ADVENT 1 06 C

This is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the first season of the Church year. It is a season in which we focus on two aspects of God coming to earth. The first aspect is to live in the reality that God has already come to earth in the person of Jesus. Since Christ has already come, lived his life, died, rose again, and ascended into heaven, we begin to look for him to return to earth as he promised. That is the first aspect of Advent. The second aspect of this season is the same as we do in most of our families; we anticipate the celebration of a birthday. In this case we celebrate not only the birthday of Jesus, but what that birth means for our lives.

So, as this Advent season gets underway let us put second things first. Let us focus on the second coming of Christ. All of our lessons today have to do in one form or another with Christ’s Second Advent or coming.

As Christians we believe that Jesus will come back to earth again. This is what the Bible and the Creeds proclaim. When Jesus will come back again is not certain. We are certainly in a time in which we could make a case for all of the signs pointing to his imminent return.

The Vatican received a call and one of the cardinals came to the Pope and said, “Your Holiness, I have some good news and I have some bad news.” “What’s the good news?” asked the Pope. The Cardinal replied, “Well, the good news is that we just received a call that Jesus had just come back to earth.” “That’s great news. What could be bad news after that?” queried the Pope? The Cardinal replied, “The call came from Salt Lake City.”

What kind of Church will Jesus find when he returns? We he find a church which denies the Trinity, which denies salvation by Christ’s blood shed on the cross alone, which rewrites and interprets the Bible?

Will he find a Church that means business when he comes back?

The Goldbergs did not know what to do with their son Jake. He refused to take school seriously. He never did his homework, and was constantly playing hooky. The principal at the public school suggested that they send Jake to a Yeshiva. The Goldbergs took the principal’s advice, but the situation did not improve at the Jewish school. His conduct was reprehensible – and after a few weeks he was expelled. Jake was incorrigible.

Finally, in desperation, the Goldbergs were told that Catholic parochial schools were very strict with their pupils, and they might try sending Jake to one. They decided to follow the suggestion, and they enrolled him in Christ the King School for Boys. They warned Jake to behave and to do his lessons, because this was his last chance. If he was thrown out now, he would be sent to a school for delinquents.

After a week of parochial school, Jake came home with terrific grades. He had miraculously been converted into a well-behaving serious student.

The Goldbergs were thrilled, and they asked their son what caused the sudden change in his attitude and behavior. “Well,” he answered, “When I got into that building and saw a man hanging on a plus sign in every room, I knew they meant business. I wasn’t going to take any chances on being a wise guy anymore.”

What kind of Church will Jesus find when he returns? That depends on how seriously we take his Church. I had the opportunity to read a book one time by Douglas Hyde entitled Dedication and Leadership in which he compared the commitment of those within the Communist party to the commitment of those within the Church. His findings were quite startling to me. Transitioning that to today’s world, we might equate this comparison with the Taliban.

He begins by saying that no matter which group you are talking about, those who are dedicated get immensely more out of life than those who are not.

He says, “Within the Communist party you will find people of every type and class. And within the World Communist Movement you will find people of every race. Discuss their case histories with them, probe into what first attracted them to Communism and invariably you will find that it was not Communist theories, policies, and campaigns, important as they may be to the making of a Communist – but the impact made upon them by some dedicated Communist which predisposed and conditioned them to associate with a movement and to accept a doctrine which would otherwise most probably have been unacceptable to them.”

If we apply that to the Church we see the same thing. Most people come to a church because of their association with someone in the church, not because of the teachings of the church alone. When they see someone who is excited about their faith and their church then they become predisposed to associate with that church, even though they may not initially accept the claims of Christ or the teachings of Christianity.

Karl Marx concluded his Communist Manifesto with the words “You have a world to win.” The belief that the world is there to be won and that Communists can win it is firmly implanted in the mind of every Communist leader.

Many Christians have no idea that Jesus said, in essence, “We have a world to win.” “Make disciples of all nations,” Jesus said. Even if we do believe that, we often do not believe the world can be won to Christ or that we can have any part in that.

I often find it helpful to try to look at the Church from the perspective of the non-believer or the unchurched. How do they perceive the church and Christians within that church?

Do they have the picture of a person who is wholly dedicated to the Church and the cause of Christ? One who is willing to make sacrifices for what he or she believes in? The outside observer would probably not see people making sacrifices as a picture of what it means to be a Christian. Unless or until there are Christians who are dedicated and meaningfully active in sufficient numbers to create such an image, the Church will be viewed as a crutch for weak or superstitious people; or as a place that is dull and boring and where people are generally unhappy.

With all of the struggles for truth going on in the Episcopal Church, as has been seen recently at our diocesan Convention and by the recent letters to the editor in the Star Telegram, perhaps people in the world think that fighting amongst ourselves is all we think about. Secular and semi-religious people often don’t realize that the dedication of many Christians to the cause of Christ is what causes them to take a stand for biblical truth and the teachings of the apostles handed down to us.

Sometimes the church does not make many demands of the new member or new Christian which would inspire them to such dedication. Let me be more specific. A person may decide to become an Episcopalian in certain churches without it ever occurring to that person that their pattern of life will be transformed, that the whole of every waking day will be different because of the set of beliefs he has accepted. It is possible for the would-be convert to go to a priest for a lengthy period of instruction without once being made to feel that he or she is about to become part of a group of people who are quite exceptional in their dedication. Indeed, to make him or her feel this might well only lead to disillusionment because it would be against the truth.

It is equally possible for him to receive the whole of the instruction which is required before Baptism or Confirmation without hearing a word about the church’s social teaching or his personal responsibility to help transform society by taking Christian values into that person’s place of work or into their politics or into their personal relationships with others.

The person will finish his instructions which will, in most cases, end without this dedication ever having occurred to him, because it has never been put to him and also because he has never seen it born out in practice, that he is now one of the people who were originally charged with the job of changing the world.

Hyde says, “We shall most effectively provide answers to Communism, not by producing more militant, purely negative anti-Communists, certainly not by producing more amateur detectives, but by producing more educated, more well-instructed, dedicated and totally committed democracy minded people.”

I would add to that, “We will most effectively provide answers to non-believers and the unchurched, not by producing people who are negative anti-sinners, but by producing more educated, more well instructed, dedicated, totally committed Anglican Christian believers.

What kind of Church does Christ want to find when he comes back? He wants to find a Church that is growing spiritually toward maturity; a church that is extending Christ’s love to others; and a church that realizes that it has a world to win and is set about doing just that.

In closing, let me share a poem whose author is unknown:

Ten little Christians standing in a line

One didn’t like the preacher, then there were nine.

Nine little Christians stayed up late…

One slept on Sunday morning; then there were eight.

Eight little Christians on the road to heaven…

One took the low road, then there were seven.

Seven little Christians in an awful fix

One didn’t like the music, then there were six.

Six little Christians seemed very much alive…

One lost interest; then there were five.

Five little Christians wished there were more…

But they quarreled with each other, and then there were four.

Four little Christians, cheerful as could be…

One lost his temper, then there were three.

Three little Christians knew what to do…

But one joined the crowd; then there were two.

Two little Christians – our rhyme is almost done –

Differed with each other then there was one.

One little Christian won her neighbor true –

Brought her to church and then there were two.

Two earnest Christians, each won one more…

That doubled their number; so then there were four.

Four sincere Christians worked very late –

Each won another and then there were eight.

Eight splendid Christians – but nothing rhymes with sixteen…

So we simply say that with three more jingles there would be

24,336 earnest Christians, which would be quite a church anywhere.

How dedicated are you to winning the world for Christ?

How dedicated are you to upholding the truth of Scripture?

How dedicated are you to reaching out to those in need?

How dedicated are you to doing what it takes for the cause of Christ until he returns?