Eagerly Awaiting Judgment

Judgment is one of the themes of Advent. It may seem odd to focus on judgment at such a cheery time of year, but the church’s seasons of preparation—Advent and Lent—challenge us to examine our lives closely and judge for ourselves whether we are prepared for what is to come. The theme of judgment runs through the collect and readings assigned for this first Sunday in Advent. We hear about judgment in Isaiah: "The Lord shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples." Although the word judgment does not appear in the epistle or gospel readings, the idea is there in Romans’ discussion of debauchery and licentiousness versus right living and in the gospel’s focus on the Second Coming in the final days. But we first heard about judgment in this morning’s collect. The collect for the First Sunday of Advent is known as the Advent collect; it captures the meaning of the entire season. "Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead…"

Advent is about judgment. Now and at the end of time. But Advent is also a season of eager and hopeful anticipation. Eager and hopeful anticipation. I doubt many of us face judgment with eager and hopeful anticipation. Think about our legal system. Court cases, judgments, are "won" or "lost". Winning can bring relief, a sense of personal justification. But losing brings punishment, often severe punishment. No wonder we fear judgment. The consequences are potentially fearsome; the risk is great. There is no doubt that this brand of judgment appears in the Bible--  a judgment that leads alternatively to personal reward or punishment. But running throughout Holy Scripture is also another sort of judgment. A judgment not feared by the people of God, but welcomed. A judgment eagerly and hopefully sought. An Advent sort of judgment.

For the people of early Israel judgment did not mean potential condemnation or punishment. Judgment was not something that created winners and losers. Judgment meant liberation, liberation for the people of God. To bring judgment into the life of an individual or a nation meant to bring God’s presence, God’s rule into that life. That is a good thing. To bring judgment was to clear away all that was not of God, all that enslaved and oppressed the people (against God’s will), and to free them to live as God’s people, God’s beloved, God’s children. Judgment meant restoration, liberation. That is judgment to be eagerly, hopefully sought.

As you probably know, a whole book in the Bible is entitled "Judges." It tells of a difficult time in the life of the people of God. The great leaders Moses and Joshua had died and King David was yet to come. The people of Israel were fragmented and oppressed by the various rulers of Canaan. Into this setting came the judges. People like Deborah whose incisive military strategy led to the routing of the Canaanite commander Sisera who, while fleeing, was killed when Jael drove a tent stake through his temple. Or the judge Gideon, hero of the tribe of Manessah, who ended the oppression and starvation of his people by the Midianites.

Deborah and Gideon were flawed human beings and their methods may not have been above reproach. But they were perceived by their people as liberators, as individuals who acted in concert with God’s will, empowered by God’s will, to wipe out whatever was ungodly in the lives of God’s people. The judges acted, fought, to eliminate the ungodly and thus free the people from oppression. For the people living in Palestine in the 11^th and 12^th centuries, B.C., the ungodly source of oppression or enslavement in their lives was tangible and clear. It was the pagan Canaanites who starved them, stole their liberty, stole their land, stole their wives and daughters. And it was the judges who eliminated the ungodly Canaanites and set the people free to live anew under God’s rule and care. That is a judgment to be eagerly and hopefully sought.

Judgment. Eliminating the ungodly within our lives so that we are free to live as God’s chosen people, as God’s children.

By the time Isaiah was written the circumstances and the perspective of the people of God had changed. Yet judgment would still serve to set them free from the ungodly. The ungodly in their lives was no longer a pagan, enemy nation. In Isaiah’s time it was war itself, the habit of war, that oppressed the people. War itself with its bitter nationalism, its never ending retaliation, its pointless violence and destruction. But judgment will come. "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord!" Judgment wipes clear the ungodly bitterness of war and brings reconciliation, so that all the nations of the world may walk together in the light of the Lord. That is judgment to be eagerly, hopefully sought.

Advent is a time to consider judgment. Advent is a time to eagerly and hopefully anticipate God’s judgment. And Advent is a time of promise. A time to remember God’s promise to send a judge who will bring liberation—not from the oppression imposed by mortal enemies, not from the trying and degrading nature of war itself—but liberation from the oppression of sin. Sin is the ungodly enemy that oppresses and enslaves us still today. And we are promised a judge who will wipe out the ungodly in our lives, freeing us from sin, so that we may truly live as God’s beloved.

Surely we should not fear such a judge. We need him desperately. St. Paul talks a lot about the enslavement of human beings to sin. In the reading today from the letter to the Romans, Paul reminds the Romans (and us) of the summary of the law. "Love your neighbor as yourself." You’ll remember in Jesus’ summary of the law, it goes even further. Jesus begins, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and your neighbor as yourself." All. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. Not part. All your heart. And all your soul. All your mind. And you shall love your neighbor just as you love yourself. These words are meant to be taken literally. To fail to take them literally is to be enslaved to sin; it is to be controlled by the desires of the flesh. To dismiss or rationalize away the summary of the law is to be oppressed by human frailty and cut off from living fully with God. We need a judge who will discern that which is ungodly, that which is sinful within us, and name it for us. We need a judge who, like judges in times past, will then act to wipe out the ungodly in our lives, to eliminate that which oppresses and enslaves us. Surely, we may eagerly, hopefully, wait for a judge who has the will and the power to reconcile us to God.

He is coming. This untiring, all-powerful judge is soon to be born a tiny baby in a manger in Bethlehem. He shall come to be our judge, for that is how we shall be saved.

Listen again to the Advent collect: "Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light." That is what Jesus comes to do. If we trust in his will and humble ourselves before his judgment, he will "cast away the works of darkness." He will wipe out the ungodly sin that enslaves and oppresses us. He will do it now, in the time of this mortal life. And he will do it again, when he shall come again in the last day to be our judge. As judge, he will destroy whatever in our lives is ungodly so that, as the collect says, "we may rise to life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen."

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