Why do the readings for the first Sunday in Advent (Isaiah 64:1-9; 1 Cor. 1:3-9; Matt. 13:24-37) look just like the readings for the last Sundays of the church year—all that “end of the world” stuff?
The end of world didn’t come, again. Is that cause for disappointment?
As you think about getting ready for Christmas, does that feel like the end of the world? What if Christmas plans don’t happen like you planned them? What if you don’t get what you want? What if you don’t get for others what they want? Are you anxious about being disappointed or disappointing others?
Advent is a season of preparing for Christmas, but not like you might have been thinking. What if it is a season for getting rid of, rather than getting? What if God’s Word to us gets rid of anxiety about disappointment?
Being ready for Jesus’ second coming is a function of being ready for His first coming.
People had been waiting for the first coming of Jesus for a long, long time: 6,000 years for Adam, 2,100 years for Abraham, 1,000 years for David, 750 years for those who listened to Isaiah. Yet they passed their days waiting and watching and were not disappointed in the Word of the Lord, even though Jesus brought them to Himself rather than coming to them in the flesh.
But the corruption that infects our human nature won’t leave us alone. Like a drowning person, we want to gather and give material things, thinking that those gifts will bring joy and relieve our anxiety. It doesn’t work. Material things in the water eventually get heavy and sink—what a dreadful disappointment for a drowning person. What’s worse, we persist in this way. As Isaiah says, “We have been a long time in our sin.”
God’s gift to us is something that no one could have imagined: the incarnation of His Son as our Redeemer, who enriches us in every way!
But does He, or are these promises going to fail and disappoint us? That is impossible since God has already fulfilled those promises, which is what we celebrate on December 25.
Advent is a time to get rid of the fear of disappointment. Who would have thought that getting rid of something could be the best of gifts? God has forgiven sins, God has regenerated our souls and inspires us with His Spirit. God has confirmed the truth of our redemption and regeneration in His Word and sacraments so we are and remain enriched in every way.
Maybe the first gift of Christmas comes today, when God reminds us of a practical way to be rid of fear of disappointment: wait, watch, remember. Why you wait determines how you wait. We wait because God never disappoints but always does exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could think or ask. Knowing this nature of God and the needs of the world around us make us watch fervently for all those ways and means by which God gives and restores life to us and how we might share that with others. Remembering how God works for those who wait and watch for Him keeps His faithfulness and extraordinary goodness in our consciousness.
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NOTE: You can also listen to this homily on the Word Without Walls podcast episode 308: