November 27th, 2011:
The Pleading
Text: Isaiah 64: 1-9
Read: Advent Prayer (201)
Words: Mark 13: 24-27 35-37
The Pleading
Christ was not a surprise gift.
If he was, we would not have Advent.
But he wasn't and we do.
Christ was not a surprise
Because he was on the "Christmas List"
Of Jewish people for centuries before
the stable in Bethlehem was turned into a birthing room.
The people asked God to send someone to lead them
They requested, begged and urged God to rescue them
They pleaded.
They made plea, after plea, after plea
Including the opening words of chapter 64
In which the people asked through Isaiah
not just that someone come
But that God himself come.
A touch of irony
For a nation of people who had had God as their king
But who had wanted to be like other nations
And so asked, requested, begged, urged and pleaded
To have God send them a human king.
The opening words of the plea in our scripture remind me
of the player introductions at a big football game
where the coach and players burst through a large paper covered entrance
to the cheers of the home crowd.
Or of Superman or a movie monster
Prying open doors to make a grand and intimidating entrance.
"Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down
so that the mountains would quake at your presence - "
Oh, that you would.
That would be a powerfully dramatic entrance!
One that would dwarf any entrance made by
Football players, Superman, or movie monsters.
The key to the plea though
Is not the grandness of the entrance
But the entrance itself.
For the substance of the plea was
That God come down
That God lead them
That God be active in the lives
Of these people who in the early days of their return from exile,
struggled
and felt that God was ignoring them
Knowing that Christ's entrance into the world
Resulted from a plea from the people
is the first thing we need to know about Advent.
We asked for help.
But it is not the only thing we need to know about this season.
The second is that we have to understand that the plea is a community plea
- not an individual plea
It is "come down to help US out."
Not "come down to help ME out."
That community aspect is obvious in the language:
"we did not expect ..."
"we sinned ..."
"we transgressed ..."
"We have become like one who is unclean"
"We all fade like a leaf ..."
But in our time and in our place, I fear that
Some people forget or minimize the concept of community
Some think they can worship every bit as well by themselves
And don't comprehend how much they cheat others
And thus how much they cheat God
By limiting their worship to a solo event.
Some think that it is just as good to use televised or on line services as their worship.
And they too don't comprehend how much they cheat others
And thus how much they cheat God
By avoiding the sacrifice and effort
That come from having to leave their recliners, couches, and beds
To worship with
And to strengthen and be strengthened by
Others of God's children.
Some talk of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ
And having one is good
- unless it causes them to overlook the need that God has
for us to be a part of a
worshipping, serving community
Remember:
That same Jesus Christ told us that
The way to love God is to love God's other children
And that the way we treat them is how we treat Him
Some treat time spent nurturing that sense of community
As being unnecessary, trivial, or inefficient
As being of insufficient value.
As being a waste of their time.
By avoiding the community time which begins our services
By not getting to know others at worship
By not interacting at fellowship time
Or in non Sunday morning activities
Again cheating others and God
And I would suggest, cheating themselves as well.
The plea was a community plea.
And it was answered as a gift to the community
Therefore, you and I must nurture that community
For
we must respond as a community
we must celebrate Advent as a community
we must as a community give thanks on Christmas
that God answered the plea.
But there is still more that we need to understand.
For the plea must be made knowing and acknowledging
That we expect God to answer it
Not because we deserve an answer from God
Oh, no!
we have sinned and we have transgressed
we have become like one who is unclean
We expect God to answer it
because we have seen God's love and concern for us
In what God has done for us in the past.
"you did awesome deeds"
"you are our Father"
"we are the clay and you are the potter"
"we are all the work of your hand."
And therefore we, through, Isaiah beg that God
Not be exceedingly angry
And not remember our iniquity forever
In other words,
The question of how and whether God answers our plea
Is God's call is God's choice is God's decision
And in making the plea we expect an answer, relying on
what God has done Not what we have done.
One more thing that we need to know:
Advent lasts for four weeks
It begins today and it ends with the Christmas celebration.'
That means that the four Sundays in Advent
Make up only one thirteenth of the year's Sundays
A mere 7.6 % of them.
Thus 92.4% of the year is not Advent.
I would suggest that you and I resist the tendency of
Relegating the lessons we learn in Advent
(lessons we learn about our relationship with God)
to that small portion of the year.
I believe that these lessons are relevant and valuable
All year long.
And so
as we prepare to welcome Christ we need to recognize
that the pleas for help that we send to and through him
Are based on our need to have him active in our lives
as we prepare to welcome Christ we need to recognize
That our pleas cannot be for ourselves or by ourselves but must be for and by our community as well
as we prepare to welcome Christ we need to recognize
that the reason we expect them to be answered
is because of what God has already done
not because of what we have done
And as we prepare to serve him after Advent
we need to recognize the very same things.