Just south of the State capitol On March 21^st, 1843, a group of people gathered in a small grove of trees to await the second coming of Jesus Christ. They wore angel robes sang hymns and prayed. They were disappointed Christ did not come. A year latter they gathered again at the same spot to await the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and again were disappointed. They were all followers of William Miller a New York farmer who had read the book of Daniel and mathematically figure out the end of the world. Miller was the founder of what today we call the Seventh Day Adventist movement.

Advent is the time to consider the coming of Christ. There are many ways to do this. Like Miller and his followers we could predict the end time. But prediction is not just the only thing he did; those who believe him gave away their possessions, dressed up in Angel robes of white so that they would not be missed by the coming Christ. So Advent is not just about what we think about the coming of Christ but also what we do about it.

Advent came about in the fourth Century and has two meanings. The first meaning was to focus on the second coming of Christ. Then also we began to focus on the coming of Christ as celebrated in Christmas.

So if you are not sure what you should be doing during this season and how you should celebrate Christ coming then you are not alone.

No one doubts that Advent is a time of waiting for the Lord’s appearance. How we should wait and what focus we should take is, of course, the great question. Some are purist and we should not see any signs of Christmas until the Eve of Christmas. I have never been a purist and realize that over the many centuries Advent has been a confusing season.

In the eight century it was a fasting season. In others even the mention of fasting disappeared. For some we should always wear purple or violet indicating penitence. Still others adopt the Salisbury tradition of Royal Blue for Advent and emphasize the coming of the new king.

What I am sure about is that we should be celebrating the coming of Christ in all his aspects. He was the hope of ages as we read from the prophet Zechariah. So sometimes it is good to look back and see what was hoped for. Many of our most famous Advent Hymns focus on that hope such as O come, O come Emanuel. The candle we lit today is called hope.

But we should also focus as Paul told the Thessalonians on holiness so that we are blameless before God at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Or maybe we should be looking right here for the kingdom of God to appear for as Jesus said in the Gospel, the time is near.

I celebrate Advent by recalling all of Christ’s coming. First he came as a promised Messiah to address the problems of the world. Second he came in time among us to reveal God’s glory and to give us a new relationship with God. And third he will again come to judge the world some day when we do not expected it.

I have gotten a simple little card for each of you to help celebrate Advent.

It has four sides for the four weeks of Advent. On week one we should speak the word. God through the Prophets always called the world to be better than it is. He recalled through them how he had intended it to be and what they could do to get it there. And so should we. We can speak the word as the prophet did when we see things out of joint. Those words can be spoken to those in sickness, in poverty, in need. There is lots of hope for this world by just what we do. Think of this weekend as an example. We say people without lights and heat. There were many things we could do set things right. If we had light and heat we could invite them in. If people were stuck in their homes we could offer to bring them what they needed.

All of it is about speaking the word. It is only by our silence that we cause trouble. So we need to speak up and identify what is happening.

Week two is Cradle the Christ. As much as we may think we know Christ, the more we really need to know him from a personal perspective. The stories we hear at this time of year are often helpful. The word is cradle. That means make a home for him in your space. Bethlehem was, of course, not the most welcoming of place for Christ when he first came and sometimes I feel He has an up hill battle in my own life.

Most of what we do in life takes lots of preparation. My wife concentrates for months on getting presents for all the family. Just think were we would be if we just spend that amount of time cradling Christ in our lives.

I think of how many hours I spend making my computer work so I can do things with it. Hopefully I will spend that same time making Christ the center of my life.

Week three is called Share the story. Story is the word and it is an important word. We don’t just tell of an event when we tell the story. History does that. We have lots of history about Jesus birth and times. But it does not tell the story. The story includes how it has affected me. It is not that Jesus was born but what it means to me.

There are many who will these days use the story of Jesus to sell things and have parties. So the story means we get to have a good time. The real story is much greater than that and affects lives and how they are lived.

There are several tests out there that offer Christians a chance to show how much they really know about Christmas. It’s easy to get tripped up and think there were three wise men standing next to the manger, or that the Little Drummer Boy was there, too. But these tests are challenges of the details of the story, and do not speak to the spirit of it. Mastery of the facts isn’t what Christmas is about; the Advent season is one where the mystery of God’s love is opened to us as we progress toward Jesus’ birth.

That wonderful line of Kierkegaard comes to mind: “It is so much easier to become a Christian when you aren’t one than to become one when you assume you already are.”

We need to use the Advent season to immerse ourselves in a sense of joy and gratitude and constant wonder.

Week four is Sing joy’s song. It is always easy to sing those songs for a week around Christmas. Yet those songs really go on for much of the year. William Miller told his people wait for the second coming that they would first hear an unusual sound. He described the sound in a pamphlet titled, "A Scene of the Last Day": " 'AH! What means that noise? Can that be thunder? Too long, too loud and shrill; more like a thousand trumpets sounding an onset. It shakes the earth .. . Actually in 1843 those in Springfield did hear a new strange sound with lots of roaring. It turned out to be the first time a train made it to Springfield with all its noise and sounds. Remember in those days it was still steam locomotives.

But I think there is a joyous sound that attends to Christ coming and generally it can be felt in the air.

Some years ago, a young man who wanted to change his life went into a church and sat down in the sanctuary for awhile on the first Sunday of Advent. He was quite confused as to what Advent was about. So he took out a piece of paper and a pencil and began writing down a long list of things that he promised he would do to change his life — a whole page of things — and he signed his name at the bottom and took it up and placed it on the altar, and sat down again in the sanctuary.

As he was sitting there, however, he began to sense the voice of God speaking softly in his own soul. And the more he listened to it, the more he heard God saying to him, “You’ve done it all wrong. I want you to go back up there and get the piece of paper and tear it up. And then I’ll give you another instruction.”

So, the young man got out of his pew and walked up to the altar and did as the Lord told him. And then he went back to sit down in the pew and waited for the Lord to instruct him. It did not happen immediately, but finally the message came through. The Lord said to him, very gently, “Now take a piece of paper and sign your name to it at the bottom and let me fill in all the rest!”

May the rough places in your life be made smooth.
May the valleys of despair be filled with comfort.
May the door to your heart be wide open.
May the glory of Immanuel be with you all your days.