Sermon for the first Sunday in Advent, preached at the Cathedral Church of St Augustine of Canterbury
As the Lord rides
into the temple of your heart,
what will he find there
to cast out?
Well, there's a nasty question
to be asked on a Sunday morning!
You want nice easy questions
to start the day off
such as
"Isn't it a lovely day?"
or
"don't the flowers look nice?"
or even
"how are you?"
But no,
as soon as you get into Advent
the voice from the pulpit asks,
"As the Lord rides
into the temple of your heart,
what will he find there
to cast out?"
[PAUSE]
The trouble is
this is what happens
when you open the door
to Our Lord and let Him in.
Look at the chaos He causes!
They let Him into Jerusalem
and He comes in
sitting on a donkey
to shouts of "Hosanna!",
the crowd cheering
and waving palm branches.
And straightaway,
He's off His donkey
and throwing the moneychangers
and the dove sellers
out of the temple!
It's mayhem.
It sounds like Jesus
is not someone
you invite round
to dinner.
[PAUSE]
But people do invite Jesus
round for dinner.
We see this again and again.
And every time we see it,
He's causing some mischief.
And this is the Jesus
that we want to invite
into our lives!
So it looks like the question
is important:
as the Lord rides
into the temple of your heart,
what will he find there
to cast out?
[PAUSE]
It may seem impolite
for a guest in your house
to come in and
immediately start
to throw out your throws,
chuck out your chintz
and shove out your sofa,
but we must remember
that Our Lord has one thing in mind
- our salvation.
Advent marks His desire
to come here at all
and save us all from Satan's power
when we have gone astray.
It's urgent.
Really urgent!
He wants us to be saved
and can't bear the thought of us
being away from God,
and suffering because
we are away from Him.
So straightaway,
He gets to work.
In the same way,
when a parent barges into a room
to deal with a child that has
hurt herself,
forgetting politeness
and courtesy,
Our Lord has the same ferocity
against anything
that is hurting us.
It's that immediate.
It's that intense.
[PAUSE]
This is why we're here.
We actually want Jesus
to come to dinner,
to be part of our lives,
to be our king.
And while we fling wide the gates,
and shout, "Hosanna!"
the question becomes
all the more important:
as the Lord rides
into the temple of your heart,
what will he find there
to cast out?
This is why Advent
is a penitential season.
It is a time to look
at our lives
and see what we need to throw out
so that it comes as no surprise
when He comes in
and throws out
all our pride and vanity,
all our wrath and cruelty,
all our lust, greed and desire to control,
all our laziness and envy
even if they don't look so bad
or if everyone else does them.
We have to let Him in
and we have to let Him
throw things out.
We don't need them,
not if He's king of our hearts
[PAUSE]
While this may make us
uncomfortable,
this is such
a refreshing thing!
If we let Him throw things out,
He will make a place
in our hearts in which He can live.
The worst thing we can do
is to bring back in
that which He throws out.
Oh, He will keep throwing it out
but if we will keep bringing it back
then at some point
He will stop and wait
until we are ready to let it go
but if we keep bringing back
something that Our Lord
throws out,
then maybe
we love it more than
we love Him.
Or maybe the habit to sin
is so strong
that we realise how weak we are
and must ask Him
to strengthen us
to let Him throw out
what He must.
God wants us
to have a clear space
in our hearts for Him
- not for His ego,
but for our good
for what is better
than having hearts
full of goodness and joy
and love and peace?
[PAUSE]
Advent is a penitential season.
We must take it seriously.
But not joylessly.
Indeed, to assist Our Lord
in His preparation
of our heart
so that he can live in it
will help us better
enjoy the truth of Christmas
with all its colour and song.
As the Lord rides
into the temple of your heart,
what will he find there
to cast out?
Will you be happy
if He does?
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