Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

Getting Established in Advent

1 Thessalonians 3: 9-13

December 3, 2006

Getting Established in Advent

Get away! Get up. Get down. Get ahead. Have you noticed how often we use the word "get" in our speech? It pops up all over. Get better. Don't get caught. Get outa sight! Don't get into trouble! Let's get together. Roget's Thesaurus lists over fifty ways that the word "get" can be used, everything from the Shakespearean "get thee gone" to the punster's "Do you get it?"

"Get" is a particularly popular word during this Advent season. "Where are you going?" "Oh, I'm going out to get the Christmas tree?" "Hey Billy, what are you getting for Christmas? Well, I hope I get an XBox" "Well, did you get it? Yeah, I got it."

There is, indeed, a lot of "getting" in this season, and since it is inescapable, we might as well let it work to our benefit. This morning begins a series of 4 sermons on "getting" in Advent. (The titles in this series come from a similar series by Pastor King Duncan.) In coming weeks we will be "Getting the message of Christmas", "Getting home for Christmas", and "Getting to Bethlehem for Christmas". But we begin this morning "Getting established in Advent".

"Getting established" is a familiar phrase that applies to many areas of life. When you move into a new community you go through a period of "getting established". Open a new business and it takes a while "getting established". A professional - doctor, lawyer, architect, preacher - must spend an apprenticeship of time and effort in "getting established". In sports, participants are spoken of in terms of being an established player or a rookie.

The same holds true with Christianity. A convert to the faith must spend time "getting established" in the faith. While conversion itself may be, in some cases, a sudden experience, even the most independent evangelists acknowledge the fact that their converts need the nurture of an organized institution to get them established in the faith.

This week's Second Lesson speaks to "getting established" in the faith. Paul was no hit-and-run preacher; he recognized that in the churches he started he had a responsibility to follow-up, encourage, shepherd, and "establish" the new-born Christians who had responded to his preaching.

In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul said that he was returning to them just for that purpose, to help get them established in the faith. He was praying "night and day," he wrote, "that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith." Then he added, "May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another so that he may establish your hearts in holiness..."

We need somehow to have our faith "established" in Advent. Advent is a time for getting established spiritually for Christmas. The New Yorker magazine once published a striking cartoon, its humor borne by the force of sheer absurdity. At the game counter of a department store, a solid, serious matron has bought something and the clerk is making out the sales receipt. The woman's eye has idly caught the sight of a chessboard spread out on the counter with the chessmen all arranged on it. She casually asks the clerk: "How do you play this game?"

Can you imagine asking a clerk in a store to tell you in a minute or so how to play chess? Here is a game that takes considerable time to learn and a life-time to master (If anyone can ever master chess). Only those willing to invest considerable time and effort will really enjoy playing the game.

That is equally true in Christianity. You don't learn everything the day you are converted. There never comes a day when you can say, "I have learned everything there is to learn about faith." That belief is behind Paul’s continuing relationship with the churches he founded. There is also a parallel here with Christmas. You may celebrate it on one day but you don't experience its grandeur or reap its blessings without preparation and effort – in other words without getting established in Advent.

Getting established in Advent means that before we can in any way appreciate the brightness of the Bethlehem Star, we need first to see and know the darkness to which it comes to shine. It was, and still is, because our world is so dark that the light of Christ is so welcome.

We just assume, don't we, that Jesus was born at night. In our mind's eye we see the new born baby, Jesus, lying in a manger, swathed in the warm glow of candlelight, surrounded by shepherds, wise men, and angels, with a bright star in the sky marking his birthplace. But neither of the gospel writers who tell of Jesus birth, Matthew or Luke, tells what hour Jesus was born. True, the wise men followed a star to where Jesus lay in Bethlehem, but by then Jesus, Mary, and Joseph had moved from the stable to a house. And yes, Luke tells us that the shepherds heard the news of Jesus' birth while they were watching their flocks by night, but there is nothing that suggests that was the moment of birth. I believe that all of Christendom has assumed a night birth because it is in the night, and all that night represents, that we need the Christ-child the most. The birth of Jesus in the middle of the night is a preferred way of recognizing that was the purpose for his coming – to destroy darkness.

Christ comes into the darkness of the world's sin; and he comes in judgment. The light he brings exposes sin. There is, then, a penitential quality in Advent that is intended to prepare us to meet Jesus the Judge. In this way Advent is not much different from Lent. What stands at the end of both Advent and Lent is a most holy Jesus. That most holy Jesus is a righteous judge, one who condemns sin and brings the sinful to account.

If we will remember that, in the season of Advent, we are preparing for all the ways Christ comes to us, perhaps we will be better established for the season and more responsive to the blessings of the Christmas season that follows. Jesus said that one day the Son of man would come in a cloud with power and great glory, and there will be on the earth distress of nations, men fainting with fear, a foreboding of what is coming on the world. There will be darkness and chaos when Jesus comes to judge. That is an element in Advent. To be prepared for that will demand more of us than stringing lights and buying presents and baking cookies. With that picture of Jesus waiting at the end of our preparation we would spend considerably more time in prayer and repentance.

Another part of “getting established in Advent” is recognizing that what follows prayer and repentance and takes the place of distress, fear and foreboding is hope. It is said that it is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. Jesus comes as the candle of hope against the curse of darkness. After Jesus described those horrible days when his coming would evoke distress, fear, and foreboding, he said: "Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Advent marks a time of substitution. In the place of fear, Jesus substitutes courage. In the place of distress, Jesus substitutes peace. In the place of foreboding, Jesus substitutes confidence. In the place of sin he brings forgiveness. In the place of darkness he brings light. To despair he brings hope.

I wonder if you have noticed, as I have, the difference in mood between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Both are grand times for celebration, but I would suggest that there is a quality present on Christmas Eve that is absent on New Year's Eve. From my view New Year's is marked with giddiness and frivolity, while Christmas Eve with feelings of joy, gladness, and well-being. I’ve never heard it said, “I wish New Year’s would come more than once a year.” But I have heard that said of Christmas.

If you find yourself hurried and harried this season; if you long for Christmas to be over with; if you begin cursing the songs of Christmas, if Christmas Eve comes as a relief rather than received as a goal, perhaps you are preparing the wrong way; perhaps you need to give thought to getting established in Advent.

Getting established in Advent is spending increased time in prayer and repentance. That is the reason that the NCD Health Team will introduce a prayer focus this morning for Advent. Getting established in Advent is bringing everything that is darkness in your life to the brightness of the Bethlehem Star. Getting established in Advent is to rest all of life on hope in the promises of God.

So if someone asks what you are getting for Christmas, tell them you are getting established in Advent. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.