Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 11/30/2025, Advent 1
Lessons: Matthew 24: 36-44
Happy New Year Saints!
What a joy to be with you as we kick off this new liturgical year with this time of preparation and expectation called Advent!
Thank you, Altar Guild, for the transformative job you've done in our sanctuary and beyond - with the linens and wreaths –
Thank you, choir, for your hard work with yet another new round of texts and tunes –
Thank you, Daughters of the King, for giving us a tree in the Atrium to adorn with hats and gloves for the needy - feel free to bring in your donations thru Christmas.
And thank you all, dear and devoted parishioners, for your support, love, and care of our community - making this possible - our 73rd Annual Advent at St. David's!
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As you may know, the first Gospel reading of Advent is always a text relating to the end of the world. It is a reminder of that basic Christian doctrine - that we don't live in a cyclical world that keeps repeating itself - but in a progressive world that grows and evolves, constantly bringing us new things, that will culminate in the final victory and triumph of love.
Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
Love has died, Love has risen, Love will come again.
In Christian theology it's called the Parousia - you Scrabble players can thank me later - it's worth 10 points - And the nature and shape of that Parousia - is hard to discern from this morning's Gospel isn't it?
What will the end of times be like?
We hear mysterious, judgmental references to 2 people in the field or the grist mill - and only 1 taken - where will they go? What happens if they stay? Is this a hint that I should double-down on my IRA?
There is no shortage of preachers who will offer opinions here - even though this text clearly states; 'But about that day and hour no one knows, not angels, nor the Son, but only the Father.'
What we do know, if the body of literature on the Parousia is to be trusted - is that Jesus does not plan to forget about us. He is not heading out to a safe house on a private island to ride out the Apocalypse!
But he has gone to the control tower - for a bird's eye view, sitting at the right hand of the Father - like mom and dad in the grandstands - who stick it out even if it snows and it goes into overtime.
This is what Love does - it perseveres, it never abandons, it offers a caring gaze with unwavering interest in all that you and I are up to.
So, what we are up to, is Advent.
It's 4 weeks - and did you know that there are 4 meanings - one-word themes - that have been assigned to each of these weeks?
Does anyone want to take a guess as to these 4 words, each assigned to these 4 weeks?
What are the themes for each of the 4 weeks?
It's hope, peace, joy, and love.
To help you remember this - we have made for each of you a candle and a prayer card - that we want you to take home and use during Advent. So make sure you grab one from the back table in the Narthex. It's self-explanatory, but it asks you to light that candle each day - a symbol of enlightenment - and consider a Bible verse, to read it and reflect it - and on each of these themes throughout the season.
This week - it's hope!
And it couldn't come quick enough!
As you know, there has been a significant and sustained increase in indicators related to hopelessness, apathy, and general mental distress in America over the past decade.
Current depression rates have risen sharply in 2025, of which hopelessness is a core symptom:
18% of us now suffer from it - with 1-in-3 of us being diagnosed with depression some time during our lifetime. The causes are no surprise! They are social disconnection - as our increasingly automated world puts us in fewer social situations.
There's also economic stress, as too many workers are asked to do more with less. We know that real wages have not increased with the cost of living in several, several years.
And then there's social media - which may help us communicate, but it fails to help us significantly connect with each other. There’s a growing body of data that shows that the growth of smartphones has also led to a significant decrease in optimism and life satisfaction, particularly among young people. Of course, it’s not the phone that’s the problem, it’s the way attention is manipulated by the companies that create the apps on our phones.
So-
Are you and I feeling hopeless - about our economic prospects - our relationships - our safety - our politics - the direction of the world? We are not alone!
This is why this first week of Advent is so important - because it reminds us of what is really happening - of the direction and destiny of the world - that things may be hopeless - but God is hopeful - that the world may be running amuck - but God is still on the throne, bringing us through tomorrow, because God brought us through yesterday.
And so, dear Christian, we should not get distressed when we witness the direction and developments of this broken world.
We must rest in hope - that God is here - and God will provide - maybe not what we want, but what we need. Hope is a primary component of your spirit self. Remember, you have the Holy Spirit in you!
Yes, it's in there - you have hope in your heart - but the news from the outside world and the heavy weight of responsibilities that we carry - can make that interior voice of hope very hard to hear and heed!
So let us consider a metaphor by painter Vincent Van Gogh - who trained as a minister at one point in his life.
Van Gogh asks us to notice winter - which was not hard to do this week...
It is a season of increasing darkness and cold. The days get shorter, the snow and sleet come. And it is hard to envision it ending - it's hard to think it's going to stop anytime soon -
It's much easier to envision snow boots, shoveling, salting, and snuggling up by the fireplace to ride it all out.
But we know that winter is just a season.
One day, it will get warmer than the day before.
One day, the sun will stay out longer than the day before.
One day, the snow will melt, the clouds will part, and the day, that warmer and warmer day, will stretch into the evening.
To hope for summer is not ill-founded. It's to trust that God's world will follow God's pattern.
Hoping in the eventual triumph of love is no different - Christ's return and the triumph of love will follow God's pattern.
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"I understand that Pastor - but what am I supposed to do while I wait?"
How many of you were here last Monday night for our Interfaith service? It was wonderful, wasn't it? All those people from different traditions, here to celebrate, not what divides us, but what unites us?
I was just blown away by that 30 - 40 person choir - that shook the rafters!
Do you know what else shook the rafters?
It was Rabbi Starr from the Jewish Synagogue when he blew the ram's horn?
If Al is planning to ask him back to play a prelude, I have no idea - but it would get your attention!
And the reason be brought the ram's horn - was as a symbol and a challenge: the idea behind that loud and startling ram's horn is to wake us up!
It's to awaken us out of the sleepy, mundane left hand road of unquestioning and easy routine - and to re-direct us toward that creative, imaginative, and difficult-but-rewarding right hand road?
"Awakening" asks us to question what the world around us is doing - and not just to mimic it.
Take the idea that God's first expectation of us is that we should do something.
This is very common in our world - we're to do-do-do!
America is a 'can-do' nation - founded on the Protestant work ethic!
Christians have found this very easy to accept - even finding scripture behind it - you know the passage in Luke, 'To whom much is given much is received!'
Or in James 1 - 'Be doers of the word, not merely hearers!''
Or Matthew 28: 'Go therefore and make disciples...'
It's the supremacy of doing!
And too many men and women, to their detriment, have famously rooted their self-worth in it.
It's the first word in the world's sequence of: Do - Have - Be. Do-Have-Be.
As in Do something, like become a lawyer, a doctor, or hedge fund manager - Then you can Have whatever you want - a great house, a gorgeous spouse, an early retirement.
Then you can Be happy, Be content, Be famous, Be admired.
Do - Have - Be.
The problem with this is something you may have noticed -
These people who make doing their primary job, and as a result, have all sorts of things - often, fail to Be happy. The accolades, accomplishments, real estate, and big people toys - fail to bring them contentment.
You've probably met the people who retire after very successful careers - that have prioritized Doing and having - They now feel discarded and worthless - failing to be content because their self-worth was in what they did. If this was the winning sequence, Do-Have-Be - why would a rich person clamor for more, or even take their own life?
It's because this is backward - it's not Do-Have-Be - it's Be-Do-Have.
Our first job is to Be.
Friends, that's the first call of the Christian -
Henri Nouwen says it's to Be Loved. It's to Be content, be joyful, be happy - because we don’t have to do anything to earn God's love.
God can't love us anymore - God can't love us any less!
Be there to accept your acceptance - to be loved.
We all know that happiness is a decision - we decide whether we're happy or not.
We decide to be happy, be content, be satisfied - as we discover that we are beloved.
Once we can Be - we can sense this inner peace and contentment - that can inform us - and tell us what to Do.
You see, being is primarily a spiritual thing. Being involved hearing your spiritual self - the Holy Spirit inside of you telling you that you are enough. And it's out of this that we can Do - what our spirits invite us to do.
And then, what we Do can help us Have what we need to get by.
It's not Do-Have-Be - it's Be-Do-Have.
And this, too, is found quite profoundly in scripture:
"Be still and know that I am God" - says the Psalmist.
In 1 Kings Elijah found God, "not in the wind or the earthquake - but in the silence."
And Isaiah wrote, "By waiting and calm you shall be saved, in quietness and trust shall be your strength."
To rest in hope is to rest in confidence is to rest in God - who tells us that we are enough - and that God is enough to bring the world to fruition in love.
"OK pastor, so what am I supposed to do while I wait?"
Be loved - Do what love tells you to do - and Have what love has prepared for you.
Friends - I am so looking forward to sharing Advent with you - and these 4 weeks of preparation and anticipation.
May this journey of hope, peace, joy, and love, help us live in faith - not saddened and depressed at what the world has to say - but renewed and reinvigorated at what God has to say - as our Lord works through all of us to bring us to our true end, and the culmination of all human history - which is love.
Amen.