“How Do You Solve a Problem Like Advent?” (Matthew 21:1-11)
For a number of years now, The Sound of Music has been shown in December. It’s become a holiday staple along with other movies such as A Christmas Story, It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol, and Christmas Vacation. In fact, this Thursday night a live version of The Sound of Music will be broadcast on television. Country singer and former American Idol winner Carrie Underwood will play Maria, the role that Julie Andrews made famous in the original 1965 film.
You may know the story already. But in case you don’t, let me introduce you
to Maria. It’s 1938. Nazi Germany is threatening to annex and occupy
Austria. Maria is studying to become a
nun at an Austrian convent near Salzburg, adjacent to the German border. Maria loves to sing and dance and dash around. She’s often late for chapel. She doesn’t seem to fit into the quiet
decorum of the convent. This sets the
stage for the song titled “Maria.” The
nuns sing, “How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you catch a cloud and pin it
down? How do you find a word that means
Maria? A flibbertigibbet! A will-o’-the-wisp! A clown!”
The Mother Superior eventually solves the “problem” by sending Maria to
serve as governess to the seven children of widowed Captain Georg von Trapp. If you still haven’t seen the movie, I’ll
stop here to avoid giving you any “spoilers.”
Watching The Sound
of Music may not be on everyone’s annual December checklist. But surely putting up Christmas decorations
is. And shopping. And eggnog.
Maybe a trip to “The Lights of Christmas” at Warm Beach.
And then, you come to church, and you hear about
Advent. No Baby Jesus, but Jesus on a
donkey, with Jerusalem “all stirred up” … and not because of Black Friday sales. No Christmas tree yet in the chancel. Just a simple wreath with candles. Blue paraments (violet in some places). None of the familiar carols you already hear
playing in the malls and on the radio. What
are we supposed to do with Advent? How
do you solve a problem like Advent?
How DO you solve a problem like Advent? It seems quite out of place, quite out of
step with the way everyone else prepares for Christmas. Our entire society is all stirred up
preparing for Christmas. Celebrations will
soon begin … office parties, school plays, family get-togethers. Crooners singing about Rudolph and Frosty and
sleigh rides and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Frenzied shoppers making headlines such as
these: “Mall mayhem” … “Man shot walking home with big screen” … “Shoppers
trampled in race for $49 tablet” … “Salvation Army kettles stolen.”
Now, I know that not everyone goes insane when they go
shopping this time of year. And lest you
think I’m all about the bah-humbug when it comes to Christmas decorations, I’m not
as Scrooge-ified as I may have been earlier in my ministry. You are NOT sinning if you already have put
up your Christmas tree. But if we jump
right into Christmas and ignore Advent, then we are missing an important aspect
of our life and faith as Christians.
Advent has a different character than Christmas. It is more meditative. It is penitential. Even the Scripture readings are not very
“Christmas-y.” Today we hear about the
Triumphal Entry of Jesus. It takes us
far ahead in the story to Palm Sunday and points us to the events at the end of
Holy Week … the cross and the empty tomb, the very reasons why there is a
Christmas in the first place. Next week
we will hear about John the Baptist calling the people to repentance. The following week it will be about John
again. This time he’s in prison and he questions
whether Jesus really is the Messiah who was to come, or whether they should
look for another. Not until the Fourth
Sunday in Advent do we finally get to hear Matthew’s account of the birth of
Jesus.
Starting Advent off with Palm Sunday reminds us what a
problem Jesus was – and still is – for many people. They don’t quite know what to do with
him. He was a problem for the people of
Jerusalem. The text says that “the whole
city was stirred up.” And they ask “Who
is this?” Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Is he indeed the Messiah? A prophet?
A great teacher? A miracle worker
or magician? God in the flesh? Or a liar and a fraud? These are the same questions people still ask
today about Jesus. How do you solve a
problem like Jesus?
Jesus was a
problem for the crowds on Palm Sunday. The
crowds welcomed him when they thought he was coming as a Messiah to restore the
kingdom to Israel and inaugurate God’s peace and justice in the world once and
for all. Swords beaten into
plowshares. Spears into pruning hooks.
Jesus was a problem for the Jewish leaders. They didn’t like the way he criticized them
and exposed their hypocrisy. They were
jealous of his popularity. And so they
made plans to arrest him, put him on trial, and have him put to death.
The crowds who followed Jesus into Jerusalem soon turned
against him when it seemed as if he was a fraud. They didn’t understand that at his First
Coming he came to be a Suffering Messiah.
At his Second Coming, Jesus will come in glory as a victorious King. He is the promised Son of David with an
eternal, heavenly Kingdom. For those who
have rejected God’s love and mercy in Christ, the day of his return will be a
day of judgment. But for you who trust
in Christ, that day does not have to be a day of terror. Your cries of “Hosanna” – meaning “save us
now” – have already been answered in the death of Jesus. Jesus saved you by taking your sins and the
punishment you deserve for them upon himself at the cross.
How do you solve a problem like Advent? How do you find a word that means Advent? Advent means “coming” or “arrival” or
“approach.” That’s why in Advent, we
ponder Jesus’ First Advent in the womb of Mary.
We give thanks for his Advent among us today in Word and Sacrament. And we anticipate his Second Advent on the
Last Day.
Advent reminds us to get properly stirred up as we welcome
his coming, his arrival, his approach.
We pray that the Lord would stir us up to watchfulness and readiness. St. Paul writes in Romans 13 that “the hour
has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than
when we first believed” (Rom. 13:11).
We pray that the Lord would stir us up to repentance and
faith. Again, St. Paul writes, “let us
cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk
properly as in the daytime” (Rom. 13:12-13).
Remember your baptism as you daily “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom. 13:14).
Finally, we pray that the Lord would stir us up to gather
with our fellow believers in Jesus and listen to the Word of God. The prophet Isaiah says, “Come, let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may
teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths” (Is. 2:3).
How do you solve a problem like Advent? Enjoy your winter holidays. Enjoy your Christmas preparations. Enjoy whatever family traditions you
have. Don’t go home and tell your family
and friends that Pastor Onken is a Scrooge.
But don’t forget about Advent.
Make time for Advent. Give it a
place in your home. Give it a place in
your heart. Let it prepare you to joyfully
celebrate Christ’s humble First Coming in Bethlehem. Let it prepare you to receive your Savior as
he comes to you today in his Body and Blood.
And let it prepare you to be watchful and ready at his glorious Second Coming
on the Last Day.
Amen.
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