First Sunday of Advent, Year A

Isaiah 2.1-5

Psalm 122

Romans 13.11-14

Matthew 24.36-44

“LET”

            The other day I was in a store that had a lot of hobby and craft supplies.  I don’t do crafts, unlike my cousins I have no talent for them, but the stores have some things I occasionally need.  So I passed about eight aisles of Christmas items and was looking, tongue in cheek here, for the Advent section.  There was a nice Hanukkah display, as there should be, but no part of the store was devoted to Advent.  Christmas is a very big deal, while Advent scarcely gets noticed.

Advent is the time before Christmas in which to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ.  Now millions and millions prepare for Christmas, buying gifts, cooking, decorating one’s home, sending out greetings, and so forth.  But that is not the kind of preparation Advent is.  Those other things are good and needed if a person is going to celebrate Christmas, but they don’t really get at the meaning of it.  There is something to Advent, what we do in Advent, that most people don’t understand or appreciate.  It is a different kind of preparation.  It is never going to have an aisle in a store.

The meaning is, that since Christ has come into our world and we live in the expectation of his return, we live both in that hope, but also in the urgency that Christ’s return could come any moment.  We prepare for Christ’s return by our behavior.  The Gospel reading talks about how that return could come at any time.  So the lives we lead are not just preparing for one season of the year.  And we are to be prepared for an event that will change our lives forever.  We live in the hope, not of Santa’s coming, or of Rudolph, or of Frosty the snowman, but of the One whom we celebrate in this season, coming back to us as he first came to us many years ago.  Paul’s letter to the Romans echoes that thought.

            The reading from Isaiah talks about what will happen in the time to come.  Nations will come to God’s house.  People will want to learn God’s ways and nations will learn ways of peace rather than war.  That is, as much as this is a wonderful season with things that delight us, there will be change within us.  We will turn to God.  That is the character of this season.

So, some recommendations.  Let, that is, allow, the season come when it comes.  Let it unfold as you prepare for it.  Folks who sell things want everything to happen fast so they can move on to the next sales event.  But there is more to this season than things.  There are people we share things with.  That takes time and sometimes effort.  There are memories which put our lives into perspective.  There are opportunities for kindness.  Sometimes it takes some thought.  There might be people you can reconnect with over four weeks that you could not.

            Let others enjoy Christmas, too.  The past few years there are some who make the greetings of this season into some kind of crusade.  They say “Merry Christmas” and demand that everyone else use that same greeting.  It is ironic that what is called a season of peace is made into a conflict by them.  Forcing people to say what you want them to, suggests maybe they don’t really understand the season at all.  Remember, whatever Christmas means to you, it means something to others as well.

            Let the meaning of the season take root in our lives.  We say, yes, we know what this holiday is about.  But then we surround ourselves with other things and the real meaning does not seem to touch us.  We need to be more conscious about what part of our lives these days are.  The meaning of the wonder of Christ coming into our world is not to have new socks or new games or new tools or new fragrances, but new souls.  They can only be formed as we spend time with God, as we put away the old things to take up this new thing.

            Let the things of Christmas bring you joy, but remember, they are just things.  We need to do something where God takes first place and all the other things fall back into where they belong.  We start out the season thinking about the Savior of the world, but end up talking about tinsel.  Philip Gulley tells about the time he was mistaken for someone else and appointed to a prestigious board in his denomination.  He went to the meetings throughout the country.  The best part he found, though, was telling people he was serving on that important board.  He said that the last time he felt so important was when he won second place in the 1972 Danville Optimist Bicycle Safety Rodeo.  He realizes that it meant so much to him because it caused others to think well of him and led him to exaggerate his accomplishments.  As he worked as a pastor, he ran across the idea of idols in the Bible, and noted that altars in the Old Testament were often made out of stones.  He says, “Today we still have idols, and they’re more sophisticated than mere graven images.  Modern idols are those things we love more than God, including the obvious temptations like cars, fancy houses, and grand-sounding job titles.  If we value anything more than God, it is idolatry, plain and simple.”  We prepare for this season by putting away things of lesser importance so that we can spend time with what is more important, and even the most important.  What is most important as we look towards Christmas is not our traditions and celebrations, but that Christ has come and is coming into our world and into our hearts.  We find the meaning of Christmas when we let go of the other things.

            Christmas comes each year.  We race to it and then it is over and the most important part of our lives, who we are, has not changed in a season which is about wonder and miracles and God’s presence and grace.  For the season to be what it is supposed to be, we need to do something different.  We need to pay attention to what God is doing in our lives, more than what marketing people want to do with them.  We need to find the meaning, not in noise, but in relationship with God.  For this to happen we need to be open to this, you have to let yourself be open to it.

Lancelot Andrewes wrote this prayer 400 years ago:

Open thou mine eyes and I shall see;

Incline my heart and I shall desire;

Order my steps and I shall walk

In the ways of thy commandments.

O Lord God, be thou to me a God

And beside thee let there be none else,

No other, naught else with thee.

Vouchsafe to me to worship thee and serve thee

According to thy commandments

In truth of spirit, in reverence of body,

In blessings of lips,

In private and in public.

Amen.