Maranatha! Peace. Dec 1, 2019; ICCM; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson
Road trips can be fun, or they can be terrible. When my daughter was 2 and my son was 7 their father and planned a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. We had great expectations. We left our dog, Penny, with the grandparents and set off. It was a long journey, really long! Our youngest was in a car seat calling out her mournful lament, “I wanna go home! I miss Penny!” Mile after mile all across the Dakotas she hollered her refrain, “I wanna go home! I miss Penny!” Her brother made the best of it—alternately trying to keep her occupied, or turning his back to her and playing his Gameboy. I’m sure there were a few good moments, but it wasn’t what the journey we expected.
Advent, the four weeks before Christmas, is a journey of a sort. The path is set: we start with expectations, we are encouraged to keep awake and alert so we’re ready. We have a vision set before us of what we might encounter. We have candles to light the way. And our experience depends on our readiness to encounter new things. Some of us might feel like a backseat passenger, dragged along by someone else when all we want is the security of home and the things we know and love. Some of us, our Gospel text suggests, don’t even know there is a journey at all. Those travelers are just doing their thing, too busy to pay attention, too focused on the tasks at hand to notice that there is any movement happening, that the keys are being jangled, that the car is pulling out.
The first goal on the Advent journey this year is Peace. We are given a vision of peace in the text from Isaiah. In the days to come swords will be beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, the nations will stream to God’s holy mountain and no one will be taught war anymore. The psalm tells the same story—pray for peace and draw near to God’s throne. It is a vision of our world transformed into a place of peace. Our gospel invites us to watch and wait for the coming of the Lord.
The story goes that an elderly woman attended a conference featuring presenters from a wide spectrum of believers. It was a new experience for her to venture out beyond her own congregation and denomination. She was surprised by the diversity of Christian perspectives. One of the preachers suggested that the participants might try using a greeting that had been popular in the earliest days of Christianity. People in the first century of the church expected Jesus to return any day. They used the Greek word Maranatha, the Lord is coming. The woman embraced the suggestion. She decided to live expectantly—to look for the Lord’s coming and try this new greeting. So, the next morning she positioned herself at the entry to the breakfast area and enthusiastically greeted each person saying, Marijuana, brother. Marijuana, sister. She was close, I guess—at least phonetically speaking. Marijuana isn’t Maranatha is it?
The idea that the Lord is coming is interpreted in a variety of ways within the broad spectrum of Christian faith. Some see our gospel text and a few other passages as predicting a scenario that would unfold 7 years before the second coming of Jesus and the final judgement. They see it as an event they call the rapture when some will be taken up to heaven and spared the tribulation: horrific suffering, wars and devastation for those left behind.
Some of you may have read one of the Left Behind novels that were first published in the 1990s. These fictional books are filled with a violent conflict between the tribulation force made up of the left behind who have repented, committing themselves to Jesus. With military weapons the forces of the Antichrist clash in a battle of Armageddon with Jesus who is figured as an omnipotent warrior who defeats his opponents and condemns most people to eternal suffering in hell. All 12 of these fictional masterpieces were on the New York Times bestseller list, selling more than 60 million copies.
The idea of a rapture is a modern invention that traces its origin to John Nelson Darby, a late 19th century British evangelist. His Scofield Reference Bible was first published in 1909 and divides world history into multiple dispensations climaxing in the rapture and second coming of Jesus. When we zero in on a few isolated texts and create a fictional and elaborate scheme full of violent destruction we lose sight of the vision of Peace that dominates Christian teaching throughout most of history and most of the world. If everything might end in the next 50 years, why work for peace? Why protect the environment? Rapture theology doesn’t match the biblical Jesus who came as the prince of peace. Maranatha doesn’t mean marijuana, and it doesn’t mean Armageddon either.
When we embark on this Advent journey we are invited to live expectantly. This season begins not with fear but with peace: Christmas cards read, Peace on Earth. Our carols are filled with Peace, Peace, Peace, Sleep in Heavenly peace. Today we lit the candle of peace. We seek the peace of Christ that passes all understanding. We strive for the vision where swords are beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, where there is no more learning war, no more fighting, but walking in the light of the Lord!
Advent invites us to draw close to Christ, to journey into peace, hope, joy, trust, and love. We are invited to leave behind the excess and examine our hearts so that we can follow our Lord. While the rest of the world is already full-swing into the Christmas season the season of Advent beckons us to travel a different path—to get ourselves ready for the peace that passes understanding. We make a choice to journey together to the manger, to prepare our hearts to welcome Christ anew. It’s a counter-cultural choice, this Advent journey. We’ll resist the urge to sing Christmas carols just yet—while all the world is shopping and partying and splurging, the advent journey invites us to leave the safe and comfortable in search of something wonderful and new.
Advent is about listening for the vision of God’s intention for life, longing for something that is both here already and not yet fully realized. God’s peace is greater than we can imagine on our own. The peace of Christ that passes all understanding is bigger than personal salvation. Its goal is no less than the transformation of the whole word. Far from removing us from the present concerns of this life, the season calls us to influence life here and now. As expats we’re limited in what we can do here in Mexico to call for peacemaking in schools or governments or community priorities. In our own homelands we can take a stand on policy issues. Here though, our options are more individual. I love hearing about the volunteer work being done in orphanages, schools and shelters, with neighbors and organizations. In two weeks the Salvation Army Children’s Home will be with us in worship. That’s a peace-making opportunity. The Lord is Coming in those actions. Maranatha. The Lord shows us the way of peace and invites us on the journey. Amen.
Dear friends, this is not just another Sunday, another Season, and another day. Are you ready to encounter Jesus? Are you ready for the unexpected to change your life, alter your plans, and disrupt your direction? Be still. Be aware. Be ready. God is good. Jesus is coming—again, and again, and again. Don’t miss a single opportunity of this present day.