Sermon delivered on Advent Sunday the 30th November 2008 by Fr. Nicholas J.G. Sykes in the congregation of St. Alban's Church of England (Cayman Islands).

Scriptures: Isaiah 64: 1 - 9    1 Corinthians 1: 3 - 9    S. Mark 13: 24 - 37

Isaiah 64: 4 "No eye has seen a God beside thee, who works for those who wait for him."

PREPARATION AND EVENT

I suppose that all of us spend a considerable amount of time getting ready for things. The priest and the people get prepared for the Eucharist, the teacher for the lesson to be presented, the students for the test, the builder or renovator for the works he is about to carry out, the surgeon for the operation, likewise the patient, and so on. As the second round of the Cayman constitutional negotiations approaches (as indeed it still is), those involved if they have a concern for its outcome, will be impelled to prepare for them. What they are preparing for involves a kind of test of their preparation, although the character of the event itself goes far beyond being merely a test. There is a sense in the event itself, whatever it is, that our preparations, fumbling or confident, must be left behind, and we must then be concerned only with putting forth what is divinely ordered, or true, or strong, or restored, or elegant. The Advent message then reminds us that in the counsels of God there is in a similar way preparation and event. The events we have been thinking about all involve a series of critical judgments made by some and submitted to by others, for instance by the leader and the singers of a choir, or the legislators and the people of a nation. It is not surprising that the Advent event for which we are repeatedly urged by the highest authorities to prepare, also involves judgement and submission. Like the events we have been thinking of, the Advent event, which is called the Final Judgement, has its own integrity and rationale. In a nutshell, it is there not ultimately for the purpose of providing us with a test, but for the eternal vindication of what is right and wonderful.

PREPARATION FOR GOD'S INTERVENTION

In our Old Testament Lesson today from the book of Isaiah the prophet prays that God would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake and the nations tremble. Like me you will probably be thinking you’d really prefer no such thing to happen. The memory of Ivan and for the Brac the effects of Paloma are too strong. We might pray for the benefits without the quaking and trembling. So one might not feel any natural sympathy with the prophet’s prayer here, implying as it does some serious disruption. But from many parts of scripture we are counselled to be ready for disruptions, whether we like it or not. In the consciousness of Israel God’s intervention spelt both catastrophe and formative action. Israel considered herself to be given a special identity in the divinely ordered events of the Exodus. The prophetic consciousness projects those formative elements of divine intervention into the future, and considers it as something we must be prepared for, just as the children of Israel were given the means of preparing for their Egyptian exodus. The prophet looks forward not so much to an end as to a new beginning. We do not know very much about what is on the other side of the cusp of God’s intervention because we cannot see over the top, as it were, yet still we are counselled to be ready. So we are not to be discouraged by how unready we may feel for such an event, but nevertheless do what we can by setting our life’s affairs in order. Whatever reconciliation is to be effected, do it now. Whatever sin is to be repented of, do it now. Whatever restoration is to be made to anyone, get on with it now. Do not dally. Get prepared in whatever way you can for the formative intervention that God has promised.

"ARE YOU READY?"

The later part of our Old Testament lesson today reveals just how unready we really are. All our righteous deeds are as filthy rags, the prophet laments. I suppose that all of us know the feeling of being really unready for some event that we are about to confront, even after preparing for it as best we could. And to the question that might be asked, "Do you feel ready to meet your Lord?", we might all have to answer: "I have prepared for it but I still feel unready." This is the greatest test of all that we are being asked whether we feel ready for. But in this great Old Testament passage, which is one of the finest biblical prayers, there are some wonderful sparkles of grace. One of these was chosen for our text. "No eye has seen a God beside thee, who works for those who wait for him." Another is "Yet, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay and thou art the potter; we are all the work of thy hand."

WAITING ON THE LORD

Other Scriptures today refer to waiting and to watching. 1 Corinthians 1: 7 in our second Lesson refers to "waiting" for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ". The idea of waiting is an important one. "Waiting" for God or for the revealing of the Lord Jesus must mean an active dependence on God and on our Christian hope in all that we think or do. This is confirmed by Jesus' teaching at the end of today's Gospel. Jesus likened Himself to a man going on a journey, leaving his servants in charge, each with his work, and with a doorkeeper to be on the watch. It will not do for the man, coming back suddenly, to find them asleep. For then they would not have things ready for his arrival. Peter Toon likes to use the phrase "Pressing on" in his correspondence. I like to think of a phrase that is used in Jamaica. People there often talk about "waiting on" someone, rather than the standard expression "waiting for" someone. I believe that expression "waiting on" someone encapsulates the Biblical meaning of waiting here. It gives the sense of paying attention to the person, being ever ready to do his bidding, at whatever personal cost. "Waiting on" someone also includes the sense of serving the person, as with a waiter in a restaurant. So the Biblical passages could be re-translated as "God works for those who wait on Him" in Isaiah - or, perhaps, for those who "press on" towards Him - and "waiting on the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ" in 1 Corinthians, and I believe the sense of them will be better expressed. Our daily preparation must be based upon awareness, alertness, attention to the will of the Master, that is expressed biblically as waiting and watching.

THE REQUIRED ATTITUDE

And that is a life lived in the perspective of our Lord’s imminent arrival. Not necessarily immediate, for the timescale is not given to us to know, but imminent. In our life we are presented with a series of opportunities of loving and serving God and our neighbours that we either accept or do not accept. All the time we must accept that the way we live this moment of our life makes us more of a disciple of Jesus or more of a disciple of Satan. If I asked you whether you felt ready for Jesus’ Advent arrival, and you said that you felt rather unready, there is indeed something to be done about it. You do as urgently and confidently as you can, all that you can do to be as ready as you know how to be, and then leaving the preparation behind, trust in God’s loving faithfulness and the atoning work of the cross to take care of what is lacking and to help us show forth God’s glory. That is the attitude in which we are supposed to live our lives before the judgement-seat of Christ and if we really do live in that sort of attitude, it will carry over to every practical aspect of our lives that demands from us the best for Him that we can be or do.

1. What events in your own life do you consciously prepare for? Has the event always related to the preparation in a way you expected?

2. What difference does it make to your life to be "waiting" and "watchful" for the Lord's arrival?