Sermon preached at St. Alban's, Spirit Lake, on December 2, 2007
(First Sunday of Advent, Year A, BCP Lectionary)
by the Rev. Carl D. Mann

Texts:   Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 24:37-44

Happy New Year! The season of Advent is upon us once again as we prepare and await the coming of Christ. On the one hand, we wait for the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus. But it is more than just waiting for a birthday, a day to just mark our time on earth. It is an anticipatory waiting as in expecting the first child in the family or the first grandchild. But it is even more special than that! At Christmas we don’t say, “Well, Jesus is 2008 years old today! Is he over the hill yet? What’s middle age in eternal life? He doesn’t look a day over infinity.” No, each Christmas we celebrate that point in history into which he was born; a small, dependent, vulnerable child.

Think about it! This was the point in time in which God took on human flesh. Not as a fully grown man but as a defenseless little boy wrapped in swaddling clothes. Although conceived by supernatural means God became one of us through natural circumstances; being born of a woman so that He could experience everything that we experience.

But on the other hand, Advent is the waiting for the fullness of time; the coming again of Jesus Christ as King of King and Lord of Lords as we discussed last week on Christ the King Sunday. Yes, he taught us and showed us the way while he lived and ministered here on earth. He died sacrificially on the cross to atone for our sins and to redeem us and to reconcile us to God, the Father. But he will come again in power and majesty to judge the living and the dead before fully establishing the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven.

Now you will notice in today’s Gospel that we will not know when the second coming is to occur. The when is not important! Elsewhere in scripture we are told that only the Father knows. None of the angels know nor does the Son. This will happen in God’s time. Not kronos which is man-made chronological time but in kairos which is God’s time; the appointed or proper time. The message of the Gospel is not to worry about the when but to be prepared for the when because the when will happen unexpectedly.

For example, remember in Luke’s Gospel the first time Jesus spoke in the synagogue and he was handed the scroll of Isaiah. And at the end of the reading he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Isaiah’s prophecy was made some 700 plus years before. People had been listening to that passage many times for many years and when they least expected it, it had been fulfilled in their midst. It happened so fast that they were all amazed and could hardly believe he had said what he did. The when had happened when they least expected it!

We don’t know when it will happen nor will we, nor should we. What is important is to be prepared. Not just to look busy but be actively ready!

Well how do we do that? Do we just go on eating and drinking, and getting married? Do we just keep going to work each day and do church on Sundays? No, it’s more than that. That’s what people were doing when God flooded the earth in the time of Noah and they were swept away into destruction. No, as Paul says today, we prepare for the coming of the Lord by loving one another. If we follow the commandments to love our neighbor by not committing adultery, murdering, stealing, lying, coveting; loving our neighbor as ourselves, then we are fulfilling the law and thus are being prepared for Christ’s second coming.

But we are human and we always fall short of loving our neighbor and following the commandments. What can we do to strengthen our shortcomings?

Again the answer is in Paul’s letter to the Romans and reiterated in today’s Collect: Cast away the works of darkness by putting on the armor of light.

Now whenever I read this I go back to my youth and remember the Marvel Comic Book hero, Iron Man. Remember, Iron man? Industrialist Tony Stark became invincible by putting on a modern day suit of armor. Made of red and gold synthetic, flexible iron, this suit gave him the ability to lift as much as 80 tons of weight, could repel bullets and projectiles, and could even allow him to fly with jets in his boots. The only problem was that it needed to be recharged after a while. It was not self-sustaining. As technology changed so did the suit: instead of plugging it in to a 110 wall socket it evolved into a solar powered suit. But even so, eventually the forces of darkness wore it down if the sun wasn’t shining. That’s a sermon waiting to happen, isn’t it?

So where do we get our Iron Man suit? Through baptism! By virtue of our baptisms we have put on the armor of light. In the Nicene Creed each week we confess that Jesus Christ is God from God, and Light from Light. And in the Gospel of John we are told that the Light of Christ is the life of all mankind and shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome the light. And in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he says “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” So through baptism, we have put on the armor of light, which is Christ, and we don’t have to worry about it ever wearing down because the light of Christ is eternal! Always has been, is now and will be forever!

Let’s look at it another way. Let’s imagine that God is this bright Light and as we live our lives we are drawn towards that Light, and as long as we are facing the Light we see enough to continue forward. But when we sin or turn our backs on the Light we are facing the darkness. The Light continues to shine from behind us and we are deluded into thinking that since we can see in front of us then we are still walking in the Light. But there is a difference! Since the Light is behind us we are casting a shadow of ourselves before us and into that darkness it appears that no light can penetrate. And the farther we get from the light it appears that our shadow grows, weaving itself into the outer darkness to where eventually we cannot see at all, and we are lost.

But by being baptized into Christ and therefore having put on the armor of light, the Light is always before us. In fact is all around us and through us. We never have to worry about walking in our own shadow and being enveloped by the darkness because with the Light of Christ as our armor we are protected from the works of darkness. When we sin and turn our backs to the Light, the Light of Christ is still with us to enlighten the path before us and to show us the error of our ways. And no matter how far we go down the path of darkness, when we open our eyes and realize, through the Light of Christ, that we have gone the wrong way, when we turn around and face the Light, we see that we don’t have to travel a long distance to return to it because the Light is right behind us and has been the whole time our backs were turned. The Light has never left us.

So during this season of Advent it is important to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus because this is when the Light came into the world. This is when God became man in order to save us from the works of darkness that entered into the world through the disobedience of mankind. But it is also important to put on the armor of Light so that we may live our lives in love as God loves us while we patiently prepare and wait for Jesus Christ’s second coming in glorious Light everlasting.

In closing, listen to the prophetic words of Isaiah: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you. For behold, darkness covers the land; deep gloom enshrouds the peoples. But over you the Lord will rise, and his glory will appear upon you. Nations will stream to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawning…The sun will no more be your light by day; by night you will not need the brightness of the moon. The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.”

Gloria Patri