From Turkeys to the Crib

Sermon for First Sunday in Advent

Nov 30, 2025
First Presbyterian Church
Sandusky, OH

Gospel Readings from Lectionary:
Matthew 1:18-24
Mark 13

When I created the title for today’s sermon, I didn’t realize that “From turkey to a crib” is regional colloquialism for when a baby outgrows the bassinet and is moved to the crib.

I was thinking, “From Turkeys to a Crib,” that’s sort of how many of us traditionally look at Advent. And it is certainly the season that does that. Four weeks of contemplation about the coming of the Light after enjoying the bounty brought about by natural light.

I love the Season of Advent. I really do. Even though it is dark (at least in our hemisphere), there is a lightness in my spirit. We have left our Thanksgiving feasts. We are thinking about Christmas. There are gifts that need to be purchased – who wants what – and many of us, myself included, already have our tree up. Even the church is decorated.

As much as I love Advent, it is also unsettling, especially this first Sunday of Advent. Two over-arching themes run through Advent--- Darkness & Light. The specific theme for the first Sunday in Advent is Hope.

Yet, although we are moving toward the birth of Christ, as in our readings from Matthew & Mark, the lectionary readings for the day are entirely apocalyptic. These two passages are, to be honest, depressing.

Where is the Light? Where is the HOPE?

And that is the question that the first Sunday of Advent raises?

We light the Advent candle in darkness and there is a promise of more light to come. But where is it? What happened to it. Could it be that the first Sunday of Advent wants to direct our attention away from thanks-giving that we expressed a few days ago? Could it be also that the first Sunday of Advent wants to direct our attention away from the birth of Christ.

Could it be that the first Sunday of Advent wants to direct our attention to the darkness around us, to the hope that seems diminished, the light around us that is flickering?

Consider the lectionary passage from Mark:

There is something about the entire Gospel of Mark that is unsettling, especially so chapter 13, which includes our reading.

In it, Jesus is foretelling the destruction of the Temple, while in fact, Mark is writing just a few years after the Temple had been burned to the ground and razed. Thousands upon thousands of Jewish men and women are enslaved or have been killed, many crucified. For Mark’s readers, the words of Jesus are not about an upcoming apocalypse, but an event that has already happened, an event they are living with.

In Mark, the risen Christ is simply not present (the last few verses have been added). The tomb is empty. He doesn’t appear to anyone. There’s just emptiness. A dark tomb. This emptiness appears in the words of Jesus. There is pain in these words. It is this emptiness that the readers of Mark are struggling with. It is this emptiness that we too struggle with.

And it is to this emptiness – this darkness -- that Advent – especially the First Sunday of Advent speaks to.

We live in dark, empty times. Perhaps, we always have. Perhaps too, that’s why the Church in her wisdom provides us with the liturgical season of Advent. A season to find Light even in the darkest of darkness.

Today we have Gaza, the Ukraine. There are people starving to death. Not only in Third World countries, but right here on our streets. There are people – just like you and I – fleeing intolerable situations. Fleeing an abusive spouse or parent, a country or even a state. People living in fear because of the color of their skin or their gender identity. People are dying from lack of medical care. There’s little reason to hope.

False stories abound. People attack others on a whim, verbally or physically. “Disagree with me and I will get you.” People are afraid to speak the truth.

People are simply afraid. For some, it seems like the world has ended.

It is dark. People despair. Our first inclination as people of faith is to fight back. To legalize and fight wars, marginalize those who seemingly perpetuate injustice. Or we turn to saviors, willing to swallow the bad for the good we think we might get. We look for signs and wonders that point toward an imminent return of Jesus. Some will even seek to force events that they believe will accomplish God’s agenda and hasten the return of Jesus.

Some just give up in frustration.

In Chapter 13, Mark writes,

When you want to raise armies, and seek conquests, levy judgments, and wreak vengeance … When you think God is raising armies with you and for you, Jesus says, "Check for the signs."

“Unless you have seen me,” Jesus says, “riding down on a cloud, now is not the time! Unless you have seen the stars fall out of the sky in front of you now is not the time!”

“Unless the sun and moon have darkened completely, and armies of angels lead you, now is not the time!” "Now is not the time!"

Then what are we to do?

“Wait. Watch!” Is what Jesus says.

Jesus repeats the same to Peter, James and John at Gethsemane, “Stay here. Watch.”

The first Sunday of Advent reminds us that we know nothing. The first Sunday of Advent reminds us that our self-conceived holiness and supposed knowledge of God is a sham.

What the first Sunday of Advent is teaching us is that to have hope in the darkness we must Wait and Watch.

To wait and to watch is to reflect on and admit that we – you and I – have no idea whatsoever what God will do
when God will do it
whatever it is God will do.

To wait and watch is to reflect on and admit that we – you and I – have no idea whatsoever about how God works
how God will use the death of Jesus to bring about peace.

To wait and watch is to reflect and admit that sometimes there is nothing that we can do, but to wait and watch.

God in Habakkuk (1:5) says, “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told" There is hope. Watch for it!

Advent time to be alert and alive to what God might be doing around us and within us, even when we can do nothing. Advent is a time to remind ourselves that even in the darkness there are forces at work beyond our control. There is Hope!

Darkness & Hope

Darkness mingled with Hope

Hope is the significance of the first candle. No matter how dark it is, there’s Hope.

LIGHT will come. God will prevail! And for us Christians this LIGHT OF HOPE symbolically comes with the lighting of the Christmas Eve Candle.


[To give credit were credit is due, this sermon was inspired in part by the First Sunday in Advent sermon (2024) delivered by the Rev. Dr. Matthew Ichihashi Potts at the Harvard Memorial Church.]