Note: this sermon was originally delivered in Sunrise Chapel, Tucson in 1997.
Just three days ago, we celebrated Thanksgiving. People took time off to express gratitude, and reflect on the blessings in their life. People often express thankfulness for the things that have happened in the past, and are happening in the present. But some of the things people are grateful for are things that haven’t happened yet. They are grateful for something in the future.
Imagine a couple looking forward to their wedding day. They are a spiritual couple, so they are in the habit of praying together. As they pray, they thank God for bringing them together, and they also thank God for wedding that is going to take place. They also express gratitude for the marriage that will take place after the wedding day, and pray that their marriage will last a lifetime. They even thank God for the gift of children they may be blessed with. They like to imagine how their unborn children could change the world and affect the course of history. They pray that their children will have their own children, and the family line will continue. They thank God for all of those things yet to come, and it has a powerful effect on how they approach their wedding day and what it means to them. If it was just one day, one celebration, it would not be as meaningful. But it is at least a lifetime, and as they read about marriage after death, they hope that they will love each other forever – and they are grateful for a love that can transcend time and space. That is gratitude for the future.
In the Advent story, when Mary conceived, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was the wife of a priest, and was elderly, but who had been given the miracle of conception a few months earlier. When Mary and Elizabeth met, they embraced, and they both felt tremendous gratitude for what was to come. Elizabeth’s baby leaped in her womb, and she asked Mary, “Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” So they were not just celebrating being together, but celebrating what was to come.
And that leap was John the Baptist, not yet born, acknowledging the future that was made possible by this other child, not yet born. And Mary’s response was to say “My soul magnifies the Lord” – and then sing a song of praise as IF the advent had already occurred.
Praise and thanks for the future
After three months, Mary went back to her own home, and Zechariah and Elizabeth awaited the birth of their son. After the boy was born, they waited eight days for the circumcision and naming ceremony, and there was a disagreement. Everyone else wanted to name him Zechariah after his father, but the old priest motioned for a tablet, and wrote “His name is John.” And immediately his tongue was loosed, he could speak again, and his first words were to bless the God of Israel, and to sing a song about the significance of that moment. He said, “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation, through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Jesus was not even born yet, but Zechariah knew what was to come. It would be thirty years before Jesus would begin his public ministry, and hundreds of years before the wider world began to hear his message and be transformed. But already Zechariah could see that in his mind. And he knew that the birth of the Lord would lighten our darkness and guide us toward peace. That form of thanksgiving is powerful – an important reminder to us to anticipate things that are to come, and be grateful for them.
This anticipation of things to come was the function of the prophets of old. Right from the beginning of the Bible, the first story of evil also includes a promise that the Messiah would come into the world. The Old Testament is full of prophecies of the Lord’s coming. When Balaam the prophet is sent to curse the children of Israel, instead Balaam says “I see him, but not now, I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.” King David rejoiced to see the Lord’s day, a thousand years before it happened. Isaiah prophecied that a virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and call him Immanuel. So the Jewish nation knew that a Messiah would come to save them, to bring light into their darkness and fill their lives with peace. Living in expectation of that coming changed the quality of their life.
Another story of anticipation is about Jacob and his twelve sons. One of those sons was Joseph, and Jacob loved him so much that he gave him the famous coat of many colors. Jacob realized that this created tension between the sons. But then the bitter day arrived when the sons came home and told Jacob terrible news: they were carrying a cloth dipped in blood, and said “Your won was killed by a wild animal.”
Jacob fell into deep grief that lasted for years and years. And he also fell into a suspicion of these ten sons, and he was deeply worried about his last son, Benjamin. Meanwhile, as Jacob is suffering these thoughts in the Land of Canaan, he does not know that Jacob has risen to power in Egypt. Because of Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams, the land of Egypt was able to anticipate a long famine and prepare for it. They were so well prepared that they were not only able to feed their own people, but also sell food to people from distant lands. And that included those ten sons of Jacob, who came to Egypt to buy grain. But they did not recognize the powerful Egyptian in charge of selling food – a cleanshaven man dressed in Egyptian clothing and using an interpreter to speak to them.
Joseph was at first harsh with them. He sent them back home with the food they needed, but also with a demand, “Do not come back unless you bring your youngest brother Benjamin with you.” This is the last thing that sons wanted to do, because they knew it would break their father’s heart. When they went back and reported this to Jacob, they were right about his reaction. He said, “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.”
But when the brother see Joseph for the second time, he reveals himself to them, and they are reconciled. It is a joyful reunion, but Jacob is not a part of it. Then Pharaoh says, “Send provisions back to your father’s land and bring him into Egypt.” So they loaded up carts with food and provisions for the journey.
When arrived to tell told Jacob “Your son Joseph is alive” he didn’t believe them - he couldn’t believe them. But when he saw the carts loaded with goods, he knew it was true. His whole mood shifted and he had hope for the first time in many years. It would be at least a month before he would see his son Joseph, but his grief was over. Because it was a certainty that he would be reunited with his beloved son Joseph. So he had a change of heart - a lifting up of his heart. Instead of mourning and fear, he could be grateful for what was to come. And he said, “it’s enough just to see my son alive.”
All the prophecies are telling us of something to come. Through the centuries, this kept the people in some kind of hope. They had reason for discouragement and despair, and went through very difficult and dark times. But they reflected back on the prophecy – that God will come, and deliver us from enemies, and teach us new things, enlighten us, and bring a new state of peace into the world. And when Jesus was born, the angels rejoiced as if the Lord’s ministry had already begun, even though it was still 30 years away. They were thankful for things to come – the sure promise that things will change in the future.
So we begin Advent season, a season that is not easy or joyous for everyone. For some people, Christmas is a painful and difficult time. Perhaps there has been a death in the family, and Christmas reminds them of that. Or perhaps there has been a break up in a relationship, and a person who had a partner is now facing Christmas alone. For others, it is a time when others experience things they don’t have. Some face poverty and crime, or illness and suffering. So the Christmas season is positive for some people and may be negative for others.
But the message of the celebration is the coming of the Messiah – that God can come onto the plane of human experience and transform our lives. The divine can become real for us. And in anticipation of that, we can celebrate each year and get new hope – hope that comes with the realization that God does come into our lives and changes our world. In the words of Zechariah, “the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” And in anticipation of that, we give thanks. Amen.
PRAYER: Lord, as we go through the journey of our life and face the many challenges that confront us, lift our hearts up and give us hope. Remind us that your promises are sure, that you care about us, and even now you are preparing us so that you may come closer into our hearts, gifting us with the qualities of your love, and filling us with the spirit of your peace. Amen.
READINGS
Old Testament reading: Genesis 45:19-28 (CONTEXT: Pharaoh is talking to Joseph, about to send Joseph’s brothers back to tell their father that Joseph was still alive)
“You are also directed to tell them, ‘Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.’”
So the sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave them provisions for their journey. To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, “Don’t quarrel on the way!”
So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
New Testament reading: Luke 1:67-79 (Context: After Zechariah’s son John is born and his speech is returned to him)
Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Reading from Swedenborg: Secrets of Heaven 2338
[T]emptations are attended with doubt in regard to the Lord’s presence and mercy, and also in regard to salvation. The evil spirits who are then with the man and induce the temptation strongly inspire negation, but the good spirits and angels from the Lord in every possible way dispel this state of doubt, and keep the man in a state of hope, and at last confirm him in what is affirmative. The result is that a man who is in temptation hangs between what is negative and what is affirmative. One who yields in temptation remains in a state of doubt, and falls into what is negative; but one who overcomes is indeed in doubt, but still, if he suffers himself to be cheered by hope, he stands fast in what is affirmative.