I’ve always wanted to preach an Advent series on “It’s a
Wonderful Life.” Before moving to the area, I had never seen the movie, nor did
I know that the Indiana area was once home to Jimmy Stewart. This American
classic is very much a part of our local culture, and even though this film
isn’t part of the Christian subculture, there are Advent lessons we can glean
from this historical movie. So the next time you see this movie, I pray that it
draws you deeper into the heart of Advent. So let’s begin.
Endurance doesn’t immediately strike us as an Advent theme,
does it? But yet, that’s exactly the type of life George Bailey’s father
invited him to embrace. Sitting around the dining room table, ready to conquer
the big, exciting world in front of him, George’s dad asked him if he’d
consider just coming home and working at the old Building and Loan. Not the
type of wonderful life George was anticipating. Like Geoargy, we usually hope
for something different in our lives- especially this season. Which is why we are
so used to seeing words that inspire a different type of emotion during Advent,
words like hope, peace, joy and love. Every year we look forward to these
themes, these words that keep popping up. Isn’t it interesting that we keep on
coming back to those four words during this season? Maybe that’s because these
words aren’t as natural as we’d like them to be. If we’re honest, they are words
that easily slip from our vocabulary, and, sometimes dangerously, our hearts.
Just a month after last year’s Christmas celebrations, I ran
into an old friend who was struggling with his mind and his emotions. The
joy-inspired days of Christmas and New Year’s had dissipated into the cold and
dreary January darkness, and it was affecting this man’s soul. I think he was
battling some type of seasonal depression. He’s a man who yearns to be outdoors
and remaining bottled up inside a “shabby existence” is a frightening existence
for him. On his best days, he’s filled
with nervous energy, always getting something done. On his worst days, you have
to pull him from the house, because he’s not quite certain he wants to do
anything. He’s not even sure he wants to go on living. He just wants the
darkness to be over.
We might not have the same struggles (or maybe you do), but I
think we all have the same sentiment. We just want the darkness to be over. We
just want the Kingdom of God to come the way Jesus says it will come. And our
proclamation is that one day, it will. One day, the Kingdom will come, just as
Jesus has said, and everything will be the way it should be. No more death or
mourning or crying or pain. No more war and division; no more hatred and
senseless acts of violence. No more evil in this shabby world gone wild. One
day, God will make all things new.
But until then, we have to learn the discipline of endurance.
Endurance is a tough concept in our culture. For a people so
used to having everything and anything at the click of a button, endurance is
almost incomprehensible. The idea of waiting
for something we yearn for seems unjust and unfair. We want hope, peace,
joy and love to be our reality, and we want those promised gifts now! Just like
we want Christmas to appear as soon as possible! But while we get glimpses of
those gifts, they’re often overshadowed by other realities that take the life
out of us. Realities like the recent shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in
Squirrel Hill and raging wildfires in California. And that’s what makes
endurace, just like hope, peace, joy and love, such an important theme for
Advent.
It’s safe to say that we’re not the only ones who struggle
with endurance. So did the early disciples. Like the kids in the backseat
asking “When are we going to get there,” the disciples were constantly asking
Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?” It was a popular question for
Jesus, and understandably so. The Jewish people were tired of the status quo-
tired of other governments controlling them, tired of feeling like they were
second-class citizens, tired of feeling powerless to change their social
situation. And they had been at it for quite some time. Their history was one
of oppression. Whether it was Egypt or Babylon or Assyria or Rome, they just
wanted the promises of God to become their reality. And every time they asked
when their shabby existence would transform into the beautiful Kingdom, the
answer always seemed to be the same: “Not yet. It is surely coming, but not
yet.”
“Not yet” isn’t the answer anyone wants to hear, but it’s the
answer God gives more often than not. And knowing that we’d like God to reveal
more than a “not yet,” Jesus teaches us the way of endurance, the way of
faithfully moving forward, undeterred in the faith, especially when moments of
hope, peace, joy and love seem fleeting. And who better to teach us than the
one who Hebrews says, “endured the cross for the joy set before him, scorning
its shame.” Endurance is the way of Christ, and it’s the way of Christ’s
followers who must learn to fix their eyes when they cannot fix their world. In
these in-between times, the threshold between what is and what will be, our
souls must be shaped by the discipline of endurance. And endurance requires a
great deal of courage. That’s what we’re invited into this Advent season. We’re
invited into a courageous faith.
Without courage, it would be easy to discover, like my friend
in mid-January, that our hearts can easily grow discouraged, disappointed or
even listless. Enduring the struggles of this world while awaiting the joy that
is to come is not for the faint of heart. This is the point Jesus is trying to
make to his disciples. Having faith requires courage! It takes courage to get
up every morning and proclaim love in a broken world. It takes courage to await
joy in the face of suffering. It takes courage to believe in resurrection when
everything around screams death. It takes courage to keep on believing that
whatever chapters are currently being written cannot and will not undo the
ending of a story we know to be true. So we must endure. Not simply exist. We must
endure! And that requires courage. But here’s the thing about courage: it’s not
found by digging deep within; courage is found when we’re awakened to the
activity of God.
Jesus has said that heaven and earth will pass away, but his
words never will. His words, which flow out of his heart to strengthen our weak
spirits, will never be shaken. Nothing in our world can undo the story God is
writing, which is why Jesus tells us to look at pay attention to the signs all
around. “There will be signs,” says Jesus, and those signs will remind us that
our redemption is drawing near. And those signs remind us that God is not done!
Right after Halloween, the girls and I made a trip to Lowe’s. The shelves were
still stocked with marked-down spooky decorations, but just a few aisles down,
we began to see Christmas decorations. And even though it wasn’t Christmas, the
sight of the lights and the trees was enough to make me start humming, “It’s
beginning to look a lot like Christmas…” at the end of October. It looked nothing like Christmas, but there were
signs that Christmas was coming, and my spirit endured.
Paying attention to signs of God’s Kingdom among us can do a
world of good for a disciple. They can change our tunes, help us see our
situations differently. For Joseph and Mary, the sign was a baby in a manger.
For the Magi from the East, it was a star in the sky. For us? Well, it could be
anything, really. A word of comfort when we we’re at our loneliest hour...a
relationship reconciled when we thought it was all over...an opportunity to
right a wrong when someone gives us a chance we never deserved. And sometimes,
it’s just an unexpected act of kindness that gives us reason to pause and
reconsider our worldviews. But the thing about signs is this: they always point
us to Christ, who gives us the desire and strenghth to endure.
As it so happens, I took a break from writing my sermon to
scroll through Facebook, and I saw a sign that caused my heart to sing a
different song. A friend, who gave me permission to share this story, posted
that she sent her young daughter with $20 to Santa’s Workshop, a fun event for
our local students to buy small gifts for their loved ones, and her daughter
came home with $13. When asked why she didn’t spend it all, the young girl
said, “Well, I bought a gift for everyone, but I know we don’t have a lot of
money, so I didn’t want to buy too much.” That’s a story, friends, about a
young girl choosing wisdom over greed and kindness over temptation. It’s also a
sign, a reminder from God, that even though it feels at times as if all hell is
breaking loose, the Kingdom IS drawing near. Believing that takes courage.
Believing that the God of heaven is stronger than the chains of hell is what
Advent is all about. Believing that Christ is still reigning despite the
darkness that lingers much longer than we’d like is our calling this season. So
as we wait for that glorious day to appear, let’s look to Christ – the sign of
the season- and take courage, and press on. Amen.
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