First Sunday in Advent
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I’ve mentioned this to a few of you in the last weeks but on Nov. 19 I was invited to be the Chaplain at the UI/WS ROTC ball. It was great. You should be grateful for the quality of the students we have in those programs and be assured that the few we have in this church are the very best of our community.
What struck me at this ball though was the keynote speaker. She spoke for about 15 minutes. 10 of it was her just giving bullet points about stuff the Navy got done over COVID. It was in the purest sense of the word, unbelievable. We shot down drones with lasers, launched the worlds largest air craft carrier into full service and extender their tour of duty 6 times.
Here’s the rub, I’m a Lutheran Pastor, what made her keynote so great is that I am fundamentally interested in things that are already done. The creation of the world, the coming of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus. This commodore listed off things that are already done and it caused two things in my heart 1. Thanksgiving. 2. hope.
Thanksgiving and hope are linked. We give thanks for things that have come and will come about. Christian hope exists because it is grounded in a past event that will bring about a future reality.
I love a good plan. Have you ever tried to visit a popular tourist attraction without a plan? You can try the walkup same day tickets but that garners no hope. Compare that to showing up, tickets in hand and watching people walk away empty handed. You give thanks that you were fortunate and hope your planning paid off.
Paul does this as well: he says a few things in his letter to the Thessalonians, their past together shapes his hopes for their future.
First, look at chapter 2, verses 7-8.
But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
This is their past. Paul talks about how gentle he was amongst that church and he uses that past history to establish his present joy and thanksgiving. Their history together gave him joy that leads to a future reality.
Look at verse 9
For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,
Their life is a life of communal thanksgiving. Paul is writing this letter from Corinth during the year AD 50, he is away from them but is still presently experiencing joy and thanksgiving because of them. Every time we give thanks it is like a piece of heaven falls fresh upon us.
I was telling our bible study that each week when I plan worship I hover over the liturgy for the eucharist and I consider how much I can or should cut out of it. The first thing I would probably cut is the eucharistic prayer. The Lord be with you, and also with you, lift up your hearts - we lift them to the Lord, Let us give thanks to the Lord our God, it is right to give him thanks and praise. Then we pray… It is truly good right and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you holy Lord… and then we list WHY we give thanks.
I always pause as I consider cutting that passage out. Why? because it is so powerful to say that we are thankful. The word Eucharist even means ‘thanksgiving’. We as the church practice and believe that Christ Himself is present in the bread and the wine of Communion. Every Sunday we rehearse and relive the advent of Christ through the eucharist, through thanksgiving, and it is that coming of Christ that gives us and all Christians hope. It is this communal hope that binds us together.
Our gospel reading today may have seemed peculiar. Luke 19 transports us forward four months to Lent, yet it is exactly the reading that we need today. Luke 19 is the triumphal entry of our King of Heaven literally coming down into Jerusalem.
As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
As God comes near people cannot help but give thanks and have hope. This is the story of God and we catch little realities of it every day in our world.
When Jack was just a little baby Natalie finally had the chance to get out for an evening. Jack was still under my watchful eye but as you can all guess- he wanted his mama. We made it a few hours and keep in mind, I need to remind you - he was fine, all his needs WERE ACTUALLY COVERED but he was dissatisfied until Natalie got back home. When she got home he immediately calmed down, and if he could have I am sure he would have said hosanna.
This is how we as the church operate. Our heavenly Father still daily and richly provides for us in body and soul yet we cry out for our king to return. We hope for that, and we know it has happened, and will happen again.
How do we know these things? Because they have already transpired as an assurance of the future.
Was Jesus born of a virgin? Yes - is he the one the prophets waited for? Yes. Did He die in accordance with those same prophecies? Yes. Did he rise? YES. These are good faith deposits that give us hope.
St Paul expresses hope grounded in the same thanksgiving. That the body of Christ will draw near and be consoled in whatever is disturbing their hope:
as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
Friends, I know there are real and earnest doubts in this room about faith. My encouragement to you is that you express those questions and learn to give thanks for the things that we know.
Hope is found in the body of Christ.
Our short little reading in Thessalonians 3 ends in a prayer of hope.
Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.
What this calls for you and I to do is recall all the historical events of God’s providence, the moments where God has charted a path to provide for you and then discover the hope laid in thanksgiving.
Church, this week resolve to have hope, not because it’s a virtue but because our hope is found in real, tangible events that transpired as an assurance for the things yet to come.