Theologian and
writer Frederick Buechner wrote in his book, Whistling in the Dark, “The house lights go off and the footlights
come. Even the chattiest stop chatting as they wait in the darkness for the
curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The
conductor has raised his baton.
In the silence of a midwinter dusk
there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you
can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath
to listen.
You walk up the steps to the front
door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost
nothing. For a second, you catch a whiff in the air of some fragrance that
reminds you of a place you’ve never been and a time you have no words for. You
are aware of the beating of your heart.
The extraordinary thing that is
about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it
happens. Advent is the name of that moment.
The Salvation Army Santa Claus
clangs his bell. The sidewalks are so crowded you can hardly move. Exhaust
fumes are the chief fragrance in the air, and everybody is as bundled against
any sense of what all the fuss is really about as they are bundled up against
the wind chill factor.
But if you concentrate just for an
instant, far off in the deeps of yourself somewhere you can feel the beating of
your heart. For all its madness and lost-ness, not to mention your own, you can
hear the world itself holding its breath…its called Advent.” Those are
beautiful words for a special time in the life of the church.
Welcome to the New Year in the
church cycle. One could say Happy New Year! As we begin this New Year in the
life of the church, we come to a new focus in our Gospel readings. Last year,
much of the focus came from the Gospel of Luke. Welcome to the Gospel of
Matthew…and of course welcome to Advent. Advent is the time of the year where
we talk about waiting and watching! We hear words and phrases lilke: “make
ready, prepare the way, and creating space.” So much of our culture is focused
on “pushing ahead, going for the Gold, and trying to make it to that end Goal
(whatever the goal is). Our society fixates on instantaneous results. We all
get caught up in wanting things to work immediately that we have gotten away
from believing that something must be wrong if we have to wait for
something…for anything.
Advent is a time of preparation,
making ready for the coming of the infant Jesus. So, how do we prepare, how do
we make ready? For some, preparation is making sure the house is clean,
shopping is done, menus made up, lists made, and plans confirmed. My wife and I
found out how one of our sons prepared. Justin is an EMT/firefighter and one
night he called us. Things did not sound right so my wife asked “where are
you?” He said, “I am in the trunk of a car.” My wife began looking panicked
thinking something horrible had happened! The look on her face was priceless
when he continued “I am waiting for the instructor to come and grade how he was
able to take his pulse in a confined area. We got several calls like that “I am
in a closet and they are coming by to check how I put in an IV. He was
preparing to be able to do what he would be called to do in the field.
That is one way of preparation. How
is it for us Christians? How do we prepare? It is not like a semester of
school. We don’t get a syllabus that tells us what to read, when papers are
due, and the dates of exams. For Christians, preparation is an ongoing process.
Being
a Christian is an ongoing process. Living a Christian lifestyle doesn’t come
with an begin and end date. There is no expiration date. We do have an
instruction manual in scripture, church, and our friends in faith. But our
Gospel text reminds us that when Jesus comes, we do not know. We don’t know the
time or the hour AND he will come like a thief in the night, totally by
surprise and unexpectedly, surprisingly.
Through
the examples in our reading, we see that there is no way of predicting,
planning, or guessing when Jesus will come. So how do you live the Christian
life when you don’t know the end is near? For that matter, how do you live with
the remaining 23 days left in Advent before Christmas?
So
let’s talk reality. For most of us, it is impossible to just stop everything
and wait. I would suggest that would be a really bad interpretation of our
reading. It’s not about how fast or slow we do things. It’s not even about
changing what we are doing. I would say that it is how we live out that time.
Are we watchful, vigilant, deliberate, and intentional in witnessing to the
promises that have been given to us? Do we live in confidence that what God
promised Abraham, Noah, and David will happen o do we hedge our bets and try to
live in both worlds; with one foot trying to follow Jesus and the other foot
trying to be “successful” in the world as it is and the way society measures
success?
Before
my wife went to seminary, our son, the EMT that I just spoke of really thought
that seminary students wore robes like the monks and chanted all day long;
living the life of a monk. He went to visit her one day on the campus and was
surprised to find people walking around in jeans. In fact, he said to his
mother “they look just like me. I never thought that they would wear jeans.”
That was the moment that he learned that Christians and pastors look just like
everyone else. We live in the real world and we hold onto the promises given to
us by our God as we go about our daily lives.
Maybe
the real challenge to us as people of faith is believing in the promise that
God has made to us. With so many things out of our control, unexpected events,
it is a challenge to hold onto God’s promises. With the tragedy in the
Phillipines, the fire that killed the priest in Ocean City and devastated the
people of faith in that community, the loss of jobs, illnesses, and the death
of a loved one; all these things take us back and threaten any semblance of
order we’d imagined we created for ourselves.
No
matter what your darkest, deepest fear, we hold onto the promise of God’s
salvation in Jesus Christ. We have been created for more that fear because of
Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God whose coming birth we anticipate, has
promised to come always to be both with us and for us.
The
promise does not insulate us from an uncertain future, But it does promise that
we will not face that future alone. And if we believe this to be true, we will
live our lives in such a way that as we go about the business of the Lord’s
work, we will live in assurance and with a peace that truly “passes all
understanding.”
As
the days grow shorter and the darkness grows, we light our advent candles each
week to remind us that we do not face the darkness alone, we do not live in
fear and isolation, but give thanks because the light of the world has come,
shining in the darkness to illumine our lives and lead us forth in courage,
confidence, and dare I say…joy!
So welcome to
Advent, a time of preparation of the mind, body, and spirit. As we prepare for
this season with Christmas parties, parades, shopping, music, baking and all
that comes with it. May we all hold onto God’s promises and prepare ourselves
because it truly is a blessed journey: thanks be to God. AMEN!
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