Advent Hope
Sermon by Anne East
Readings: Isaiah 11.1-10, Romans 15.4-13, Matthew 3.1-12
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”
Romans 15: 4
Advent – the waiting time. Waiting is something of a forgotten skill these days. Our ancestors waited, for the days to lighten, for the crops to grow, for the fruit to ripen in its own time . . in tune with the seasons, the ebb and flow of life. But today – we rush ahead of ourselves. Christmas decorations are in the shops in September, Easter eggs in January. Strawberries in winter, daffodils in November.
In Advent we wait for the known, and for the unknown. There is a kind of ‘double vision’: we wait for something that’s in the past, the birth of Jesus has already happened. We also wait for a future coming, (Christ’s second coming) which theologians call the ‘end-times’.
Past, Present, Future, a paradox of tenses! When I was working with deaf children, teaching English grammar, they struggled with the verb tenses – because sign language doesn’t express them in the same way as English. So the sign ‘GO’ is the same whether you are talking about a past action (yesterday I go) a future intention (tomorrow I go) or a present activity (Now I go ). My students struggled with the different forms of English verbs but Sign Language places the action in a space that offers me a model for a way of thinking in Advent, stepping outside a linear idea of Time and seeing past, present and future wrapped around us.
The Old Testament prophet uses a future tense:
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots”
The ‘root of Jesse’ is referring to the Messiah, the Christ, who would be a descendant of the great King David, the son of Jesse. That future occupies the prophet’s thoughts, a theme of hope and a coming prince of peace.
When we get to the New Testament the future has become present: John the Baptiser says, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Andrew the fisherman says to his brother Simon – after a day spent with Jesus - “We have found the Messiah. And Jesus himself, reading this passage from Isaiah in the synagogue, declares “The spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
Isaiah offers the dawning of a new day. This promise of reconciliation and restoration is for all creation. “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.”
A wolf living with a lamb? A leopard lying down with a goat? These don’t fit into our reality although the idea of a predator lying down with prey does have the power to thrill us. Social media pops up videos of a tiger nursing piglets or a lioness adopting an antelope calf. Perhaps our fascination with such oddities has to do with more than our love of the cute or bizarre? Perhaps we seek something profound in these reports? Animals overcoming a bloody instinct – might humans do the same? Is this a prophecy – or a fairy tale? Isaiah’s declaration stands in direct contrast to the terror and brutality that pervade our world. News of terrorism, war, economic collapse and climate catastrophe instil a deep sense of anxiety, we are fearful for the future.
Sworn enemies sitting down together? It has happened. When white South Africans finally began to recognise black South Africans as their brothers and sisters; when Sinn Fein and DUP agreed to share power in Northern Ireland, when a father whose child was killed forgave the killers . . . these are all end-time moments, glimpses of God’s kingdom in our world now.
“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, . . so that . . .we might have hope.”
Can Isaiah’s word offer us any comfort in these unstable and frightening times? Notice how it begins – the transformation from a culture of fear to a world at peace – begins with a stump: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse..” out of something that appears finished, lifeless, left behind, comes the sign of new life, a green sprig. This is how hope gets its start, emerging as a tiny tendril in an unexpected place.
For many of us, hope may be perceived as a last resort. It is what we do after all our planning and preparing is done. It is what we do if we cannot fix whatever the problem is. We’ve done everything we can - so now let’s hope for the best. Such a perspective puts us at the centre of the universe of course.
For some, hope is buying a lottery ticket – imagining there is some force in the universe that will come to our rescue and give us what we think we want: luck / chance / fate. Fingers crossed.
But that is not the meaning that fits with our Hope as Christians. Our ground for hope is neither last resort nor random chance. It’s not a pie-in-the-sky kind of optimism nor a cheery denial of the painful realities of life and death, injustice and suffering. . .For Paul (and us) hope is a core trust that relies on the steadfastness of God and allows us to be steadfast, no matter how dire the situation. Hope is not a human accomplishment, but the gift of our gracious God, drawing us beyond the darkness of today and towards the light of a new tomorrow.
Here are some lines from the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, - he writes of being on a walk towards a sunny hill, we have only just started on the walk, but we are changed.
My eyes already touch the sunny hill.going far ahead of the road I have begun.So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;it has inner light, even from a distance-
and changes us, even if we do not reach it,into something else, which, hardly sensing it,we already are; a gesture waves us onanswering our own wave...but what we feel is the wind in our faces.
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope” . Paul was writing to a community of believers in Rome made of both Jews and Gentiles. They are together because Paul and others have been preaching a gospel whose message is that the promises that God made long ago to the ‘children of Abraham’ are now open to all - because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Hope is at the heart of the gospel. Every Advent we look again to Christ, not only for our own salvation, but for the redemption of the world.
Paul’s prayer for the Romans is a benediction for us today:
May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in him, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’
Amen