Monday, December 3, 2007

People Get Ready

People Get Ready
Isaiah 2:1-5 Matthew 24:36-44
December 2, 2007 Alan Claassen
First Sunday of Advent

My family celebrated Thanksgiving at our favorite place in the Columbia River Gorge, Skamania Lodge. It is a grand place with a fantastic view of the river, a large stone fireplace, and excellent food. Our memories in that place go back to when our children were in grade school. One year our daughter, Lauryn, even wore her Halloween costume, which happened to be a Pilgrim outfit, to the Thanksgiving Dinner.
I am always amazed and yet not surprised that every time we travel in the Gorge we hear the sound of trains, the whistles, the roll of the iron wheels along the tracks, and the serpentine of cars connecting east to west, west to east.
And thinking of trains reminds of a line from Will Rogers, a story from Oliver Wendell Holmes, and a song. And fortunately for me they all tie in with Advent.
Will Rogers’ line:
“Even if you are on the right track, if you are not moving, you are going to get run over.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes’ story.
As Justice Holmes saw the train conductor approaching asking for passengers’ tickets, he began to search his pockets for his own train ticket. By the time the conductor got to his seat, Justice Holmes he was quite flustered saying, “I am sorry, Mr. Conductor, but I can’t seem to find my ticket.”
“Oh, Justice Holmes, that’s quite alright. I can trust you.”
To which Justice Holmes replied,” I appreciate your trust, Mr. Conductor, but you see the problem is, without that train ticket, I don’t know where I am going. My destination is printed on the ticket.”
And the song?
People get ready, there’s a train a’coming. Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.”

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Christmas, like a train, is approaching, is a’coming. The journey we take to get to Christmas is the Season of Advent. The literal meaning of Advent is “toward the coming.”
What is coming?
Which track are we on this year? How are we going to balance
the switching back and forth from the sacred to the commercial dimensions,
switching back and forth from the joyful and the sad dimensions,
switching back and forth from the desire for peace in a time of war and the never ending and never resolved desire for peace in the Middle east,
switching back and forth between the Biblical call to wait for the Lord, and the commercial call to buy it all now.
Do we know ahead of time what our destination is, and can we stay on track through all the temptations and opportunities that this season presents to us?
Are we moving forward on the track or are we going to get run over by the huge machinery of media advertising telling us how concerned they are about retailers having a good year, as if it’s our patriotic duty to go buy things.

To put all of that in a positive light,
this is the season of ever-increasing light,
as we gather each Sunday of this season, light another candle, seeking God’s kingdom first, we choose a destination that places us by a manger, a mother, and an anticipated Messiah. With that destination in mind we can keep moving on the right track, we can make this a time of continuing the gratitude that helps us rest in the grace of the world.
Let that be our prayer and our intention as we begin this season.
But I want to get back to that anticipated Messiah.
A few years ago I was teaching Comparative Religions at Clackamas Community College. One day we had a young Oregon State Student as our guest speaker. His long-range plan was to become a rabbi, and it was very interesting to hear what he had to say.

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One of the new concepts I found most interesting was the idea of tikkun olam, the earth in balance. An imagined time when the entire world will be in a state of peace and justice.
We need not look to any distant past to see a time when the earth was so out of balance and in need of divine intervention as these days we are living in now.
From this young pre-rabbinical student I learned there are two ideas related to the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah and this tikkun olam or earth in balance, this peaceable kingdom.
One is that the Messiah will make the peaceable kingdom happen.
The other is that the Messiah will come when we have achieved it, arriving saying, “At last, you got it. You did it.”
Well, who’s it going to be, God or us?
O Come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, ransom captive Palestine, captive Darfur, captive Afghanistan, captive United States of America
O Come, O come Desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all humankind.
Bid thou our sad divisions cease and be thyself our King of peace.
This, this is the destination of this hopeful train. Have we forgotten where we are going? Do we, like Justice Holmes need to look at our ticket again?
Well, how would we act if we really thought the Messiah was going to come at any moment? Wouldn’t we clean up our act? Heavens, we clean up our house when we have company coming over, what would we do if we thought the Messiah was coming to dinner? Wouldn’t we treat one another as we want to be treated? Even in our disagreements? Is the anticipation of the Messiah enough to cause us to radically evaluate our choices, actions, and intentions? If only we could get enough people to anticipate and change at the same time, what a glorious world this would be.
If only I could live me life, keep my life on the track whose destination is the peaceable kingdom, the earth in balance, if only I could beat the life-denying swords of my life into plowshares that turn over the soil to plant seeds of new life.
Who is it going to be, God or me? How can I make it God and Me?

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People get ready, there’s a train a’coming. Don’t need no ticket. Just Thank the Lord.
And get on board.
This is what Advent is for me. It is a time of switching back and forth from the tracks of already and not yet, of ultimate dependence and humble responsibility, of worrying about what I am going to give, and just being grateful for what I have been given.
Jesus has come, we know what he said and did, we know we what are supposed to do, and we know the program. And yet, we look around and see the violence and the injustice and we know this is not the destination God had in mind.
Globally we are on the wrong track. And so we long for something different than what we see. How will lay down our weapons, our fears, our ignorance and find solutions to end hunger and homelessness? Is that a dream like a child wishing for a shiny red bike?
Advent is a time for asking, deeply asking, what is it that we long for?
Advent is a time of asking, “What are we waiting for?”
And the question has a couple of meanings depending where the emphasis is placed.
What are we waiting for?
Just listen to some of the passages from the Book of Isaiah that are read and heard during the season of Advent.
Isaiah 2: 1-5: waiting for peace with the call to learn war no more.
Isaiah 11: 1-10: waiting for an ideal King who will rule with justice and equity for the poor
Isaiah 40: 1-11: waiting for a way to end the exile and return home and find joy again
Isaiah 61: 1-11: waiting for the Spirit of God’s anointed one who will bring good news to the poor, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and release to prisoners.
If this is what we are waiting for it will greatly influence the decisions we make.

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What are waiting for? We are on the right track, but let’s get moving! Let’s get on Christ’s Express and fill Santa’s sack for the poor. Let’s share our wealth with others. Let’s make peace. Let’s be compassion. “Don’t have a cow, buy one!” “Kick that consumer habit buy a little bunny rabbit.” (For the Heifer Project) Whatever you can do, do it now. Boldness has hope in it.
Advent is a time of living out the wise saying,
“Act as if everything depends on you, pray as if everything depends on God.”

I want to commend you for coming to this station this morning.
It is a most amazing thing that you all are doing by simply being here this morning.
Waiting. Hoping. Singing. Praying. Taking action to bring the peaceable kingdom a little closer to home
You know, and you desire something sacred about this time of year. Even though this is the darkest hour, you see and desire to be, the returning light, because nothing can hold back the dawn. You affirm in the place, in this season your hope for humanity.
You have your seats on the Advent train.
This journey is going to take us by some most amazing and incredible sights.
The anticipation of God being with us and eradicating all injustice.
The prophets warning that when we mistreat the poor we break the covenant we made with God.
The vision of the lion laying down with the lamb,
the angelic visits to a pregnant-peasant-girl, to an old couple,
to shepherds.
In the midst of poverty, God chooses to be born.
And for us it begins today, with the Lord’s Supper. The Great Thanksgiving. The Great Gratitude.
As we come to the table of grace in the world I would like to ask you to think about this. It is something written by a friend of a friend of mine, Esther Armstrong.
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“This year I am struggling. This year I am troubled. For I believe that this season of Advent is calling me into that which feels absurd, impossible, and even dangerous.
This year...
I am not waiting for the baby Jesus, though that would be a lot more comfortable and safer. But baby Jesus has already been born. He grew up, died, and is risen.
I am not waiting for the Kingdom of God to come, though it would be easier if waiting was all that is asked of me. But it isn’t.
This year...
The Kingdom of God is waiting for me, and I suspect for you, to take on more fully the character of Jesus.
This means I will: Voluntarily relinquish my need to control and my sense of entitlement.
Let go and be delivered of my insatiable appetite for more and my need for security.
I will seek to
Bring justice to all nations
Live in harmony with all God’s creation,
Set the captives free,
Shine a light in the darkness
Put my life on the line for peace.
This year...
The kingdom of God is waiting for me, and all God’s people, to be non-violent, forgiving, honest, humble, compassionate, and loving.
God is waiting.
And so this Advent I will pray for courage to “live” Jesus, while I hold onto the promises that God has come, God will come again, God will bring deliverance and justice, and the world will be born anew through God’s people.”
And so we say to Will Rogers, we are on the right track and we are moving.
And we say to Oliver Wendell Holmes, we know the destination.
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And we sing along with Curtis Mayfield, People get ready, there’s a train a’coming.
Don’t need no ticket, you just jump on board.
And our Advent train is going to make a lot of stops this season:
it began when the little elves of the church began decorating our sanctuary,
and it will continue through our worship services and the lighting of our Advent Candles,
this afternoon’s workshop when we will decorate the Christmas tree and sing carols,
ringing the Bell for Peace on Wednesday,
next Sunday’s focus on empowering people around the world to care for themselves through the work of the Heifer Project,
caroling for our homebound members next Sunday evening,
listening the beautiful music that the Choir will present on the third Sunday of Advent, hearing the children present to us a Christmas Story produced by our own resident storyteller, Cynthia Restivo, on the fourth Sunday of Advent,
and I hear that we may be having a special guest on Christmas Eve.
We have received word that one of the shepherds who was watching his flocks by night is going to be visiting us THIS Christmas Eve.
People get ready there is a train a coming.
Don’t need no ticket, just Thank the Lord.
What are we waiting for?
Let’s sing!
Come, thou long expected Jesus.