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Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766

December 8, 2002
Sermon: "Waiting! Anticipating!"
Scripture: Matthew 3:1-12 (see also - Isaiah 64:1-9)
Reverend Larry Gerber

As harsh as the truth may sometimes be, we all long to know who we are and what we are, even in relationships. Especially in relationships. Isaiah offers a stark little reminder.

It had been a long time since God had sent pillars of cloud by day and fire by night, rained food from the heavens or sent plagues upon Israel's enemies. God was keeping his distance, the people were idolatrous and disobedient and they didn't seem to mind if it appeared that God was no longer minding the store.

But now, generations later, the Hebrews found themselves - once again - in despair. After exile in Babylon, they had returned home to Judah, but the trip was hardly glorious. They returned to harsh living conditions and an economy that offered little hope for a splendid resurgence of prosperity. And so, the Hebrews fell into the old but familiar habit of bowing to the pagan gods the Babylonians so admired.

Isaiah hoped to shake the one true God out of retirement and back onto the national stage. What Judah needed were some images that would jog the brain, if not the soul, of the nation. Isaiah longed for the old days when God might tear open the heavens and shake up the scenery (v. 1). Boiling waters (v. 2). Trembling enemies (v. 2). Quaking mountains (v. 3).

"Hit us!" Isaiah seemed to plead. "Give us your best shot. Something we can't even imagine. Help us recover our memory of you!"

Isaiah admitted before the Lord that at least he - Isaiah - remembered. And Isaiah believed that these images were filed somewhere - somewhere - deep in the recesses of Israel's memory bank, too.

The Israelites' history with God had not only left Brain Fingerprints in their collective memory; their relationship with God had left permanent imprints upon their souls as well.

Didn't they remember, on some level, that they were clay and God was the Potter? That they had been utterly sinful and unfaithful? That they had once called God's name and fiercely took hold of God for stability?

And didn't God remember also? Didn't God remember that he is their Father? That they are God's people? Isaiah fussed that the sinfulness had resulted when God hid his face from them. No wonder we sinned! You, God, delivered us there when you stopped revealing yourself to us!

Today, we are waiting; we are anticipating that which God has revealed to us. Advent is a time of waiting; a time when Christians have historically looked for that experience of grace by which the followers of Christ could become truly new persons. At Advent we wait intently for that miracle by which "earth might be fair and all men (and women) glad and wise" Advent is supremely a time of waiting for Christmas, to celebrate the birth of Christ. But if our waiting is just to recall the birth of Baby Jesus while we remain indifferent to the whole design of God, including events prior to Christ's coming and subsequent to Christ's passion and resurrection, our waiting will likely be shallow, perhaps sentimental. We will have missed the central significance of Advent.

Jesus belonged to a history, a tradition, a faith, a shared hope from which we cannot separate him. He became the fountainhead of a new history from whose requirements and expectations we cannot separate ourselves. Nothing that happens in Advent can be of greater importance than to know more surely what we wait for and to learn how to wait.

It happens every year. Hearing and singing the lovely words of prophecy and hope, we're on the way to the cradle to welcome the infant Savior. Suddenly we meet that strange, unlovable character, John the Baptist. He somehow seems out of tune with Advent-Christmas. In Matthew 3:3 we must read carefully: "The voice of one crying - in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord." John announced to the people of his day, who were living in a wilderness of expectant hopes and unulfilled dreams, that the God of judgment was coming.

Granted, John the Baptist was preaching the word of warning many years after Jesus' birth. In fact it was Johns way of intrudcing the mature Jesus who was coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit; the beginning of Jesus ministry, not his birth. So.....you ask, "Why must we meet John the Baptist while we are on the way to the cradle? "

In the birth of the baby in the manger, we anticipate, we wait,.....for the long expectant Jesus. Meanwhile, John is telling us to prepare the way for the Advent, the coming of the man Jesus, who will baptize with The Holy Spirit. While we are awaiting the birth of the baby in the manger, we are polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink. We are raping the earth of its resources. We are shooting up drugs, spreading the aids virus, killing each other with drunk driving, and smoking our way to cancer. The earth is groaning under the undo pressure we are putting on it, and we live in expectancy of the Saviour, while not being responsible to all of God's creation.

We wait for a rule of justice and mercy for the meek of the earth; a glorious day when all the nations of the earth shall know the wisdom, understanding, and fear of the Lord ; a time when we welcome all his brothers and sisters; a time for setling moral accounts, when those who bear no frit worthy of their faith shall be judged..

But waiting can be dreadful. Have youever waited for a loved one to die, maybe for a very long time? Have you ever waited for the results of tests to determine the cause of some physical symptom about which you were worried? Have you ever said, or heard said, that.....I think I can handle whatever comes my way, it's the waiting that I can't stand.

We wait. We anticipate. We look forward to the birth of the Christ Child. We already know the results, so we do not wait in dread. If we wait in hope and patience, the power of that for which we wait is already effective within us. We can live in anticipatience; we can wait in hope; and we can live with joy, because we already know the results of that for which we wait.

Waiting is the acceptance of our not having, in the power of that which we already have. (Tillich)

On this second Sunday of Advent, we relit the candle of hope, today we lit the candle of faith, and next Sunday we will light the candle of joy, and then on the Sunday before Christmas, we will light the candle of love. We know this, because it is our tradition; it is our building up for that which we already have. By using the power within us of the Christ, we can build to a cresendo of anticipation, and then the birth! We wait! We anticipate! Because we already know the result of the tests. We can stand the waiting, because we are children of faith, who believe in birth, the teachings, the death, and the resurrection of our Lord. We have hope! We have faith! We have joy! and we have Love.

Next Sunday we will be blessed with a beautiful cantata by our choir, and a 16 piece orchestra! "Journey of Promises" is a powerful account of promise and fullfilment. We anticipate the promise and the fullfilment, because we are already living with the results.

Wait! Anticipate! Get excited about the coming Messiah, who is already here.

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766