December 18, 2022: Hope - What Are You Waiting For?

The Rev. John Kennedy wrapped up our Advent sermon series "What Are You Waiting For?" during our celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the Fourth Sunday of Advent. To learn more about St. Paul's, visit our website: www.stpauls-church.org Excerpt: Christmas is one week. All the Advent candles are lit. A full circle, with the Christ candle in the center, which we wait to light until Christmas Eve. Once again, we have arrived at the fullness of time — of our Advent vigil of hopeful, expectant waiting. Speaking of time: this Advent, we have talked about time; how we live in the “time between.” The time between: The first coming of Christ, born in a stable Bethlehem, and his second coming in glory. The already and the not-yet. And it occurred to me that Christmas is a sort of time machine. It takes us backwards and forwards; to our earliest childhood memories and all the way to the present. Every Christmastime we encounter so much that is the same; constant: We put the same ornaments and lights on the tree; we prepare and enjoy familiar food; we hear the same songs; watch the same movies; set out the same stockings; put on the same sweaters and ties; and gather with familiar people in familiar places. These things takes us back in time. However briefly, they might even take us out of time. Beyond the horizon of time to eternity. The evergreen Christmas tree — changeless throughout the seasons — is a sign that speaks to us of eternity — of timelessness — however quietly, however subtly. Advent The season of Advent has a similarly mysterious relationship to time: On the first Sunday of Advent, we encounter Jesus toward the end of his earthly life. He is speaking about the end of time; looking beyond the horizon of time and into eternity. On the second and third Sundays, we travel back in time to meet John the Baptist, the prophet who called his fellow Jews to repent and prepare for the coming of the Messiah. And now, on the fourth Sunday, we go all the way back to the beginning of the story. We go back to before the birth of Jesus. In the other two years of our three year cycle of readings, we meet Mary, the mother of God.