It’s Dec. 4th! Are you ready??

Bill and I were Christmas shopping the other night and we ran into one of the youth of this church. I gave her a big hug and asked what she was up to and she indicated that she was Christmas shopping. I told her I was so impressed as it was still early on in the season and she was really getting a jump on things! We chit chatted abit more and we said our goodbyes. On with Christmas shopping! Anybody here, done with their Christmas shopping yet? OK men, fess up- are you a Dec. 24th kind of guy??

It’s Dec. 4th! Are you ready??

You know what it is like when you are really doing spring cleaning and you take everything out of the closets to go through and then you get interrupted by something and when you get back to that cleaning, you realize what a mess you’ve made! Everything is out of it’s place and it looks worse than when you started! That’s how it is right now in our home! We were beginning to get all the Christmas stuff out to put up and then a little sermon got in the way of finishing the Christmas decorations! I hope today we can finish up so it won’t look like a tornado came through! What does your home look like? Are all the decorations up and the tree lit with lots of presents underneath?

It’s Dec. 4th! Are you ready??

I am looking at my calendar and trying to figure out when I can go to the grocery store to get the ingredients I need for all the food I will be taking to various parties. And what about the Christmas cookies I have failed to make the last several years- it is a yearick family tradition to make and give a variety of cookies in a homemade container and I have failed to live up to it! What does your Christmas cooking adventures look like?

It is Dec. 4th! Are you ready??

How many of you honestly started to think about all the stuff you still have left to do before Dec. 25th comes when I stated, “are you ready?”. Did anyone at all think about being spiritually ready? Did anyone at all think about what space they were going to carve out for devotional time during these next few weeks? Because, after all, it is the second Sunday in ADVENT, not Christmas. Advent is a natural time for spiritual preparation for the coming of the Christ child. We like to highlight this fact even in our worship services. We light the ADVENT wreath, we sing ADVENT songs, our scriptures talk about preparation. How many of us actually have it ingrained in our routines to do some spiritual preparation in the weeks that precede Christmas day?

One of the devotional books I am reading this Advent puts it this way, “though surrounded by many signs that announce the birth of Christ, most of these tend to seduce us into spending more money on Christmas shopping rather than spending more time Advent stopping. The pace and panic of the manic days before Christmas are so contrary to the spirit of advent. Yet most of us, sooner or later, fall victim to the hustle and bustle of this time of year- until some event comes along that slows us down and stops us in our tracks” (pg. 13, Stations of the Crib by Joseph Nassal)

Is it going to take some catastrophe to slow us down enough to make us understand what is important in our lives or do we think we can wake ourselves up enough, starting today if need be, to engage in some form of spiritual discipline to ready ourselves for the coming of the Christ child.

• What is the spirit of Advent in your home?
• Families, have the candles on the advent wreaths you made last week been burned in your homes at the dinner hour?
• Who has found a good devotional book to read and meditate on?
• Who is praying more?
• How many of you kids are doing the projects every week found in your Advent Goodie Bag?
• Teens, will you be attending tonight’s fellowship meetings to work on the angel tree service project?
• What can we do to enliven our souls in the midst of this busy and sometimes depressing season?

One theologian depicts what some of our spiritual lives are like during this advent season. She states, Ever felt “soul-napped” [not kidnapped, but soul-napped!]. All other aspects of your life are functioning normally. Your body and mind are working well for shopping and the driving of the children to school, or the managerial job. The tight timetables are efficiently handled and even the golf gets played well. You’re quite successful at most things, but your soul is- well, somehow it has been ambushed along the way and you’re not sure when or how. You are coping very well at one level of your life, but in the inner depths of your being, you feel soul-napped… the road to Bethlehem should carry signposts at regular intervals marked, “beware of Ambush”. Travelers [to Bethlehem], journey in danger of being trapped by lack of time for prayer. No space for contemplation. Fewer and fewer moments to walk with a living God or the strength and determination to cultivate the art of listening until we perceive the drumming of God’s heartbeat louder than our own. A closed Bible and a full timetable soul-naps more [Bethlehem] travelers than most bandits of secular mode. (pgs 21-22, On the Way To Bethlehem by Hilary McDowell)

What is in the inner depths of your being? Do you go to the mall or a store in a daze, seeing quite clearly the signs that announce Jesus’ birth, but missing the meaning behind them for your life? Do you put up the signs of Jesus birth in your own home, but don’t take time to contemplate the impact of those signs for your own life? Do you throw the tinsel on the tree, put the crèche up in a hurry, wrap those presents late at night when you are so tired, you just want to get them done without thanking God for the person you are wrapping that gift for or thanking God for those who followed God’s directions so long ago? As you address those Christmas cards, do you take time to pray for the persons you are sending them to? You see, these are the little things we can be doing to swell the inner depths or our being so we are refreshed and ready in this Advent season.

It is Dec. 4th! Are you ready?

I popped my head into the parlor the other week and one of the Presbyterian Women’s circles was meeting. They looked like they had just finished their lesson and meeting and were fellowshipping with one another. I managed to ask what they were studying and several voiced that they were all studying about Advent, including the understanding not just of Christ’s first coming as a babe, but his eventual second coming. Since I knew I might be preaching on this second coming text, I piped up that I was excited that they were learning some things about Advent texts that dealt with the second coming and that I would definitely remember them as I wrote my sermon! So, this sermon is dedicated to you PW women who probably could teach me a thing or two!

Both the Gospel text in Mark and the Epistle text in 2nd Peter talk about being ready. John the Baptist talks about being ready for the touch of a Savior’s grace, while the writer of 2nd Peter talks about being ready for Christ’s return one day. Although, the second coming texts are always a part of the lectionary choices each year, it seems weird to talk about the second coming in the midst of the advent season, so most pastors don’t preach on these texts too often. After all, if I say “second coming”, you probably have this awful picture in your mind of doom and gloom! With the “Left Behind” series out and the hell fire and brimstone speech of some preachers, and the confusing images in the book of Revelation, the second coming doesn’t have the best reputation for the niceties of the Advent season. But, if you really think about it, Advent means “coming” and we are supposed to be “preparing” ourselves to meet Christ, so why not extend this notion to the future event of Christ’s second coming! As Christians, we are not just supposed to prepare during the Advent season, but all the time! The 2nd Peter text jumps out at us because the people of that day had lost their direction and preparation for the 2nd coming. Many of the disciples were dead and the second generation of Christians were coming into being. But they had a problem, they were confused about why the Lord hadn’t come, when those first generation Christians were so sure that it would be soon, in their day and time. The writer of 2nd Peter gives his readers a thought to chew on about this: God’s time is not like ours! The delay in the second coming was because God is a God of compassion and wants all to believe. But there is a rub, an interesting tidbit about this passage I hadn’t thought about before. Len Sweet, a well known theologian, reminds us of who the 2nd Peter text was written for. He states,

“…when the author of 2nd Peter wrote his letter he was addressing readers who were already Christians, those who had already heard the gospel, those who already believed in Christ’s redemption, those who already believed they were destined for salvation. Believe it or not, Christians don’t always get it right. The author of 2nd Peter had seen enough of bad theology, bad behavior, and bad attitudes to know that Christians (of all people) and the church (of all communities) needed more time to get it together. God’s delay isn’t just for the sake of some isolated peoples or hard-hearted cynics whom God would like to give another chance at getting the gospel. The amazing revelation of today’s text is this: God’s patience is primarily directed toward God’s own people—those who are supposed to be most aware of God’s grace and God’s glory, yet often times are those most likely to miss the truth of the gospel!” (pg. 4, Prime Time Waiting by Len Sweet)

This text is for us!! We know Christ is our salvation, but sometimes we forget to act in a way that depicts who Christ is in our lives! This text is for all of us who need a little more time to “get it together”, but we do need to start today.

I love how The Message version of the Bible interprets parts of the 2nd Peter text. Listen to what it has to say about being prepared and ready and acting as if we were followers of Christ:

Since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life? ... So, my dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best… (vs. 11, 14)

Living a holy life and being found living at your best… in December?? I don’t know about you, but I hope the Lord doesn’t come during this, the busiest of times, because I am not sure most of us will be found living at our very best! Most of December finds us frazzled and tired! How are we even to think of living at our very best? Well, that is why we have texts like 2nd Peter read in December! These are words of wisdom to remind us that we need to find a way not to be so frazzled and hectic during this holy season. That living at our best is a 24/7 type a thing and that, though some days are better than others, we need to find a way to realign our priorities to match “living at our very best”. Some of will do this because we are plain scared about making sure we are ready when Christ comes, but others of us will do this because living at our very best helps us know what the abundant life that Christ portrays is all about here and now. Realigning our priorities is an easy thing to say, but a hard thing to do! It only happens with intentionality, awareness and action.

So what does matter?
• It does matter if you have a prayer life.
• It does matter, if you have kids or grandkids, that you teach your children or grandchildren how to pray.
• It does matter that you read your Bible.
• It does matter if service is at the heart of your being.
• It does matter that God is a priority, not just an add on to your life.
• It does matter if you are at church striving to be a part of this community of faith.
• It does matter if you spend some time each day in self-examination and confession.
• It does matter if you are able to forgive.
• It does matter if you pick up some sort of devotional material- and read it!
• It does matter if you extend God talk out from this church and into your home.
• It does matter if hospitality is at the center of your home.

These are just some of the things that make us spiritually ready- Spiritually ready for both the coming of the Christ child in a few short weeks and the second coming of Christ- Spiritually ready so that we can be found living life at our best. I hope that you and your family or friends can come up with more to this list and challenge each other to follow through with at least one thing on your list.

It is Dec. 4th! Are you ready??