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November 30, 2003; the First Sunday of Advent, Year C
    The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector

About this time each year when I was growing up I started to worry.  Christmas was coming and I wondered if I had been too naughty to have a visit from Santa.  Remember the lyrics: “O! You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I’m telling you why:  Santa Claus is coming to town!  He’s making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who’s naughty or nice … he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for Christmas sake!”  Needless to say I was no angel growing up.

While the stores play Christmas music like Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Christians gather today in anticipation of another coming, the second coming of Christ.   This is the beginning of the season of Advent, four weeks in the church year that precede Christmas, and are intended to help or remind Christians of the need to prepare for the coming of Christ.

All of our lessons this morning talk about the coming of God or Christ.  Some, like our readings from Zechariah and Luke do not paint a pretty picture.  The description of cosmic upheaval, earthquakes, and the like leave us squirming in our seats.   Even our Psalm for this morning is not very comforting as it says,

                    “Our God will come and will not keep silence;
                            before him there is a consuming flame, and round about him a raging storm.”[i]

It must be admitted that there is power in this description of God as he descends upon the earth.  What is the expectation of God upon his arrival?  There doesn’t seem to be much room for the God of love and mercy that we have come to believe in today.   No, this is the God of judgment and wrath that the Psalmist is describing.   And that is exactly what the Psalmist is writing about, judgment.

                    “He calls the heavens and the earth from above
                            to witness the judgment of his people.”[ii]

This conjures up even stronger emotions than I had as a child when Santa was coming to “find out who has been naughty or nice.”  It was only Christmas presents then, now we are talking about our very lives.  I don’t know about you, but I do not feel very confident at this point that the judgment will go in my favor.

The next verse is confusing and at the same time, I believe, a statement of hope, at least from a Christian perspective.

                    “Gather before me my loyal followers,
                            those who have made  a covenant with me and sealed it with sacrifice.”[iii]

Why would God’s loyal followers have to stand in judgment before him?  The only answer that I can come up with is that loyal does not mean perfect.  And I also suppose that it depends upon who is identifying the “loyal followers.”  One would think that if it was God, then there would be no need to judge them.  If someone else, even the individual, is determining who the “loyal followers” are, then we might understand the need for judgment in order to see how loyal they have been.  That old, “who’s (been) naughty or nice” proverb seems to apply.

What are the standards of judgment?  First there is the covenant.  For the Jews the covenant is wrapped up in the promise to Abraham and the Law of Moses.  To be able to pass God’s judgment one had to be “righteous,” by not having violated the Law, any part of it.  This is something that is almost impossible to do.   We read about the “loyalty” of God’s chosen people in the Old Testament, with frequent references to how they went astray.  You would think that God would have gotten tired of their naughtiness, or just given up on them and found some other group of people who would be more “loyal.”  Yet that is not the story of the Old Testament.  Even in the Old Testament, a God of mercy is revealed, as he did not give up on his chosen people, but forgave them and renewed the covenant, not just once, but time and time again.

In the “fullness of time”[iv] as Eucharistic Prayer C states, God sent his Son and through him a new covenant was made, not to abolish the first covenant, but fulfill it.   This is the covenant that we now live under, the covenant of love.

Just as the old covenant was sealed with a sacrifice, so the new covenant has also been sealed with a sacrifice.  In both covenants God provided the sacrifice.  In the case of Abraham it was a ram.  In the case of the new covenant, it was Jesus Christ.   Under the old covenant, sacrifices were continually made to atone for the sins of the individual or the people as a whole.  Under the new covenant the sacrifice was made once for all time.

If, as the scripture readings say, God is coming, which covenant would we rather be under?  The old covenant with its obedience to the Law, and seemingly little chance of gaining righteousness, or the new covenant with its law of love, which has righteousness as a gift from God.

Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians[v] prays for them, and us, to “increase and abound in love for one another.”  This is the greatest gift of all that we can receive from God, the gift of love.  It is love that draws us into the new covenant and motivates us to respond in love to God and one another.  This is how we “strengthened (our) hearts in holiness,” as we are drawn into the mystery of the divine and long for a relationship with him.  It is also how we can ever hope to be “blameless before our God.”  Blameless, because we have a God of forgiveness, who washes away our sins, so that it is possible to stand before him at the judgment.

Advent is an invitation to be faithful to what we were created to be.  It reminds us that we are God’s holy people in Jesus Christ, drawn together under his grace.   We are called to be a praying, believing, working community, gifted by God with a vision and a means to attain that vision through our redemption in his Son, Jesus Christ.  

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