The Times They Are A-Changin'

Advent 1A; Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44; St. Paul’s, Smithfield 11/27/16

Jim Melnyk: “The Times They Are A-Changin”

I was nine years old in 1964 when Bob Dylan recorded the song, “The Times They Are A-Changin.” The last verse reads: 

“The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast
The slow one now

Will later be fast
As the present now

Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'” (Bob Dylan, 1964)

           

At nine years of age, and living in a rather insulated – read that, white-flight – middle class community, I wasn’t as aware, as I soon would be, of the turbulence that was becoming the hallmark of that decade.  Dylan actually wrote his song in the fall of 1963, and performed it for the first time the night after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  That song quickly became an anthem of struggle for many, tied especially to Viet Nam and the Civil Rights Movement.  The song has echoes of Ecclesiastes as well as the statements by Jesus that in the kingdom of God the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and is perhaps as timely today as it was then.

When I think about it all, it seems that Advent is a season that proclaims with great certainty that “the times, they are a-changin.”  We are entering into a season that declares the old order of this world will one day pass away and a new reality will reach a long awaited fulfillment – the very dream that God has desired for us from the very dawn of time becoming incarnate – becoming enfleshed.  Advent is a time of anticipation – a time of hope – a time of longing – a time of working – a time of promise.  As we await the coming of the Christ Child in Bethlehem we also await the coming of the Cosmic Christ, who in the fullness of God’s hope, will set the broken bones of this world – the broken bones that grate together now with great dis-ease and pain.

The times they are a-changin’ has been the constant clarion call of our faith stories from the very beginning – from figuratively wrestling with God in the Garden, to the call of Abraham to leave his home for a promised land, to Jacob literally wrestling with an angel of God, and beyond.  Moses leading God’s people out of slavery into freedom.  Israel demanding a king like all the other nations.  Exile.  Return.  God choosing to take on human flesh and dwell among us.  Betrayal.  Crucifixion. Resurrection. Holy Spirit. The ever-evolving reality that is the Church Universal. Time marches on – and with it always comes change.  Sometimes for the greater good – sometimes cataclysmic in nature – hopefully always moving us one way or another toward embracing the promise of God’s reign.

Advent is a curious celebration of the already/not yet promise of the kingdom of heaven on earth.  One of the constant dreams God has for humanity is that at some point we will learn to live together as a human family – loving and caring toward God and each other even as God loves us.  And this dream – this hope – is meant to find fulfillment in this world as well as in the next.  Advent dares us to dream of arms that embrace rather than walls that divide.  Advent dares us to dream of a love that includes rather than a fear that segregates and denies.

We see that dream named in today’s Old Testament passage from Isaiah.  The Northern Kingdom of Israel, called a “brood of evildoers” who have “forsaken the Lord,” (Isa. 1:4) is facing certain defeat at the hands of Assyria for her failure to love God and one another.  The prophet foresees that Jerusalem will eventually fall for the same reasons.  And in the end, Israel learns they cannot trust in their own power – in their own military alliances and might – if they refuse to be faithful to the covenant they share with God.

Yet still they hope for God’s dream to be fulfilled. And with that dream comes a need for change that will once again open the hearts of God’s people.  Theologian Walter Brueggemann writes, “It is expected, with the coming of God’s rule, that there will be disarmament and no ‘learning of war’ (Isaiah 2:4)” (Walter Brueggemann, Sojourners Online, Preaching the Word, 11/27/16).  The theologian ties that expectation to us today.  “Along with the big arms race there are many lesser ‘wars’—in church, family, and community—that require disarmament. The psalm invites a yearning for peace: ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem’ and Baghdad, and Kabul, and Canterbury (for Anglicans), and Geneva (for Presbyterians), and Wittenberg (for Lutherans), and Azusa (for Pentecostals)….  Waiting for peace means preparation for peaceableness. Advent is a chance to receive a world quite unlike this one. It will be given!”  (ibid)

Brueggemann’s reflection challenges us to ask ourselves some Advent questions: Where and how do we need to be disarmed in our lives?  What do we need to let go of – what swords in our possession do we need to beat into ploughshares?  What spears into pruning-hooks? 

Advent isn’t just a time to quietly sit back in the comfort of our homes on a chilly night with a dancing fire in the fireplace or an early Christmas movie on the TV.  “According to the scriptures, Advent is not about passive waiting but active preparation. Creating peace in our social, spiritual, and personal relationships is itself a form of awakeness,

a symbol that we are alive and active participants in God’s incarnation” (Michaela Bruzzese, ibid).

Jesus uses a strange, almost cringe-worthy, image for the coming Day of the Lord – that time when God’s purposes for the whole of creation will be fulfilled.  The Son of Man will come again like “a thief in the night…at an unexpected hour,” and we are called to be ready for his appearing.  Actually, we are called to be more than just awake – we are called to be found going about the business of the kingdom – we are called to be awake enough to recognize God seeking to work within us. 

And we are called to be aware that the kingdom of heaven isn’t about who’s the fastest, or the smartest, or king of the hill.  Rather, the kingdom of heaven is about how we love God with all our heart – it’s about how we love our neighbor, and the stranger among us, as one’s like ourselves – the kingdom of heaven is about how we welcome the least among us in the same way we welcome the greatest.

The problem is, I’m afraid, that we live our lives too distracted to be aware of God’s attempts to break into our lives, let alone the world.  I read recently where a psychological study revealed that “Americans live in less than 40% awareness of what is happening in their immediate surroundings” (Synthesis, 11/27/2016, p. 4).  And all we have to do to test that theory is walk through a crowded mall at this time of year and see the number of heads bowed down before the screens on their I-phones, Galaxies, or Droids.

Advent stands as one of the many reminders in our lives that the times are indeed changing – that God longs for change in this world as well as a change in our lives: a change that honors the hope of God for the well-being of this world – and for the well-being of every person on the face of the earth. 

Advent reminds us that the kingdom of heaven has already broken upon us, and yet there is so much more of the glory of God still unfolding.  Advent calls for us to not only be awake – but to be aware – to pay attention as well.  Advent is a call for us to look up and look around – and actively become a part of the needed change in our world.