The Now and the Not Yet

Sunday, November 30, 2008
First Sunday of Advent
Preacher: Pastor Kendra Mohn

Isaiah 64:1-9

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Mark 13:24-37

Audio sermon link: http://fileresource.sitepro.com/filemanager/74/filecollections/292/B5C06DA8-8C18-70D6-DD4C-D6D98144EE72.mp3

“I love 2nd chances!” … and so starts the lesson. Don’t we all. In kid’s court, we called it “a do-over”. The color of the season of Advent is blue … for preparation. But like all good things, we don’t quite want to cut to the chase. Like a great meal, you want to savor it, take a deep breath before starting in. Christmas and Advent have a necessary element of waiting that is not passive. It perhaps should not be a waiting for someone to deliver the goods. But rather a “time before”, of preparation for a happening of extreme circumstance.

In the book Changing for Good, the so-called “spiral model of change” is presented: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, and action. In studies, people who reach the preparation stage are 3 times more likely to change their behavior than those who merely contemplate it. Advent is a time to go beyond contemplation to preparation. This preparation is active and takes time.

It takes time to appreciate His coming. Our sense is not one of fear, but rather one of awareness. Much like a baby’s birth, we know what’s coming, we know it’s good beyond measure, and we do need to prepare for what’s about to happen. Pastor Mohn shared that:

Advent is the season of the Now and the Not Yet.

Although the Kingdom of God has arrived in the person of Jesus, all is still not right with the world, not yet. Advent is the reminder of the work we’ve yet to do to get ready for His 2nd coming. Much as with the birth of a child, we all go about the 9 months of preparation differently. We clean, we paint, we hang a quilt from on grandmother, a rocking chair from another. We create a space. Our community creates the space together … to let this child know how special they are, that they’d been anticipated. The time in between now and Christmas is critical and Holy.

The temptation is to be closed off from our family, but this limits the power of the Good News. Advent is a blessing, a time to be aware of the expanded view, to contemplate “the now” and act and prepare while in “the not yet”.