"In The Meantime"

December 2, 2012 + First Sunday in Advent

Reverend Dr. David C. Brown
Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ
400 Glenwood Drive, Chattanooga, TN 37404

“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear . . . Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.”

Luke’s Gospel announces the great theme of Advent: redemption. Our redemption is drawing near. But does this mean the literal destruction of the world as we know it?

For some the signs of our coming redemption are seen as signs of the end of the world when humankind will be freed from the constraints of living on this imperfect earth. Christ will come with the clouds to judge the world, to establish his rule clearly, and to vindicate the righteous who have suffered at the hands of the wicked for too long. It will be payback time.

One man who saw such signs of a violent end was William Miller. He looked to the heavens. He carefully read the Book of Daniel and he found that the signs pointed to the end of the world coming in five years March 21, 1843. He wrote, lectured, harangued, and convinced, by some estimates, several hundred thousand people in upstate New York that the second coming was at hand. They gave up their possessions, repented of their sins, put on white robes and stood in eager anticipation on hills for March 21, 1843, to arrive. It did arrive; it also passed. A hurried re-reading of the Bible led Miller to the realization that the date was, in fact, October 22, 1844. Miller’s followers gathered with him once again to listen for the trumpets of heaven, but, once again the day arrived and passed without the end of the world.

This has been called by Church Historians “The Great Disappointment”. There were many disaffected folk who, having given up all that they had to wait for the second coming, were left homeless, penniless, and embarrassed.

Today, people still put great effort in trying to find signs of the end in the terrible events of this world, in the earthquakes and hurricanes, in the violence in the Middle East. Others point to the immorality and decadence all around us as fore-runners of the Day of Judgment. They call for people to repent, to withdraw from the evil of this world, and to spend all their energy waiting for the last day which some believe will be December 21!

Personally, I believe that those who look for the signs of the approaching end of the world are wasting their time. They are missing the thrust of Jesus’ teaching about the end. He has indeed said that it will come, but at an hour and day we do not know nor expect. We should be prepared, but prepared by the way we live our lives in the meantime. We shouldn’t hole up in a church the way a sick animal does, or by ringing doorbells warning people of impending doom. Those who do such things are destined to be disappointed again and again. They are missing what God is doing in this world here and now to end one world and bring about a new world.

Advent is the right time for all of us to take time to identify where God is at work in our world. What is it we should look for? I think that there are signs of the end of the world all about us, not in the sun and moon and stars, but in the lives of people around us, in our own lives, in fact.

God is present in our lives when we let go of hatred and forgive someone, even someone who has hurt us deeply. God is here when we realize it is more important to feed the hungry than to surround ourselves with signs of success. God is here in the lives of people who in the face of death witness to God’s call for justice and peace in countries where there is tyranny and oppression.

The signs of God’s presence among us are here. We could see them all the time, but because we are so busy, and because they sometimes threaten our way of living, we fail to identify them as signs of God at work in our world. We fail to heed them as ways in which God wants us to live in the new world that is coming.

I began this meditation by saying that the great theme of Advent is redemption. To be redeemed is to be freed from the disappointments of the past and given hope for a new future. We cannot do that on our own. Thank God we don’t have to. We need to heed the signs of God working among us and within us in deeds of love and mercy that are bringing the heavenly kingdom to come here on earth, here and now.

Redemption comes as we accept the love and care God shows to us, and to all people, and as we recognize that despite all of the signs of death and destruction that surround us, the good news of Advent is that God is coming into this world to save God’s people. By God’s grace we are freely given power not just to survive but to strive to change those signs of doom to signs of hope. In the end, God will triumph over the forces that those signs of doom portend. Our task this Advent is to open our eyes to God’s hand at work in the world about us, and get on with the proper business of our daily lives which is to show God’s love for this world and its people. That’s the new world I look forward to and Advent promises it will come. Today we seal our faith in God’s coming new world by sharing in the meal that is the banquet of celebration. The song of victory is the old hymn.

“The strife is o’er, the battle done,

the victory of life is won;

the song of triumph has begun: Alleluia!”

Listen! Can you hear the song? If you can, join me in saying “Amen!”