1 Advent. November 27, 2016 Isaiah 2: 1-5
Christ Church, Needham Romans 13: 11-14
The Rev. Nancy E. Gossling Matthew 24: 36-44
Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread, and do not then depart. Lord, live within us, and spread a table upon our heart. Amen.
The scripture readings for today might sound a little harsh after our Thanksgiving holiday. St. Paul tells people to wake up from their turkey-induced sleep. No more reveling and drunkenness, no more quarreling and jealousy, no more gratifying the desires of the flesh. And the gospel of Matthew speaks of the end-times. Some are saying that apocalyptic literature should be moved to the current events section of the library; for thanks to global warming, pretty soon we will all be washed away in a great flood. Or, given the proliferation of nuclear capabilities, we’ll all be destroyed by one big fiery blast. Lovely thoughts on this November morning, wouldn’t you say? Thank you, Nancy.
You know what time it is, right? St. Paul answered that question in his letter to the Christians in Rome: “Now is the moment for you to wake from sleep.” And while the recent presidential election may have been our political wake-up call, Advent is our spiritual one.
Of course, we all have those days when we want to pull the covers up over our heads and go back to sleep, returning to our so-called “dreams” of yesteryear. Or there are times when we want to fast forward into the future, avoiding whatever unpleasantness is scheduled for the day, and assuring ourselves that everything really is alright. But here’s the news flash. We can’t. We live in the here and now, and the buzzer on our alarm clock is saying it’s time to wake up! Today. Right now. Thank you, Advent.
Perhaps you are looking forward to Christmas with great joy and anticipation. At the risk of throwing some cold water into your collective faces, I want to suggest to you that on this first Sunday of Advent, we need to pause. Before we can celebrate the birth of Jesus, we need to be prepared to die. Whether you are laboring in the fields or grinding meal in your houses, you need to be ready, not for Santa Claus, but for that thief that comes unexpectedly in the night.
Jesus once said to his disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”
I used to have a lot of expectations for my life. I had expectations for my marriage, my career, and my family. I had expectations about our children, our church, our community, our country, and our world. And I was taught that I must prepare for whatever might happen. I lived in fear that I would be caught unawares and unprepared. I locked my doors, closed my windows, and shut down my spiritual house. Basically, I had no expectations of God, only humanity. Essentially, I was spiritually sleepwalking through life, thinking I had all the time in the world to get my act together and my house in order.
Jodi Picault wrote in her book, Small Great Things, “We all do it, you know. Distract ourselves from noticing how time’s passing. We throw ourselves into our jobs. We focus on keeping the blight off our tomato plants. We fill up our gas tanks and top off our Metro cards and do the grocery shopping so that the weeks look the same on the surface. And then one day, you turn around, and your baby is a man. One day, you look in the mirror, and see gray hair. One day you realize there is less of your life left than what you’ve already lived. And you think, ‘How did this happen so fast? ”
Not so fast, our scripture readings say to us this morning! We can’t move from one holiday to the next so quickly. Wake up. Pay attention. We have no idea how much time is left, regardless of our age or our life circumstances. No one knows. Only God. All we have is today.
I remember a time I spent at the College of Preachers in Washington D.C. when our group was assigned the task of attending a movie on our first night together. Feeling like kids on a field trip, we all piled into cars and headed for the local theater. Loaded up with popcorn, we bantered back and forth among us, and then settled down to watch a movie entitled ''My Life as a House.'' Unexpectedly, our banter quickly turned to silence, then tears, and occasionally shock.
George was the main character in, 'My Life as a House.' The movie opened with George receiving the terrible news that he had terminal cancer, and only 4 months to live. A divorced middle-aged man, unexpectedly, he had also lost his job. Furthermore, George was estranged from his son, who lived with his ex wife, her new husband, and their children. Like Noah, George felt as if the flood was about to come, and it was time for him to start building his ark. And so George invited everyone to rebuild his house with him before he died, and together they did. In the end, he was prepared to die because he began to live in a new and different way.
At times like these, we claim that we were hit ''out of the blue", unexpectedly, and without forewarning. We argue that we had no time to prepare. And so when the message comes in all its fullness, it seems dramatic, undeserved, and harsh. And we feel as if it’s too late to save our jobs, our health, our relationships, and our planet.
St. Paul’s letter to the Romans and Jesus’ words in the gospel are little Advent warning signs for us today. They are the buzzers that wake us up, and invite us to get our communal and personal houses in order. They tell us to slow down and pay attention. They invite us to consider our priorities, the ways in which we live, and remind us that it is never too late.
Many years ago, I attended a Christian formation class during Lent, when we used a book called Ready to Live: Prepared to Die. I was in my 30’s at the time, and was probably the youngest person in the class. It was led by a woman in our church, who was in her 70’s, and for whom I had the greatest respect. I remember asking her one time about Jesus. How could she be so sure about Him and His story?
Today, I believe in Jesus. I came to believe over time, in His story and in our salvation story through a church community much like yours. Through my own life experiences and in listening to the stories of others, I began to see the hand of God at work in our world, the face of Jesus in others, and the power of the Spirit everywhere. I came to believe in a power greater than us, in a power that can raise us from death to life, and a power that can show us the Way to live, not only now but forever. I came. I came to. And then I came to believe. It changed my life. Thank you, Jesus.
Today, I believe that we are all floating on God’s grace, and so not even global warming or unexpected floods can wash us away. I also believe that we are filled with God’s grace; each of us has a spring of living water within us, given to us at creation, replenished at baptism, and renewed with every Eucharist. With a collective force that flows into our world, together, we can put out some of those raging fires. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Be gracious. Be generous. Be kind. Today.
When we put on the Lord Jesus, we live differently. We live in new and different ways. In a song entitled Wake Up Everybody, John Legend sang these words:
Wake up everybody no more sleepin' in bed
No more backward thinkin' time for thinkin' ahead
The world has changed so very much
From what it used to be
There is so much hatred war and poverty
Wake up all the builders time to build a new land
I know we can do it if we all lend a hand
Today, I try to live with only one expectation: I expect that God’s grace will break into our lives at all times, in all places, and under every circumstance. Advent is our alarm clock, reminding us of God’s grace, and the beginning of our salvation story. Even as our days and nights darken with the winter solstice, I trust that God’s light will lead us home, as surely as the north star led those shepherds long ago. God’s Christmas present to us is surely coming. Wait for it. Prepare for it, by making a place in your heart for the birth of Jesus. And remember, Jesus is already here. Jesus is in the House. Right now. Right here. Today. Thank you, God.
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