I love how our NT reading ends today.  “And all the people would get up early in the morning to listen to him in the temple.”  Would that God would make us such people!  I’m not talking about early in the morning, necessarily, as we may not be morning people.  Whenever it happens, may God make us people who long to hear a word from him..

Let us start with these words from the Lord from the prophet Jeremiah, this 1^st Sunday of Advent.  Let the redeemed of the Lord hear this good news.  “The days are surely coming!”

The days are surely coming.  Now, we may hear those words and think, “Well, yes, that’s the problem!”  Christmas is coming and I can’t believe it’s already the 1^st Sunday of Advent (along with the 1^st Sunday of December).  There is so much to prepare.  There is so much I’m in the middle of as I close out the year.  Day to day life is hard enough with figuring out what to eat and trying to stay on top of emails and messages and the kids’ activities and work obligations and family obligations and now Christmas parties and extra events.

Or maybe it’s the opposite for us.  Maybe Christmas doesn’t look like what it used to look like.  Maybe the season fills us with nostalgia – the painful kind.  Maybe we’re saying Christmas isn’t like it used to be.  Maybe, like Charlie Brown, instead of feeling happy, we just feel let down.

No matter where we are this 1^st Sunday of Advent, let us hear good news today.  “The days are surely coming,” says the Lord, “when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”  We are reminded in this promise, that to be the people of God is to be a people who wait.  The question that is always before us is this – “How do we wait well?”  This of course leads to another more primary question – “What are we waiting for?”

When I was a child and someone was taking their time to do something, we used to say, “What are you waiting for?  Christmas?”  What are we waiting for?  How do we wait well? It’s important to be asking the right questions.  The passage we read from Luke 21 comes from the last time Jesus teaches publicly before he is put to death.  Jesus and his followers and his audience are in the temple in Jerusalem.  Some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God.  Jesus then says, “As for these things that you see, the days will come  when not one stone will be left upon another: all will be thrown down.”  He is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem which will come in AD 70.  Roman forces will surround it and lay siege for 4 months.  The city will be destroyed.  Anywhere from 600,000 to 1,000,000 people will be killed.  One hundred thousand will be enslaved.  Jesus’ prophecy leads to another question, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”

“When?” is a big question when we’re waiting.  How long are we going to be waiting?  It’s become a little more difficult for us to not know how long.  The wait for a table is around 15 minutes.  Reasonable!  Your estimated hold time is 1 hour 40 minutes.  I don’t think so (unless it’s really urgent).  Who has 1 hour 40 minutes?  We have things to do!  Jesus doesn’t address “When?”  He says “Beware that you are not led astray ; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’  Do not go after them.”  Alright.  Jesus goes on to speak not only of the destruction of Jerusalem, but of the end of the world as we know it. This speaks of course to the question of “What are we waiting for?”  It’s probably not news to you (though if it is you’re going to find out it’s very good news indeed).  Jesus goes on to speak not only of Jerusalem’s coming destruction at the hands of the imperial might of the Roman Empire, but of the renewal of all things; the gathering together of all things in Christ; the new heaven and the new earth;  as he puts it, “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”

So take heart.  Do not lose heart.  Remember who we are.  Remember whose we are.  In Christ I am a post-Easter person.  In Christ I am a resurrection person.  In Christ I am an Advent person.  In Christ, we are Advent people.  I have to say something in me likes to see all the Advent calendars at the supermarket checkout.  It’s a reminder not only of what this season is about, but what we are about as followers of Jesus.  Let us live it out and speak it out when the opportunities are put in front of us!  The word “Advent” comes from a Latin word which means “arrival” whose component parts mean… quite simply yet so profoundly.  To come.  To be Advent people means that we have been given a whole new way to see in the light of Christ, who has come, who comes, and who will, one day, come. 

A new ordering of everything!  Relationships.  Responsibilities.  Money.  Things.  Time.  This is the 1^st Sunday of Advent.  Not the 1^st Sunday in Advent, like Advent is something that we step into for a while and then leave.  In Christ it’s not about getting into the spirit of Christmas or getting into the spirit of Advent, it’s about being of Advent!  It’s who we are.  As someone has said, “We are people who live in anticipation, who live in hope.  It is the essence of our being.”

We are people who look back.  People who remember and remind one another.  I like this definition of hope for those who are in Christ – “confident expectation.”  Part of this confident expectation is surely based on how we have seen God making promises and carrying them out.  We can consider this in our personal lives.  It is good to consider the question together, “Which of God’s promises is most meaningful to you right now, and how have you know God’s promises to have been kept in your own life?”  Promises like “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.  I do not give as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)  Promises like “And remember I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:20) How about “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” (Is 41:11)  Often the light of hope – the light of confident expectation – burns most brightly when things are dim.  There’s a hymn called “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.”  The first verse goes like this:

 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus/Just to take Him at His Word/Just to rest upon His promise/

Just to know, 'Thus saith the Lord'  This last line is the King James way of saying “This is what the Lord says”  and it’s all over the OT.  When Jeremiah brought the word of the Lord in chapter 33, it was a dark time.  Jerusalem was under siege and would soon be destroyed; its people killed or carried away in captivity; the temple destroyed.  In the midst of this darkness the promise shines: Jer 33:14-16:

¹⁴ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Our righteousness.  Our justice.  The righteous Branch.  The shoot from the stump of Jesse (David’s dad).  The righteous Branch is speaking in Luke 21 and he is looking ahead.  We who live in the hope of Christ also look ahead.  Jesus speaks of wars and insurrections and nation rising against nation and kingdom rising against kingdom and great earthquakes and famine  and plagues and 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 and people fainting from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world and I put the question to all of us “How are we not overwhelmed?”

If we’re paying the smallest bit of attention, we know what is going on in the world.  Wars and rumours of wars.  “World War 3 Had Begun” says Ukranian Ex-Military Commander.  Political uncertainty on every level it seems.  Economic uncertainty.  “25% Tariffs Coming!”  How is it not all too much?  Uncertainty in our own lives and in the lives of those we love when it comes to health and well-being and flourishing and why am I even talking about flourishing or thriving when it seems that for so many we’re just barely surviving? Here's the thing. The candle of hope is still burning.  The day is surely coming.  In the middle of uncertainly.  In the middle of injustice.  In the middle of hate and greed and fear and division and fear and foreboding.  The day is surely coming.  “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”  In Christ, we are Advent people who live in confident expectation of a weight of glory that is beyond measure.  We who are bowed down let us listen to Jesus words, and stand up and raise our heads, because redemption/renewal/rescue is drawing near!

In Jesus our hope looks back.  Our hope looks ahead.  Our hope also looks around.  Look, be on guard, be alert, says Jesus.  Not another task, so much.  This is a good thing I think.  For many of us it may be that overwhelmedness hits us in terms of tasks.  It’s not another task that we’re being given, though it will take time.  Let us take the time to live as people of Advent.  If we’re already doing that, let us continue.  If we’re not, let us start.  Or perhaps I should say let us stop, look, be on guard, and be alert. 

1. Literally, Jesus tells us to look at the fig tree and all the trees.  We know all about trees here in Toronto and I hope where you may be too.  It’s spring time in Jerusalem here in Luke 21.  “Look at the fig tree and all the trees, as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.  So also when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”  Look at the trees and how they remind us that something new (all things new) is coming.  I know that the trees are mostly bare now and winter is not far off.  Here’s the thing though – even in winter trees hold the promise and the reminder of something new.  Consider the maple (and all the deciduous trees).  In the winter months you see winter buds and know that spring is coming with all its promise of new life.  Let us be attentive to signs of new life happening all around us.  Example example.

Let us be who we are.  Advent people.  Let us be on guard.  Let us be alert.  “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life…”  Now you may be saying at this point “Hey I’m an old school Baptist!  I don’t even drink!”  On the other hand you may not.  Dissipation is not a word we hear a lot.  It literally means scatter as in “Oh look! The clouds have dissipated!”  Jesus is talking about the things that would cause us to be scattered.  Someone has described dissipation as being “uncentred” as in the things that would uncentre our souls from God.  The things with which we seek to numb ourselves, whether it’s something we drink or ingest or in inject or watch (endless reels) or play (endless video games).  You get the idea.  Let us not be so weighed down by the worries of this life that all we seek is to numb ourselves.  Let us not waste the gift of the time God gives us.  Remember those Jerusalemites who would get up early in the morning to listen to Jesus in the temple.  We want to be people who wait well.  People who listen.  We’re encouraging you to follow an Advent reader during these four weeks.  Follow it.  Stop.  Read. And finally, pray. 

This is who we are.  This is our hope.  This is how we wait.  The days are surely coming, says the Lord.  We’re going to close with a poem based on the words of the prophet Jeremiah from the Rev. Dr. Valerie Bridgman out of the Methodist Theological School in Delaware Ohio.  Hear the good news:

The Day Is Surely Coming

A day, certain and on its way And we feel it approaching Slowly first, then in a quickened pace Like a promise, on its way To being fulfilled A day when justice and righteousness Is executed as surely as the day breaks, Sun shines, rain falls, fog gathers At foothills 

A day is surely coming Sure as breath A day of safety A name of a Holy One on the lips; Branch Righteous One Hope Certainly on its way

Thanks be to God for our glorious hope!