Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church

Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8;

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Well, it has begun. The Thanksgiving turkey was still being nibbled at as the parades emerged, bringing Santa. Black Friday unfolded with less collateral damage than last year, albeit a pepper-spraying incident in Los Angeles and a riot in a Little Rock Walmart over $2 waffle-irons. In this last week, folks have moved full speed into Christmas preparation. Fortunately, I do not listen to the radio, watch much television, or hang out in shopping malls. That spares me the ubiquitous blare of commercial Christmas music and other media slogans like “Happy Holidays,” “Season’s Greetings” and the other euphemisms designed to try to cover the fact that what this is all about is celebrating the coming of the Christ. Had that not happened, there would be no Christmas and gift-giving. Think of what a blow that would be to the economy!

Now, lest you think I’m being a Grinch, let me say it clearly: this is to be a season of joyful preparation. But Advent is not about Christmas lists and cards, nor only preparing to celebrate Christ’s first coming, but about preparing for his final one. Here the Church is counter-cultural. Yes, it is a time to set up crèches, place angels on trees, and talk to children about shepherds and magi. It is a time to rehearse the story of God coming to us as one of us in the Christ Child, born helpless, just like the rest of us, and in the most humble and inhospitable of circumstances. But more, it is a time to remember and proclaim that when Christ appears the next time, his coming will be anything but humble, inhospitable or exclusive. It will be the most glorious, most exquisite, the most inclusive, the most longed-for and long-awaited moment in the history of all creation. That is what we are to prepare for and the word we have to speak: Comfort! Prepare! The Glory of the Lord is about to be revealed. Everything is going to become new. Every treachery will be undone. Evil will be reversed–turned inside out to now proclaim “LIVE.”¹ Heaven and earth will be born again, and all of the inhabitants with it, to live in a world where righteousness is at home.² That is the Church’s word that we are to proclaim in the increasing wilderness of seasonal preparation. How are we doing?

This afternoon I am getting on a plane to go to Vienna–that’s Austria, not Virginia! I am going as a part of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation’s delegation to help moderate a conference that has been called by the Archbishop of Vienna, on “The Crisis in the Family.” Other participants will include the Russian Orthodox Church in Europe, and the European Council of Rabbis.³ The agenda for the conference is comprehensive and sobering. It touches on virtually every dynamic that has thrown the basic unit of human existence–the family–into crisis. I will not rehearse that with you here. My point is simply that the mess this world is in is larger and more basic than the economic crisis that dominates our headlines daily, or the nuclear threat emerging in Iran or the possible options for dealing with that. They are all serious. But something even more serious faces us. The fundamental unit of human life is falling apart in western culture. Why is that?

Behind all the psychology, sociology and evolutionary biology that will be referenced at the conference, there is this more foundational, theological truth: humankind has abandoned God as the source and sustainer of life, and the only One who can give life meaning and purpose. Rather, we, for the most part, have turned instead to ourselves for all that, intent on trying to create meaningful life through things–mostly power, money and fame. In a conversation with one of you this last week, I commented that the devil really only has three tools in his kit: power, money, and fame–I forgot the fourth–sex. Aren’t those the four things that dominate our lives, not only in this town, but in the world?

In that wilderness, you and I are called to shout “Comfort,” and speak kindly, announcing and preparing for One whose coming will put each of those four things in their proper, God-given place. Used to glorify and serve God, money, power, fame and sex are enormous blessings. Used to glorify, gratify and serve ourselves, they become a curse that creates the crisis we see unfolding around us. There is a reason the Church is called to be counter cultural.

So how is the Church doing; how is it carrying out God’s mandate to prepare the way for Christ’s coming? Are we circling the wagons, leveraging our positions for purposes that, frankly, have more to do with our own security and advantage than the worship and service of God? Amid all the panicked conversations in ecclesiastical circles today about the decline of the church in the west–not just the mainline churches, but all of them⁴–what do we hear? Do we have conferences on how to become more faithful in the proclamation of the gospel, how to risk and live it out more faithfully, corporately as well as personally, how to use the crisis as a means for turning around and leaving behind the triumphalism of the last century and forging this new one into a century of service to the gospel? Are we turned out toward the world, boldly proclaiming what we believe and hope in, or are we turned in, trying to preserve ourselves at all costs? Who do we trust with the church’s life, ourselves or God?

Last week, Session adopted a recommendation by the Trustees to reduce the annual draw on the endowment until we are at no more than 5% and do that in the next seven years. Given the economic downturn we experienced in 2008, and the subsequent need to use endowment resources to pay for the cost of renovation and repair that was not underwritten by the 921 Fund, we must do so to remain faithful stewards of it, lest it be depleted, as many an endowment has been depleted, altogether in the last few years. That means $200,000 less in income for the 2012 operating budget. The Session’s budget committee met this last week to begin to grapple with what that means.

But in the midst of this shock there is some very good news. Among those of you who have pledged for this year, many of you–better than a third of those pledging thus far–have increased your pledges, and not just a dollar or two, but significantly: a 22% increase over your giving of this year. That is worthy of a bundle of Halleluiahs–a combination of “Praise the Lord!” and “Thank you!” For those of you who have yet to pledge–a card is in the order of worship. Take it, come, and do likewise. Fill it out, fold it over, and put it in the offering plate today.

So, yes, the word is being heard, caught and held onto here. Now, what about that operating budget? The challenge for us is to utilize our financial resources to continue to be the vital place of worship, witness, nurture and service we have been on this corner for the last 111 years. There will be cuts in all sorts of places, salary freezes, and an increase in the cost of things like flowers, meals and special events, just to mention a few. We will give less money away to other organizations that also do ministry. But, if we are faithful, we will make the cuts in such a way as not to harm our worship, our witness, our education and nurture of the young, as well as the young in faith, and our ministries to those in need through the shelter, shelter dinner, immigrant ministries, and other critical places where we touch people in need. If we do, MAPC will remain strong and vibrant, so that, as giving from you, the members, continues to increase over the next several years, we will be postured so that the endowment is paying for the buildings and their needs, while the cost of staff, program and money we give to others comes solely from us. That is the long-term goal. We know not only that Christ is coming, but that Christ is here, and, as our mission statement says, “we trust him to lead us into all faithfulness.”

Finally, how are you and I preparing ourselves for Christ’s coming? Are you? Or is life simply a matter of days and years dependent only on yourself, your family and your own resources? Are you living out of God’s abundance, or a notion of scarcity? Scarcity is what comes when we depend only on ourselves–things run thin. It is precisely that self-centered approach to life that has created the crisis in families. Turned in upon ourselves, resources are always limited. Our spouse, our partner, our friends will never be able to love us as we want to be loved, to meet our every heart’s desire. Turned in upon ourselves, we soon forget that the purpose of life is to give rather than get, to serve rather than be served, to fulfill rather than be fulfilled.

The irony, of course, is that the more you and I seek fulfillment in things, the less we find it, whereas the more we serve and give, the fuller life becomes. But most important of all, hear this word: there is only One who knows how to love us as we need to be loved, to give us what we really need, and who alone has the capacity to fill us with life that is truly abundant. It is he we await. In the waiting, those who worship and serve him, discover him already here, giving us himself as the bread of life and the cup of salvation, and in and through those gifts, he is making us new, preparing us for life in the new heaven and earth that will come at his final appearance.

The Word of the Lord; thanks be to God!

 

1. Reverse the spelling of evil and you get live.
2. 2 Peter 3:13b
3. The European Islamic community was initially to participate, but two weeks ago withdrew; we are not yet sure why.
4. Recent studies show that the decline in church attendance and participation is not simply a reality in established, so-called “main line” churches, but across the board. The mega churches that bought up shopping malls twenty years ago are going into bankruptcy right along with the Crystal Cathedral. Evangelical congregations are experiencing the same decline and so, too, for the twentieth century expression called Pentecostalism.

Related Sermons:

• Preparing the Way - December 4, 2011
• The Word in the Wilderness - December 4, 2011
• Gracefully Late - December 7, 2008
• Where Righteousness Is at Home - December 4, 2005
• Built for Comfort, Not For Speed - December 5, 1999