December 5, 2010
Heaven Comes Down
- Colossians 2:6-12
- Dr. Teri Thomas
Advent is a strange season. I find I have very mixed emotions about it personally. The world around us is already celebrating Christmas. Santa is on every corner, decorations, Christmas songs on 105.7 24/7. It is as if Christmas has already happened.
Yet in the church we are in a time of waiting; lighting candles- one at a time week after week,
Advent hymns, darkness- quiet- preparation, as if Christmas has not yet happened.
I struggle with the dichotomy because in fact neither approach is right, because both are right.
Christmas has happened.
It happened over 200 years ago the small town of Bethlehem
where a young girl gave birth to a child in a barn
and the world has never been the same.
We should be singing and celebrating and partying.
But- at the same time Christmas hasn't happened.
The focus of the season is on Christ coming again.
It is about Christ being alive in our midst once more;
the Kingdom of God coming to earth.
So Christmas has not come yet, and we should wait and prepare.
Every year in Advent I hope to resolve this tension in my faith.
This year I think I have finally found the answer.
The answer is- yes!
Yes- Christmas did come and is past.
Yes- Christmas is coming and we must wait.
Yes- we are living in the in-between.
Yes- there is tension.
Yes- Advent is a strange time.
In our reading from Colossians this morning Paul is addressing the same struggle. He writes to the church at Colossae-
Yes- you have received Jesus in the past
Yes- the fullness of God dwells in Christ always
Yes- Christ is seated at the right hand of God in the coming kingdom
Yes- you must set your minds on what is to come- not what is now
In the meantime, during this in-between time, Paul is trying to remind these early Christians that Christ is with them, God is with them, really- heaven has come down. Not exactly like in the garden at the beginning. Not exactly like it will be at the end. But God is here- in our midst.
I think that is difficult for many of us to believe. It is easier to believe in the birth of God in the form of a baby and the coming of Christ at the end of time than it is to believe in God being right here- right now. An invisible God who came- or who is yet to come is easier to handle than a visible God who is with us now. An invisible God is actually a handy God to have. If I can't see God, then chances are God can't see me. You know the child covers her eyes and says- "You can't see me."
If God actually shows up, if we actually catch glimpses of the holy, the game is over, a new awareness is upon us.
One of the greatest privileges I have as your pastor is to be reminded almost daily that God is here, to see Jesus alive in these pews, to witness the hands and feet of God ministering to the joys and the sorrows of this part of the body.
I can see the young woman going through a family crisis when she begins to cry in worship and I can see people around her reaching out. I can see the recent widower struggling to get through the service and then be surrounded by caring friends at the coffee hour. I can see when a loving member gently reassures the parents of fussy baby.
When you come here to worship, Jesus is in the pew next to you. Because he said- where two or three are gathered I am there, too. Haven't you felt God's hand floating out of an anthem and resting on your heart?
I see God living in the way we care for one another. When one of our members was diagnosed with cancer several years ago we took her a prayer shawl made by another member of this congregation. She had that shawl every time she went to the hospital, every time she went for treatments, and every time I visited her. When she died I went to the funeral home. The son took me up to the casket and had me look. The prayer shawl was around his mother's shoulders. She made her children promise to bury her with that shawl. She wanted to die with the prayers of this congregation around her.
That's what happens when the love of God in Jesus Christ enters into our midst and we are empowered to serve one another with the gospel of salvation and hope. That's what happens when Jesus is born in our worship, our mission, our outreach, our fellowship.
That's what happens when we realize that
yes- Jesus was born
yes- Jesus will come again
and yes- we have something to do in the meantime.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.