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<\/a>Year A, Advent 1<\/p>\n
December 1st<\/sup>, 2013<\/p>\n Isaiah 2:1-5<\/a> and Matthew 24:36-44<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Riding Out the Flood<\/strong><\/p>\n Isaiah presents this beautiful image of peace and my heart stirs with longing.\u00a0 \u201cIn the days to come the mountain of the Lord\u2019s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.\u201d\u00a0 Ah, if that could happen, what a wonderful thing it would be! \u00a0People would be streaming in the same direction and there would be no problems between them.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cMany peoples shall come and say, \u2018Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t that feel wonderful?\u00a0 Picture it, many peoples coming together not to throw somebody out, put somebody down, or maintain power over someone but to go up together to that which is higher than us all.\u00a0\u00a0 It reminds me of the new pope\u2019s message that is spreading hope and joy throughout the world.\u00a0 What if instead of streaming toward the mall on Black Friday, hoping to placate our restlessness and losses with the acquisition of things; we stream toward living as followers of Jesus?\u00a0 All of this feels very Advent like.<\/p>\n Brian McLaren in his newest book, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?<\/span>, writes:<\/p>\n \u201cIn Advent, we celebrate the coming of Christ as the prince of peace<\/span>.\u00a0 We cultivate a longing for peace.\u00a0 We highlight the bright promise of his coming\u2014good news of great joy for all peoples<\/span> everywhere\u2014against the dark realities of our world.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Isaiah sees someone coming who \u201cjudges between the nations and arbitrates for many people\u201d.\u00a0 This one coming fixes the world\u2019s inequalities, undercuts the rivalries and jealousies and stops the violence.\u00a0 Isaiah sees the one coming as providing a way for the human species to \u201cbeat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks\u201d.\u00a0 This coming one makes it possible for \u201cnation to not<\/span> pick up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.\u201d\u00a0 Is this Isaiah\u2019s wild dream or is Jesus the coming one who has already come?\u00a0 Will he come again to complete what he has begun and fulfill Isaiah\u2019s dream?\u00a0\u00a0 In Advent we join together to say to each other and before God, \u201cYes, he will come.\u00a0 We believe this and prepare!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0As we wait we comfort ourselves in these short, dark days, by gathering in his light and warmth.<\/p>\n In Year \u201cA\u201d Matthew\u2019s reference to the story of Noah and the Ark provides the vehicle for exploring the meaning of Advent.\u00a0 It\u2019s a strange way to begin preparation for Christmas.<\/p>\n The story of Noah and the Ark is an ancient story, older than the Bible itself, and it tells about a flood that engulfed the whole earth, though Noah, his family and all the animals were saved\u2014my grandchildren would be greatly relieved to know the animals also were saved.\u00a0 While the story talks about water and the whole world becoming covered with it, I think they were actually talking about the problem of violence, of humans fighting with each other; floods of fighting that engulf everything and all life gets sucked into it.\u00a0 When this happens people destroy each other and the earth and God sees it and feels very sad.\u00a0 God loves all his children, every one of them, even when they don\u2019t love each other and it breaks his heart to see what we do.<\/p>\n Our fights and wars are like floods that overwhelm us and destroy much of the progress we make and happiness we want and work so hard for.\u00a0 After each flood of destruction we settle down a bit until tensions build again and then again we find ourselves engulfed.\u00a0 As we look at history we see that we go through cycles of ruin endlessly; or at least until Jesus comes at the end of the age.<\/p>\n The story of the flood begins with, \u201cThe LORD saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.\u201d\u00a0 At the time of the flood, culture was again disintegrating and everywhere violence and evil were breaking out.\u00a0 It could be our age, it could be Noah\u2019s, it could be any.\u00a0 This is a story depicting the human problem.<\/p>\n In the story God steps in and asks Noah to build an ark to save himself, his family and the animals.\u00a0 He seems to be afraid that we will destroy ourselves completely.\u00a0 Even here we see a glimmer of God\u2019s feeling toward us when we answer this question.\u00a0 Where was Noah, his family and the animals when the flood hit?\u00a0 They were in the ark and they were safe.\u00a0 This is what God wants for us\u2013the same image we see in Isaiah\u2019s dream. \u00a0He wants us to be safe from the terrible havoc we bring on ourselves and each other.<\/p>\n When the flooding was over, Noah opened the door and everyone piled out onto dry land.\u00a0\u00a0 Will humans with this fresh start learn from their experience and stop the fighting and violence?\u00a0 No, our biggest problem continues and so God sends his only Son Jesus to show us a way out of our fighting-addiction.\u00a0 He wants Jesus to show us a new way.\u00a0 He wants Jesus to be our ark, the boat that holds us as the flood of fighting continues engulfing the earth.<\/p>\n On the cross and with the resurrection Jesus has begun the process that will end the fighting.\u00a0 That process continues today and in the midst of our \u201csecular\u201d world, hidden like yeast silently working and, in Advent we wait in hope as we build our lives on the foundation of this coming peace.<\/p>\n On the cross, Jesus became the one exposed to our violence.\u00a0 All others were swept up in the flood of it. The violence washed over Jesus, and he drowned in it. \u00a0He became as helpless as those who \u201cknew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away.\u201d\u00a0 In being swept away, he showed us the meaning of the flood and we discover it for what it is.\u00a0 And then in the midst of it, and by the power of God, his tomb becomes his ark.\u00a0 Like Noah and the animals he remains in its shelter for three days and then leaves it behind, empty, like an ark on dry land, having spilled forth new and renewing life.\u00a0 We are that new life and live in its grace.\u00a0 He arose as the Forgiving Victim of all those swept up in the flood<\/span>.\u00a0 God\u2019s power of Resurrection pulls him through the clutches of the death we impose on him and shows us God\u2019s determination to reach us with his forgiving love.<\/p>\n While still living in the time of repentance, our current age, the age before Jesus comes again, we can\u2019t stop the flood of violence in which our world is awash.\u00a0 But we can seek refuge in Jesus our ark and join him in refraining from the fighting and violence around us.\u00a0 We are those who resist joining the flood.<\/p>\n Living in faith, we do not get carried away by the waters threatening to engulf us even though we too are impacted by them.\u00a0 And we know that someday the floods will stop and we will disembark on dry land.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know when that day will be.\u00a0 We only know it will come.\u00a0 It will come like \u201ca thief in the night\u201d breaking into the house of our life as usual.\u00a0 In Advent we remind ourselves to stay awake, and live in hope.\u00a0 \u201cThe Son of Humanity is coming at an unexpected hour.\u201d\u00a0 He comes bringing his peace toward us.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A, Advent 1 December 1st, 2013 Isaiah 2:1-5 and Matthew 24:36-44 Riding Out the Flood Isaiah presents this beautiful image of peace and my heart stirs with longing.\u00a0 \u201cIn the days to come the mountain of the Lord\u2019s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,104,107,137,145,176,200],"class_list":["post-867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-flood","tag-isaiah","tag-jesus","tag-nonviolence","tag-peace","tag-sermon","tag-tom-truby"],"yoast_head":"\n