Today I have had the privilege of two sermons coming into my life and heart. During the early Eucharist at St. John Lutheran Church in Griffin, Georgia, I heard a wonderful sermon by Pastor Katie Pasch. Afterwards, during the Breakfast/Agape over coffee, apples, oranges, and sweet rolls, I worked up enough courage to ask Pastor Katie if she might send me a copy her homily so that I might share it with you. She agreed! So expect something quite wonderful later this week after she sends me her sermon as an email attachment. You’ll be delighted and surprised at how she has woven in my favorite Flannery O’Connor story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” (So Pastor Katie, if you’re reading this, be sure to send me the text of what you said this morning!).
Pastor Katie, as did most Lutheran pastors, preached on, helped us understand, and gifted us with Jesus’ “Advent” talk in Luke 21.25-36:
25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
29 He told them this parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30 When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32 “Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
What Jesus said in Luke is also what Pastor Luckey at Faith Lutheran Church in Lexington, Kentucky, proclaimed as he presented the Holy Gospel to his parish during the Eucharist. About an hour ago, he sent me a copy of the homily so that even while in Georgia, I may be with him and his parish in spirit and prayer. Pastor Luckey’s sermon begins this way:
So, Happy New Year.
The first Sunday in Advent is the equivalent in the church to January 1st. The world out there has customs and traditions when it comes to ushering in a new year. We gather in Time’s Square, and a big ball drops out of the sky. We make New Year’s resolutions. We eat certain foods on New Year’s Day to give us luck for the year ahead—cabbage or collards and black eyes peas. We symbolize the new year with pictures of a plump baby in a diaper with a sash that says 2010 and an old man in a long beard with a walking stick symbolizing the old, worn out year that’s passing away.
In the church, on the first day of a new year we have our own customs. Instead of a ball, we have a wreath. Instead of black eyed peas and collards we have bread and wine. We even have our own version of the old man with the long beard and the walking stick. Our version of that is a scripture text about signs in the sun and moon and stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the seas and the waves and the heavens being shaken.
Signs. Jesus says that the tired old world of war and hunger and injustice is passing away like an old man with a long beard leaning on a walking stick. And the church’s version of a baby symbolizing the new year is the fig tree sprouting leaves. “Look at the fig tree,” Jesus says, “and all the trees. As soon as they sprout leaves, (more…)
