The following sermon preview, which reveals our Advent Focus this year, is a preview of what can be found in the upcoming December issue of The Visitor publication. The Visitor can always be found on our publications page, and is a wonderful way to learn more about the life of the church.
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Our first sermon in this series, explores the tension between the fragile and broken world we live in, and the foundational promises of God which ground our hope, and are our light, even in the midst of darkness.
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. “‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’ -Jeremiah 33:14-16 (NIV)
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
The thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
“O Holy Night,” Adolphe Adam
It’s nearly impossible to think of a more Christmas-y Christmas hymn than “O Holy Night.” The song is about the night itself, the first Christmas. And yet, the stage from which the triumphant chorus bursts is undeniably “Advent.”
The first stanza speaks of the long pining of the world, pining that is, “until he appeared” bringing with him “the thrill of hope.” It is then, “The weary world rejoices.”
That is the title of our focus this Advent. Before we can get to the new and glorious morn, we should recognize the world which waits is tired, weary, in need. When Christ arrives, and this will be true in his second advent (coming) just as it was his first, he does not come to a world full of light, warmly expecting his visit as friends. Christ’s light, life, and freedom come not to a world all accustomed to that reality (and just needing a bit of a refill of it), but a world filled with darkness, death, and bondage – aching in expectation for a long, long time.
As Fleming Rutledge noted: “The approach of Advent is a reminder to us that we live on a planet that exists precariously under the righteous judgment of God, a bright but threatened globe poised in icy interstellar space, preserved from extinction by one factor and one only: not the 'triumph of the human spirit,' but by the hand of God.”
This season, I hope that we all will invite people in this precarious (and yet grace-preserved!) world we share to see the reason a weary world might rejoice: the one who is the light of the world which bursts into darkness –that is, Jesus.
This is a season that even many skeptics recognize has an undeniable attraction and power. One person who became a Christian as an adult, after a secular childhood, said the weeks leading up to Christmas were the first time she ever perceived something to be “good spooky” (which she later came to know as “holiness”).
Those who encounter Christ’s coming included shepherds, young and expectant parents unsure what they’re getting themselves into, agéd and long-waiting prophets in the Temple, and pagan Magi following a star. Christ is the light of the world for all of them. And he is the Light for all of us, still, today, whoever we might be in this weary world longing for a reason – a real reason – to rejoice.
Join us this week, as we plumb the depths of the darkness and even there behold the hope of God.
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