Episcopal Church of the
Incarnation
The First Sunday of Advent (A)
Isaiah
2.1-5 Psalm
122 Romans 13.11-14 Matthew
24.36-44
May the Lord
be in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, that
I may rightly
and truly proclaim His holy Word. Amen.
1) It’s conventional in a
sermon for the First Sunday of Advent to remind everyone that it is not yet
Christmas, and to contrast piety and expectation with the crass commerciality
of this time of year.
a) Such a message is
conventional because it is true.
i) However, repeating this
truth does not address, really, the apocalyptic content which we find in the
lessons for the season.
ii) The lessons remind that if
Advent is a season of penitence and expectation, it is also a season in which
we restart our journey of faith, and that faith is something which we choose.
2) The Collect for today sets
the tone for the season:Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works
of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this
mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility;
that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to
judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.
a)
We are reminded that both
darkness and light are parts of our life.
i)
The phrase works of darkness
sounds dramatic, and yet consider:
(1)
When we think only of
ourselves we allow darkness to shadow God’s light from others.
(2)
In this season of giving we
often focus more on what we want to get. We feel somehow that life owes
us something.
ii)
The words armor of light also sound dramatic. How
do we put on this armor, to not only cast the darkness from ourselves but also
to keep from casting darkness on those around us?
(1)
The light we clothe
ourselves in is the Light of the World, Jesus.
(2)
We clothe ourselves in this
light when we open our hearts to receive Him, and our lips to confess and
praise Him.
3)
“Works of darkness” and “armor of light” sound
dramatic, and they are because real drama, cosmic drama, is here in play.
a)
In this season of expectancy, we await the coming of our Lord, and
yet in this mortal life He comes
in great humility as a child born in a small out-of-the-way town.
b)
Advent is a
season of “not yetness,” in which we
know that a cosmic drama–the very drama of salvation–is
played out, but that this mortal life is not yet the life everlasting.
i)
The kingdom of heaven breaks
into this world, but the Kingdom is not yet come.
(a)
The lights casts away the
works of darkness, but does not cast the darkness out.
Darkness remains in the world.
4)
But, notice in the Collect
that the verbs are active: “cast away,”
“put on,” “rise”.
a)
The Kingdom is not yet come
fully, but is near when we choose to receive our Lord:
i)
Choices we make now matter
at the last day.
5)
The lessons today may speak
of the day of judgment, yet the focus is on the
central reality of Advent: our
redemption is drawing near.
a)
The “not yetness” of this
season of expectation and penitence becomes the joy of the Incarnation at
Christmas.
b)
People who walk in darkness
shall see a great light. The Light of
the World.
c)
When we see this Light, He
judges the choices we make now.
i)
This life becomes the life
everlasting.
ii)
Do we choose the works of
darkness or do we choose to fight these works, putting on the armor of light,
the armor of the Light of the World?
(1)
When we choose to put on
this armor, when we receive and confess Jesus, we await that day when we may
“rise to the life immortal.”
6)
The hymn with which we close
today’s worship is no. 370. It does not
use the term “armor,” although it does describe the whole armor of God, and is
known to us by the name of its tune, St.
Patrick’s Breastplate.
a)
One generally only encounters
this hymn at ordinations and on Trinity Sunday, but let’s allow it to remind us
that in Advent, as we await in penitence the day when our Lord shall return, we
steel ourselves for the struggles of this world by putting on the Lord Jesus
Christ.
i)
In the words of St. Patrick,
which echo to us across fifteen centuries, and which themselves echo Paul’s
words from four centuries prior, is our Advent hope spoken:
Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort
and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth
of friend and stranger.
7)
When we choose Jesus then
His words that we “... do not know on what day the Lord is coming” cause us no
concern, for He is with us.
a)
We have put on Christ in our
baptism, and in putting on the Lord Jesus Christ we have shared in His death
just as we will share in His resurrection.
i)
We have
died to the old self, the self
which lived only for itself
to gratify its desires.
ii)
We have risen to the new
self which clothes itself in light; which clothes itself in Christ.
iii)
We await
with joy that as we have died with Christ so shall we rise with Him, on that
final day when He shall come to judge us.
iv)
For is the words of the
apostle salvation is near, “... the night is far gone, the day is near.”
v)
Choose the
Light! Bind unto yourself this day and every day the power, the faith, that God Himself is with us.
In the Name
of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen.