Advent 1B - Sermon (2002)

Here is a sermon from 3 years ago. On reflection, the illustration which I used as a hook seems to have little real connection with the rest of the message, other than helping to illustrate the feelings which we experience when caught in the middle. In any case, I've presented the sermon here in unedited form as it was preached in 2002.

Grace and Peace,

PastorJon
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Have you ever been in a tight squeeze? Have you ever been stuck in a corner with no way out? Have you ever been caught between a rock and hard place?

Mr. John Blanchard was caught between a rock and a hard place once. There he was, standing in Grand Central Station in New York City, having just straightened his army uniform. He was looking for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t--the girl with the rose. Mr. Blanchard was waiting to meet Miss Hollis Maynell for the very first time.

His interest in her had begun when he visited a secondhand book store and selected a book that had interested him. When he began to browse the book, however, it was not the words of the book that intrigued him, but the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book he discovered the previous owner’s name--Miss Hollis Maynell. It didn’t take long to locate her address--she lived right there in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II.

During the next year, the two of them grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared about her, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.

When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting--7:00 pm at the Grand Central Station in New York. “You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.”

So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he’d never seen. Mr. Blanchard describes the events to follow like this:

“A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. ‘Going my way, soldier?’ she murmured.

“Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible; her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle.”

Mr. John Blanchard was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Wanting to go with the attractive young lady in the green suit, and at the same time wanting to have companionship with the one he had corresponded with for so long.

Have you ever been caught between a rock and a hard place? Have you ever been stuck in a corner with no way out? Have you ever been in a tight squeeze? Maybe not the same way that John Blanchard was, but I imagine that at times in our lives, each of us has been confronted with difficult decisions and dilemmas, feeling as though we were completely pinned between a rock and a hard place.

For the Christian living in 2002, the season of Advent is a season of being caught...not between a rock and a hard place, but between Christ’s first coming and His second coming. Advent is a season of being caught between what has already come, and what is yet to come. Advent is when we recognize that Jesus has come, but that He has not yet been fully revealed. As we enter the Advent Season this morning, we enter a season of anticipation and reflection. A season of looking ahead-and looking back. A season which celebrates the future-and a season which celebrates the past. A season where we experience the anticipation and longing for Christ’s birth--and for His return. The advent season is one of being caught--between a Bethlehem stable and a heavenly throne.

Our Scripture lesson in Isaiah this morning reflects the despair of those living in exile, those living under oppression, those who are in need of God’s saving works in their lives. Our lesson in Isaiah reflects the need for a Messiah...the need for Jesus to come and set things right. Our lesson in Isaiah shows us a people looking forward to that first Christmas so long ago. As we hear the prophet Isaiah, we can identify with the longing of the Israelites for the long-awaited Messiah to come. We can identify with their passion as they plead with God to “rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble.” These portions of Isaiah were written nearly 600 years before the birth of Christ, and we know that the Israelites awaited the coming of Messiah long before the writings of Isaiah.


In our lesson from First Corinthians, Paul challenges the believers to continue to eagerly wait for Christ to be revealed. He gives them the promise that God will keep them strong and blameless until the day of the Lord, when He comes again in His glory. This is the reality in which we more closely identify. We understand the believers in Corinth as they anticipate the return of Christ. It is His coming that we have been anticipating our entire lives. Every generation since Christ’s ascension into Heaven has believed that they would be alive to witness His return. We desire Him to come back and make things right. We recognize the fallenness of the world in which we live, and pray for its restoration. We see the moral corruption around us, and feel helpless in the face of evil. We know today--like the early believers in Corinth knew nearly 2000 years ago--that the world is in need of Jesus to come and restore order and peace to God’s creation.

And, so here we are today. Stuck...not between a rock and a hard place, but stuck between two advents. In limbo between a manger and a throne. Sandwiched between the knowledge of what has happened, and the hope of what is yet to come. Living in between what has already come, and what has not yet come.

The already and the not yet. Jesus already came as a baby in a manger, but He has not yet come as He will at the end of time. The already-not-yet reminds us of one of the strongest Advent Symbols...the Alpha and the Omega. The Alpha and Omega remind us of the first and the last. Jesus was in the beginning, and will be in the end. The Alpha and Omega remind us of His first coming and His second coming--that we are living in the already-not-yet--that the Kingdom has already come, and that at the same time, it has not yet come in its fullness.

And so the question we are forced to confront this morning is this: “How does one live when caught between the two advents? How should we look at life when we realize that we are living in the already-not-yet? How does one adequately celebrate the first advent, while appropriately anticipating the second advent?” Jesus answers the question, telling us how we are to live, in our Gospel lesson this morning. Hear these words of Jesus the Christ, as recorded in Mark 13:24-37:

²⁴ “But in those days, following that distress,
“ ‘ the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’

²⁶ “At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. ²⁷ And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
²⁸ “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. ²⁹ Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. ³⁰ I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. ³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

³² “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back--whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

Jesus tells us to be faithful, to be watchful, and be alert and on guard. Jesus cautions us to stay awake, looking for the coming of the Son of Man to occur at any moment. How do we live our lives caught between two advents? We must always be faithful. How do we live out the reality of the already-not-yet? We live in certain knowledge of the first advent, and in certain hope of the second advent. We live lives of watchfulness, awaiting the certain second coming of the Son of Man. The knowledge of the first advent gives us the certainty that is needed upon which we base our hope for the second advent.

Advent is a stark reminder of the despair felt on this earth throughout our history. We recollect the words of the prophet Isaiah and realize the intense longing for God’s saving grace. We remember the intense longing of those Israelites to see the promise of Messiah come to pass. We know of the violence that has marked the course of human history, and can fully appreciate the need for the Baby in the manger.

You and I live on the other side of the manger from those ancient Israelites. We easily turn the entire Advent & Christmas story into a story of joy and light and hope and peace. All of these themes are appropriate, but we do a disservice if we fail to remember the dark, damp, dreary and dismal world into which He was born. Christmas is a season during which we celebrate the light of the Christ child. Advent is the season during which we reflect upon our anticipation for the light. Our anticipation is made stronger by the growing darkness around us. The days continue to get shorter, the light continues to diminish. I don’t believe it’s any accident that Christmas occurs so close to the first day of Winter...the shortest day of the year. Despite the growing darkness around us, we know that Christmas will come, and after that-the days will get longer, and the light will continue to grow. During December, we experience the growing darkness. We anticipate the coming of the Light into the world, and live in expectant and hopeful watchfulness for that Light to come again.

The first Sunday of Advent is often characterized by hope or anticipation. We think of those Christmases long ago when we waited for months for Christmas to arrive. It seemed to take forever. We would count the days in anticipation, we would lie awake at night thinking about that new bicycle. Somehow, as we’ve gotten older, there are more things to do, more tasks to be completed, and so the time passes much more quickly, and we lose that sense of hopeful anticipation. I fear that our busy-ness and our culture encourage to look forward--not so much to the celebration of Christmas--but to the day when Christmas is all over. Anticipation has been replaced by busy-ness, watchfulness by hectic activity. We need to remember that childlike wonder and hope that we once had. We need to live our lives in watchful expectation...knowing that Christ will come again!

The life of the person caught between two advents should be characterized by hope, love, joy, and peace. The life of the person living between the Bethlehem manger and the heavenly throne is to be one of certain and watchful hope, reflecting on the Baby in the manger, while at the same time anticipating the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. Faithful. Watching. Expectant. Hopeful.

And what of Mr. John Blanchard? There he was...stuck between a rock and hard place. Wanting to go with the attractive young lady in the green suit, and at the same time wanting to have companionship with the one he had corresponded with for so long. John continues to tell the story in these words:

“I did not hesitate. My fingers gripped the small, worn, blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful. I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment.

“‘I’m Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?’

“The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile. ‘I don’t know what this is about, son,’ she answered, ‘but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!’”

And so Lt. Blanchard found that the attractive young lady in the green suit and the one with whom his heart had found companionship were one and the same. We don’t get out of every rock-and-a-hard-place situation quite so easily as that. But living life caught between two advents is not so difficult after all. For, the baby in the manger and the Son of Man in power and glory are one and the same. Perhaps living life between the Bethlehem manger and the heavenly throne is not so difficult after all, we must simply be faithful, living out the certain hope which the manger gives us--certain hope in the Coming King.


Benediction: In all your Advent preparations, remain watchful with your eyes on Christ, whose birth in a manger is but a promise of his coming again in glory. And may the blessing of God--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--be with you now and forever. Amen. Even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come!