[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermons for Advent 3 and Looking Ahead to Christmas

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for the Third Sunday of Advent and Christmas Eve
John 1:6-8. 19-28 – Waiting
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 – Waiting in Life’s Waiting Rooms
Luke 2:8-20 - Christmas Eve: What Was Seen At Bethlehem 


John 1, the sermon title “Waiting”

As a child I remember that the most difficult part of Christmas was simply waiting for it to come. From Thanksgiving to December 25 seemed more like an eternity than a month. Days seemed like weeks. Weeks felt like seasons. Time seemed to stand still.

Waiting is foreign to our society. It seems unnatural. We hunger for immediate gratification. The idea of delayed satisfaction is a stranger to our thinking.

The symbols of our unwillingness to wait are all around us. Fast food chains boom because we don’t have time to eat. We stand in crooked lines, then yell out an order, get it down in five minutes and then get back to the rat race. We haven’t got time to sit down and read a book anymore. Perhaps it is a sign of the times that we have condensed versions of the Bible. In kitchens all over America there are gadgets to get the meal prepared quickly. I would guess Mr. Coffee started it all. Simply spoon in the coffee and pour water. The coffee is made before you can even find a cup. When we become sick we want to be made well now, not later. Medicine, doctors, pastoral care and love are often rejected if they are not swift.

I, like you, accept most of our no — wait approach to life, with the exception of instant potatoes, which are intolerable. But the truth is that, though we do not like waiting, waiting is a part of living. We must wait for payday, a break, quitting time, and for the mailman. When you do your Christmas shopping, you had certainly better be prepared to wait in a line to get checked out, wait to get a parking place, and wait through at least four red lights before making a left hand turn on Poplar Ave.

But there are also very serious matters for which we wait. Some wait for health to return, some for the coming of food stamps, some for marriage or remarriage. We must wait for peace. A scared child waits for the coming of morning, and a scared adult awaits death. And an expectant mother waits for delivery. Waiting can be pure agony. It’s like the jury is out.

The problem is that scripture time and time again tells us that God’s clock is wound in a different way…
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1 Thessalonians 5, the sermon titled “Waiting in Life’s Waiting Rooms”

The season of Advent is a “waiting game.” Everyone is “waiting” for something.
*Students anxiously wait for finals to be over and the start of Christmas break.
*Some employees have the big wait, as they hold their breath and learn whether or not there will be a Christmas bonus.
*Retailers count the days til they can count the bottom line from the season’s buying frenzy.
*Kids of all ages can’t wait to open up the brightly wrapped presents starting to appear under the tree.
Everyone is waiting . . . for the wrong things.
Advent is not about waiting for sales, stuff, or Santa. Advent is about waiting for the appearance of something both eagerly anticipated and yet wholly unexpected. No, let me try again. Advent is about waiting for the appearance, not of something but of someone eagerly anticipated yet wholly unexpected. Jesus is not an Advent cut‑away or cut‑out. Jesus is the whole cut, the whole shebang, the whole story of Advent, Christmas, and Christmastide. 
In this week’s gospel text the focus seems to be on John the Baptist. But that’s wrong. It is not. To be sure, John is a slightly mysterious figure. No wonder the religious authorities come to question him about just exactly who he is and what it is he is doing. John denies holding all the convenient cubby-hole titles the religious powers-in-charge would like to put upon him.
He refused the title of Messiah.
He refused the title of Elijah.
He even refused the title of a prophet.
Instead, John the Baptist declared himself to be a “waiter”…
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