Fourth Sunday in Advent Yr A Dec 22 2019

Audio   Fourth Sunday in Advent Yr A Dec 22 2019

Isaiah 7:10-16, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25, Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

Here we are, the fourth Sunday in Advent, ever so close to incarnation, God with us, Emmanuel. Ever so close to the completion of God’s arc toward love, and mercy, and compassion. And even though we celebrate again and so very soon, the birth of the baby born in Bethlehem, the birth of the Messiah, we continue to wait. We continue to wait for the completion, the fulfillment, the promise, that God will bring all creation to Godself. We hear that promise in the collect for today, “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a dwelling prepared for himself.”

Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth is so very different from Luke’s. Luke gives us the story from Mary’s perspective; Matthew tells the story from Joseph’s perspective. And Mark and John don’t include a birth story at all. In Matthew’s story, Mary is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Joseph could have had her publicly ridiculed and even stoned, but being a just man, decides to part ways with her quietly. But Joseph listened to an angel, who told him that this baby is the fulfilment of all of the yearning and all of the stories that Joseph knew, this child is Emmanuel, God with us. And Joseph knew, that in this child to be called Jesus, God comes to be right where we are. Matthew also tells us later in his story of the promise that Jesus will be with the people to the end of the age. Matthew looks to all of the stories of his people that came before him and sees in those stories this promise of God’s fulfillment, that God will and does dwell with God’s people.

Matthew’s perspective points us in the direction of the coming of Christ, the climax of creation. Advent puts us in the midst of celebrating the birth, incarnation, God coming to be right where we are, and the fulfillment of all things, the completion of the arc of God’s love for all of creation. It is all right here in front of us, and yet we forget. We forget that this story of God with us, is a story that is full of cosmic consequences. It is a story about new birth, incarnation, and it is a story about now, and not yet. Advent calls us to consider this reality. Alongside of the romantic versions of a baby and angels, is the appearance of one whom the reaction is, “do not be afraid.”

I think we have been trained to be afraid or anxious. Afraid of the end of times. Anxious when we must wait. We either avoid the stories in scripture, or we become afraid of them, or we pass them off as the visions of a stark raving madman. And we live in a culture that teaches us to be afraid of so much. Be afraid of change, be afraid of the madman who stalks in the night, be afraid of the unknown man who will scam you. Be afraid of what you cannot control, be afraid of the weather, be afraid of the additives in your food, be afraid of your neighbor. In a world that makes us afraid at every turn, every angel that appears begins with, “do not be afraid.”

But because Advent gives us time to be present in the then, the now, and the not yet, and presents us with stories that point us both to birth and growth and to the end of time, we enter into this most uncomfortable of places, and wonder what it may be all about. We rest in the in between, counting on transformation, growth, and just like pregnancy, we will be forever changed.

I think many of you have read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis, or at least seen a movie, but I’m fairly sure that many have not read all the way to the end of that series of stories, The Last Battle. Time, in these stories, is best described as Kairos, rather than Chronos. Chronos being time measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, it is measurable and quantifiable. Kairos is not, it may be defined as God’s time. You’ve all experienced it, in a very limited way. It’s when heaven and earth meet, and we don’t really have the words to describe it. It’s why we have poetry, and music, and art, and science fiction novels, because we have no other way to be in God’s time.

The collection of stories by CS Lewis that begins with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and ends with The Last Battle is called The Chronicles of Narnia. Narnia is the land that is real, it is Kairos, God’s time. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, children living in war time London, all travel to Narnia and eventually meet Aslan, the great lion. Aslan is the lion who is put to death by the wicked White Queen and is resurrected to love the children and all the talking animals. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy reign as benevolent kings and queens until they return through the wardrobe to Chronos, as if they had never left. Throughout the stories there are other characters, Lady Polly and Lord Digory, Eustace and Jill, all whom have lived in the other world of Narnia. And there are the Calormenes, those who live in Narnia, but who do not follow Aslan, they follow Tash.

Eustace and Jill are in Narnia, they find the King, Tirian, and the Last Battle ensues. It is a battle between the followers of Tash, and the followers of Aslan. As the battle rages on, Eustace, Jill, and King Tirian walk through a door to a stable, afraid of who is in it, and enter a place of grace and beauty. Just before them, a dreaded Calormene had entered, along with the trolls, and they were unsure if they should be afraid. The world beyond the door to the stable is light and filled with beauty, unlike the dark world Narnia had become. Soon enough, our characters meet up with the others, Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Polly, and Digory, and learn that they had all been in a train wreck, and this is life on the other side of life. This is the end of time, and the beginning of time.

Aslan, the great lion came to them, and all were welcome at the great feast. But most importantly, for our conversation today, is this. The Calormenes had served Tash, the Narnians had served Aslan. The Glorious One who appeared to them all called them all Beloved. All of their waiting, all of their expectation, all of their hopes, and dreams, and fears were born in the truth that they had come home at last. Their new lives were just beginning. The land had become more real and more true.

The Last Battle is won by the love that is born in Bethlehem, the love that hangs on the cross, and the love that calls all creation to itself.

You see, Advent is real and true time in which we are called beloved, in which we come closest to realizing the glorious impossible of incarnation, the unreasonableness of God with us, the awesomeness of the fulfillment of God’s dream for creation; not to be feared but to be anticipated. We live as if Chronos is less important than Kairos. We wait in quiet expectation; we prepare the mansion in which Jesus resides. Let us, along with Mary and Joseph, bear the love that wins into the world. Amen.