Advent Sermon 28th November 2010

Sermon outline 28th November 2010 Advent Sunday
Romans 13.11-14 (Matthew 24.36-44)

Pink Pyjamas

• During her last day or two in hospital Billie was wearing her favourite pink Pyjamas. This was a big improvement after the open backed hospital gown BUT when the time to come home finally came, B was anxious that I should take her some daytime clothes to wear. She’d have felt very embarrassed if she’d had to travel home in her pink Pyjamas!

• Most of you have also made the effort this morning – for which we are all grateful…

• Of course it is important that we are not just wearing “Christian clothing” but also living real Christian lives – living actively as gospel people, spreading the influence of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Dozy Christians

• Paul was writing to a Church full of dozy, half-asleep Christians. How do I know this? Because he writes “Understand what time it is! The hour has come for you to WAKE UP from your slumber!”

• If Paul were here this morning I wonder what he’d think of us? Might he think we are also half asleep? Might he cry out “Come on! The sun rose at 7am – half the day is gone! Look lively!” (If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?)

• This is not just because Paul had an active nature and hated seeing people laze around with no sense of urgency and no awareness of the needs of others... Paul was also aware that “the sinful nature” doesn’t disappear when you become a Christian. It hangs around and will try to regain control when the opportunity arises (eg when we are lazy, bored or complacent).

• He gives three pairs of examples:- carousing and drunkenness; sexual immorality and debauchery; dissension and jealousy. Maybe we can wave away the first two pairs (maybe) as unlikely to apply to us, but the third is more subtle (our enemy IS subtle).

• Our enemy is strong but Jesus is stronger and will protect his followers if they turn to him and wear him like a suit of armour. But we need to be honest with him – if we try to wear him like a disguise, to cover up who we really are, it doesn’t work:

• The Roman Christians were not an unusual case either. ALL OF US are prone to be dragged down from our calling into these typical sins – and we are especially vulnerable to this kind of fall at times when we are lazy, bored or complacent. Trust me – No, trust Jesus!

How are we Waiting?

• ADVENT is the season of waiting – waiting for Christmas and waiting for the return of Christ – and we may feel like singing the song “Why are we waiting?” or asking the question children often ask “How long do we have to wait?

• But according to Paul and Jesus these are the wrong questions. The question which we should be asking (and answering) is HOW are we waiting? Because there are different kinds of waiting.

• In ANXIETY like in a hospital bed or waiting room.

• In TERROR like a death row prisoner (Juan Melendez’s testimony in last week’s Church Times. See www.humanwrites.org).

• In COMPLACENCY – a particular danger for religious people who are certain they are right and others are wrong.

• In BOREDOM and RESENTMENT – a hopeless waste of a human life.

NONE of the above are true to the kind of waiting that Paul and Jesus want their followers to be engaged in. Christian waiting must always be coloured with hope, as the double meaning of the Spanish verb “esperar” suggests. I chose “Esperamos” as the name of my blog because it means we are hoping as well as we are waiting.

Waiters, good and bad

The English verb “to wait” also has a double meaning, one which might help us here. Some people “wait” as a job… waiters and waitresses (who has done this job?)

• We have all probably come across some really bad waiters and I’m sure we could share some funny stories about them – rude, unhelpful, clumsy, unaware of their customers and seemingly in a world of their own.

• If you get a bad waiter you might well decide you are never going back there again, even if the food was good.

• A bad waiter forgets that his sole purpose in the restaurant is to serve his customers and build loyalty on behalf of the chef/owner of the restaurant.

• But what a difference a good waiter or waitress makes – friendly, attentive, efficient, polite and caring; aware of the customers’ needs and able to advise on menu choices… if you are served like this you want to keep on going back whenever you can afford to – and bring your friends.

• Like a good waiter, a good Christian knows their only purpose in this world is to serve others and to build loyalty to the world’s owner and maker of all things.

Conclusion

In the sentence before today’s reading Paul reminds the Roman Christians, as he learned from Jesus, that love is the fulfillment of the whole of God’s law. And as Jesus taught by word and example, and graphically demonstrated, above all at the cross, we are called to love not just the people who are our friends and family members, or people we find agreeable. Our love is to be shown persistently, generously and recklessly, even to those who least deserve it.

In this way we anticipate and bring nearer the joy and healing of the Kingdom of Heaven.

When people meet us, may they find that we are clothed with Christ, not as a disguise but with with healing words and compassionate deeds. And when Jesus returns may he find us waiting as good waiters in the family restaurant.