Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who draws us to God. Amen Welcome to the beginning of a new church year, as always we start off with Advent and waiting. For what do we wait? We wait for the day of the Lord, Jesus’ return that will fulfill God’s will on earth as in heaven. When will this come? We don’t know, not even Jesus knows he tells the disciples in our gospel from Matthew today, the time is unexpected be prepared. Jesus uses the example of the homeowner who, if he knew his house was going to be broken into would have stayed up all night to prevent the thief from breaking in, which while true is an unrealistic way of preparing for an event occurring at an unknown time. This is the way we usually think of preparation, that last minute house cleaning for the guests arriving in the next few days, the bustle of preparations made when we know that the time of the special occasion is at hand. But that kind of preparation is not possible when we don’t know when it’s going to happen. Yet Jesus still tells the disciples to be ready for the coming of the Lord, and the readiness he is talking about is more a way of life than a last minute shoving of things into closets. It’s living as if the Lord were coming tomorrow all the time. Paul in Romans uses the image of clothing, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” he tells the waiting community, clothing is something separate from us that becomes a part of who we are since we generally speaking wear clothing all the time. and it impacts how we live our lives choosing to put on sweatpants leads to something very different than donning a three piece suit. And sure sometimes a new pair of pants feel uncomfortable but the more we wear them the more comfortable they become and soon we don’t even notice them. Putting on Christ is similar, at first it may seem strange and uncomfortable but like with many things, the more we do it the easier or more natural it becomes like putting on a comfortable sweater. Much like the sweater Mr. Rogers puts on at the beginning of his show. Fred Rogers, is someone who lived a life prepared to meet Jesus in everyone he met. There’s a movie based on his life out now so there’s been a lot of talk about him again, how he genuinely loved people in a way that people didn’t expect, that love was the love of Christ, an ordained Presbyterian minister Fred Rogers clothed himself in Christ, and lived the love of neighbor taught by Jesus. He didn’t advertise his show as ministry (though for him it was) and people weren’t drawn to him because of a title of position, they were drawn to him because of his love for people, and his love changed the lives of the children who watched his show and the people with whom he came in contact. It’s that kind of love and lifestyle that we are to put on, to live in a way that draws people to God because they want to experience the life we have in God. This is the image in Isaiah, the purpose for the chosen people, they are to live with God and it will change their lives in such a way that the rest of the nations will say: “we want to live like that! Let’s go to the house of the Lord, let’s learn what the secret to that life is” and the result will be peace, not just the absence of war but harmony that erases even the need for the tools of war. And yes that may sound too good to be true, in the same way many people thought that Mr. Rogers was too good to be true, that he was playing a character when in reality the gentle, curious, brave, loving man seen on tv was the same one that people met in real life, and they were transformed by knowing him. Even now after his passing people are still drawn to him and his message of love. Put on Christ, This is how we are to wait and be ready and in the process spread the good news of God, something we are also called by Jesus to do. And the best way is not by focusing on the church or advertising or having the hippest music or the coolest pastor but by living lives oriented toward God, lives that have been transformed by God and transform the lives of those around us. We have all have these people in our lives whether we’ve been aware of them or not, who have shared their faith with us by way that they lived out their faith, and when they invited us deeper into faith we were glad, as the psalm says “I was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord” at text study this week we there were talking about how hesitant Lutheran Christians are to invite someone to church, mostly because we don’t anticipate that invitation being me with joy. But if we are glad to go to the house of the Lord, to be in relationship with God why wouldn’t others? they need the peace that a relationship with God brings and they might just realize it by watching us, we might be the one whose life the holy spirit uses to draw them to God and when we live like this, we are prepared for the day of the Lord whenever that comes, we won’t need to hide things in closets because we have nothing to hide. Now this lifestyle of advent preparedness is not perfected overnight but over the course of a lifetime, washed in the waters of baptism we are called to daily put on Christ, and sure sometimes it will feel like a new pair of pants that need breaking in, or like that coat that we are really tired of wearing come April, but Christ keeps reaching out to us, through the holy spirit and those around us with love and forgiveness, drawing us to himself, sustaining us with his body and blood at the table and every advent calling us to wake up, to renew the practice of preparation, to be ready by being clothed in Christ. Amen
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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