So…
Advent has arrived, yippee! Kind of…
For many, Advent seems like it should a
time of great joy.
But the reality is for most, it’s a time
of great stress!
Advent is all about the ninety million
things we need to do to get ready for Christmas. Hey Sue, lets rehab the
kitchen just to make it crazier!
This is the time of year the furnace dies or the washer and or drier, or in the church’s case, the copier!
It’s just all about more. More shopping,
more planning, more baking, more cleaning, more on top of everything else to
the point that is all exhausting!
Advent, the time of preparation before
the arrival of the Christ child on Christmas, is supposed to be a time of introspection
and preparation of our hearts, but we have made it a time of preparation of
everything but…
Because as always, we get it backwards,
running around trying to figure out where the elf on the shelf has hidden
itself since last year. Baking cookies, wrapping presents, trying without
success to figure out what to get people who have everything and need nothing,
until we drop over whipped from all the Advent Joy.
Years ago, when Father Gibney was the
pastor at the Holy Name Church here in Otisville, he and I talked about the two
churches going caroling together. And he told me that we couldn’t sing
Christmas carols, only Advent carols.
I only know two Advent songs and we are
singing them today! Then what?
Well, he said, Advent is a time of
preparation for the baby’s coming, and for the Coming of Christ the King and the
end of time. Advent is the time we think about the two comings, the two
arrivals of Jesus. It is not a time to celebrate Christ’s birth!
We do that during what is known as the twelve
days of Christmas, from Christmas Day until Epiphany, January 6th, the
day we remember the arrival of the Magi who visited Jesus and his mother at
home, bringing them gifts fit not for an infant, but for an adult king: gold,
and frankincense, and myrrh.
During Advent we are to think about the
baby Jesus and King Jesus and get our lives and hearts together. We are not
supposed to be exhausting ourselves over all the other stuff. We are supposed
to be getting recharged.
So, of course, we ignored Father Gibney
and sang Christmas Carols, because we are much more comfortable thinking about
the baby boy in the manger, than a King come in power and glory!
We are more comfortable with our
accumulated Christmas hoopla, than with sitting quiet and thinking about what
we should be doing to please the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Of course, no matter what we do, the King is
coming, Jesus reminds us!
The baby Jesus is here he seems to say
to his disciples and us. He, Jesus, is an adult, one who will soon die on a
cross. But the King is still coming, and knowing that, we are to get busy, not
decorating tree, but preparing the Kingdom.
Jesus’ description of the great
tribulations that overtake the faithful is not intended to make us faint of
heart, but rather to stir us to faithful action.
We are part of the generation that is given
the task of making disciples and sharing the good news of the kingdom with the
world, and in particular, with those who are suffering the world’s ravages,
whether they be man-made or natural disasters.
We are part of the generation that started
with Jesus’ death and resurrection, with Pentecost, and with the destruction of
Jerusalem. There was no going back. And we, disciples like those original
listeners to Jesus, still have the same calling, the same marching orders, the
same tasks.
We are to be reaching out and inviting
others to follow Jesus, not so much because time is short and the end is near,
but because our time is short, and our ends are near!
Did you hear what I just said?
Crazy, isn’t it. But’s true. I have no
idea when the end of time will come, no matter what the Left Behind books and
movies suggest. No one does. Jesus made that abundantly clear.
But…
We are to be reaching out and inviting
others to follow Jesus, not so much because Jesus arrival is immanent, but
because their time is short, as is ours, and our ends are near!
We all know how much time we have, and
it is much less than it was yesterday, or last week, or last Christmas. It
might be forty years. Or it might be forty hours. You and I don’t know. But
what we do know is that what we have been called to do isn’t done and so now, today,
we need to get to it.
So, who do you need to go and find and
say, “I’m sorry!” to?
Who do you need to invite back into your
life?
Who haven’t you shared your crazy love
of Jesus with?
Who do you need to ask to go with you to
drop off a fruit basket, or a box of food, or to go to Carolina or Florida and
rehab a house with you?
Who haven’t you invited to worship,
because you know they wouldn’t be comfortable here, and what should we do to
make them comfortable here because there are a whole lot more people like them
than not?
And why haven’t you decided that with
the limited time you have left, that you are going to make growing the Kingdom
of God a priority, because the King of that Kingdom has made you a priority
since the beginning of time?
It’s Advent. In twenty-three days we
celebrate Christmas. Time is short.
Amen.
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