Bumperstickers or Billboards?*

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, New Harmony, IN

Homily Advent 1A (late post)

Isaiah 2:1-5

Matthew 24:37-44

The first Sunday of Advent is a problem

There are so many things going on.

We are beginning the new liturgical year

When we will be living in the Gospel of Matthew 

This transition out of the Gospel of Luke is an important thing to note
because each Gospel tells the story of Jesus from a different vantage point

It’s like circling around a large bronze statue 

and realizing that each view looks different…

Jesus in Luke’s Gospel spent time in prayer, 

the Holy Spirit played an active role in the storytelling…

Luke’s Jesus spent a lot of time around dinner tables

Often with questionable dinner guests

the poor and those on the fringes…women, Samaritans, lepers

Matthew will give us a Gospel

Written more from a Jewish perspective

Jesus is cast as a new Moses

There is a lot of language of fulfillment and continuity between Judaism and the Jesus movement

We have a change of Gospel…and we also have a new liturgical season

It is Advent

Advent is more than preparing for Christmas

It is four Sundays calling us…the Church 

To contemplate the meaning of Jesus’ incarnation

In Christ coming in History, Mystery and Majesty

The History is the coming of Jesus

In human form…

Born of Mary in Bethlehem of Judea

Living among us

The Mystery is knowing his presence 

In His Word 

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist

In the body of Christ…the church…the faithful gathered

In the beauty of creation, the beauty of loving and being loved
Of healing and reconciling 

And the Majesty 

Is the fruit of HOPE

Hope is believing in the promise of God

And believing that God has the power to fulfill that promise

We hear language in Advent 

of Being Awake and watchful
of waiting and preparing

But while we highlight this in Advent

Christ’s coming is a continual Advent

God’s presence is continually surprising us

Week 1 of Advent begins with a bang!It starts with Majesty

But…it is far from comforting!

I would use the word troubling

Two in the field one taken, one left

Two at their days work,
One taken…one left

I bet most of you have seen 

some version of a RAPTURE bumper-sticker

They read something like:

“Warning: In Case of the Rapture this vehicle will be unmanned”???

And then there’s the cheeky bumper-sticker response:

“In Case of the Rapture…
Can I have your car?”

It’s really just bad theology

…in today’s text…is it even obvious???

…do we really know???

Whether it’s better to be taken or left behind???

In the story of Noah the ones left behind were Noah, his family and the animals.

So wasn’t it the ones taken who were the losers in that story?

Here is what I believe Matthew wants us to hear in this very vivid text:

The through line 

Not just in this text

But throughout the Gospels is consistent 

“the day or the hour…no one knows”

We. just. don’t. know.

But that is so hard for us…

I like to know things

Knowing things is power

Knowing things makes me feel in control

I. love. Knowing. Things.

And having things in order 

Because doesn’t knowing things…translate into control?

NO! How many times have I learned and unlearned this lesson!!!

I had the perfect plan 

for bringing my Dad to Evansville to celebrate 

a perfect thanksgiving 

with my perfectly healthy family

Gathering from far and wide…perfectly on time!

Alas…I had absolutely no control over weather, and illness, and mishap!!!

…things just didn’t end up at all like I planned!!!

We can’t know the when and the how

But we can

Live life awake…attentive…ready

This isn’t some hypervigilance born of fear

Rather it is living a life grounded in a vision

In a promise

This is where I found myself drawn to the Isaiah reading and the Psalm

Did you hear it? And see it in your mind’s eye?

That beautiful image from Isaiah?

He’s not making a prediction

He’s having a dream!

An unquenchable dream! 

A dream that inspires

It inspires us to Live and to work to beat swords into ploughshares

And spears into pruning hooks

And this dream…this vision

Of All the nations and all the peoples

Living in the light of the Lord

Is because… no one…has taught them about war.

I couldn’t help but think of Wayne

I remembered him 

Just out front of this church

(maybe it was last year’s Kuntzfest?)

He was giving us a visual…heating and beating that metal

I saw that it was hard work

His pounding… 

His repetitive constructive action 

was propelled by a vision of what could be

something new…a thing of beauty and practicality

So there is an Advent question for us

It’s a question of WHAT and HOW

What does beating swords into ploughshares look like in the particulars of my life?

How do I live in the meantime

in the already and not-yet world of Advent?

The already is our faith in the promise

And the not yet is the VERY obvious 

“Not. Yet. Fulfilled.” status of that promise

I think our texts this morning offer us a gift

Set in the context of Advent

When we watch the light grow

From one week to the next 

…it is a kind of pilgrimage

Advent is a practice in pilgrimage

And there is always a towards in pilgrimage

We are always headed somewhere

And it’s best to know where!

The where is the vision

Today we have Isaiah’s version in poetry and promise

And the vision is fueled by HOPE

What is HOPE?

Hope is to look back on our lives and see no need

To the count the losses 

Or underline the hurts

Play the victim

Or stew in bitterness

To look back and see these

Is to live like a hamster on his treadmill

…wondering why the view never changes

To look forward in HOPE is to know that all that has gone before 

Is redeemable in the promise

So we begin this Advent and every Advent

With the end in mind

It is calling us to wake up

To reset the vision

But from what?

And toward what?

That is for us to figure out

It is our Advent exercise

Can I name what steals my hope?

And

Can I name what feeds my hope?

And then having done that naming

Can I improve the balance?

What steals my hope is the almost constant temptation to pronounce the vision

WILDLY UNREALISTIC…

Just pretty words

…pretty words to make people feel better

What steals my hope is the parasite that attaches to this temptation…
that comes along for the ride trying to go undetected…
that sneaky but constant 

Simmering low-level despair 

What feeds my hope is listening

And being interested

And being unrushed

What feeds my hope is doing the things that hope makes easy to do!

What feeds my hope is being here 

and being uplifted by the hope shared in this space

What if we make this Advent a kind of “boot camp”

A time to pay attention…and to talk about

What steals our hope?

And

What feeds our hope

And then, together, to be about the business of improving our ratios

This is how we will become

…Not cheap bumper stickers…

But BILLBOARDS! 

Billboards of hope