Stay Awake!
Sermon for November 28, 2004
1.
Good Morning. Let's Pray.
O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the
meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord our Rock and our
Redeemer. Amen.
2.
Opening Comments: Well today is the first Sunday of Advent and
the predominating theme today is "Peace" and so we lit the
"peace" candle.
We
can hear this theme is our readings.
Listen to the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament reading. "All nations will stream towards the
mountain of the Lord's house; many
peoples shall come and say; "Come, let us climb the Lord's mountain, to
the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways and we may
walk in his paths."
A
little further on he writes, "They shall beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the
sword against another, nor shall they train for war
again. O house of Jacob, come, let us
walk in the light of the Lord!"
What are we hearing here? A time
of war will eventually turn into a time of peace!
This
is what we have to look forward to as the
Guess
who gets to become these "peace bringers?" Yes, us! and our Lord's
prayer is in fact our "battle cry" - "Thy
kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!"
Can you hear the interweaving of two dominant themes in this time of Advent – transformation from a time of war to a time of peace! War and Peace!
Interesting
isn't it that the peace we're heading towards is to the enemy a war but look at
the weapons of our coming King!
·
Look at how
terrifying His visage appears in the manger!
·
Look at the
brutality of our King as He raises Lazarus from the dead!
·
Look at His
terrible power as He hangs crucified and dead on the Cross of Calvary!
Ah! but look at
His majesty as He reigns from the
Throne of God in Heaven "working all things together for those who love
Him and are called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28)
These
are the weapons of our King –
there’re the weapons we're to use in our battle to establish the peace of the
Now
let's turn to the Psalm for
today.
Listen
to David's prayer in this Psalm: "Pray for the peace of
Do you and I really yearn for this
peace? - the peace that
comes only as the
Is
there peace in your family? Is the peace
between you and members of your own family?
What have you done lately to establish this peace?
3. Turning now to the New Testament: Now
something happens when we turn to the New Testament and it was this change that
had me stymied for quite some time over Thanksgiving as I sought to discern
what our Lord's wanted to reveal to us on this first Sunday of Advent.
See
if you can hear a shift and try to discern what this has to do with our theme
of peace.
Listen again to Romans chapter 3 verses 11-14:
"Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation – our time of complete peace - is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let’s then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let’s conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh."
Did
you hear a new theme this time? -"Awake!" "Brothers
and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep!" - But
what does this have to do with "peace?"
Now listen to the Gospel reading: Let's begin
with verse 36 this time:
"But concerning that day and hour no one knows,
not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37. As were the days of Noah, so will the
coming of the Son of Man . . . 42.
Therefore, stay awake, for you don't know on what day your Lord is
coming." Did you
hear it again - "stay awake!"
What does this have to do with "peace?"
What
are we hearing here? Be alert - keep
awake, watch, be alive!
4. So let's stop and think about this.
In
the Old Testament readings we hear our Lord giving us a vision for what
is inevitably coming - a time of "peace" - but in the New
Testament readings we hear Him saying to us - "be ready because this
vision of the future will come to many so suddenly that they won't be ready at
all and will miss it!"
I think our children can give us a hint at the answer to
this puzzle.
How
easy is it to put our children to sleep on Christmas Eve? Not very easy at all is it?
The
anticipation of the gifts under the tree are haunting
and won't let them sleep. The
anticipation is too too strong! How
many of us feel like this as we anticipate the coming of our Lord?
Not
many at all I fear. Why???
We've
grown used to the ongoing passage of time but it's
times like Advent that God Almighty asks us to remember that all of this
including the seemingly eternal “ongoingness” of time
will most certainly come to an end - all of this will most certainly end! And the inescapable question that then begins
to haunt us is - Are we ready? Are we awake?
Now
please turn with me to Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 – It speaks to us about the One
who is coming:
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."
Did you hear that? Jesus Christ,
who in His advent on that first Christmas Day declared war on the king of this
world and on all those who follow him – this warrior King is called the
"Prince of Peace!!!”
Yet when He comes to usher in
this peace some will be taken and some won't - those who aren't ready for
His coming. Those of us who no longer
dream and pray for and sweetly anticipate His glorious coming we will not be
ready and will be left behind! We will
miss Him who is “The Prince of Peace.”
How much time do you and I spend thinking about Him and His final coming? How awake are you and I to our Prince of Peace?
Jesus is calling us today to “stay
awake” – be vigilant and ready for His coming!
The word here translated “stay awake” grhgore÷w and it means “to be in continuous readiness and alertness to
learn — ‘to be alert, to be watchful, to be vigilant!”
How many of us does this describe?
This is the posture of a soldier in
You see this wakefulness is the posture
of a soldier.
We want with all of our hearts to
establish “peace” in
Yes, “watchfulness – being fully alive
in the moment – to be vigilant – not to go to sleep! Not to take our eyes away from our goal!
For Christians this battle has been
raging now for the last 2,000 years – this is nothing new but how many of us
fully grasp that we’re in a war to bring peace not just to Faluga
and Iraq but to the world and this time forever!
And what are we “awake to?”
Ah! That’s the real question isn’t it? - To the Presence of our Princely King – to
the King of Peace – to Jesus Christ!
This is what the First Week of Advent is
reminding us – to remember who we are, what we’re
about and to accomplish we must remain awake – present to – our Prince! To our warrior King!
It's about
remembering isn't it? It’s about not
forgetting!
Last
Sunday we heard the good thief asking our Lord to remember him when he came into His Kingdom! And our Lord promised never to forget him but
even more He promised him that "TODAY" he would be with Him in His
paradise!
This morning! The resurrected Jesus Christ is asking us to remember Him in
His "soon" coming!
How
do we remember Him? How do we “stay
awake to Him?
What
was Jesus speaking about when He said, “Do this in remembrance of me?
and we
will, as we do each and every Sunday, remember Him in His Eucharist!
Luke 22:19 Then he took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do
this in remembrance of me.’
1Cor. 11:24 and after he had given thanks, he broke
it, and he said, ‘This
is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
Yes! The Eucharist – His body broken and His blood shed! This is the most perfect way to remember Him and to stay awake to our Prince of Peace!
In
this Eucharistic remembrance – we remember our King – His death and this His
most glorious resurrection. We remember
that He is the very source of our life and our strength. His body and blood nourish us for the battle
that rages about us!
“Remember
me!” Stay awake to My Presence! Eat my Body and drink My
blood and you will remember me. Listen
to our Lord speaking about this in the 6th chapter of the Gospel of
John:
John 6:50 but this is
the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not
die. 51 I am the living bread
which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.’
John 6:52 Then the
Jews started arguing among themselves, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to
eat?’ 53 Jesus replied to them:
In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Anyone who does eat my flesh and
drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last
day. 55 For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
The
And this morning we’re going to once again come to His
table and “remember” Him and become thereby nourished for the battle to bring
in His Kingdom – the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace! Amen and Amen!
Let’s pray!