Sermon, Advent 1

(hastily written out - hopefully making sense!)

     Our readings this week are a great way to introduce us to the season of Advent. It's the start of the liturgical calendar (Happy New Year!), and a time of dedicated prayer, of waiting and watching for the coming of the Christ.

     The waiting is a challenge, though, because we always want to know WHEN. When will we see the second coming? We want to know when the second coming will happen, and how it will manifest. We're not necessarily great at the "now and not yet" sentiment of Advent. We just want to know the day and time - despite Jesus telling us very clearly that the day and hour are not known.

     Despite this, we still want to know. We try to interpret the signs, we try to understand the incomprehensible. We read the scriptures, we hear the words of the prophets, we try to wrap our limited human minds around the concept. And we've been doing this forever - and have been getting it wrong all this time. Even with the first coming of Christ, the people got it wrong. They had applied their plans and agendas and interpretations to what the coming of the Messiah would mean - he was going to be a great warrior to overthrow the corrupt government! And yet God's plan was quite different - he sent a humble human who was willing to offer the ultimate sacrifice in order to change the world. Despite the people desperately wanting to know and control the when and how of God's presence, they got it wrong. What makes us think we can do it any better in this day and age? We're still limited with human language - which can confuse us even when describing the simplest of earthly things, and we're trying to use it to describe the ultimate divine experience? No wonder we don't get it.

     An example of this was shown, comedically, in a BBC show a few years back. The Verger (basically a clergy helper) is walking with a Vicar (minister) - and the verger is none too bright. She asks the Vicar about when Jesus will arrive. The vicar answers that we don't know. The Verger suggests that's not the best plan - Tuesdays are bad for traffic, so Jesus shouldn't come on Tuesday. And Thursdays are when she vacuums the house, so if Jesus isn't coming on Thursday it may be a mess. And timing needs to be considered - out of politeness - she wouldn't want Jesus knocking on the door when she was in the washroom!

     Needless to say, the Verger has it wrong. In trying to confine the second coming to her schedule, she's missing the point. And while this example is particularly silly, sometimes the rest of us can act in similar ways - we live our lives by the clock on the wall and the day planner, trying to control the time we have.

     So Advent speaks against that. It invites us to consider that we really have NO control over the coming of Christ. The Now and Not Yet dichotomy mean we can't plan for the second coming, we can't make sure the house is tidy or the baking done or any of those other human control realities when we know we'll be welcoming someone.

     But - Advent also invites us to recognize what we CAN control. And that is the here and the now. The present moment. Advent is a time for us to recognize what really matters in our lives - love, compassion, our relationship with one another and the world. And it encourages us to always be prepared, spiritually. To seek out every interaction, every opportunity as THE moment when Christ may come. 

     This, of course, takes practice and effort. It's an on-going commitment. Just as the work is never done when we;re preparing our homes (when we've just finished cleaning the front of the house, a dust bunny will have formed itself in a back corner), so too our spiritual work is never done and should not be considered a task to complete. We have to take some time every day to encourage the spiritual preparations within ourselves so that we can be ready to welcome the Christ.

     This preparation will also take humility - we'll need to put our selves aside for the benefit of the world. Our desires, our wants, become secondary as we prepare ourselves. And we do this by choosing to see the holy that is before us - the sacred presence that is already here. 

It's not easy to do this, it's not meant to be easy. But by doing this we are choosing to see both the holy that IS and the holy that is to come; by doing this we are embracing both the transcendent and imminent nature that is Advent. By doing this we are releasing our need to control the future and we are celebrating being in this moment. 

     So all we can do is be ready, be prepared, in this moment. All we can do is bring about change in ways that will have meaning for us and how we seek out the holy in our lives.

  We're called to bring about our hearts, to celebrate the coming off the Christ.

  We're called to bring about our thoughts and prayers, so that they articulate what our hearts most desire.
  We're called to bring about our words, so that we can speak the hope that is living in that desire.
  We're called to bring about our actions, so that they align with that which our mouths proclaim.
  We're called to bring about ourselves- spirit and mind and body- into such a space where we joyfully declare that we are waiting. Patiently, anxiously, faithfully waiting. 

  And that while we wait we are looking for the coming presence is the holy, by seeking out the holy already present before us.

May our Advent time be a celebration of our faithful waiting.

Amen.