
Supper: “Christ has died, Christ is risen,
Christ will come again.”
And in the gospel Jesus says: “Therefore you also must be ready; for the
Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:44
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The bishop’s secretary burst into his office, looking distressed. “A man just walked in to see you, and he says
he’s Jesus Christ. What should I do.”
“Just in case he is Christ, you better go out and look very busy.”
That sums up the first point in our lessons. If you are going to live
as if Christ is returning soon, you better put your faith to work. You want to be very busy living the faith
when the Lord returns.
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220 years ago an Englishman named William Wilberforce became an
evangelical Christian. His conversion
experience was a highly personal one, but he did not see his faith as only a
private and personal matter. Nor did he
make a distinction between social justice and Christian morality. Wilberforce took put his new faith to work –
and took his faith to work. He was a
member of parliament.
He introduced a bill to end the slave trade - even though his stand was
contrary to public opinion and party expectations. It was defeated. But he kept up his campaign, enlisted support
and just kept reintroducing his bill year after year until it passed.
More than half a century later, Abraham Lincoln remembered Wilberforce
saying he recalled the name of the man who ended the slave trade, but couldn’t
name one man who tried to keep it alive.
For Wilberforce, the elimination of the slave trade was part of a
broader project to bring people to God.
He also understood that lesser sins have a way of opening the door to
greater offenses. His text might have
been from our second lesson:
Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and
put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in
the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness,
not in quarreling and jealousy. Romans 13:12-13
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It’s time to put on Christian clothes and go to work.
Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its
desires. v.14
It’s time to follow Paul’s words by living honorably in the day. We are challenged to be a force for good in
our communities, our workplaces and our schools.
Where do you begin?
In the place where you spend most of your time - often where you work,
or where you go to school. - or perhaps the
neighborhood where you live - where ever you spend most of your time Monday
through Friday.
We need to need to put our faith to work and take our faith to work and
school if we are going to do God’s work in the world.
This doesn’t mean trying to convert folks. Most people don’t want to have someone force
their religious point of view on them.
Often discussions of religion can generate more heat than light.
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So what can you do, in a positive way, to blend faith and work?
A real estate agent links Sunday faith with Monday work by
demonstrating Christ-like attitudes - humility and fairness and
compassion. She says “by truly first
serving the other - thinking more of their needs than my own - I believe I
demonstrate a style that’s atypical.”
For so many agents their primary concern is their commission. But this real estate agent Has
“put on Jesus Christ, as Paul recommends, not making provision for the flesh,
to gratify its desires” by getting the maximum commission.
Would like to have a real estate agent - or a car salesman - who really
put your needs first, rather than putting their commission first? I would.
And if you found one, would you recommend them to a friend? I would.
So in this example, seeing yourself as a servant - putting others needs
before your own - might not get you the highest commission on each sale - but
could get you recommended to others.
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More than 20 years ago I visited the
A Russian Baptist pastor explained that believers in the
Then the church member will simply whisper: “It’s because I am a
believer.”
If that person would like to know more, the member will tell them where
and when the believers meet. And so the
church continued to grow in spite of all the restrictions.
Of course, most co-workers never asked why that secret believer was
“different”. They simply thought they
were a good person. And that’s not bad
either.
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Let me give you an example from closer to home about how one of our
members took her faith to work She had
been volunteering to help here on Tuesday mornings, giving out food at Daily Bread. The company she works for allows employees to
take a few hours off a month for community service. She told some co-workers how she was doing
community service. Several were
interested, and soon one or more were coming with her on Tuesdays. Then, on days when she couldn’t come as many
as three of her colleagues were here in her place. When we were preparing for the distribution
of thanksgiving baskets, they offered to purchase the canned and packaged foods
for the baskets. That allowed us to
increase the number of families served from 50 to 73.
A member put her faith to work – coming to volunteer – and took her
faith to work. Not to try to convert
anyone, but rather to give them the opportunity to do good – and thus
participate in the work of God.
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God has not called us to be like those around us. God has called us to be like Christ - conforming
to his character. Every Christian
represents Christ on earth as a member of His body.
Find your own individual way to put your faith to work and take your
faith to work and school and where ever you go Monday through Friday.
Witness simply by living in a different way – a Christ-like way - and
let Christ’s light and love shine through your words and deeds.
Let us walk in the light of the Lord. Isaiah 2:5