1 st Sunday of Advent

November 30, 2003

All Saints Lutheran Church

Pastor Tim Johnson

Text: Luke 21:25-36

“ God's Time”

One of the biggest challenges for anyone in life is to keep the faith in times of adversity—when things aren't going like you want them to go, when you have to dig deep to keep living like you know you need to, even when things are dim.

Advent causes us to think about how we are to live faithfully even in seasons of adversity. According to the Bible, living with adversity is a reality of living in-between what we hope for and what is.

Advent is this strange time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even the ads over the past couple of days can't decide whether this is post-Thanksgiving or pre-Christmas. So do we shop out of the thankfulness of thanksgiving? Or, do we find the deals in anticipation of what's coming—Christmas?.

If you look at the first pages of the gospels, you'll see something about in-between living. In there, you'll hear the unfolding story that exists between the promise of the messiah and the actual coming of the messiah. In the weeks ahead, we hear the cries of John the Baptist and others to prepare the way of the Lord. Live your life, in other words, with the full expectation that God in the flesh is about to show up, and of course, God does in the Christmas Child.

The good thing about living two thousand years after the birth of Jesus is that we know that God kept his promises that he spoke through his prophets, and that God did send His Son in order to bring salvation to our human family, and that Jesus did live the life that is now our way and our truth and our life! And that he died a death that fully paid the price for your sins and mine.

So we know the story about the promise and about Christmas and about Easter. But, it's still not over. Because God has not yet brought into complete fullness his plan for humanity, which is our finally being fully united with him and with one another in a new age—a place and a time where there will be no more mourning or crying or death or despair. No more adversity.

We live in a time that hasn't yet experienced the healing we so desperately need. For, this is the time that is in-between Christ's resurrection and his return.

And, so we are faced with the question of how to live faithfully in this time adversity. As Christians, we have a unique calling to trust God as we live in this in-between time. “I will fulfill the promise I made…” [1] says God through the prophet Jeremiah. So, what does it mean to believe and trust in that promise and then live accordingly?

The way I see it, you and I are often times, short-sighted. We only remember yesterday's pain and anticipate the uncertainty of tomorrow. “We crucify ourselves between two thieves,” said one man [2] “:regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow,”

Unfortunately, we fall victim to believing that what defines life for us today will not change tomorrow. Or, we get so focused in on the limitations or the dangers or the adversities that surround us that we forget God is in the picture and that when God is a part of things, “all things are possible.”

Did you hear what Jesus said, that it's all going to look like?: “distress among nations…people faint from fear…powers of the heavens being shaken. [3] ” Isn't that the way life feels sometimes, like we're surrounded only by the things that terrorize us—like our dismay over war and violence, abroad and even in our own homes, or our once-safe hometowns that find themselves out looking for abducted students.

When all of these things are unraveling around us, what does the Lord tell us to do? To cower in fear? To run and hide? To give up?

NO! Jesus says “When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. [4] ” In other words, don't give up! It's not the end of the story yet! We already know the final score. The victory is ours in Christ Jesus! God is victorious! And, we are God's children, promised the fullness of His kingdom and a sure place in his household!

“How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none.” [5] So, keep your head held high!

The second aspect of living in the in-between time is to remain faithful to God's calling. All too often, when things don't go our way, we give up. When adversity comes, we forget that God has been faithful to us in the past and that God will be faithful to us yet again.

In our faith lives, we can go through a season of deep faithfulness in our journey, where we really perceive and experience the goodness of God, and we feel great. Have anyone ask us about our faith, and we're more than happy to tell them our story.

But have things fall apart and not go like we had expected, and then see where our faith really lies. All too often, it lies with our own visions for how God ought to be God, and about how our lives ought to look as people of faith.

Just as God remains faithful to us, so too we are called to remain faithful to God. As a former president once said, “God trusts us to make the best use of the time we have, to try to live like Jesus and to make our lives meaningful and beneficial to others no matter where we are." [6]

Time is important. And time is in short supply.

Dwight L. Moody, the famous preacher, found himself on a ship just after having been told by his doctor that he had better be taking it easy, as his heart was beginning to play tricks on him. He was to have held a huge revival in Chicago , which he promptly canceled and headed home. On the way, the ship developed engine trouble and wound up drifting helplessly out of the main traffic lanes. As the days passed, the chances of the ship's being spotted grew dimmer.

  One of those dark days Moody was standing by the ship's rail, and thinking about time and how much of it he had left, or possibly, how little. And he vowed to God that if he could be given a little more time, he would devote it not to a purely restful, easy retirement, but to the things that he could do for God, and that was, for him, the preaching of the gospel.

The ship was rescued, and Moody's time back in Chicago was so huge and so blessed of God that the World's Fair being held there had to be closed down on Sundays—as they had no customers. When faced with adversity, God proved faithful in helping Moody to stand up and fulfill his purpose in life. [7]

Many of us struggle with how to spend our time. John the Baptist lived with a deep urgency. Jesus had that same mindfulness that had him serve God right up to the end. The early church also acted with urgency. Time is important. After all, time is in short supply.

But I wonder, often times, about the value of those pursuits we spent so much of this precious time pursuing. If you knew that you had but a week to live, what would your choices be? And, how different would those choices be in comparison with how you spend your time now?

Another way to ask the question is, how much of your time is spent on things of eternal significance?

As I talk with people, it seems pretty evident that we often spend far more energies on temporal things that drain us and fragment our families than on what is good for us. I'm always struck, as I talk with our 9 th graders at the end of confirmation, at how the majority of them describe their over-involvement in extracurricular activities as being a life-diminishing experience. And, I wonder if we've thought enough about the kind of lives we're encouraging and modeling for our kids…if we pause frequently enough to consider whether God might be calling us to spend our time differently.

The third thing for us to learn about living in the in-between time, the already but not yet, is to seize and act upon God's timing for life.

Most of us order our days by “Chronos” time—time that is measured by the ticking of the clock. It's calendar time. The call, of course, to use it faithfully. Like one man said, “Time is life--nothing more, nothing less. The way you spend your hours and your days is the way you spend your life. [8] This is the “daily planner” approach to time.

But there's another dimension time— Kairos time. God's time. Kairos time is that experience of life that transcends Chronos time. Sometimes it's described as a unique moment that is fraught with great opportunity. A time that begs that you live fully, sacrificially, generously, faithfully.

One of the most powerful ways that I've experienced God's kairos time over the years can best be described as a “ministry of interruptions.” I get my day set, my agenda determined, my hours planned, and lo and behold, God has a different idea. It's usually, though not always, something that happens through an unexpected encounter, some visit or exchange that was totally unplanned, and I come to see the fingerprint of God upon it.

Early in my ministry, I must say that I could get frustrated by these people or events that would disrupt me from my real work. “Don't they know I have a sermon to write or confirmation to teach.” But God gently taught me that these moments—these interruptions—were His moments—His time. It was only as I trusted God's time more than my own did I begin to see the deep value of this ministry of interruptions—that in these kairos moments I would discover some of the deeper purposes of my life and would be given tremendous opportunities to do ministry on His behalf.

Kairos time is God's time. It is time that begs us to notice and respond to what God is doing.

You and I, as Christians, have a unique calling as we live in the in-between.

To keep our head held high, despite the adversity around us;

To remain faithful to God's calling upon our lives;

And to look for and seize the moments God gives us to do good and loving things for others in Christ's name.

Amen.

[1] Jeremiah 33:14

[2] Fulton Oursler, Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no. 3.

[3] Luke 21:25-26

[4] Luke 21:28

[5] A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy. Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 7.

[6] Rosalynn Carter, quoting Jimmy Carter, Marriage Partnership, Vol. 5, no. 1.

[7] Ethel Barrett, It Only Hurts When I Laugh (Glendale, CA: Regal Books, 1973).

[8] John Boykin in The Gospel of Coincidence. Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 5.