Jesus
Christ, Hope of the World: Hurry Up God
Sermon preached by Rev. Patricia Farris
November 27, 2005
Scripture:
Isaiah 64:1-4 and Mark 13:24-37
This
morning, we turn a page. A new year starts in the church as the season
of Advent begins. On this day, we attune our hearts to the coming
of Christ into our lives and into our world, coming in his birth and
coming in the fullness of time, to set all things right and to restore
God’s promised reign of justice and peace.
Advent
is a season of deep longing. From the earliest days, the first Christians
believed shortly after the death of Jesus that he would come again
quickly and take all things unto himself. And so, their earliest prayer,
the earliest prayer of the Christian church, most scholars believe,
was in Aramaic, the language of Jesus: “marana-tha,” two
words. Lord, Come! The earliest worship of the church which developed
just after his death and resurrection was for the Christians to gather
and take a meal in memory of Jesus as he had told them to do. Here
is the bread, my body given for you. Do this to remember me. And here
is the cup, the cup of the new covenant. Drink this to remember me.
They ate the bread, they drank from this cup and they prayed: marana-tha.
Lord, come!
Because
they had thought that he would return soon, they prayed, no doubt,
with great urgency: “Lord, come!” They were echoing the
words of their prophet Isaiah: “O that you would tear open the
heavens and come down!” Lord, come!
We
bring ourselves back to this urgency on the first Sunday in Advent.
We get in touch with our deep, deep longing for the Lord Jesus to
come and set this world right. But amidst all the business of this
season in our world and all the things that distract us, maybe you
can hear this longing more clearly as expressed in one of those precious
letters that children send to God. There is one from a little Harriet
Ann who wrote God to say: “Dear God, you better do something
quick! Love, Harriet Ann.”
We
don’t know, of course, what prompted little Harriet Ann to pray
this prayer. Maybe she had spilled something on the new white carpet
in the living room. Maybe the dog had just chewed on her mother’s
brand new shoes. Maybe her dad had just backed over the bicycle her
brother had accidentally left lying in the driveway. But whatever
had happened, little Harriet Ann was sincere and desperate. “Dear
God, you better do something quick!” It was her way of praying
the ancient prayer: Marana-tha! Lord, come! Tear open the heavens
and come down! (continued...)
"Jesus
Christ, Hope of the World: Hurry Up God" by Rev. Farris, November
27, 2005
Whether
it’s a little girl sending God a letter or a grown man prophet
waving his fist at the sky, God’s people sometimes so yearn for
our God to show and do something.
I
don’t know about you, but sometimes when I’m watching the
evening news, I feel just this way - war, starvation, murders, bird
flu. People still homeless after the hurricanes. Families still packed
in temporary shelters. Kids still not back in school. Sometimes when
I tire of blaming the politicians, when I’ve searched my heart
to find what more I can do, I turn to God and plead: Dear God, tear
open the heavens and come down.
If
only the heavens would open wide and we could see God’s justice
and mercy, God’s overriding dominion, God’s love revealed
to us and to this aching world. If only the clouds would part and the
sky open and goodness pour down into the midst of our lives and of our
world. If only… O, dear God, come. We do not know why God tarries.
We do not know why God hides his face. We do not know why.
But,
still, God has promised. That’s God’s part of the covenant,
remember? The Messiah will come. The master of the household, as Mark’s
Gospel portrays it, will come back in great power and glory though we
do not know the hour or the day.
So
now, the choice is ours. We wait and in our waiting we have a choice.
Will we become self-indulgent in sarcasm and cynicism? Will we join
the mighty chorus of “there’s nothing anyone can do”….”this
is just how it is…” ? Or will we choose to choose God anyway?
Will we choose to remain the faithful people of God who live in expectation
and hope? Will we insist on the truth that we know---all evidence to
the contrary—that there was a night when the skies of Bethlehem
opened and the angels sang of comfort and joy? That there was an afternoon
when the skies of Golgotha opened and the cry of a dying savior pierced
the heart of God. That there was a morning when the skies over a tomb
in a garden opened and our resurrected Savior triumphed over sin and
death. That there was an evening when the skies of Emmaus opened and
disciples knew his living presence in the breaking of the bread and
their heart burned within them.
Will
we choose to see this world with the eyes of faith, of faith, so that
with the prophet we can say: “When you did awesome deeds that
we did not expect, you came down…from ages past no one has heard
no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works
for those who wait for him.”?
When
God did awesome deeds that we did not expect...God came down. Bethlehem,
Golgotha, garden, Emmaus, yes! But let me now name a few more: when
our own Young Adults and the Beeman family spent their Thanksgiving
hosting international students from Santa Monica College in a Thanksgiving
meal right here in our Fireside Room. (continued...)
"Jesus
Christ, Hope of the World: Hurry Up God" by Rev. Farris, November
27, 2005
When
many of you spent your Thanksgiving Day at the Santa Monica Civic
making sure that homeless people and families and children had a place
to find not only delicious food, but hospitality, acceptance and love.
When others of you spent your Thanksgiving Day serving Thanksgiving
dinner to the police and firefighters of our community who are on
duty for us day in and day out whether it’s a holiday or not.
Come,
Lord! When do we see you? In all that and in the faces of children
who believe that anything is possible. In the prayer of Harriet Ann
who trusted God enough to mail that letter, who had enough faith in
God to insist that God hurry up and do something. When you look closely,
where do you see God acting in unexpected ways?
Advent
reminds us that what God has promised, God will do. That what God
has promised, God is doing. That although we do not know that the
future will bring or when, we do know who holds the future. In the
blue of the Advent sky, a star will shine to light up Bethlehem and
the whole world. And from the blue of the Advent sky he will come
again in great power and glory, in mercy and love, to save his people.
Maranatha.
O come, O come, Emmanuel.
Notes:
For imagery in this sermon, I am in debt to the work of John Stendahl
and Fleming Rutledge.
©Patricia Farris, 2005. Permission is given for brief quotation
with attribution. All other rights reserved.
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