Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

The Rev Calvon JonesThe Rev. Calvon T.Jones, Assistant Minister, the Memorial Church of Harvard University. File photo by Jeffrey Blackwell/Memorial Church Communications

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By the Rev. Calvon T. Jones
Assistant Minister
Memorial Church of Harvard University

(The following is a transcript of the service audio)

"(singing) Sometimes it feels cold and you feel all alone. But hold on. Better days are coming. It can be rough in this world. I know it ain't easy. But hang on in there. I know better days are coming. You see good. You seen bad. You've been happy and sad. But remember, better days, better days are coming.

Friends will leave you all by yourself, but don't cry. Better days, better days are coming. Oh better days, better days, better days are coming.

It's only a season that you're going through, but stay focused and never lose sight. I know people, people, they don't see the pain you feel inside. But keep on smiling because everything's going to be all right. Yeah. Better days, I believe is going to come. Better days, better days are coming. You got to believe it. Better days better, better days, better, better, better, better days are coming.

One final time. Better days, better days, better days are coming."

Thank you to this amazing church, the Memorial Church. To my big brother, Matt, Alana, to all these great ministers and seminarians here at the Memorial Church, I honor you today. And certainly not least we honor the spirit of Christ during this advent season. Now, let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight. Oh God, you alone are my rock and my redeemer.

Now, I wrestle with this text, but I thank God for my wife, Aaliyah. As Matt knows, sometimes the greatest preacher is your spouse when you are wrestling with the texts and they can encourage you. So I would like to place a tag upon the selected text for it constitutes the context from which we will attempt to preach and teach today.

God, show me a sign that better days are coming. God show us a sign that better days are coming.

Beloved, there are signs everywhere. Signs that tell us to stop in our cars. Signs to inform us that there is a dead end ahead. Signs to tell us of speed limits who we sometimes break. Come on somebody. Y'all don't want to be real. Anybody's speed sometimes? Signs that tell us where the restrooms are located. Signs that tell us that this is private property. Signs that tell us to beware of a vicious animal. Signs to tell us to slow down. Signs that tell us that a speed bump is ahead.

Beloved, there are signs every day to guide our everyday lives. Signs that tell us what may be in the food in order to avoid an allergic reaction. Signs that inform us if food has MSG in it or not. Signs that inform us if the food may have gluten in it or not. Signs that inform us if food has milk or dairies.

There are signs everywhere. Signs and instructions to tell us how much sugar or salt may be in our favorite snack, even though the doctor told us not to eat it. Signs with instructions of how much sugar, eggs, or milk or butter to put in that cake during the holiday season.

Beloved, there are signs everywhere. Signs on building. Signs on billboard. Signs that has advertisement. Signs that tell us to wear masks, especially since we've experienced this pandemic. Signs that tell us to put our phones on silent. Signs that tell us no eating in the sanctuary. Signs that say authorize personnel only. A sign that says the Memorial Church to let us know not to get it mixed up with Memorial Hall.

Beloved, there are signs everywhere. But there seems to be no signs of hope. There seems to be no signs that the world is going to get better. No signs for this broken world. No signs of hope amid racism, discrimination, hatred and war. No signs for injustice, wickedness and evil. No signs for bigotry. No signs for sickness and pain. No signs for a broken educational system. No signs for that friendship, marriage or relationship. No signs for your job, career or future. No signs for immigrants who are suffering. No signs for our churches that are yet segregated every Sunday morning.

Where are the signs to tell me and to tell you that better days are coming? There are no signs for those who are looking for God to move in their lives. There are no signs during this season after losing a loved one. "How can you tell me, Reverend Jones, that better days are coming?" God, I need a sign.

There seems to be no signs that better days are coming. "I'm a Christian, I believe, but God, where are you? I come to church. I do what you want me to do, but it seems like things are getting worse. There are no signs in my life."

Do I have a witness in here today who can say out of their mouths that, "God, I've been praying for a sign because it seems like hell is breaking in my life?" God, I need a sign. A sign to tell us that hope shall come. A sign that tells us that our future may turn around, a sign that tell us that God will move on this campus called Harvard. A sign that says that God will move in my life. A sign that says that God will move in my family. A sign that says that God will shift our society, community and a nation. God, we need a sign because all around us there appears to be catastrophe, conflict, contention, chaos, calamity, confusion, contradictions, contempt, coldness, challenges, cloudiness, cancer, confrontation, conspiracies, complications, complicity, I'm out of breath, curses, corrosion, cohesion, carelessness.

God, I need a sign to tell me that better days are coming. God, I want you to turn this thing into courage, creativity, community, compassion, calmness, care, collaboration, connection, continuity, consolation, communion, clarity, change, celebration, conscious and coexistence.

God, we need a sign. Tell me that it got to get better. It must get better. God, I need a sign.

At times it is difficult to believe that there can actually be a sign of hope. At times it is difficult to believe that there can be a sign that indicates that better days are coming. Sometimes it feels like the more you try, my brother, the more life beats upon you. But do I have a witness in this building that there must be a sign?

The more you pray, the harder life gets. The more you fast, it seems like the more tears fall. The more you try to love, the more hate tries to erode your soul. The more you seem to accomplish, the more lonelier you become. The more friends you have, money you have, accolades you have, it seems like the more lonely you are.

Sometimes it feels like a sign of hope can't come. And you cry and you cry, pleading for a sign and just maybe like my brother just said, you may be the sign.

This morning in the book of Isaiah we are introduced to a king name Ahaz. This king is at his wits end. Life is beating upon his heart. It appears that all hope is gone. This king needs a sign.

And in my sanctified imagination, I can see Ahaz walking around his elaborate throne and he turns on eighth century before common era century news and the news anchor informs the citizens of Judah that war is on the horizon. And his kingdom is going to be attacked by two kings, the king of Israel, the king called Pekah, and the king of Abraham called Rezin. These kings attack Judah because Ahaz refuses to participate in a coalition against the northern Mesopotamian power, Syria who wants to take control of the entire region.

Ahaz is terrified. The citizens of Judah are panicking. The two kings are going to do what they want to do in order to destroy Judah. And Ahaz is saying, "What if they cut off the water supply? What if they cut off the food supply? What if they come in and destroy our homes, businesses and livelihood?"

Ahaz needs a sign. These are the questions that are perplexing Ahaz. The people need a sign of hope. Ahaz needs a sign. But Ahaz is so afraid. "What if this sign is actually not true? What if God is going to pull my leg again? What if this sign is not good enough?"

We all have been there, let down over and over and over again. We ask God for something, but we have issues believing. Sometimes our circumstances and the world around us clouds our heart and it is difficult to believe. Do I have a witness? The sign comes, but my situation sometimes is antithetical to what the sign is or what the sign says. "God, your sign says that you're going to heal me, but the doctor says, I have a terminal illness." "God, your sign says that love shall come, but my life seems to be filled with hurt, pain and disappointment." "God, your sign says that you will mend the world, but it appears that hate is consuming our communities." "God, your sign says this, but it seems like my situation is antithetical to the sign."

Ahaz needs a sign, but he's struggling. And if I could be real with you all, just because I stand up here and preach, just because I wear this stole or these vestments, I struggle sometimes believing what God tells me. Sometimes the sign can be right in my face, but I'm like, "God, I just don't believe you're going to turn this thing around."

Can you be honest with yourself sometimes?

Ahaz has is struggling. He knows he needs to trust this sign, but he's afraid because he's consumed by pain. He's consumed by war. He's consumed by the threat of pain in his nation.

And in verse 10, the Lord speaks to Ahaz saying, "Ask the Lord for your sign. Let it be as deep as the grave shield or as high as heaven." But Ahaz said, "I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the task." In other words, I can hear him saying, "God, I'm not going to ask you for anything because I have said this before. I prayed before. I fasted, before. I tied before. I joined the choir before. I tried believing before, but it looked like things got worse in my life. I'm not going to give you a sign. Why can't you just show up and turn it around?"

And then the prophet says, "Well, since you won't hear God, maybe you need to see a human." Maybe the prophet says, "Let me just come in your face since you can't see God." The prophet steps in and says to Ahaz, "All right, Ahaz, I know you're having an issue clinging on to hope. I know you're having an issue believing this sign. Are you afraid to ask God for this sign? Do you want better days to come? Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? God is going to give you a sign. Look, it ain't going to be a typical sign. Don't look for the fire to come out of the sky. Don't look for the choir to sing a song that gets tears to roll down your face. Don't look for it to be a miracle. It's going to be strange, but it's going to be a sign. There's going to be a young woman who will be with child and shall be called Emmanuel. He will eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse evil and choose good."

And the prophet goes on to say, "The Lord will bring you and your people and your ancestors and on your house will be blessed." There's no doubt that this sign of hope is what Ahaz prayed for, but it was a hard one and a difficult one and a strange one.

This is the irony. This is the contradiction. This is the paradox of advent believing that better days are coming amid chaos and despair. "Preacher, don't say that to me. Have you seen my life lately, reverend Jones? Preacher, don't say that to me. Have you seen the tears that I've been shedding in the midnight hour, Reverend Jones?" No, I haven't. But like the prophet I just stopped by to ask you to imagine with me.

The prophet invites Ahaz to imagine, to invite him to not allow his perception to be skewed by fear and to hope that better days would come for Judah in the eighth century. Like Ahaz the angel in Matthew invites Joseph and explains to him that a sign is going to show up in his life. It's going to be a strange one. The angel, like the prophet, explains to Joseph that the spirit would sent a sign that would interrupt a Roman occupied world of fragmentation. The angel, like the prophet, offers Joseph a sign that better days will come.

Today, I do not know who this may be for. You may be having a hard time right now believing that God is real. You may have a hard time believing that God is going to move in your life. You may be having a hard time believing that change is going to come to your address. But there's a saying that says that, "Even if God is not blessing me right now, if God is blessing my neighbor, God must be in the neighborhood."

You have been asking God for a sign, but you are nervous and fearful. "God, I'm hurting. I'm losing my mind." But today, as the prophet spoke to Ahaz and the angel to Joseph, I say to you that there is a sign coming your way. God is speaking even now to you today that this advent may be a sign that things are getting ready to turn around, that better days are coming and God is going to break into your situation, that a divine interruption is coming into the problems of your life.

I prophesy that your heart is about to be irrigated with the sign of hope. And in the words of William Sloan Coffin, "Without hope, we are literally hopeless creatures of despair. If we cannot feel something more, we become something less. Just as if we cannot look to something more, we become something less. Just as if we cannot look to something above us, we will surely sink to something below us."

Is there anybody in here today that says, "I need God to show me a sign that better days are coming?" God show us that your sign is here and closer than before.

May God's love be a sign that you will be all that God wants you to be. May God's light be a sign to empower you to go out into the world and speak truth to power. May God's spirit be a sign that you have the power to live a life that will show the world that God is a God of love, justice, and hospitality. God, show us a sign.

May God's presence be a sign that you are not alone. May God's joy be a sign that you do not need worldly possessions, oh my God, or desires to make you happy. May God's fire give you a boldness to proclaim the spirit of holiness. May God's peace be a sign that God is within you right now.

And let us not forget that God has given us signs before. God used the sign of dew on a fleece of wool as a sign that Gideon was chosen to save Israel. God used the sun and shadows as a sign to indicate 15 more years to King Hezekiah's life. God used dreams as a sign to show Joseph that one day he would no longer be subject to humiliation but would become a leader. God showed a sign of fire and a cloud to the people of Israel to show them that God was with them. God can give you a sign that better days are coming to your house.

And as I go to my seat, I believe that God has given you a sign this morning. You may say, "Reverend Jones, well, no, I'm still hurting. I'm still going through. I still have this situation.". If God woke you up this morning and you had breath in your body, that's a sign. And the blood is running warm in your veins, that means that there is more. As the saints would say, "If you woke up this morning id the bed that you slept in wasn't your cooling bed, that's a sign."

That there is a sign that there is more. It is not over. You are the sign. So in other words, we need to look up to heaven, say, "God, use me. If you can use anyone truly, you can use me. God, use me to shed love. Use me to share peace. God, use me to be who I'm called to be in this hour. And if no one likes me for being the sign, if people talk about me for being the sign, if people misuse me for being the sign, no matter what, God, I know you will be with me. God, I know you will be present.

So people look east. The time is near of the coming of the year. Make your house fair as you are able. Trim the hearth and set the table. People, look east and sing today, love, the guest is on the way.

 

 

See also: Sermon, Advent