Sermon delivered on Sunday, Advent 4A, December 18, 2016, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.
If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of today’s sermon, click here.
Lectionary texts: Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-8, 17-19; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25.
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be
acceptable to You, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. In the name of God the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen.
Since we started Advent, in the lectionary reading texts for the season, there
seemed to be a common theme that surfaced. The theme is waiting, and of course
that is no surprise to us during this Advent season. Immediately following
Thanksgiving, we start to anticipate Christmas. The texts have us waiting for even
larger and broader ideas. Our readings in Advent have certainly built up our hopes
and expectations, with promises about war turning into peace in the text about
beating swords in plowshares; gentleness, not violence, becoming “the norm” even
in nature itself, the lion lying with the lamb; and all of us coming home at last to
the God of healing, wholeness, and reconciliation. We’ve been looking forward,
not backward, in this season of anticipation, and today’s reading brings us to the
long-awaited moment of God’s dramatic “new thing,” God’s fresh, new act in the
drama of salvation. We are waiting for what could be considered idealistic
changes in our world. And we know they can only happen when we trust and
know that God is with us. However, we know the outcome of the waiting in the
texts we read today. They were waiting for Emmanuel, and we know that Jesus
was born. So, to truly understand the waiting experienced by our brothers and
sisters in Isaiah and Matthew, we must understand waiting in today’s context.
It is my assumption that each of us here know about waiting. Many of you have
waited for different reasons. Maybe it was waiting to find out about a job; the
results of a test, medical or otherwise; waiting to hear from a family member you
have tried to reach; waiting for a return call about insurance coverage; waiting to
find someone to share your life with; waiting for children; waiting for
grandchildren; waiting to be accepted into a college or program; waiting for a grant;
waiting for financing for a house or project; waiting to find a permanent place to
worship as we do. There is really no shortage of examples of ways or things that
we wait for today. And we don’t know the end result. So, this allows us to
understand the waiting we hear in our readings today.
Honestly though, the Psalm today does not seem to fit with the season, and yet
scriptures like Psalm always appear here during Advent. If you didn’t follow the
mood of the Psalm when it was read, listen to some of these lines:
“You feed them with the bread of tears; •
you give them abundance of tears to drink“O Lord God of hosts, •
how long will you be angry at your people’s prayer??”
Psalm 80 has been called a communal hymn of lament — a lament, as in a
depressed crying out in time of great pain. Does such a scripture seem to fit with
the seasonal cheer around us? Believe it or not, this is always case of Advent to
focus on a scripture that makes pain and lament come to life. It is about as real,
genuine, and full of raw emotion as you get in the scriptures. The community
speaking here is one that is feeling abused, depressed, and down-trodden. They
feel as though God is ignoring them and maybe even taking the side of their
enemies. They feel cast aside and forgotten. And so, they sing this lament
together. All people in touch with reality have experienced and are aware of the
pain in the world. The psalmist reminds us of human frailty. This sets an
important tone for the hope to come here at Christmas. After all, the birth of the
Christ Child was not an excuse to decorate or give gifts. The birth of Christ was an
action on God’s part to give us hope. To show humanity that there is a possibility
for love and a different kind of Kingdom. Jesus came to wipe tears away and
change our reality. That is where we are headed this Christmas.
In our Old testament and gospel lessons the prophet and angel foretell the birth of
Emmanuel, God-with-us. The name “Emmanuel” (God with us) is more than a
nice name for a sweet baby. You might say that it frames the whole Gospel of
Matthew, that it tells the story of what God is about, and for the early Jewish
Christians it was especially clear that this gift of Jesus was meant to fulfill the
longing of their ancestors for all people, not just their own, to recognize God. Both
the biblical characters and we, can understand waiting, some days better than
others. The advantage we have over the biblical characters is that we have already
been assured of the Emmanuel part, God-with-us.
As a family, we have been through hard times, however, what has allowed our
family to survive and stay focused as best as we can is that, we know God is with
us. So, you ask, how in the world do you know God is with you? The answer is so
simple. We are surrounded by people who support us. We feel strength from the
people who pray for us. We are aware that people are God’s hands and feet, and
we are in no shortage of hands, feet and prayers. Does this continue to challenge
our family, as does waiting challenge others? Of course, Like anyone, we reach
the end of our ropes, we question, we get angry, frustrated and grumpy. But then
we realize and again feel the love and support of our church family, our friends and
our family.
Here at St. Augustine’s we receive new members into our congregation every time
and we make promises to them and their families that we accept them into our
family and support them. Through our hands and feet, these members and their
families can be assured that God is with them. We have a ministry to Worthington
Christian Village that visits the elderly people. This ministry, helps with prayers an
being a supportive presence to the community. Through hands and feet of the
Christians, these members of the village can be assured that God is with them.
There are also many people in this church that volunteer outside of the church
events that we have. Through their generosity of time and care, they are assuring
people that God is available to and with them.
As we are seven days away from Christmas, what should we be focusing on in our
lives? Should we be concerned about the waiting? Waiting is an on-going part of
our lives, we will always be waiting for something. Let us not worry so much
about waiting for the birth of a baby, let us, instead, celebrate the presence of God-
with-us. Let us also celebrate the possibilities of the way we can be God-with-us
to others.
I hope you feel the presence of God through others hands, feet and prayers; and
hope that you have the opportunity to be the hands, feet and pray for others. God
IS with us!
In the name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen.