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PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION: Please pray with me: Holy Spirit, as the Scripture is read, open our hearts and minds to hear the truth; shine your light into our dark places; convict us where our hearts have been hardened; and call us to respond with joy to your Word to us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
SCRIPTURE: Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
9 "As I looked, "thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. 10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.
13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
SERMON-INTRO
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. And our theme of the day is ANTICIPATION. Anticipation . . . waiting. How do you feel about waiting?
What sorts of things do you hate waiting for the most? (wait for answers) (waiting in line in the grocery store, waiting in traffic, etc)
But there are some things you don’t mind waiting for, right? What are the things you don’t mind waiting for? (a baby to be born, a wedding day, etc)
I have to tell you, my family did a lot of anticipating this week, but we probably weren’t anticipating what you’d think we’d be anticipating. While your family may have been anticipating turkey and all the trimmings, WE were anticipating several sporting events, including the “Backyard Brawl” between Pitt and WVU.
And while I don’t particularly want to dwell on the outcome of said football game (and I don’t want to hear from any of you WVU fans as we’re shaking hands on the way out!), I think it does sum up what it means to anticipate something: you look forward to something, you imagine a million different ways how something is going to happen, you hope for something, you expect something. That’s what ANTICIPATION is all about.
#1
If there was one thing the Israelites ANTICIPATED, it was a Savior.
They never had it easy, you know. From the time spent in Egyptian slavery to forty years of wandering in the wilderness only to find the Promised Land already inhabited by other people, God’s chosen people were always in need of a Savior.
You know what that feels like to need to be saved, right? You know what it feels like to be down so low and you think you have nowhere to turn. You think maybe there’s no one else out there who can help you. You know what it feels like to need a Savior, right? Judging from the numbers of heads nodding, I think you do.
The Israelites were always looking forward to the coming of a Savior who would save them . . . a Savior they thought would destroy the kingdoms that put them into slavery. They were always looking forward to the coming of a Savior who would bring them home again, after being exiled from their homeland for so many generations.
Imagine what kind of a person this Savior would have to be. Someone strong, someone wise, someone impressive and authoritative and powerful. Someone like the “son of man” mentioned in our reading from Daniel 7.
Now HERE is a Savior, this “son of man.” Here is someone coming down from the heavens, “coming with the clouds of heaven” it says. Here is someone able to approach the throne of God—whom he calls the “Ancient of Days.” Here is someone to whom God gives “authority, glory, and sovereign power.” Here is someone whose kingdom will have no end and whose kingdom can never be destroyed. HERE is the kind of Savior the Israelites were ANTICIPATING.
#2
So that leaves us with the question: who is this mysterious Savior they were ANTICIPATING? Who is this “son of man” that the people of God were so desperately hoping for? Who is this “son of man” who was so highly ANTICIPATED throughout the Old Testament?
It’s the kind of question that led people for generations to keep their eyes peeled, searching for, watching for, and looking for their Savior. They were constantly alert, looking for hints about who their Savior would be.
People today are still looking for hints of a Savior, aren’t we? We might not always be looking in the right places, but we’re all looking for a Savior.
The name “son of man” can actually be either a general term for a human being—like we are each a “son of man”—OR it can refer to someone who will come to judge the righteous and unrighteous at the end of time.
So the “son of man” could be just an “average Joe” OR the “son of man” could be a wise and powerful judge. The great Savior of the Israelites—the Savior we are looking for—could be just another person like us or could be someone who is completely different from us.
So which is it, then? Are we ANTICIPATING the kind of Savior who is an average Joe or the Supreme judge at the end times?
#3
Would you believe the Savior of the world is both?
The one the Israelites anticipated throughout all the generations, the “son of man” who came “with the clouds of heaven,” the one who has been given “all authority, glory and sovereign power” is the same helpless baby who was dependent on everyone else around him.
There are some things you just can’t ANTICIPATE, don’t you think?
No wonder it took the disciples so long to figure out who they were looking for. They were anticipating a conquering king descending from the clouds . . . but what they got was an average Joe, an average Joe, who is ALSO the “son of man” descending with the “clouds of heaven.”
The disciples did their fair share of waiting and looking and searching and ANTICIPATING as Jesus walked among them and taught them. They had their own hints and clues they discovered along the way about this Savior of the world.
And the clues led them to Jesus, Savior of the world, who is both the “son of man” AND the “son of God.”
CONCLUSION
He is the one we ANTICIPATE during Advent—not the presents or the cookies or the Christmas parties. What we ANTICIPATE is so much more than that.
What we ANTICIPATE is that he will come again at the end times “to judge the quick and the dead”—the righteous and the unrighteous.
So after all these generations, after all the time that has passed, he is the one we should still have our eyes peeled for . . . the one we should be looking for . . . and the one we should be searching for because he is the Savior of the world.
Advent is more than just ANTICIPATING the baby in the cradle. It’s about ANTICIPATING the “son of man” who will descend from the clouds of heaven and bring us home.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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