First Sunday of Advent
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The church year theological clue
The risen, ascended Lord, Jesus Christ, whose reign has begun, will return at the end of this age, to bring in the fullness of God's Kingdom and reign over all of the affairs of the earth. Be prepared! Wait! Watch! Wonder! Work! Walk!
The First Sunday in Advent is the theological/thematic key to the entire year's preaching from the lectionary; it sets the stage, as it were, by directing the attention of preacher and people upon the completion of God's business with the world in Jesus Christ, the Parousia. By announcing that Christ will come again in glory and judgment, the church year and the liturgy/lectionary remind people that the church is to live as if the Lord were to return today; Christians, who are nourished by the Word as they wonder about the Second Coming of Christ, will develop "The spirit of waiting. " (Adrian Nocent, O.S.B., in The Liturgical Year, volume one) as they respond to the Good News by living out their covenant, their baptism, in Jesus Christ, in expectation and repentance. Therefore, while the lessons all point to the future, they make it clear that the Christ, who was born in Bethlehem long ago, is the Lord God Incarnate in his only Son, the ever-living, ever-present, and ever-available Savior of the world. Because believers live in the hope that the Lord lives and reigns and will come again, and because they know that they can do nothing but wait for the appointed time of the Christ's return, they are able to wait hopefully and, thus, are fully prepared for the Parousia.
The Prayer of the Day is one of the so-called "stir up" prayers of Advent, as they were known in the Anglican tradition:
Stir up your power, O Lord, and come. Protect us by your strength and save us from the threatening dangers of our sins, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The Psalm of the Day (LBW) is Psalm 122 - This is one of the psalms sung by pilgrims as they "went up to Jerusalem" for the Passover celebration. By striking the notes of expectation, as they go up, and excitement, as they enter the city, the psalm serves admirably as a response to the First Lesson and a bridge to the Second Lesson and the Gospel. The church, ever since it began building shelters for the believers to worship in, has seen itself as pilgrim people who, like the Israelites, were on their way to the Holy City - not just Jerusalem, but heaven itself. Thus, with the risen, ascended Lord seated on a throne and waiting for the signal from God to return, the believers gathered around his feet to give thanks to God for their Lord while they, too, waited for the time of the Lord's return. The promise of the Parousia was precious to them, and they tenaciously held on to it, even in the face of suffering and death. Christ was all that they had, their only hope in a hostile world. As time runs out for us, it becomes clear that he is our only hope, too, and knowing that, we can wait in hope and with thanksgiving.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
Lord Jesus, give us the peace of the new Jerusalem. Bring all nations into your kingdom to share your gifts, that they may render thanks to you without end and may come to your eternal city, where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, flow and forever.
The readings:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Isaiah's vision is of a future time that will see all the nations of the earth "flowing" toward the "mountain of the house of the Lord" to learn the ways of God and to begin living by "the word of the Lord." This is an eschatological vision that looks, as do the Second Lesson and the Gospel, to the end of the age, of history. At that time, God will judge the nations and all people, ushering in an era of peace when instruments of war will be converted into tools for the blessing of humanity. Only then will war finally be exterminated and, in the new age, will people live together in peace. The last verse establishes a theme for Advent which puts Christmas in proper perspective - "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord."
Isaiah's theology is truly eschatological, not simply pointing to the future but delineating a new age only God can - and will - inaugurate beyond human history. It is only by this action that the terrible scourge of war can be eliminated and a genuine era of everlasting peace begin. That will be the day of God's summit meeting, the great day of judgment and grace, when his plan for a new act of creation will be put in place and made operative for all nations. Then, and only then, will people fully "walk in the light of the Lord."
Romans 13:11-14
This lesson speaks of the expectation held by the Church of Rome that the Lord would soon return to the world as he said he would; the Second Coming, Paul believed, was imminent. Believers know the time - "the night is far gone" and "the day is at hand" when this will occur, thus they are to turn their backs on darkness and live in ("put on") the "armor of light;" it is their business to live responsibly as Christians should by "putting on the Lord Jesus Christ" - in other words, living out their baptismal promises and covenant with God in dedication and singular devotion and fidelity to the Lord rather than living licentiously, as though God did not even exist. One difficulty the preacher faces in this text is that Paul's sense of timing was wrong. How, then, does one proclaim this message to people today?
Paul's eschatological theology reflects that of Isaiah and, certainly, that of Jesus Christ, but the timing of his prediction of a proximate Parousia was also wrong; Christ didn't return in the first century A.D. But Paul was correct when he said that his coming is always near, "at hand." He knew that the Lord is present, through his Word and the Holy Spirit, when the church gathers, when the Word is proclaimed, and when the sacraments are celebrated. Paul was fully convinced that the risen Christ would finally return and bring in the full and complete reign of God's kingdom. Although the timing of his expectation was incorrect, he was absolutely right in his insistence on an eschatologicalfaith as the heart of the Gospel.
Matthew 24:37-44
The context for this pericope is Jesus' discourse on the Second Coming. He teaches that the Parousia will come suddenly, unexpectedly, totally without warning. People will be "taken" at their daily tasks, but he does not indicate on what basis they will be selected. His admonition is to "Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming," emphasizing the urgency to watch with his parabolic saying about the householder and the thief. Again at the end of the lection, he warns them, "Therefore, you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
The Second Coming - "Christ will come again" - is articulated in many contemporary eucharistic prayers; people voice that response, but one question the preacher must answer before a sermon can be composed on this text, even for this Sunday, is whether or not anyone actually expects Jesus to return today. Has the church waited too long for the Second Coming of the Lord and become spiritually and mentally exhausted by the delay? And if people continue to believe that Christ will come again, why has God delayed so long in allowing it to happen? What people do believe in is that, for all practical purposes, the world might very well end quickly through nuclear accident or nuclear war. Could this kind of an end fit into the plan of God for bringing this age to a close? If so, what would remain for Christ to judge and reign over? How is the preacher to make theological sense out of all of this? Is there any hope for humanity and the world?
Matthew's eschatological theology of the age of salvation, when viewed from the perspective of his entire Gospel, provides a fitting conclusion to his version of the Good News and positively shapes the liturgical season of Advent that begins the church year. What he writes in chapters 24 and 25 about the end of the world and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is an integral part of the gospel story; the Kingdom had only been inaugurated in Christ's death and resurrection, and Jesus promised to return, as Matthew recounts in his story, to complete the work on behalf of God. That Christ, whose birth is recorded in the Gospels for all time, will also be with his church in the meantime, and until he comes again. This must be told to all of the world as the climax of the Gospel story.
A sermon suggested by the Gospel (Matthew 24:37-44)
The preacher's task is to "make sense" of the gospel (Clement Welsh, Preaching in a New Key) for contemporary - and secularly oriented - Christians living in a scientific and pragmatic age that faces the possibility of an "end-time" through self-destruction. The headlines, as I write this, announced, "Train blast stirred fears of nuclear war, Pravda says." On June 4, 1988, three cars loaded with industrial explosives blew up in Arzamas, 240 miles east of Moscow, killing at least 73 people, wounding an unknown number, destroying 150 homes, leaving 250 families homeless, and severely damaging 250 buildings. One witness, who saw the explosion and the mushroom cloud, said, "The first thing that came to my mind was, 'Has it started?' " - a reference to a nuclear attack.
That reaction might have occurred under similar circumstances, almost anywhere in the northern hemisphere. Some Christians believe that one final war will bring judgment and total destruction upon the entire human race; there is no hope. God has a different plan in mind, and it needs to be spoken to the people in a sermon, or sermons, on the business of waiting for the Lord's return in genuine Christian hope.
A sermon plan: "Christ Will Come Again - Believe it or Not!"
1. The long wait of the people of God for a better day (Advent is a time of waiting for the "Day of the Lord," and we acknowledge that it has been an interminably long wait, but Christ will return, as he said, when God gives the signal) is a hopeful wait, because all fear will be banished on that day.
2. Faithful believers watch - always - as if the Lord were to return today. Advent is the season when people are called upon to prepare for the end of the age and the Parousia. Confident prayer, coupled with daily repentance and renewal, is one way to watch, living out our baptismal faith and the resurrection hope of the Gospel in daily life.
3. Christians, who perceive the grace of God at work for the benefit of the world, wonder at the patience, love, and goodness of God. God has his own good reasons for the long wait. He does indeed have a plan to save us from ourselves and to deliver us from destruction and despair, as well as the domain of the devil, in the Second Coming of our Lord. He alone knows the timetable for activating the last act of his drama of salvation. No one on earth can predict when Christ will come again, and nothing on earth can deter that return when God sets the plan into action.
4. In the meantime, true believers will do the daily work that the Lord has called them to do, trusting that the Lord is as good as his word. The work of the Kingdom is serving God and people, preaching the good news to all the world, and witnessing in deeds as well as words to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
5. For now, "come, let us walk in the light of the Lord," with confidence in his word, giving thanks to God for the presence of the risen Christ, who "walks" with us until his return at the appointed time to judge the world and bring in a "new heaven and a new earth" on God's great day.
An Old Testament Advent sermon series
1st Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 2:1-5 - "God's Summit Meeting."
2nd Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 11:1-10 - "God's Spirit-annointed Savior."
3rd Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 35:1-10 - "God's Day for Rejoicing."
4th Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 7:10-14 (15-17) - "God's Promise to become Immanuel."
A Sermon on the First Lesson, Isaiah 2:1-5 - "God's Summit Meeting."
1. God has revealed the final stage of his plan for the earth centuries before Christ was born; God plans a summit meeting.
2. At the end of the age, God will gather all people at his "mountain" - his summit meeting - to teach them his ways and enable them to "walk in his paths." God will dictate the terms of the summit.
3. Humanity, instructed by the law of God and brought under his judgment, will witness the end of war and the beginning of everlasting peace in a new age, beyond recorded history.
4. Those who live in this hope are able to "walk in the light of the Lord" right now, even when they are surrounded by seemingly total darkness. Thefuture summit meeting gives them that hope.
A Sermon on the Second Lesson, Romans 13:11-14 - "Living an 'Advent' Life."
Two of my good friends understand what Paul was talking about when he said, "You know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep." Both friends have had heart attacks and live with potential "time-bombs" in their chests. One believes that he has less than ten years to live; the other, not yet forty years of age, hopes to live long enough to see an infant child grow up. Both know that death could come at any time; they know the time and are making the most of it. Actually, all of us are in the same predicament; time is running out on the human race, and the end-time is nearer than we may know, or as Paul says, "nearer than when we first believed." This is a time to be wide-awake, alert to the message of the gospel and its meaning for us right now.
1. Time is running out on the human race. With each passing day, the time for Christ's return draws nearer. He will come again to usher in a new era, the day of salvation, in God's good time; the gospel tells us about that.
2. That's why we, like the people Paul addressed, need to be awake, anticipating the return of the Lord, and living in the light ofthe new day, rejecting all ofthe works of darkness.
3. This is the time of living out our baptismal relationship with the Lord by dying daily to sin and rising to live the new life in Christ.
4. The new life of Christ enables us to pray, "Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"
Other preaching suggestions
1. Develop a three-text sermon - "God's Great Day:"
a. God has planned a great day for all people. (Isaiah)
b. The great day will come suddenly and unexpectedly. (Matthew)
C. Christians respond to God's wake up call in the gospel and watch for the great day. (Romans)
d. Meanwhile, as we look and as we listen, "Let us walk in the light of the Lord."
(Note: Should the preacher develop each of these excerpts from the lessons very much, it is obvious that an extremely long sermon would result; this is one of the problems with multi-text sermons. Therefore, exposition and explanation must be limited and the most important portion of each text should be highlighted through imagery and illustration. David Buttrick's homiletical rule of only one illustration for each "move" or main idea in the sermon is helpful here; only the key thought or concept in each section should receive a major illustration. This not only controls the length of the sermon, but it also adds narrative quality to the proclamation of the gospel, allowing the people to use their imaginations to isolate the good news as they listen to the Word.)
2. A "variant" sermon on the first lesson, Isaiah 2:1-5 - "A vision of a New World."
a. An ancient vision with contemporary significance.
b. A vision of a day when war will be abolished and permanent peace established.
c. Through deeds of love and mercy, our business is to proclaim Good News of this New World to all people.
d. Jesus will come again as Lord and rule as the Prince of Peace forever.
3. A "variant" sermon on the second lesson, Romans 13:11-14 - "God's Wake-Up Call."
a. Christ's "wake-up call" is an announcement that his return in imminent.
b. By renouncing darkness and turning to the light, his followers respond to the "wake-up call."
c. They wear the uniform of the day - their baptismal garb, "the armor of light," and live the life of God's faithful people.
d. So they - we - are ready for anything this world may hold for us, even for the Second Coming of Christ.
4. A suggestion for an Advent series on the Psalms:
a. First Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 122 - "Pilgrim People."
b. Second Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 72:1-14 - "Long Live the King's Son."
c. Third Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 146 - "A God Who Can Be Trusted."
d. Fourth Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 24 - "A Welcome for the King of Glory."
A "sermon-starter" for preaching on Psalm 122 - "Pilgrim People."
This Psalm, in context of Advent and the Gospel, makes pilgrim people of all who believe and confess that Jesus is the coming Lord. Christians are continually "on the move" toward that "mountain" where they will be met by God on the last day. Theirs is a joyful journey, because they know that God has already revealed himself to the world in Jesus Christ and has taken extreme measures - in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - to reconcile the world to himself; they know they have nothing to fear as they go, for Jesus travels with them and will support them to the end of the age.
Pilgrim people are:
1. Expectant people
2. Hopeful people
3. Prayerful people
4. Prepared people
These ideas illustrate a few of the possibilities in the pericopes of any single Sunday of the church year in the hope that pastors will use their intellect and imaginations to discover the wide variety of sermons that might be preached on any given Sunday. Time and space do not allow the homiletical possibilities to be exhausted for any given Sunday.
The risen, ascended Lord, Jesus Christ, whose reign has begun, will return at the end of this age, to bring in the fullness of God's Kingdom and reign over all of the affairs of the earth. Be prepared! Wait! Watch! Wonder! Work! Walk!
The First Sunday in Advent is the theological/thematic key to the entire year's preaching from the lectionary; it sets the stage, as it were, by directing the attention of preacher and people upon the completion of God's business with the world in Jesus Christ, the Parousia. By announcing that Christ will come again in glory and judgment, the church year and the liturgy/lectionary remind people that the church is to live as if the Lord were to return today; Christians, who are nourished by the Word as they wonder about the Second Coming of Christ, will develop "The spirit of waiting. " (Adrian Nocent, O.S.B., in The Liturgical Year, volume one) as they respond to the Good News by living out their covenant, their baptism, in Jesus Christ, in expectation and repentance. Therefore, while the lessons all point to the future, they make it clear that the Christ, who was born in Bethlehem long ago, is the Lord God Incarnate in his only Son, the ever-living, ever-present, and ever-available Savior of the world. Because believers live in the hope that the Lord lives and reigns and will come again, and because they know that they can do nothing but wait for the appointed time of the Christ's return, they are able to wait hopefully and, thus, are fully prepared for the Parousia.
The Prayer of the Day is one of the so-called "stir up" prayers of Advent, as they were known in the Anglican tradition:
Stir up your power, O Lord, and come. Protect us by your strength and save us from the threatening dangers of our sins, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The Psalm of the Day (LBW) is Psalm 122 - This is one of the psalms sung by pilgrims as they "went up to Jerusalem" for the Passover celebration. By striking the notes of expectation, as they go up, and excitement, as they enter the city, the psalm serves admirably as a response to the First Lesson and a bridge to the Second Lesson and the Gospel. The church, ever since it began building shelters for the believers to worship in, has seen itself as pilgrim people who, like the Israelites, were on their way to the Holy City - not just Jerusalem, but heaven itself. Thus, with the risen, ascended Lord seated on a throne and waiting for the signal from God to return, the believers gathered around his feet to give thanks to God for their Lord while they, too, waited for the time of the Lord's return. The promise of the Parousia was precious to them, and they tenaciously held on to it, even in the face of suffering and death. Christ was all that they had, their only hope in a hostile world. As time runs out for us, it becomes clear that he is our only hope, too, and knowing that, we can wait in hope and with thanksgiving.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
Lord Jesus, give us the peace of the new Jerusalem. Bring all nations into your kingdom to share your gifts, that they may render thanks to you without end and may come to your eternal city, where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, flow and forever.
The readings:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Isaiah's vision is of a future time that will see all the nations of the earth "flowing" toward the "mountain of the house of the Lord" to learn the ways of God and to begin living by "the word of the Lord." This is an eschatological vision that looks, as do the Second Lesson and the Gospel, to the end of the age, of history. At that time, God will judge the nations and all people, ushering in an era of peace when instruments of war will be converted into tools for the blessing of humanity. Only then will war finally be exterminated and, in the new age, will people live together in peace. The last verse establishes a theme for Advent which puts Christmas in proper perspective - "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord."
Isaiah's theology is truly eschatological, not simply pointing to the future but delineating a new age only God can - and will - inaugurate beyond human history. It is only by this action that the terrible scourge of war can be eliminated and a genuine era of everlasting peace begin. That will be the day of God's summit meeting, the great day of judgment and grace, when his plan for a new act of creation will be put in place and made operative for all nations. Then, and only then, will people fully "walk in the light of the Lord."
Romans 13:11-14
This lesson speaks of the expectation held by the Church of Rome that the Lord would soon return to the world as he said he would; the Second Coming, Paul believed, was imminent. Believers know the time - "the night is far gone" and "the day is at hand" when this will occur, thus they are to turn their backs on darkness and live in ("put on") the "armor of light;" it is their business to live responsibly as Christians should by "putting on the Lord Jesus Christ" - in other words, living out their baptismal promises and covenant with God in dedication and singular devotion and fidelity to the Lord rather than living licentiously, as though God did not even exist. One difficulty the preacher faces in this text is that Paul's sense of timing was wrong. How, then, does one proclaim this message to people today?
Paul's eschatological theology reflects that of Isaiah and, certainly, that of Jesus Christ, but the timing of his prediction of a proximate Parousia was also wrong; Christ didn't return in the first century A.D. But Paul was correct when he said that his coming is always near, "at hand." He knew that the Lord is present, through his Word and the Holy Spirit, when the church gathers, when the Word is proclaimed, and when the sacraments are celebrated. Paul was fully convinced that the risen Christ would finally return and bring in the full and complete reign of God's kingdom. Although the timing of his expectation was incorrect, he was absolutely right in his insistence on an eschatologicalfaith as the heart of the Gospel.
Matthew 24:37-44
The context for this pericope is Jesus' discourse on the Second Coming. He teaches that the Parousia will come suddenly, unexpectedly, totally without warning. People will be "taken" at their daily tasks, but he does not indicate on what basis they will be selected. His admonition is to "Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming," emphasizing the urgency to watch with his parabolic saying about the householder and the thief. Again at the end of the lection, he warns them, "Therefore, you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect."
The Second Coming - "Christ will come again" - is articulated in many contemporary eucharistic prayers; people voice that response, but one question the preacher must answer before a sermon can be composed on this text, even for this Sunday, is whether or not anyone actually expects Jesus to return today. Has the church waited too long for the Second Coming of the Lord and become spiritually and mentally exhausted by the delay? And if people continue to believe that Christ will come again, why has God delayed so long in allowing it to happen? What people do believe in is that, for all practical purposes, the world might very well end quickly through nuclear accident or nuclear war. Could this kind of an end fit into the plan of God for bringing this age to a close? If so, what would remain for Christ to judge and reign over? How is the preacher to make theological sense out of all of this? Is there any hope for humanity and the world?
Matthew's eschatological theology of the age of salvation, when viewed from the perspective of his entire Gospel, provides a fitting conclusion to his version of the Good News and positively shapes the liturgical season of Advent that begins the church year. What he writes in chapters 24 and 25 about the end of the world and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is an integral part of the gospel story; the Kingdom had only been inaugurated in Christ's death and resurrection, and Jesus promised to return, as Matthew recounts in his story, to complete the work on behalf of God. That Christ, whose birth is recorded in the Gospels for all time, will also be with his church in the meantime, and until he comes again. This must be told to all of the world as the climax of the Gospel story.
A sermon suggested by the Gospel (Matthew 24:37-44)
The preacher's task is to "make sense" of the gospel (Clement Welsh, Preaching in a New Key) for contemporary - and secularly oriented - Christians living in a scientific and pragmatic age that faces the possibility of an "end-time" through self-destruction. The headlines, as I write this, announced, "Train blast stirred fears of nuclear war, Pravda says." On June 4, 1988, three cars loaded with industrial explosives blew up in Arzamas, 240 miles east of Moscow, killing at least 73 people, wounding an unknown number, destroying 150 homes, leaving 250 families homeless, and severely damaging 250 buildings. One witness, who saw the explosion and the mushroom cloud, said, "The first thing that came to my mind was, 'Has it started?' " - a reference to a nuclear attack.
That reaction might have occurred under similar circumstances, almost anywhere in the northern hemisphere. Some Christians believe that one final war will bring judgment and total destruction upon the entire human race; there is no hope. God has a different plan in mind, and it needs to be spoken to the people in a sermon, or sermons, on the business of waiting for the Lord's return in genuine Christian hope.
A sermon plan: "Christ Will Come Again - Believe it or Not!"
1. The long wait of the people of God for a better day (Advent is a time of waiting for the "Day of the Lord," and we acknowledge that it has been an interminably long wait, but Christ will return, as he said, when God gives the signal) is a hopeful wait, because all fear will be banished on that day.
2. Faithful believers watch - always - as if the Lord were to return today. Advent is the season when people are called upon to prepare for the end of the age and the Parousia. Confident prayer, coupled with daily repentance and renewal, is one way to watch, living out our baptismal faith and the resurrection hope of the Gospel in daily life.
3. Christians, who perceive the grace of God at work for the benefit of the world, wonder at the patience, love, and goodness of God. God has his own good reasons for the long wait. He does indeed have a plan to save us from ourselves and to deliver us from destruction and despair, as well as the domain of the devil, in the Second Coming of our Lord. He alone knows the timetable for activating the last act of his drama of salvation. No one on earth can predict when Christ will come again, and nothing on earth can deter that return when God sets the plan into action.
4. In the meantime, true believers will do the daily work that the Lord has called them to do, trusting that the Lord is as good as his word. The work of the Kingdom is serving God and people, preaching the good news to all the world, and witnessing in deeds as well as words to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
5. For now, "come, let us walk in the light of the Lord," with confidence in his word, giving thanks to God for the presence of the risen Christ, who "walks" with us until his return at the appointed time to judge the world and bring in a "new heaven and a new earth" on God's great day.
An Old Testament Advent sermon series
1st Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 2:1-5 - "God's Summit Meeting."
2nd Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 11:1-10 - "God's Spirit-annointed Savior."
3rd Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 35:1-10 - "God's Day for Rejoicing."
4th Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 7:10-14 (15-17) - "God's Promise to become Immanuel."
A Sermon on the First Lesson, Isaiah 2:1-5 - "God's Summit Meeting."
1. God has revealed the final stage of his plan for the earth centuries before Christ was born; God plans a summit meeting.
2. At the end of the age, God will gather all people at his "mountain" - his summit meeting - to teach them his ways and enable them to "walk in his paths." God will dictate the terms of the summit.
3. Humanity, instructed by the law of God and brought under his judgment, will witness the end of war and the beginning of everlasting peace in a new age, beyond recorded history.
4. Those who live in this hope are able to "walk in the light of the Lord" right now, even when they are surrounded by seemingly total darkness. Thefuture summit meeting gives them that hope.
A Sermon on the Second Lesson, Romans 13:11-14 - "Living an 'Advent' Life."
Two of my good friends understand what Paul was talking about when he said, "You know what hour it is, how it is full time now for you to wake from sleep." Both friends have had heart attacks and live with potential "time-bombs" in their chests. One believes that he has less than ten years to live; the other, not yet forty years of age, hopes to live long enough to see an infant child grow up. Both know that death could come at any time; they know the time and are making the most of it. Actually, all of us are in the same predicament; time is running out on the human race, and the end-time is nearer than we may know, or as Paul says, "nearer than when we first believed." This is a time to be wide-awake, alert to the message of the gospel and its meaning for us right now.
1. Time is running out on the human race. With each passing day, the time for Christ's return draws nearer. He will come again to usher in a new era, the day of salvation, in God's good time; the gospel tells us about that.
2. That's why we, like the people Paul addressed, need to be awake, anticipating the return of the Lord, and living in the light ofthe new day, rejecting all ofthe works of darkness.
3. This is the time of living out our baptismal relationship with the Lord by dying daily to sin and rising to live the new life in Christ.
4. The new life of Christ enables us to pray, "Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly!"
Other preaching suggestions
1. Develop a three-text sermon - "God's Great Day:"
a. God has planned a great day for all people. (Isaiah)
b. The great day will come suddenly and unexpectedly. (Matthew)
C. Christians respond to God's wake up call in the gospel and watch for the great day. (Romans)
d. Meanwhile, as we look and as we listen, "Let us walk in the light of the Lord."
(Note: Should the preacher develop each of these excerpts from the lessons very much, it is obvious that an extremely long sermon would result; this is one of the problems with multi-text sermons. Therefore, exposition and explanation must be limited and the most important portion of each text should be highlighted through imagery and illustration. David Buttrick's homiletical rule of only one illustration for each "move" or main idea in the sermon is helpful here; only the key thought or concept in each section should receive a major illustration. This not only controls the length of the sermon, but it also adds narrative quality to the proclamation of the gospel, allowing the people to use their imaginations to isolate the good news as they listen to the Word.)
2. A "variant" sermon on the first lesson, Isaiah 2:1-5 - "A vision of a New World."
a. An ancient vision with contemporary significance.
b. A vision of a day when war will be abolished and permanent peace established.
c. Through deeds of love and mercy, our business is to proclaim Good News of this New World to all people.
d. Jesus will come again as Lord and rule as the Prince of Peace forever.
3. A "variant" sermon on the second lesson, Romans 13:11-14 - "God's Wake-Up Call."
a. Christ's "wake-up call" is an announcement that his return in imminent.
b. By renouncing darkness and turning to the light, his followers respond to the "wake-up call."
c. They wear the uniform of the day - their baptismal garb, "the armor of light," and live the life of God's faithful people.
d. So they - we - are ready for anything this world may hold for us, even for the Second Coming of Christ.
4. A suggestion for an Advent series on the Psalms:
a. First Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 122 - "Pilgrim People."
b. Second Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 72:1-14 - "Long Live the King's Son."
c. Third Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 146 - "A God Who Can Be Trusted."
d. Fourth Sunday in Advent (LBW) - Psalm 24 - "A Welcome for the King of Glory."
A "sermon-starter" for preaching on Psalm 122 - "Pilgrim People."
This Psalm, in context of Advent and the Gospel, makes pilgrim people of all who believe and confess that Jesus is the coming Lord. Christians are continually "on the move" toward that "mountain" where they will be met by God on the last day. Theirs is a joyful journey, because they know that God has already revealed himself to the world in Jesus Christ and has taken extreme measures - in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - to reconcile the world to himself; they know they have nothing to fear as they go, for Jesus travels with them and will support them to the end of the age.
Pilgrim people are:
1. Expectant people
2. Hopeful people
3. Prayerful people
4. Prepared people
These ideas illustrate a few of the possibilities in the pericopes of any single Sunday of the church year in the hope that pastors will use their intellect and imaginations to discover the wide variety of sermons that might be preached on any given Sunday. Time and space do not allow the homiletical possibilities to be exhausted for any given Sunday.
