Today is the first Sunday of Advent…Are you ready??
For Christmas? No…I mean for Christ’s return!
In some ways I think I feel more prepared for Christ’s return than I do for Christmas!! I don’t feel at all ready for celebrating Christmas, I have a few little presents and I did get around to making the cake last weekend, but in my mind I’m certainly not ready…it feels like it will arrive much too quickly!
Why do I feel more prepared for Christ’s return? Because I don’t need to rush around ‘doing’ things, it’s more about making sure I just keep walking in faith with him every day, keeping my eyes on Jesus, following him and his expectations rather than the pressures and expectations of the world!
While advent calendars count down to Christmas, and there is a sense of celebratory anticipation (or stress!) as most in the secular world prepare for Christmas, advent in the Church calendar is actually more about preparing for Christ’s return and as we heard in our Matthew reading that may involve some judgement and warnings that not all will be rejoicing on the day of Christ’s return if they have not put their faith in him. Not quite in line with the prevailing mood of Christmas when we celebrate Christ’s first coming to earth!
And while an advent calendar will count down the 25 days to the day we celebrate Christ’s birth, we cannot count down the days when Jesus will return. We cannot wait until the final month before he returns to start getting ready, because Jesus says that:
“About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the sun, but only the father.”
Jesus says that even he doesn’t know when he will return.
So, we need to be ready always, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
We just need to believe that Christ will come again, we declare this in our creed each week, we need to be ready by following him, but we do not need to waste time as some have over the years speculating over the exact time and season he will return. Or spend time contemplating non-biblical terms like the ‘rapture’ or millennialism etc. We need to trust that God knows the perfect timing, just like when he chose to send Jesus for the first time over 2000 years ago.
We do not need to be afraid, just like our joyous anticipation of celebrating Christmas and the birth of Jesus, we should look with joy to his second coming.
In the book of Isaiah, we read prophesies that we can link with the birth and death of Jesus. But some prophesies like the words we heard this morning from Isaiah 2, seem to look beyond that to a time when God’s Kingdom will be fully established here on earth and the world will be transformed.
A time with no more conflict between nations, no more wars, and swords and spears can be turned into plowshares and pruning hooks. Nuclear war heads can be turned into positive energy that can’t be used for destruction.
This is something to look forward to with joy! And in the book of Revelation, we read of a time with no more, tears or pain or mourning.
So, what do we need to do be ready for Jesus’ return? Or as one commentator suggested, to be ready if we die before he returns. We don’t know the day or hour when that might happen either and it is most probable to be before Jesus returns!
Especially as we get older, we know things come up and surgery becomes more tricky…like Erna and open-heart surgery, and my husband Michael with emergency perforated gall bladder surgery yesterday! We need to be ready, walking with the Lord…
So as Isaiah says:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord…”
In biblical times, mountains where were people met God, think of Moses going up the mountain to meet with God. Other religions worshipped their foreign gods in the ‘high places’. Jesus would go up a mountain to pray.
I often experience a closeness to God when I am up a mountain, especially if I have a view of God’s amazing and beautiful creation. It causes me to worship him. But we know God meets with us wherever we are.
Isaiah begins by acknowledging that in the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
Isaiah envisions the day when one ‘holy mountain’ will stand supreme – reducing all others to utter insignificance…like Paul who talks about the return of Jesus in Philippians 2; Note he also mentions ‘the highest place!’
Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.
One day Jesus will return, and all will kneel before him…
In the meantime, we need to walk with him and learn his ways.
Isaiah says that as we go to the mountain, God will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths. We are to follow his law, listen to his word that goes forth.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, Jesus is the word, and he will teach us through the Holy Spirit who he sent to live in us.
We are to follow in his ways. If we do this, we will be ready to meet him, either at the time of our own death, or when he returns.
It’s the same message you will have continually heard Sunday by Sunday…love God and love others!
Worship God alone, above all else. Remember he is the one to be worshipped and adored. Keep close, keep talking with your heavenly Father who loves you, Jesus your saviour and friend who laid down his life for you and longs to bless you with abundant life, keep in step with the Spirit. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you up daily, to guide you, to comfort you, to give you strength and courage for each day, boldness to share God’s love with others.
Live as Christ modelled for us, welcoming all, loving and helping the poor, the outcast, the sinner.
Live as the prophet Micah says, as we have been shown…
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
In chapter 4 of Micah, we read a very similar passage to Isaiah 2…almost identical regarding the establishment of the highest mountain, the call to go up the mountain of the Lord to learn to walk in his ways and the hope for the future where there will be no more swords or training for war.
We too live in this hope today (we lit the hope candle for the first of advent this morning), looking forward with joy to the final return of Jesus and the establishment of God’s Kingdom to reign forever. A time when we can live in peace and love and joy.
But even today, here, and now, while there is not peace in the world, we can live with God’s peace that passes all understanding in our hearts every day.
Being filled with his peace will assure us of our readiness for Christ’s return.
So, I encourage you to go up the mountain, whatever, wherever that is for you…go regularly and spend time with the Lord so you will walk closely, growing in his ways every day.
May this advent be a time not of rushed stressed Christmas preparations, or worrying about the rapture, but rather a time of drawing near to God and learning from him, for there is always more for us to learn and grow as we spend time with the Lord!
Let us overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:13). Let that hope spill out to those we meet that they may also be ready for the Lord’s return and live in peace and abundant life with Jesus today.
May we look forward with anticipation, hope and joy to the day we meet Jesus face to face (whether that is on his return or when we die) where he will welcome us and he will reign with peace forever more…
Let us worship Jesus, the Prince of Peace, our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, and Everlasting Father.
Come, descendants of Jacob, children of God, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
Let us pray…