Christ Episcopal Church
November 30, 2014
1 Advent
When I was a child, Thanksgiving began the season perhaps most accurately called "Not Christmas yet." The season of "Not Christmas Yet" was not Advent, since we had never heard of Advent, and yet had some things in common with the holy season we begin today. The season of "Not Christmas yet" was certainly a season of preparation. Preparation for Christmas at our house began in earnest on the day after Thanksgiving and for the three of us children mostly involved making lists of all the things we wanted for Christmas. There was some decorating involved and a lot of cooking and cleaning as we prepared for relatives and friends to arrive. This is where I learned that real preparation for Christmas involves butter, real vanilla, and good chocolate.
Secondly, the season of "Not Christmas yet" was a season of anticipation. In the case of "Not Christmas yet,"our anticipation began as soon as the Thanksgiving turkey was cold and usually peaked with a meltdown or two by December 3. We would have done anything to make Christmas come right this minute. The season of "Not Christmas yet" was a season of restless counting of days-my mother savoring every day we were still in school before the holidays and the three of us children counting the days until we could do nothing but anticipate Christmas.
Finally, the season of "not Christmas yet" became a season of patience. After an early meltdown or two, we children figured out how to wait. Some things in life just cannot be forced to come more quickly and we could be miserable for the remaining three weeks until Christmas or we could try to be patient. Miserable got old fast and did not make the time pass any more quickly . So we figured out better things to do with our time.
As we begin the season of Advent today, we are called to a season of anticipation, preparation, and patience even if those activities look a little different in Advent than in the season of "Not Christmas yet." But whatever our practice of Advent might be, however we might understand anticipation, preparation, and patience to get us ready for the birth of the Christ child, we probably came to church this morning expecting to hear something a little more Christmasy from Scripture. This morning we hear nothing about a baby, nothing about angels or shepherds or even prophecy about the birth of the messiah. What we get instead is a lament from the Hebrew people calling God to come down here right now and do something, words of encouragement from Paul about the last times, and a grim description of Jesus' return. How on earth are these readings supposed to help us begin our Advent journey?
What our readings have to do with Advent is that they all call us to God's version of anticipation, preparation, and patience. In the reading from Isaiah, the people anticipate the action of God that will put an end to the injustice and hardships they experience as they work to resettle the Promised Land. The people are not naive about their own complicity in their problems-they admit that they have sinned and made God angry. But they also know that they are nothing but damp clay without God. The people are waiting for God to act, but know that, in preparation for God to act, they must act as well. They must prepare for the time when God will act by living as if God is acting now. They must live as the people God created them to be. When we look at the injustices in the world today, at the places where people would call upon God to come down here and do something right now-whether in Ferguson, Missouri, or in Syria where Christians face unimaginable persecution, or in Liberia where Ebola has ravaged the country, or the countless other places where people feel helpless in the face of adversity, we hear people make the same lament to God. Get down here and do something now the way you have done something in the past. And we hear the prophetic voices reminding us that we are called to act as the people God created us to be-not acting as damp, unformed clay in the face of injustice but being the vessels God created us to be. Being patient means believing that God will act and God's action will be worth the wait. But patience does not mean passivity, and while we wait, God calls us to act.
Paul is less about patience, as he believes until his dying breath that Jesus will come any time now. Paul, unlike Isaiah or Jesus, tells the people that they are prepared-that the grace of God given to them in Christ Jesus has given them the strength and the spiritual gifts they need to be ready when Jesus returns. Paul lives in deep anticipation of the day when Jesus returns and he encourages the Christians in Corinth to do likewise. If we live like Jesus will return any moment, then our lives will make the world look a little more like the world Jesus came to redeem.
And then there is Jesus. In the passage just before our gospel reading this morning, Jesus has described the suffering and persecution his followers will endure. They will be handed over to councils and beaten in synagogues. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rise against parents and all will be hated because of the name of Jesus. Then the sun will darken and the moon will not give light and the Son of Man will come in the clouds.
The truth is that, just as the Hebrew people were experiencing fearsome times in the reading from Isaiah, so the faithful to whom Mark was written were experiencing fearsome times. Jesus' followers were being handed over to councils. Families were divided. People were being put to death. God did need to come down and do something. Now. And Jesus promises the people that God will act. God will act by sending Jesus again to gather the faithful. The people can anticipate a time when there will be no more terror and trials, when Jesus will gather them up. But they must be prepared. They must stay awake to watch for Jesus. They must be patient for no one knows the day or the hour. Only God knows when these things will occur.
The promise of Advent and the promise of Scripture is that God will act. God will act whether we are ready or not. But God wants us to be ready. God calls us to anticipate God's action by wanting that action so badly that we will do anything to make that action a reality. God calls us to prepare with such deliberation that God's presence is real to those around us. Now. And God calls us to be patient, but not passive. God will act in God's good time, but in the meantime, God calls us not be formless lumps of damp clay passively waiting, but the vessels of justice and peace God made us to be. Then we and the world will be ready.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment