1st Sunday of Advent, First Cong. UCC, Rock Springs, WY

Keep the Watch
By Rev Steven R. Mitchell
First Sunday of Advent
Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36


“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.” What apocalyptic language to be given to us on this First Advent Sunday! This idea of apocalyptic discussion seems so different from what I grew up with in terms of what we are “suppose” to be thinking about during Advent.
Last year, I had the opportunity to preach the First Advent Lesson at my home church in Seattle and it was there that I realized, I must have been asleep in class on the day the professor at seminary talked about Advent! For it was during my studying last year’s lectionary readings that I discovered that Advent Lectionary readings were filled with apocalyptic language and imagery.
I had grown up thinking that Advent was solely looking toward the nativity scene, where we get that warm, cuddly feeling of being at the manger with Joseph, Mary and the new born baby Jesus; a scene that speaks of love and joy; of promise and peace. Advent is a season where we listen to Christmas songs (sometimes more than we wish) on the radio; it is a time where we go shopping, being serenaded by MusSac with songs like Frosty the Snowman and Santa Baby.
Advent is the season where we see the winter landscapes become lit up over night with bright colors and outdoor displays of sleighs and reindeer; of angels and Santa Clauses, again giving a sense of warmth and comfort and safety from the frigid temperatures of the winter night. It’s a time where we are to prepare for Christmas Day! Well, you get the picture.
Advent is a season of preparation, but not just of the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Advent becomes a time when we reflect on Jesus’ coming in its many dimensions: his historical coming in his birth, his eschatological coming at the end of time, his existential coming into our own present.(common lectionary yr C) In the Epistle of 1 Thessalonians, we are being exposed by the existential coming of God, where in the Gospel of Luke the language is much more apocalyptic in nature, speaking to the end of all things and the coming of the kingdom of God. Even in the Hebrew text of Jeremiah, we are exposed to the idea of God’s completion of unconditional promises of restoration!(common lectionary yr C)
I would like for us to look just a little more closely to what Paul has written to the Thessalonian church: “Now may our God…and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”
I would like to share an exegesis of this passage as presented in Preaching the New Common Lectionary yr C: “When Paul wrote these words, he had just a few months earlier established the Thessalonian church. As one reads this epistle, it becomes clear that this young, fledgling church still occupies Paul’s thoughts and prayers. He recalls the success of the gospel among them, speaking of them as his “glory and joy”. His anxiety is that of the minister who frets over new converts who have been left behind in a struggling mission church, knowing that their faith is fragile at best.
Here we are at the very center of the Lord’s coming as it is understood existentially: the minister praying for the members of the church – thankful, joyful, triumphant, yet anxious to see them, concerned about their welfare, eager to teach them more and supply what is lacking, hoping that their love for one another will hold them together and that they will be presentable on the Day of the Lord. In another sense as well, this passage illustrates the existential dimension of the Lord’s coming. Here we see faith taking root – and taking shape. The Thessalonians have received the word of God not as a preacher’s oral report, but that which is at work within them as believers.
Paul’s hope is that their love for one another will increase even as his does for them, but their form of community is not to be narcissistic, turning in on itself and its own needs exclusively. Their love is to abound to “the whole human race”. The church that genuinely experiences the coming of Christ into its own midst most fully embodies this presence when it extends its love beyond itself and lives for others. The church thus becomes a reenactment of the Christ story – love for others.”
Today’s Epistle is very near to my heart as it seems to resonate the relationship that we here at First Congregational have with each other. “May our God and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you” This was a pray that I had been praying since October of 2003 after I had completed my Privilege of Call with the United Church of Christ and started to actively look for a congregation in which I could serve. With the receipt of each church profile that was searching for their next settled pastor I would pray that God would direct me to a faith community that He had in mind for me. Over the next four years I was the focus of four very differing search committees, always as one of the finalists being considered. Four times I was looked over as the other finalist was chosen.
My mother has extraordinary faith. She has a very simple believe that God provides and it will be in God’s on time. When I would discuss with her each of the four differing possibilities to serve and then the disappointment that I would be dealing with when I wasn’t called, she would just remind me that it is God’s timing and to trust in that. You would think that as a minister I would understand and resign myself to this truth, yet having a highly developed competitive nature, to which Sharon Pribly can attest, and having a slight tendency to want to be in control of my environment it is very difficult for me to accept God’s timing when it doesn’t coincide with my own.
Then while on vacation this summer, bing, bang, boom, First Congregational of Rock Springs comes onto the radar as an opportunity for me to serve as your Transitional Minister. At the same time I was working on setting a date with a search committee in Connecticut for a time and place for a neutral pulpit, which means that we were coming to a final stage of interviewing for a “settled” pastorate position. I was feeling pretty convinced that Connecticut was going to be my new home. Then within a week’s time of learning about Rock Springs, I was given the opportunity to become your Transitional Minister. I could hear my mother’s voice saying, “you see, what did I tell you Steven, in God’s timing.” I could hear my mother’s voice because I was at my mother’s house when I said, “yes” to your offering.
If you look at the time line of my beginning my search through the UCC it seems to corresponds with the time when you were last looking for a settled pastor. One of several discussions I had as I was preparing to move to Rock Springs from some members dealt with the feeling that they thought, “it was the right calling to have Harvey Joyner” come as your pastor and the confusion of the stress that seemed to accompany his time with you. The confusion coming from, “if Harvey was the right person, when why would there have been so much stress?”. One could argue: “ why didn’t we see Steven’s name as one of the potential candidates when we were looking at Harvey?” After all you had called Harvey and now you have called me. My mother would counseled you, “God provides and in His timing.”
It is my belief that “God” was providing you the right person when you hired Rev Joyner. Only time will tell what God was providing for you, as well, as wanting to teach you as a congregation when he sent you Harvey. If you look to the apocalyptic writing in Luke, you will see that even as believers, we will not be spared the trials and tribulations that come in life, but as believers, we will know the comfort that God’s will is being worked out. So, just because there was strife and turmoil over the last few years, it doesn’t negate the fact that Rev Joyner’s calling wasn’t what God wanted for this church at that time.
I believe that there is great correlation with the annual season of Advent and where we are at here within this faith community at this season of Advent. We as a church are in an advent season within the life of this congregation. With this “interim” time that I am with you, we are in a time of the churches life of anticipation for the unconditional promise of God’s restoration! What is that restoration? Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God….”
As we begin this season of Advent, we are in anticipation to what the next chapter of ministry will look like. Let us look into our hearts and continually pray to God that our love will increase and our relationship, that personal experience with God will grow, so that when we come on December 25th to celebrate the birth of Jesus, we will be counted among those who help bring justice and mercy to a world that forgets to do so. For as Jeremiah wrote:”The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Let us be expectant of that day to come and let us be a part of that branch that springs up for David. Let our hearts continue this season to deepen in love for another and of all peoples.
Amen!