The Downtown Presbyterian Church

Sermons

Staying Alert While Being Weighed Down

Luke 21:25-36

Rev. Kenneth M. Locke

1^st Sunday of Advent

November 30^th, 2003

Robert and Susan were co-workers at a big company in one of the huge buildings downtown. Hi-powered executives, they had big offices with wooden desks and great views. They each had numerous underlings and were respected by everyone in the firm.

One day, their supervisor called them both in and said both of them were in line for promotions. She didn’t know when the promotions would be, those decisions had to do with profits and money available and some senior people retiring. But she told them both to feel good about the work they were doing and as soon as the promotions were effective she’d let them know at once. The promotions were certain, it was now just a matter of waiting.

Robert and Susan shook hands with the supervisor, congratulated each other and went back to their desks and their staffs and the day’s work.

A few days later, Robert got a phone-call in the middle of the night. It was his son calling from jail. The police had pulled him over for speeding and weaving in traffic. They tested him and sure enough his alcohol was twice the legal limit. They searched his car and found a bag of white powdery substance looking suspiciously like cocaine. Robert rolled out of bed, went to the jail, bailed his son out and arranged for a lawyer. The next day he went to work on time and did his work well, but there was a stoop to his shoulders.

Not long afterwards his mother fell and broke her hip.

She had to go to a nursing home and he had to hire a visiting nurse to check on his father every day.

And so it kept happening with Robert. His wife lost her engagement ring. He had a fender-bender one day just at the start of rush-hour. His doctor told him the cholesterol medicine he was taking wasn’t doing the job and some drastic steps might have to be taken.

Robert still did very well at work, but slowly he stopped thinking about that promotion. In the early days he had basked in the prospect, looking forward, daydreaming about the party and prestige and paycheck. But as time wore on and the day didn’t come it took up less and less of his thoughts. He was more and more focused on the cares of work and family and just plain old living. Tired, dragged down, he was too worn out to be happy. And one day he simply forgot all about the promotion. It slipped his mind and did not return.

About the same time Robert’s son was arrested, Susan’s husband lost his job. They didn’t really need the income, but the blow to his self-esteem was tremendous. He found another job soon enough, but it was minor and inconsequential to what he had had. Soon, mysterious numbers started appearing on their phone bill and Susan’s husband was evasive. He started spending less and less time at home and when he was home he was glued to the television and sports.

Not too long after that Susan’s father died suddenly and her mother went to live with her sister. It fell to Susan to clean out the old house, decide what to save and what to discard, argue with the insurance company and prepare the house to be sold. Her husband wasn’t much good to her at these times and they increasingly grew apart.

And so it went for Susan. She was in a hurry in the kitchen and cut her hand open, requiring a trip to the emergency room and lots of stitches. The dog she had had for years had to be put down. The doctor found something suspicious in her breast and said it was probably nothing but they really ought to operate just to be on the safe side.

Throughout this turmoil, Susan never let a day go by without remembering that day in her boss’s office, the day she learned she was going to get a promotion. She didn’t fixate on it, but everyday she took a moment to remember the feeling of excitement and expectation. She took a few minutes to look forward to the party and the congratulations and what the extra income would mean. Her everyday cares and concerns were still with her, but they didn’t weigh her down so much she couldn’t appreciate what she had and what was to come.

When the day finally arrived, and Robert and Susan were ushered into the executive suite and speeches were made and everyone had champagne and hors d’oeuvres, which one do you think enjoyed it more? Which one really registered the honor and prestige of the new position? Which one appreciated the new corner office and the larger staff? Which one enjoyed what the special day had brought? Which one had spent the time of waiting in such a way that the promotion really made a difference in their life?

We are in now the season of Advent, the four Sundays immediately preceding Christmas. The word Advent, when you trace it back through the Old French and Latin, means coming, arriving. Advent is the season of waiting for the arrival of Christmas.

Christmas, incidentally, is not the most holy day of the church year. That honor belongs to Easter. But Christmas is important because it’s a two-fold celebration. First of all, we celebrate the incarnation of God, God becoming human, in the birth of Jesus Christ, who came into the world just as you and I did, through the very human process of birth. But at Christmas we also look forward to the time when Jesus will come again, to the time when the “Son of Man will come with clouds descending” to rule over the earth.

So in Advent we wait. We’re waiting to celebrate what has happened before and what will happen on a day and time of God’s own choosing. Waiting to celebrate the past we can do easily enough. It’s waiting to celebrate the future, it’s waiting for that day that will come none of us knows when, that tires us out. Life happens, we get weighed down, and one day the joyful anticipation just slips from our memory and comes to mind no more.

I’ve been your pastor now for about 14 months. During this time I’ve tried very hard to get to know you. I’ve had breakfast, lunch and supper with you. I’ve had coffee with you. I’ve been to your meetings and your offices and your homes. I’ve sat beside your hospital beds, held your sick children and listened to your joys and your sorrows. I’ve heard your concerns about never getting married, I’ve heard your concerns about your marriages falling apart. I know about your struggles with money and parents, struggles with meaningful work and meaningful relationships. I’ve heard your joys and concerns about the future and your joys and concerns about the past. I’ve been invited into your lives and your hearts enough to know we as a congregation carry just as much on our plates as any other congregation in town.

And my great concern is we are tempted into carrying so many worries of life with us we forget about joyfully anticipating the future. We forget that rush of excitement we had when we first realized Jesus had lived and died for each one of us, and that Jesus is constantly with us in the Spirit and one day will be with us in a way we don’t yet understand. Somehow the weight of the world ways us down and the joy of Jesus slips from our memory, scarcely to return.

Today, tomorrow, we will meet Jesus. Jesus will come to us in a prayer, a hymn, an anthem, a friend’s “hello,” a loved one’s call. And someday, I know, we will meet Jesus in a different way.

But when we meet Jesus, this afternoon or some time n the future, will it mean anything to us? Will it be exciting? Will we appreciate what it means to come face-to-face with the Son of God? Or will we be too weighed down with the cares of this world to really notice?

The waiting of Advent is like anything else, it can be done well or it can be done badly. And how we do it is very much up to us. Will we take time to anticipate what is to come? Will we take time this Advent and during Lent and Easter and Ordinary Time to look forward to the coming reign of God, to look forward to the time when Jesus will rule?

If the waiting of Advent doesn’t mean much to you, if it’s just another month, or if it’s so crammed with shopping and cooking it means nothing, or if the worries and concerns of jobs and parents and all the things that make up a life, if those things are weighing you down, pray to Jesus he will lift that burden from you. Pray to Jesus he will help you enjoy meeting him in the face of friends and face-to-face. Pray to Jesus this time of waiting will not be crushed by the cares of our world, but this time of waiting will enable us to face and overcome the cares, frustrations and anxiety each of us face.

The waiting of Advent, preparing ourselves for the joy of the past and the joy of the future, is one of God’s great gifts to us. It helps us appreciate what God has done in our past and what God is going to do in our future. This Advent, while the worries of the world continue weighing on our shoulders, let us ask Jesus to help us stand tall, bright-eyed and eager, joyfully anticipating the glorious day.

Amen.