Preparing: Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent (December 1, 2024)
Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent (December 1, 2024) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.
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Transcript
Before I became an Episcopalian or ever went to an Episcopal church, I knew what Advent was. It's the season of preparation for Christmas! I knew about Advent. I heard the word because of the little calendars with the chocolate. Or have you seen the Bonne Maman? The French jelly maker. They make an Advent calendar with little jars of jelly for each day of Advent, so great.
One of the things about the church is our season of Advent is the four Sundays before Christmas, which doesn't always line up with the little Advent calendars. It does this year though. So exciting. December 1st, this year, is the first day of Advent, so all your calendars will precisely correspond with what we're doing in church.
But its kind of a hint, that even though we think of these weeks before Christmas as a time of preparation, the preparation we have in mind might not be the same as the preparation that the church has in mind. It's not the same kind of preparation that our liturgy teaches us.
So: no wrong answers. What do we do to prepare for Christmas? How do we get ready? And I can see as soon as I ask that question, what do you do to get ready for Christmas… Anxiety passes across people's faces. Not just because we think we’re thinking of wrong answers, but because I think, I mean, at least I have this long to-do list. “Things to do to get ready for Christmas.” I have to buy everybody a present. What else do we do to get ready for Christmas? Decorate. We have to haul out all the boxes. The decorations. Yeah. What else? We bake, so much baking. What else? Elf on a shelf. We have to get the elf out. All the parents across Hyde Park have to think of clever things to do for 24 days for the elf. Do you guys know what the elf, if you aren't a parent of this generation, you have not been bedeviled by the elf on the shelf who is like a little spy for Santa and he lives in your house and tells Santa whether your children are naughty or nice. (He's not allowed in the rectory). Anyway, what else do we do to get ready for Christmas, wrap? We wrap!
Yeah, so we have this long to-do list. Now in the eight o'clock service, I said, what do we do to get ready for Christmas? And people said, shop, wrap, decorate, bake. And then someone said, go on retreat. Go on a spiritual retreat. I said, go on a spiritual retreat? We do not have time for that! Christmas is coming!
Advent puts a lot of pressure on us. That's what Advent feels like! But that's not exactly the invitation of the church to you for Advent. But I'm not here to tell you not to bake and shop and decorate. I'm not. Those things are fun. They can be. But I'm here to remind you that the church has another invitation that underlies the baking and the shopping and the decorating. Okay?
Jesus in the Gospel today, he contrasts people who see the signs in the world around them that God is about to show up, people who see the signs in the world around them, that God is about to show up and they faint with fear. That's what it says, fainting with fear and we ourselves might faint with fear at the signs that Jesus is laying out for us. This is another one of these sort of apocalyptic teachings.
We heard one last week from Mark's gospel. This is Luke's. The heavens are going to be shaken. There's wars and rumors of wars. There are so many things in the world to make us faint with fear and the idea that when God comes to see the earth in the kind of shambles that we have managed to make out of it, we faint with fear. When the goodness and the love of God is sort of compared to the hash that we collectively kind of managed to make out of things. The way we degraded the and the way we turn against each other and kill one another. Fainting with fear seems like a really reasonable response to everything that's happening in the world around us and to the idea that God is going to come and look everything over, but Jesus says to his followers and says to us, but you, when you see the signs don't cower and faint with fear. He says, stand up and lift up your head.
In the Eucharist, we say, lift up your hearts. When the world around us and the idea of God's judgment of the world to which we belong and to which we contribute has us fainting with fear or wanting to lie in bed under the covers and not wake up, and it really does, it does. The world has a way of doing that to us. Jesus says, but you stand up, lift up your head and look to see your redemption drawing near. Know this, the kingdom of God is near to you and it's good news. Stand up, lift up your head and see the kingdom drawing near. The Roman Catholic Church teaches the Advent a season of preparation and I cannot remember and no one can help me. No one else seems to be able to find this too, who came up with this clever formula first, but I think it's very helpful. It says, Advent, the season of preparation, the season of standing, looking, is about Christ coming.
Advent comes from the Latin word, advent, which means coming arrival. It's about Christ coming in history in majesty and in mystery. We know about history. 2000 years ago, roughly, a child was born in Bethlehem and we are preparing to recall to remember that at Christmas to remember that this child born in our own history in a real place was the presence of God. Christ came in history. An advent is about remembering that Christ comes, will come in majesty. You heard this last Sunday. Christ the King, Sunday, Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. In Advent, we look back to history, which is somehow coming into the present at Christmas, the child is being born again. We look to the future because we believe collectively that in the fullness of time, Christ will come again to restore this world as God intended it. And in Advent, we anticipate that future coming here to the present, past, folded into now and the future folded into now. Christ coming in history and in majesty and in mystery. And the mystery is that Christ is always being born.
The German theologian, Meister Eckhart, he said, we must all become mothers of God because Christ is always waiting to be born. The mystery of life in Christ is that it's not just history and it's not just the future, but that both of those are folded up into right now where Christ in this holy season of Advent, where you are preparing for Christ to be born and to be present in your heart, and I don't know what it is about Christmas. Well, I think I do. I think we recognize it at Christmas more than other times, even outside of church.
The idea that we're meant for peace, that we're meant to love and care for one another. The idea that something precious can be kindled in our hearts. We're more receptive to this at Christmas and we long for it more together collectively than at other times. It's the mystery that Christ is being born right here in our own hearts. That is what allows us not to faint from fear, not to lay down and get under the covers as the world gets scarier. We need something that gets us out of bed in the morning. We need something when the world is fearful, that will help us to stand up and lift up our heads and look with joy because our redemption is drawing nye and it's the mystery of Christ being born in our hearts that gives us the strength to stand up and look up.
That's the preparation of Advent. The preparation of Advent is to become more and more aware of the power of God that is flowing into your heart. Jesus says, heaven and earth may pass away. My word will not pass away. The word is love, truth, justice, mercy. The power to stand up for these things and to look for these things comes from the welling up of the power of God. That is the mystery that Christ is always, always coming into the world and in your heart. Up here, we are doing the things. We are baking, we are preparing, we are buying, we are wrapping.
These are a sign of the preparation that is happening underneath. They are our effort to give expression to that river of love that is flowing into our hearts and is like bursting out of us. The invitation for you for these next four weeks as you do the things and they're all good things, is to remember what you are expressing. It is the power of God who was and who is to come, and who is now showing up in your heart, giving you the power to stand up.
God is coming into the world, so take time with all the things you're doing. Even if you can't go on a spiritual retreat. Take a moment to breathe. Take a moment to give thanks. Take a moment to think of the people that God gave you to care for to make your life so good. Doesn't St. Paul express it so beautifully? I can't thank God enough for what God has done in giving us to one another. Connect yourself to that river of love flowing into your heart. Connect yourself to Christ being born. That is the truest preparation you can do, and it only takes a moment because it is there. You just turn your attention toward it. Stand up, look up. See the joy that is coming to you from God. Amen.