The Day is Coming: The First Sunday of Advent

Advent begins in terrible reality and asks us, where do we find hope?

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Transcript

Sermons from 

Mission Hills UCC

San Diego, California

Rev. Dr. David Bahr

david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org

December 1, 2024

“The Day is Coming”

Malachi 4: 1-2 – Common English Bible

 Look, the day is coming,
         burning like an oven.
 All the arrogant ones and all those doing evil will become straw.
     The coming day will burn them,
 says the Lord of heavenly forces,
         leaving them neither root nor branch.
 2 But the sun of righteousness will rise on those revering my name;
         healing will be in its wings
             so that you will go forth and jump about like calves in the stall.

Cheerful, isn’t it!?  “The day is coming when all the arrogant ones and all those doing evil with become straw.”  Would you like to hear an even more cheerful translation?  “The day is coming when all the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like wood for the stove, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash.”

Yikes!  Let’s check out the gospel instead:  “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars.  On the earth, there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves.  The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world.”  Now that I’ve properly gotten you into the Christmas spirit, ho, ho, ho…

It seems so strange that a season which ends with beautiful, tranquil scenes of a silent night and a baby laid in a manger surrounded by angels singing “Hark!” and shepherds tending their flocks while Zoroastrians pack their bags for a journey Eastward…  Strange, yes, but that’s how Advent begins – with violent imagery and Mad Max apocalyptic end of the world scenes straight out of the minds of Hollywood directors.
  

Last week’s gospel proclaimed the day is coming when not one stone of the temple will be left upon another, prophesying its destruction and adding fodder for those already plotting to execute Jesus.  What he describes is terrifying – he foretells false prophets, doomsday deceivers, wars and rumors of war and uprisings, food shortages, natural disasters, persecution, and epidemics.  

Sadly, we know these are not simply scenes from a movie but the steady news feed on our phones and the pages of the daily newspaper.  For those suffering in the world today, Jesus doesn’t talk in hyperbole but gives voice to their dreadful reality – in Gaza and refugees fleeing war around the globe, for waiting hostages and the repeated victims of collapsing eco-systems, a climate wreaking havoc with 500 year floods every 5 years next to year after year record-breaking extreme heat.  To this reality, Jesus speaks truth. 

And this is how Advent begins every year, but we often avoid such texts because they are embarrassing and deeply incongruent with our understanding of the world.  Renowned scholar Walter Bruggeman calls Malachi’s words about crispy people “intellectually difficult and pastorally problematic.  None of us want to sound like a religious nut.  And yet, for all our intellectual sophistication, our affluence and confidence that technology will fix the world, there remains a deep, unsettled feeling that things are indeed falling apart.”  He called it the “terrible ungluing.”  

This was not his assessment of the last few weeks or the last few years but something he wrote 32 years ago.  About texts written thousands of years before.  We may have vastly different worldviews and understandings of how the world works, but, real-time suffering as well as fear and anxiety about the state of the world is a constant for humankind.  That’s the reality where Advent begins.  Where we end up is often vastly different. 

Progressive Christians focus on an eschatology – a vision of the end – in which the world finally comes together in peace, justice, and harmony.  Other Christians describe the end in catastrophe, an often-desired end which ushers in the return of Jesus for the faithful and the saved but fire and brimstone for others, i.e., when the evil ones are burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash.  Ho, ho, ho.

Advent begins in this terrible reality, and then asks, where do we find hope?  For progressive Christians, it’s “not in some pie in the sky bye and bye when we die, but something sound on the ground while we’re still around.”  That’s one of my favorite descriptions by UCC pastor Kenneth Samuel.  The day is coming:  not in heaven, but as Jesus taught to us pray, on earth, as it is in heaven.  

So, what was going on that the had the prophet Malachi so upset?

·         First of all, it was the priests.  When people brought their sacrifices to the temple, they were supposed to only bring their best, animals without any blemish.  But they were bringing their blind and sick animals.  The clergy, however, didn’t care as long as they were getting paid.

·         There were some issues related to mixed marriages that are a lot more complicated than I can get into here.  And a problem with women left destitute by divorce.

·         Malachi complained that people were not being paid their fair wage – Malachi is a good Labor Day text.

·         And like the all the other prophets, the same consistent theme over and over throughout scripture:  not caring about widows, orphans, immigrants and foreigners – because that doesn’t show proper respect for God.

·         People were also complaining that their religion was a waste of time because evil people still prospered.  They should suffer.

The details behind Malachi’s rant are remarkably relevant, though people burned to a crisp seems a little severe, but it certainly gets our attention.  

In the midst of deep, unsettled feelings that things are indeed falling apart, what is the most hopeful thing we can do?  I love the advice of the founder of Methodism, John Wesley:

Do all the good you can

By all the means you can

In all the ways you can

In all the places you can

At all the times you can

To all the people you can

As long as ever you can.

A vision of the end in which the world finally comes together in peace, justice, and harmony.  When the poor are fed, the captives are set free, and the oppressed are liberated.  When the tyrants are toppled from their thrones and the humble are lifted high.  When the proud are scattered and the starving are filled and the callous are sent away empty handed.  Always the hope:  The world is about to turn.  As it did on Christmas long ago, it shall once again.  The day is coming.