Scripture text: Romans 13:11-14
Advent has begun. This season of preparation for the Nativity of Our Lord always has something of a peculiar character. We mark our time of readiness for Jesus’ first coming by looking towards his second. That gives Advent not merely a spirit of looking to the past, but also to the present and to the future. What is our world now and how does Jesus need to come into its midst in this time?
Well, we know what our world is now. It’s an ugly place, filled with violence, anger, and hatred. There are wars across the world with ISIS and Syria. People dying for no reason other than being caught in the crossfire between fanatics and tyrants. Civil strife here at home. We’ve had a contentious election that has made the divisions in our society all the more real. People are marching in the streets in protest. Others are seeing the victory of their side as sanction to brutalize, bully, and threaten.
In the midst of all this, I think it is fair to say that one of the things that is being lost is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is being silenced, lost in the din.
But make no mistake. Christians and Christianity are doing just fine. In fact, they may be doing the best they’ve done in a long time. Our evangelical brothers and sisters were key in the ascension of the new President and they enjoying the fact that they’re going to be on top. The problem is it’s the people who are ascendant, not the message. No, the message of Jesus, who he is, what he came for, that’s still silent.
Instead of “love your neighbor,” it’s hate the different. Instead of welcome the stranger, it’s “build a wall.” Instead of “turn the other cheek” and “Father, forgive,” it’s let’s get them! The truth that God loves all is hard to see. The fact that Christ died and rose again for the sake of all people is invisible. The Kingdom of God, which should be ever marching forward, appears to be taking a few steps back.
“You know what time it is. How it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep.” St. Paul wrote those words with the expectation that Jesus’ second coming could happen any minute. He was obviously wrong about that, but it’s still important for the Church to have a sense of urgency. History has shown, time and again, that evil does not sleep. It lurks and waits and makes ready for the time when it can come forth again. That’s true of the evil within our hearts and it is certainly true of the evil in our societies.
We live in evil times. The question, which I’ve been asking for several weeks now, is what are we going to do about it? What does it mean for us to “wake up” in this generation?
Well, let’s be blunt. We’re a tiny little church on a forgotten intersection in a largely forgotten part of York County, PA. We’ve spent the past two years burying many of most beloved and esteemed members. We just had a congregational meeting that was quite a bit of a downer. No compensation increase to our staff and we cut our giving to charity because we’re running out of money. By many benchmarks, we’re a dying church.
Going off to sleep might seem awfully tempting right now. Just let fate run its course. Keep the doors open long enough to bury me and that’ll be that. A lot of churches in this country have chosen such a course. We could join them.
Now I’m not convinced that’s the truth. I’m not convinced we’re done yet. St. Paul tells us that now is the time to wake from sleep and I believe he’s right. The message of Jesus is being silenced under the volume of hate and fear. No, we cannot let that be. The Kingdom must march forward once more and we, Canadochly, can do our part. We’ve been doing our part. We cannot give up now, no matter what the writing on the wall says.
Even if we are dying, there is something to be said for not going quietly into the night. If we are fated to end, then let us make such an end that people remember us. That people miss us once we’re gone. Not all churches are called to be successful, but all churches are called to be faithful. Like Luther planting his tree when he knew the world would end tomorrow, let us do what we’re called to do, regardless of our circumstances. Show the world the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Be Jesus for the sake of the people around us. Let them see what God is really about through us.
One of my favorites movies is an often-forgotten gem from the late 90s called “The Man in the Iron Mask.” Based on the Alexandre Dumas story of the famous Musketeers, it has quite a stellar cast (Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne, Leo DiCaprio, etc.) At the end of the movie, the Musketeers have broken into the Bastille prison to rescue the Man in the Iron Mask. They get trapped by the evil king and his soldiers.
Realizing their fate, they decide rather than surrender that they will go out as they’ve lived and they charge into the muskets of the soldiers.
That could be us. If we hold to what we believe and if we hold to what we’ve been called to do and be, that could be us. Go out doing what we’ve been doing for almost 300 years. Being the church. Caring for the poor. Welcoming the stranger. Spreading the Gospel in word and deed.
Now is the time to wake from sleep, my friends. You might be surprised what happens when you wake up. In the movie, the soldiers are so stunned and awed by the Musketeers’ bravery that they foul up their own shots and all the muskets miss. The heroes survive, the soldiers surrender to them, and turn over the evil king to them for justice. I don’t know what God will do, but I do know that when the Church has stood faithful in the past, that’s when it’s thrived the most. Sometimes, when things look the bleakest is when God is about to do something amazing.
After all, wasn’t that what happened on Golgotha? Christ dying on a cross sure looked like a defeat. Sure looked like the end. It wasn’t.
So what’s to be our fate? Do we go off quietly or do we go out with a bang? Or are we really going out at all? Really only one way to find out. Time to wake up. Amen.
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