First Sunday in Advent, November 28, 2021

Rev. Doug McQuaid

Last year I chose to focus on the theme

A Covid Christmas 2020

for our Advent Series

Uppermost in many people’s minds as they thought about how they might celebrate Christmas was the uncertainty about the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic might have on those festivities.  Will people be able to gather as families with grandchildren and grandparents together?  Will Christmas parties and special get togethers be too risky as virus super spreaders?  Will the number of cases and the accompanying deaths continue to rise, casting a pall of dread and sadness over a time that is usually joyful and festive?

In the midst of the uncertainty and fear of this worldwide pandemic, I asked, “What does the message of Christmas and the birth of the Son of God offer to people of faith and people of no faith?”

I focussed on hope as the most important element in the celebration of Christmas.  Instead of dread and fear dominating our thoughts and experiences in these virulent times, we could learn a lot from the people who lived through that first Christmas inspired by hope and peace and joy and love.

Wise men saw a star in the sky and set out on a long journey in the hope of discovering its meaning and promise.  The shepherds tending their flocks on the hillsides near Bethlehem were frightened by the angelic vision in the sky, but they went to find out what was told to them that would give them incredible peace.  An angel came to a young woman with a message that would change her life and the world, bringing joy.    A young couple engaged to be married were judged and shunned by family and friends, but their love prevailed in the birth of their child in a stable.

Each Sunday, the important lessons from this world-changing event of long ago are as relevant and life-changing in today’s circumstances of a world-wide pandemic as they were then in a stable in Bethlehem.  The traditional words of the Advent season are watchwords for us in our day – hope, peace, joy, and love.

After 22 months of this world-wide pandemic, we might well ask with the Psalmist,

¹ How long, O LORD?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?

 ² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.  Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

⁴ my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

⁶I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

 

Today’s Message

“Faith for the Waiting”

In Today’s Message, I want to focus on another aspect of the hope we find in the message of Christmas and in the promise of faith.

1. Advent’s Repeated Hope – Memories from the past.

Every year we celebrate the season of Advent as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus comes close.  It’s not something new or unexpected.  It’s a repeat of what we already know that reminds us of the past in order to inspire and encourage us by hope for the future.

There are two dimensions to hope: memories from the past and promises for the future.  I thought it would be particularly meaningful today, on my final Sunday as the Stated Supply Minister of Knox (Westport) Presbyterian Church to draw upon this idea of memories from the past and promises for the future in our approach to and understanding of the season of Advent.

In particular, I want us to consider how our faith equips us for the waiting: asking the question, “How long, O Lord?” and holding on to the promises of God for their future fulfillment.

1. Memories from the past

Forgive me if I get too personal and a bit emotional about memories from the past.  I have been engaged in almost 50 years of pastoral ministry and celebrated the many seasons of Advent – each one unique and many of them particularly meaningful.  I won’t recall them all today.

Let me start with Sunday, December 2, 2007/

• The picture is of me and my two grandchildren, Quinton and Stephanie looking out the study window of St. Andrew’s Church in Streetsville.

“Rejoice – A Child is Born”

The theme I chose for Advent that year was: “Rejoice – A Child is Born”.  At that time, Stephen’s wife was expecting a baby any day.  They had two children at the time and were eagerly waiting for the next child to be born.

As I looked forward to Christmas and our celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, I wondered how God felt about the birth of His Son.  I know I was pretty excited about the impending birth of my grandchild with a mixture of hope and joy and and excitement and worry.  What would life hold for the precious child about to burst forth on the scene?  What would life hold for the one and only son of God incarnate who was born and dwelt among us as Saviour and Lord?

A Father’s Heart

I wanted to capture a sense of a father’s heart – my heart for this soon to be born grandchild a God’s heart for his only begotten son.

Ashton and Ashlie – TWINS! – were born on November 17, 2007 – just before the season of Advent and our Christmas was celebrated with a special joy that year.

I am reminded, in thinking about the Father Heart of God, that the Incarnation is as important as the resurrection.

Why is the Incarnation as important as the resurrection?

One of the most prominent theologians in our day is Dr. N. T. Wright, an author who I particularly appreciate and draw extensively from in my own research and study.  Dr. Wright, among others, has advocated a renewed interest in incarnational theology that focuses on the birth of Jesus Christ as a significant event in the plan and purposes of God in its own right.

Traditional Reformed theology has often viewed the Incarnation primarily as a means to an end.  They emphasize the centrality of the cross and, as I have said myself in the past, suggest that “Jesus Christ was born in order to die for our sins”.

This line of thinking leads to a view that the primary intent of God becoming one of us in the Incarnation is to rescue us from this fallen world and to save us from death and the final judgement.  The typical evangelical message is that we need to confess our sins and receive Christ as our Saviour in order to go to heaven when we die.

While the message of the Gospel has a lot to do with the salvation of humankind - you and me included - an Incarnational emphasis adds another important component to the Christian life and faith.

Jesus’ birth and life have significance and value in and of itself, not just in its sacrificial atonement for our sins.  Jesus entered our world, our experience, and our lives to embrace us within the circle of abundant life that the Father, Son and Spirit share from before time began.

I want to suggest to you, that if we see the Incarnation - the birth of Jesus Christ - in more “human” terms and understand more fully how it is that God the Son took up our humanity and became one of us, the mystery and wonder of Christmas becomes even more wonderful.

In thinking about the “Father heart” of God, I know that God’s perspective and understanding is much larger than mine, so to ascribe to him human emotions that I experience in my life will not be entirely accurate.  However, I believe that, in making us in His image, God gave us these emotions and feelings as a reflection of his nature and character as well.  In the Incarnation, God the Son became fully human, and I believe that God the Father also experiences his birth and life with that same kind of awareness and emotion.

I hope this memory from the past will take on a special meaning for this Advent and this Christmas as I tell you of the present and the promise for the Future.

1. December 3, 2017 – My first Advent at Knox

Let’s fast forward to December 3, 2017.  This was my first Advent as the Stated Supply Minister at Knox (Westport) Presbyterian Church.

I did something that Sunday and throughout the season of Advent that I don’t think had ever been done at Knox Church.  I told the Advent and Christmas story in a first-person narrative as Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

The Christmas story began many months before the birth of Jesus, with a startling announcement to two very frightened young people.  It raised an important question in their minds and asked the same question for us:

Can you trust God when His plan for your life is so different from your own?

Mary’s and Joseph’s “Journey to Bethlehem” began nine months before that arduous trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem to participate in a Roman census.  It is this early part of their journey that I focussed on as Mary and Joseph come to grips with the astounding plan of God for their lives - a plan that will impact the course of human history.

In the beauty and pageantry of the traditional Christmas story, we rarely consider what Mary and Joseph were actually going through - emotionally, physically, socially, and spiritually.  Their ordinary, normal lives would be turned upside down and they would have to deal with misunderstanding, rejection, and questions of faith that would challenge them.

They would have to answer a fundamental question of faith:  Do You trust Me?

Do they trust each other?  Do they trust God who is calling them to a journey full of difficulties and trials?

In our “Journey to Bethlehem” and our celebration of Christmas, I hoped that we would walk with Mary and Joseph as we would confront these same questions in our own “journeys of faith”

1. Sunday, November 28, 2021 – Faith for the Waiting

We come now to Sunday, November 28, 2021, my final Sunday as Stated Supply Minister at Knox.  Like so many Advents in the past, this repeated celebration is a combination of memories from the past and promises for the future.  What will make Christmas 2021 unique and special for me in my “journey of faith”?  What will make Christmas 2021 unique and special for you and for those you love?

Let me tell you about mine.

I’m going to go back to tell you about another season of Advent.  It happened in 1979.  I was not in pastoral ministry at that time.  I was a circulation manager for The Windsor Star, the local newspaper for the City of Windsor and southwestern Ontario.  Liz was expecting our third child to probably be born early in the New Year – 1980.

I came home from work early on December 18^th to find Liz going into labour.  We rushed to the hospital and our daughter, Jennifer, burst onto the scene in unexpected and joyful celebration.  That Christmas was unique and special for the birth of our daughter AND the birth of Jesus.

Fast forward to 2021.  Most of you know that our daughter, Jennifer, is expecting her own child – our seventh grandchild.  And who would have ever thought that her child would be born on December 17^th?  That is the expected date of her delivery, one day before her own birthday and just eight days before Christmas.  Another Advent full of celebration and promise.

1. The Inescapable Paradox of Hope

There is an inescapable paradox of hope in my stories today.  Hope is a combination of memories from the past and promises for the future.  On this final Sunday, the first Sunday in Advent 2021, life and faith are at the junction of a past full of accomplishments, relationships, and memories of God’s greatest blessings; and a futured full of promises for the future.

Perhaps it is in God’s good timing that this final Sunday in this phase of my life is the first Sunday in Advent when God’s gives birth his only begotten son and to the birth of new possibilities in the life of faith for you and for me and for those we love.

 

2. “Faith for the Waiting” – Promises for the Future

Like the Psalmist before him, and like every person in every generation since, the Prophet Isaiah asks this inescapable question:

1. “How Long, O Lord?”

Isaiah’s Commission – Isaiah 6:1-11

6 ¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people:

“ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

¹⁰Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

¹¹ Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

These are dire warnings and hard words to accept.  Isaiah answers his question with prophetic words in the 9^th chapter of the same book:

 

Isaiah 9:1-7

9 1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan —

² The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

³ You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you     as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.

⁴ For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them,     the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

⁵ Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called :

 Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

 

2. Advent - A Repeated Preparation

On this first Sunday in Advent we focus on the hope we have in Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, the Messiah.

The Celebration of Advent is not something that is new to us.  Advent is a season of reflection and preparation – a time to remember what God has done in the Incarnation and birth of Jesus.  God has come into this world to love His people and to dwell among us.  Jesus has come to redeem His people and to make us whole.  We remember!

1. Faith for the Waiting

The celebration of Advent is a new beginning.  Advent is a time when the birth of God’s Son, the Messiah, gives birth to new life and faith that inspires and challenges us to step out in faith to follow Him, to live for Him, and to love Him with our whole heart.

I don’t know where you are in your life’s journey and faith.  You may be grateful for the memories of past seasons of Advent and Christmas where the birth of Jesus has deep and important roots in your life as He has lived in you.  Let that faith remind you of God’s gracious love and presence.

You may be struggling with persistent problems including this long pandemic that still impacts our daily living.  Even though God’s presence and power has sustained you through many trials, you may, like the prophet Isaiah and the Psalmist, be asking, “How long, O Lord, how long?”  Let faith in Jesus sustain and keep you through your waiting.

On this first Sunday in Advent, this can be a new beginning.  Billy Graham always concluded his messages with this repeated challenge: “This is the hour of decision!”   Maybe this is your hour of decision.  A time to seize this moment to embrace the Son of God as YOUR Messiah.  A time to truly prepare for this season and let the light shine in the darkness.