Hope In a Seemingly Hopeless World

2nd Advent 2019

HOPE IN A SEEMINGLY HOPELESS WORLD

Good morning brothers and sisters in the Lord.

I am so glad to be here worshiping the Lord with you this morning. This being my first sermon here at Christ Church.

You can imagine the different feelings and emotions rushing through my mind!

Nervous and anxious for sure!  I would be lying I said I wasn’t. New beginnings normally come with anxieties and apprehension. Yet I am excited and full of joy and hope.

I am excited because I am ministering with a wonderful pastor. We have a faithful, hardworking, rector. Fr. Seth has exceptional wisdom. He has been so accommodating, and caring. I feel privileged and lucky to serve with him. I think I am in good hands with Fr. Seth!

We are well into the season of Advent. As we all know, this season is meant to be a season of preparation

We are called to prepare for the incarnation. Jesus who is called Emmanuel, will be amongst us. God is going to take on human nature and live amongst us. Advent is a reminder to us to get ready for the incarnation. To welcome our Lord and savior in the world and in our lives.

How do you prepare for his incarnation? What can anyone possibly do to prepare for the arrival of the Almighty God?

It is hard enough to prepare receptions or entertainments for friends. The older I get the harder it gets to entertain visitors. It’s too much work!

Can you imagine preparing to receive God? Is it possible to prepare for such an event? What do you do?

John the Baptist says yes. Yes we can and should prepare.

Preparing for Christ’s arrival is unlike preparing for any other guests. When we welcome guests, especially important ones. We clean up. We mop the floors, and vacuum carpets. We decorate and prepare tasty food. We put on our best behaviors. We make sure we make our guest feel welcome

But as for Jesus, the preparation is different as you might expect. John the Baptist cries in the wilderness and says:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

What does John mean?

Making paths straight? What is that?

Leveling valleys and mountains? What is that?

Surely John is not talking about physical construction!

John is talking about spiritual construction!

He is talking about spiritual mountains and valleys

Mountains that block our relationship with God and neighbors

Valleys that separate us from God and from one another

The hills and mountains that create barriers 

Barriers that prevent us from having a close relationship with God and our neighbors.

That is what John the Baptist is talking about

We can all agree that our world is full of mountains and deep valleys. Mountains that have closed off communications and relationships. We are witnessing to a chaotic and increasingly dangerous world. There is indeed a lot of negativity all around the world

The world is as divided as ever.  We can’t seem to get along or even talk to one another

It can be overwhelming to think about all the negativity around us. It can be disheartening to see the valleys and mountains.

I for one I sometimes find myself retreating from the world around me. I have stopped listening to news, especially local news. It feels overwhelming. As they say no news is good news. 

What I see and hear is all negative and energy draining. Problems are too big and overwhelming. Where do we start?

What mountain and valley do we level first?

Is there anything that I can do to make a difference?

The message of advent is that Yes, we can do something.

The message of advent for me is that I should not disengage. I should not give up and I should not feel discouraged.

Advent reminds us that there nothing impossible with God. There is no mountain too big to level. No valley too deep to fill in.

Behind all this negativity and hopelessness. Behind insecurity and anxiety. Behind all the chaos, hatred and death, Advent season reminds us that there is hope.

We can become agents of change by becoming people of hope.

I believe that this is what God is reminding us to do as we prepare. The most important preparation we can do is to be people of hope. In the reading this morning, Paul talks about the power hope. Hope that can accomplish what seems impossible.

Paul writes: Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope….May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is a good thing to hope and believe. Because when we lose hope, and stop believing. When we let fear and pessimism control our lives, we invite sin. Mountains become taller and valleys deeper. 

As a believer I should never give up hope. Because hope is the beginning of any meaningful transformation.

When we give up hope we declare that our God is powerless.

We cannot give up on God. With God, mountains can be moved and valleys filled in. This is what the prophet Isaiah says about the power of God. With God what seems impossible is possible.

This what Isaiah says:
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, The calf and the lion will lie together. The cow and the bear shall graze together. The Lion shall eat straw like the ox. 

These are powerful and impossible images. Because they go against nature. In real nature nothing like that happens. In nature it is the survival of the fittest!

My family spent a few days on a safari in the Serengeti this summer. Being in the Serengeti is once in a lifetime experience. We were one with nature surrounded by nothing but animals. We slept in a tent! Scary but exciting.

What Isaiah is saying never happens in the Serengeti.

The first night we spent in the tent, my wife was woken up by big bang on our tent. Mugi and I were sound asleep. It was a huge animal breathing heavily. My wife froze and hoped for the best. The animal did not move. From 11 to 5 in the morning it was there. It was a long night for my wife. In the morning we learned that it was an old buffalo that had been kicked out of the herd. It spent the nights by tents for protection.

Unfortunately, on the third day the buffalo wondered off too far. He was attacked by lions and wild dogs! Sad! What I can say that what Isaiah is talking about does not happen in nature. Lions never eat grass. Lions will not graze with buffalo! But the point Isaiah is trying to make is simple:

Nothing is impossible with God. Indeed, the world seems in a chaotic state. Not only the world outside is in chaotic state. Some of us are struggling in one way or another. Suicides are on the rise. Hope is hard to find. Advent affirms the unshakable truth that “God is still in charge” He is not asleep. He is totally in control of everything. We might not understand what he is doing. We might not agree with what he is doing.

But remember: God’s ways are not our ways. If we begin by trusting and hoping in him. If we begin by opening our eyes and responding to his bidding. God will show us the way out of chaos. God will guide us in our struggle against evil. God will assist us in pulling down the mountains and leveling the valleys.

Let this second week of advent be a week of hope for all of us. Knowing that there is hope in the seemingly hopeless world.  The darkness and evil around us will not overcome us. Violence and hatred will not dominate our world. Let us indeed continue to be people of hope and faith.

There is purpose and meaning in this seemingly chaotic world. And the season of advent reminds us to affirm this truth. Yes, we can level the mountains and fill in the valleys to prepare for our Lord.

What we need to do is to be people of hope and trust in the transforming grace of our almighty God.

Amen