The Dream Is Still Alive part 1 (by Bill Senyard on 12/02/12)

Lookout Mountain Community Church, Evergreen, CO
Sermon Text
Dr. Bill H. Senyard

The Dream is Still Alive part 1

Lookout Mountain Community Church

Dec 2, 2012

Mark 13:24- In those days… “the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” 

 

It is hard to imagine that we are already at Advent.  Advent comes from the Latin Ad-venio meaning “to come.”  Something is coming.  Historically it is a period in the church calendar that is 4 or five weeks ahead of the celebration of Jesus birth. But it is more than that.  It is an invitation to a journey of severe spiritual imagination and awareness of a new reality all around us, powerful, good, redemptive, and renewing for all who would dare “see” it.  Each of the weeks on this journey will invite us to consider, to enter in, to think and to feel.  We are charged to develop our prophetic imaginations.  We rely too much upon our created sense.  But this ad-venio experience dwells largely within the realm of prophetic imagination—a set of muscles that we have long left undeveloped.  The result?  The people of the ad-venio are bored and insensitive to the vast happenings all around us.  We are lulled to sleep just looking forward to Jesus’ return, that we aren’t aware of the Kingdom’ miracles and workings in us and among us now.  The prophetic ad-venio invites us to “see” again.

 

The expectation is change—not just for us, but for our whole communities.  Ultimately Advent proclaims a revolution of celestial proportion. Advent is not for the weak at heart.  It is seditious in so many ways.

 

Advent imagines to us as real an ongoing revolution to overthrow the current world order.

Think of what Hurricane Sandy did to the strong structures that people had dearly invested in.  Sandy disempowered the Eastern coastline—just as Advent is disempowering the current world philosophies and powers that are anti-Yahweh.

 

No doubt Mark 13 is apocryphal poetry.  It probably doesn’t refer to actual suns and stars as much as the people, institutions, even philosophies that are in power.  Advent is ultimately proclaiming that all current powers, power brokers, structures and institutions will be overthrown.  All entities, persons, countries that are not Yahweh-centric are doomed to collapse—they will not hold up.  Do not put your weight upon them.  There is already–and will be more embodiments of–a new firm lasting order–says Jesus—that can hold all of your weight.

 

Now you can imagine that for people who are powerless now, culturally marginalized, socio-economically in poverty, in refugee camps, in oppressive regimes throughout the world, in oppressive relationships, people who have no human hope that they will ever improve their lot—this is a powerful gospel presentation.  They get it. There is a new regime coming.  This ad-venio King will complete a revolution that will turn everything on its head.  Those who are powerful will become the weak.  The weak will have an opportunity to become people of glory and substance.  This is good news.  THE DREAM IS ALIVE! William Willimon puts it well,

 

 “..for a mother in a barrio in Mexico City who has lost four of her six children to starvation to hear, “This present world is not what God had in mind.  God is not finished, indeed is now moving, to break down and to rebuild in Jesus,” I presume that would sound something like gospel.  For her, the texts [of Advent are not pie in the sky by and by theology].  They are a series of Molatov cocktails meant to ignite a revolutionary conflagration.” (6)

 

But I wonder, in this day, in this place, if we understand this to be good news?  Is it good news to hear that God is not vested in the current societal and world order?  I wonder if it really is good news to us, consumeristic Americans in affluent Colorado?

 

The Ad-venio imagines to us as real a new order that eclipses the existing order

Peter understood the ramifications of the Ad-venio.  He could see, perceive that he was in the middle of the “advent.”  In Acts 2, weeks after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit powerfully came down upon the world – nothing ever would be the same.  Peter got it.

 

¹⁷ “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. …¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.  ²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. ²¹ And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

 

The Sun’s energy output is 386 billion billion megawatts.  That’s pretty bright I would say.  But now something so bright has come, that in contrast, the Sun looks as if it has gone out.  There is a new revolution that will not go away or be ignored.  It changes the priorities of those who can see.

 

The Advent of the new Yahweh-centric world order is the front page news of the universe.  Not my issues, my comfort, my relationships, my hair color or waistline, my career, my retirement, my vacations, my problems.  These are not on the front page, or even pages 2-10.  This Advent is bigger than you or your family, town, region, and even country.  It is bigger than your political party – or even the entire US government.  It is bigger than the results of the election.  The upcoming fiscal cliff.  It is bigger than the war in the Middle East.  It is far larger than our entire economy- -worldwide.  Larger and more life-changing than the entire European financial crisis.  All of the current paradigms, powers, world structures are in the process of being eclipsed.  “SEE!”

 

The Ad-venio imagines to us as real a revolution that overthrows the world philosophies that are not Yahweh-centric.

Let me take one example.  Consider how heavily invested we are in the American Dream.  What is it?

 

Per Pop Culture Sociologist Dominic Strinati,

Its main proposition is that material wealth and success in life can be achieved by anyone who has the necessary initiative, ambition, ingenuity, perseverance and commitment.  The dream itself consists of money, power, fame, happiness, contentment, the ‘good life’… It suggests that the rags to riches is open to anyone willing to take it.  The only barriers to its attainment lie within people themselves and their lack of the qualities demanded to achieve the dream.” (27)

 

The heroes, the winners, the successful of the American paradigm look like Warren Buffett, Jay-Z and Donald Trump.  We can be successful if we ‘Just do it’—says Nike!  Success is measured in wealth, power, celebrity, fame, and creature comforts.

 

But in the new paradigm everything is turned on its head.  Those who are the successful in the new “Ad-venio” paradigm are those who admit that they are failures—losers (by their own efforts)—that no matter how much they ‘just do it!’ it is not enough.  That is a tough message here.  Instead, success –glory– is measured strictly in what Jesus did for them and his Holy Spirit does in them.  Their glory, worth, identity, sense of meaning and purpose, hope in the future, is actually in their present relationship to Yahweh.  It is a gift.  Their hopes and dreams and confidence is in God’s faithfulness.  Everything else is a house of cards.  Don’t trust in a house of cards, right?

 

Let me put it in American speak.  The rewards of Jesus’ revolution come to failures.  They didn’t win the gold or silver – or even bronze—not according to God’s standards and grading–and yet they are on the winners stage with Jesus.

 

C.S. Lewis captures this in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.  The Land of Narnia is in perpetual winter, but never ever Christmas.  Aslan’s expected revolution is whispered among the failures in the current “winter” order—those who readily admit that they lack sufficiency to thrive, to grow—so much so that they throw themselves upon Aslan’s goodness and sovereignty. Let’s face it, Aslan raised up the losers.  I wonder if the American dream was philosophically pulling for the Queen, or for Edmund who pressed out heroically to pursue his dream of becoming a Prince?  Come on Americans— Tumnus, the faun wasn’t James Bond, right?  But when Aslan’s revolution begins, it is the oppressed and the defeated who win.  The Dream is yet alive!  All who are weary of this age and the paltry glory that it offers only to a few, run to Yahweh, again and again.  “IMAGINE!”

 

Is this good news to you—or a threat?  Let your heart speak.  Here is one of the tell tales of whether you are more in the current world order or a comrade in arms of the Christ revolution.  If you believe that your struggles are manageable by you—by more input, by more effort—that a few episodes of Dr. Phil, Oprah, a weekend seminar with Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra can fix—that your identity is almost whole enough, your relationships fixable—or your self image able to be shifted by a diet, tummy tuck or Lifestyle facelifts—your mental state made comfortable by the latest designer drug—then this ad-venio will no doubt seem boring to you, irrelevant.  Know this when you choose who you serve, Jesus has tossed the final gauntlet against such a posture of self-sufficiency and independence.  If you still measure your success in terms of money, celebrity, creature comforts, power—then you are functionally in the current world order.

 

But if you have come to see—like me—that our upside potential is far greater than even our best efforts can achieve–that our struggles are greater than we can really handle well—that we will fail to achieve our potential and highest purpose by our own skills and talents—American dream not withstanding—and that Jesus as King is really good news, then you are a co-conspirators with me.  If you have begun to see—and loath–the regular self-serving bent of your heart—bent toward satisfying your latest perceived self-interest and demands–If you can see that the land is in an ugly lifeless perpetual winter and desire for spring to come to the land—then welcome brother/sister in Christ.  Our banner reads, “Cheer up, you are in worse shape than you thought.  Cheer up the ad-venio is much greater than you thought.”  The ad-venio is wildly interesting, hope-giving, stunning good news.  Can you think of neighbors or friends who might want to hear such stunning news?

 

Me personally, I have been tainted by the stunning good news of the Bible.  I have come to see that I was created for more than anything this winter offers!  I desire real glory.  When God – my creator made me—He wove within my DNA the yearning for real substantive glory, purpose, identity, intimacy, value, worth—I have come to see that I am commissioned as royalty, that I didn’t earn or deserve; and that this place can only offer something far less.  15 minutes of glory or fame doesn’t do it.  I want more than being American Idol, or the winner of the Voice, The Bachelor, or the lottery.

 

I was made to have relationships that are Edenic.  Those relationships that are naked (relationally speaking), vulnerable and profoundly two-way.  Relationships where the partners deeply desire to look into each other’s souls and just sit and relish in the appreciation of each others beauty.  I have come to realize that I am beyond the help of just doing it—of human counsel.  By the way, I am a fan of counselors—I have just come to see that I am far more fractured than they can assist me with.  I am increasingly frustrated by my attempts to achieve wholeness by my own means.

 

When does this “ad-venio” begin?  Hear the prophet Isaiah’s prophetic cry for us to imagine what our eyes can’t see:

 

Isaiah 64:1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!   ² As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! 

 

Do you get the stunning image?  Back then the heavens—the abodes of the gods—were separated from the earth—two distinct realms.  Somehow mysteriously, the gods could touch the earth only in the inner sanctum of the Temple, unseen by mankind.  One of the interesting cultural ways of imagining this ‘touch’ was to refer to the inner sanctuary as the footstool of the Temple’s god.  Just their feet could be seen is the idea.  But Isaiah pleads that Yahweh, the God-who-was-with-Israel would unilaterally, by His own initiative forcefully make a rip in the veil that had separated heaven and earth since the beginning of time and to actually come down to be seen by humanity, and of course Israel—to end the lifeless winter that resulted from the Fall.  This event would not just be some everyday occurrence.  The poet imagines it occurring amid earthquakes.  He imagines God not only just “plop” coming down to terra firma, but that God would keep coming down, rolling out upon the earth like a prairie fire.  We saw some scorched earth from prairie fires in NE Colorado last weekend.  The idea is that when God does this, when He rips open the heavens, everybody will notice in fear, trembling and helplessness.  All of the other ‘powers’ will be exposed as huge lightweights.  Empty shells.  Silent gods.

 

Did this ever happen?  Or do we look for it to happen in the future?  Trick question, I suppose.  It did happen.  2000 years ago.  The Ad-venio is all about this rending of the heavens—but remarkably, the rip occurred in a way that if you weren’t paying attention you may have missed it.  If you were looking up into the clouds, you missed it.  The rending happened in the womb of a virgin in Nazareth.  This verse was wildly fulfilled.  The veil opened, the heavens exposed and God come down.

 

What must happen for heavens to be re-opened this morning, for our faith and imagination to be recaptured, for us to hear again the earthquakes and thunder of God rolling out for all men to see?

 

Prayer: So now God do something that recaptures the attention of Your emptied people.  Tear open the barrier between you and us.  Just rip it open for everyone to see, Christians of all shapes, Jews, scientists, the wealthy and the poor, the Republicans and Democrats, the Muslims and Buddhists.  Come down in a way that we can see.  We really lack the imagination of faith.  Come down inexplicably among us.

 

Frighten the powerful, those who are in charge—the mountains—the nations.  Shake it up.  Encourage the marginalized, the beat-up and weak.

 

This prophesy was penned hundreds of years before Jesus.  Did it ever happen?  Sure.  Jesus.  Advent.  The rending of the heavens, God come down to earth.  God’s glory and beauty seen by humanity.

 

The Ad-venio imagines to us

an ongoing Revolution to overthrow the current world order.

a new order that eclipses the existing order

a revolution that overthrows the world philosophies.

 

The Dream is Still Alive!  Imagine. See. Perceive,