December 1, 2002 - First Sunday of Advent - Father Armand Kreft

THE FIRST READING: ISAIAH 64: 1-9

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence-as the fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil-to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways. But you were angry, and we sinned; because you hid yourself we transgressed. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, or attempts to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

PSALM 80: 1-7

1 Hear O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up your strength and come to help us.

3 Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angered despite the prayers of your people?

5 You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have given them bowls of tears to drink.

6 You have made us the derision of our neighbors, and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

THE SECOND READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 1: 3-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you-so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

THE HOLY GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO MARK (13: 24-37)

Jesus said, "In those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know the summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake-for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake."

Well, I have been here long enough to take some direction from the Rector. I am going to start my sermon with a song. But, unlike the Rector, I am not going to sing it.

Praise be to God!

One of my favorite non-Episcopal hymns that I go around my house singing starts out with:

This could be the dawning of that grand and glorious day, when the face of Jesus we behold.

The dreams and hopes of all the ages are awaiting his returning, and this could be the dawning of that day.

If you have listened to the lessons for the past several weeks, and now beginning our Advent season, they are calling for the arrival, not of a baby in a manger, but a full, risen, glorious Savior, returning in majesty, known to us as the Second Coming. And we Christians have been awaiting this ever since our Lord told us that this would happen. For us, then, Advent is, indeed, a season of expectations - expectations of ourselves, of others, of the Church, and of the Messiah.

The Protestant denomination, the Seventh Day Adventists, was founded because their leader called them to expect the end of the world on a certain date in 1844. And they all gathered, and they waited . . . . . . . and they waited . . . . and they waited.

Well, as far as I know, it just didn't happen!!! In their history books, this is called "The Great Disappointment"; and yet, they regrouped and now look towards the future demise of the world and the Rapture to come, but not with a specific date in mind. And this denomination has gone on to become leaders in health care and social justice; so, even out of their unmet expectations, they were able to get beyond their initial disappointment to regroup and move forward.

So many of us have expectations that we do not share with others, and, when we don't share our expectations, they simply cannot be met. Only we know when we have been disappointed by our unmet expectations. If our expectations are not brought out into the light of day - if they are not spoken - then we set ourselves up for sabotage and disappointment - in the Church, ourselves, others, and with God. Our disappointment usually turns to anger at the object of our expectations, which usually comes as a complete surprise to them! Many of us expect the Church to be a prominent part of our lives.

St. Paul's is a gathering place for a remarkable group of people, all with different lifestyles, different philosophies of life, different gifts, and different expectations. St. Paul's is not a refuge from the world. It is not a retreat. It is an advancement of the world as we Christians view it. St. Paul's is real. These walls represent prayers of generations of people, but we are not the New Jerusalem. We are not even the Promised Land. We cannot take away the hurts and the inequities of the world. We cannot take your personal problems away. We can, however, offer them to God as a body, joined together with the common expectation of the Second Coming of Jesus, and, until then, of His total accepting love for us.

At St. Paul's, we have been given an opportunity where we can disagree with one another. This is one of the great strengths of this Parish and of the Episcopal Church, as a whole. For me, it would be terribly boring if we all sat around with beatific smiles on our faces, agreeing to the difficult issues of life, but the Church will not protect you from the harsh realities of the world or your personal life. It will offer you a place where you can struggle with your life along with others who share a common journey.

To fantasize about winning the lottery, a better life, meeting your one great love, or, for some of us, becoming the first American Archbishop of Canterbury . . . . Well, you know, that is lots of fun, but it may not be rooted in reality! If our fantasies then become our expectations, we will be disappointed. No one and not one thing can fulfill expectations based on fantasy. Rob Voile, who is the interim Dean of the Cathedral in Portland and also the instructor of appreciative inquiry counseling, states: "Your focus becomes your reality." So, whatever we focus our lives upon becomes our reality.

Expectations of the Savior - Jesus is our Savior; Jesus is our Lover; Jesus is not a fantasy. Jesus was real; He is real. And we have been redeemed and saved by His crucifixion and His resurrection. We, too, will be with Him in glory one day when we see Him face-to-face. This is the Christian expectation. Jesus lived in our world. That is an historical fact. Jesus was in the world. Jesus experienced all the daily events of His life that would equal our daily life experiences today. We know that Jesus experienced hunger, loneliness, anxiety, loss, sexuality, and anger - all the human emotions that we experience. He went through them just as we are expected to go through them, as well. Jesus had at His command the entire heavenly hosts to do His bidding. He could have removed Himself from this earthly existence. Instead, He chose to enter into our life, to experience the realities of it, to sanctify our lives, by giving Himself for us through ordinary sustenance. We remember that at every Eucharist, and, yet, we need to remember that at every meal, at every encounter. Jesus makes our lives holy, and, just as Jesus experienced daily life, so, too, are we expected to experience it. If we expect Jesus to provide us with an easy way through this life, we will, in fact, be disappointed. Yes, we can and do expect miracles in our lives. I certainly do. Miracles are real if you open yourselves to them, but miracles do not take away our own divine commission - to make our own way through our own individual lives, within our own unique circumstances. Jesus will be there to guide us, but Jesus will not make up our minds for us. Our expectations of the Messiah must be based on reality, and that is the reality that Jesus can see our lives, and we can see our lives through Jesus' eyes. He allows us to refocus our vision.

Do you remember, two weeks ago, I was about to preach on financial risk, and the stock market bounded? Well, I am going to preach about rain right now, and, thankfully, it rained this week! Here is an example. If we are driving through the rain, and our vision becomes blurred by the raindrops on the windshield, we turn on the wipers. We do not concentrate on the wipers unless they don't work. We expect the wipers to clear our vision so we can see the road ahead. So, too, is our expectation of the Messiah. Jesus clears away the raindrops so we can see the road ahead. Jesus does not always stop the rain.

So, how can we, like those in 1844, experience our great disappointments and turn our lives around once again to be filled with hope and longing for the future? What happens with our own unmet expectations? We must begin by finally telling the truth to ourselves and to others we may have hurt, knowing that our disappointment stems from our fantasies. Telling the truth is the first step to forgiveness. We need to forgive those who have disappointed us - to realize that we had fantasies rather than realistic expectations, and that, if your expectations had not been spoken, they couldn't possibly have been met. It is unfair to all involved if we hide our expectations. Secondly, we need to forgive ourselves - forgive ourselves for being too timid to voice those expectations, to forgive ourselves for confusing fantasies with reality, and, with that forgiveness will come a larger strength, a firmer base upon which to build true expectations of our Church, our Messiah, of others, and of ourselves.

But simply going through the motions of forgiving or accepting forgiveness will not get us very far. We must squarely face our feelings and tell someone so we are no longer alone with our guilt. Then, if there is a possibility for repair and reconciliation without further hurt, we must make that repair. In this concrete way, we can be genuinely forgiven and fully accept forgiveness, and, when we have had a spiritual experience such as this, we will mature and gain the ability to forgive others.

So far, I have talked only about our expectations. It is not one-sided. Jesus has expectations of us, as does the Church. In our vows at Baptism, we vowed to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior. We vowed to continue in the Apostle's teaching and fellowship, in breaking bread, and in the prayers. We vowed to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. If you were here two weeks ago, you will remember that I quoted from the Prayer Book of New Zealand: "Be prepared to be what you proclaim." Jesus expects us to follow Him through our actions and our hearts. Jesus does not expect us to be perfect, which should come as a relief to most of us! However, He does expect us to make a good try in upholding our Baptismal vows. And these are not hidden expectations; these are spoken expectations. So we get a choice of whether or not we want to meet them.

St. Paul's expects us to be part of community by being involved in the ministries and participating in the life of the Parish. In the past, you have been extremely generous with your participation, your volunteering, and with your money. To call yourself a member of this Parish means that you care about what and how St. Paul's does her ministry. To call yourself a member of this Parish means that you want to have a say, a vote, on how we proceed to usher in the Kingdom of God. Along with these rights, you have a responsibility to ensure that St. Paul's continues in the high quality of ministry for which we are known. The Church of St. Paul then expects that you will contribute your time and your money to allow those whom you have entrusted to serve and lead you in doing the job that is expected of them, as well as to allow us to expand our vision here in Palm Springs, to reach out to those who have yet to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ or to know the embracing arms of the St. Paul's community. And these are not hidden expectations; these are now spoken expectations of you; and, in a few minutes, you will have a chance, a choice, on how you will respond to them.

We believe that God wants and desires the best possible life for us. Our expectations of that life need to be rooted in the promise of Jesus that He will never forsake us, even in our most bitter disappointments. This is the Advent season of our expectations. Along with the expectations come preparations for those expectations to be met. Let us prepare ourselves through forgiveness and acceptance to expect the best for us and from others. We have a chance, again, to look for the coming of the Savior, to re-gather our expectations, to ground them in faith and reality.

Another non-Episcopal hymn that I go around my house singing:

The King is coming! The King is coming!

I can hear the trumpets sound.

And, now, His face I see.

The King is coming! The King is coming!

Praise God He is coming for me.

AMEN