What’s Your Greatest Hope for Grace?
Advent 1A
December 1, 2019
Grace, Waseca, MN
Matthew 24.36-44
A young man was waiting at the altar for his soon-to-be wife as she walked down the aisle. He was looking forward the long-awaited fruits of matrimony and the joy of finally being “one flesh.” As he stood there expectantly, his best man leaned closer and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if Jesus came back right now?” The horrified look on the groom’s face said it all: absolutely not! As much as his theology suggested otherwise, the nascent husband did not want Jesus right then, or anytime soon for that matter.
It’s a safe bet that the second coming of Jesus Christ has been the last thing on your minds these past few days, if at all. I’m guessing you’ve been busy celebrating Thanksgiving, spending time with family and friends, seeing movies, shopping, wrapping presents and the like. In most cases, that’s as it should be. And if you’ve thought about Jesus’ coming at all, it has probably been as the Babe born in Bethlehem, perhaps coming to mind as you have heard Christmas carols played while baking or shopping.
If we think about Jesus’ second coming at all, it’s because yet another prognosticator has made the news, either making a new prediction or gloriously blowing it on the first one. This is despite the rather clear message in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus emphatically says we are not to guess. Jesus puts an exclamation point on the statement be declaring that not even he knows when this will happen. But Matthew includes this story because the people of his time wondered why Jesus hadn’t returned yet. And, unlike the nervous groom in our story, this kind of literature helps strengthen people in an uncertain and anxious time. It does so by cultivating hope within them. The hope of God’s promised future reminded them that they had a purpose in the meantime. God had called them to mission now.
Pastor and theologian Kate Huey says it this way. “Advent remembers and retells the story of people who, like us, were waiting for the promises of God to be fulfilled, and striving to live faithfully as they waited.” Thomas Long adds that, in the face of a world with so many needs, “…the only way to preserve hope … is to trust that at any moment we may be surprised by the sudden presence of God.” Advent reminds us that God not only comes into each moment, but does so with a call on our lives.
This call on us may sound like a burden, yet one more responsibility for us to bear, but it’s the opposite. The call from God is an opportunity to participate with God in the ongoing transformation of the world. So, how do we know where God is calling us and what God is calling us to do? We listen to the Holy Spirit’s prompting. And one way we are going to do that here at Grace is by filling out some “hope slips.” Please take your slips and finish the sentence, “My greatest hope for Grace Lutheran Church is …”
One way you might think about this question is to imagine your greatest fear related to Grace and then think of its alternative. Hold on to them and then bring them up when you come forward for Holy Communion placing them in the basket. The church council and I will read these and use them to see what themes are being lifted up in God’s call on us for the future. It’s one more way help us in this Time of Listening as we prepared for the Time of Discovery.
Regardless of the outcome, please know this: As Luther Seminary professor Rolf Jacobson reminds us, the God who came in human history at Bethlehem and promises to come in majesty at the end of the age also promises to come in mystery as Emmanuel, God with us. Thanks be to God, Amen.
To listen to an audio version of this sermon click here.
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