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December 2, 2007 Advent 1A Voices in Time The Rev. Dr. Lawrence S. Hunter
The legend goes like this: “Pre-Christian peoples who lived far north and who suffered the archetypal loss of life and light with the disappearance of the sun had a way of wooing back life and hope. Primitives do not separate the natural phenomena from their religious or mystical yearning, so nature and mystery remained combined. As the days grew shorter and colder and the sun threatened to abandon the earth, these ancient people suffered the sort of guilt and separation anxiety which we also know. Their solution was to bring all ordinary action and daily routine to a halt. They gave in to the nature of winter, came away from their fields and put away their tools. They removed the wheels from their carts and wagons, festooned them with greens and lights and brought them indoors to hang in their halls. They brought the wheels indoors as a sign of a different time, a time to stop and turn inwards. They engaged the feelings of cold and fear and loss. Slowly, slowly they wooed the sun-god back. And light followed darkness. Morning came earlier. The festivals announced the return of hope after primal darkness.” [Gertrude Mueller Nelson; To Dance with God]
In our culture, we also experience the shifting seasons, not so dramatically as in other areas, but we do note the colder, shorter days and longer nights of autumn unfolding into winter. We, however, do not embrace the darkness and the last thing we are going to do is take a wheel of our cars and turn it into an Advent wreath. But just as the natural rhythms of the earth are slowing, the rhythms of our culture are gearing up for the secular celebration of what have become known generically as “the holidays.” More light, more noise, more stuff, more activity seem to characterize the world around us.
That stands in stark contrast to the season of Advent, which begins today. This first season of the church year is different from the long green season of ordinary time or Sundays after Pentecost that has just ended. The décor of the church is a little more subdued. The color has changed to blue. The presence of the Advent wreath and candles reminds us of the passage of time – limited time. The music is a little different, too.
This is the season in which the Church reminds us to slow down. This is the season that the Church reminds us to pay attention. This is the season in which the Church reminds us to prepare. And the Church is not reminding us to slow down so we can catch that big bargain over there. The Church is not reminding us to pay attention to that car that just backed out of a parking space two rows over. The Church is not even reminding us to prepare for Christmas. We may well do all of that, and probably do it well. But Advent is about much, much more. The Church, in the name of God, reminds us during Advent that time, our time, is limited. The Church, in the name of God, reminds us during Advent to ratchet down the pace from the hectic one we’ve been at since we returned from vacation last summer. The Church, in the name of God, reminds us during Advent to pay attention to the presence of God in our lives. The Church, in the name of God, reminds us during Advent to prepare to celebrate not only the birth of Jesus at Christmas, but to prepare for his return.
And just as the Church is reminding us to slow down, to pay attention, and to prepare, well, the culture in which we live is going into high gear. The voices of the culture literally shout at us that we only have so many days left to make sure that we have bought everything we can possibly buy. The voices of the culture literally shout at us to not miss this sale or that bargain. The voices of the culture literally shout at us that we had darn well better be merry and bright, and be quick about it. These cultural voices of the moment do not necessarily have our best interests at heart. They want us to do something, to be sure. And they want to make sure we hear them.
And in the midst of all that shouting, the Church says, well, let’s just wait a minute here, OK? Just what is this upcoming celebration all about anyway? It is about nothing less than the birth of hope, the birth of love, the birth of a new era in the relationship between our God and us. And that is worth slowing down for, worth paying attention to, and worth preparing for – carefully.
The cultural voices may be loud, but there are other voices asking to be heard this Advent. The do not shout at us; they do not clamor for our attention. These Advent voices do have our best interests at heart. If we listen carefully, we can hear those Advent voices; there are three of them in our readings today—Isaiah, Paul and Jesus.
The voice of Isaiah is well known, even by people who rarely read or hear a passage of scripture. There is the very familiar phrase “they shall beat their swords into plowshares....” Earlier, the prophet has denounced Israel for its sin and meaningless worship and called her to return to just ways. Now, Isaiah focuses on and condemns Jerusalem, but nevertheless holds out a hope, a promise that Jerusalem shall be the instrument for bringing God’s plan to fulfillment. And what is that plan? — that Jerusalem will draw all peoples to herself and that in God’s house, the Temple, the nations will find instruction in “God’s ways.” What a vision for the morally bankrupt city! And it is a vision that only God can bring about. It will be a place for God to instruct the world in the ways of peace. Enemies will be reconciled and troubled nations will come to Zion where they will find a just Judge. War will not be the resource of desperate or totalitarian leaders and so the weapons of war will be dismantled – “they shall beat their swords in to plowshares.”
Straining to hear this voice announcing a vision of peace, we could say all this is only a vision after all. We could ask what good can a vision do. Well, nothing if we choose to ignore it or dismiss it. But, a vision can offer hope and guidance for a people in a desperate time. It can spur people to make the vision true in their own lives and to work to see it come true in the surrounding community. If we listen to this Advent voice, Isaiah’s vision might stir us to put aside our own sometimes violent and aggressive ways, with which we try to force our will on others; to urge us to turn the weapons of violence into instruments of peace. And, straining to hear this voice announcing a vision of peace, we could say that this is about global conflict that is out of our control. But in each life there are battlegrounds that God would have us turn into gardens of peace. It is clear from human history that only God can accomplish peace in the world and in the human heart and so Isaiah’s Advent voice invites us to turn to God. “Come,” the reading ends, “let us walk in the light of the Lord.” That is the way that will lead us to peace, justice, and unity among peoples.
The next Advent voice is St. Paul. His Advent voice would rouse us from sleep. It is a call to be vigilant. Paul tells us, “You know the time....”
It is wake-up time and Christ wants us to see reality in a new way; for darkness is passing and day dawning. We are presented with a choice: shall we choose the ways of light or the ways of darkness? When we awake to a new day we get dressed. So Paul invites us to wake to the day of Christ and put on new clothing—“put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” If Christ is our light and we are “dressed” with his “armor of light,” then we will turn away from ways of being and doing that do not fit in this new life.
Paul also wants Christians to live according to a new time, one not governed by clocks and calendars – or I suppose, numbers of shopping days left until Christmas. Instead, Paul would caution us that we must have a sense of timing—knowing the potential value of each moment and so fill our time doing the good and making a difference. This Advent voice calls us to alertness and expectation. In the time we are given we have enough light from Christ to direct our path. That light of Christ, which is in each of us, can keep us alert and help us to choose, to choose, to live in the way Jesus showed us we are created to live.
Jesus is the third Advent voice we hear today. The gospel gives us a reminder that Advent isn’t just about the approach of Christmas. There is no mention of Christ’s birth today. The voice we hear is not a baby’s wail but the adult Jesus’ call to look to the day of his coming. Since we do not know the exact day or hour of his return, we must not be lulled into a routine that makes us unprepared. Jesus tells us that the people in Noah’s time were not necessarily behaving sinfully, rather they were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” all pretty normal activities—when the flood came and carried them off. Events changed suddenly on them, as they can do on us.
We, too, go about our daily lives; one day melts into the next. Nothing much changes for a while, but that is no guarantee, for life is fickle and we can find ourselves short on reserves when we need to face a flood of unfavorable events.
There are two parts of Advent, Christmas and Christ’s Second Coming, and they have a lot in common. Both are about salvation; both events point us to Christ’s saving power. He came into the world to save us and show us a new way of being human. He gave us his Spirit as his lasting gift to us so we could live out our lives the way he showed us in his own life. He gave us the Church so that we could be surrounded by others for mutual encouragement and companionship on this journey of faith. Now we await his coming, living with a consciousness of his return. Meanwhile, we live in the light of his teaching and strive to love others as he has loved us.
Remember, at the beginning of today’s gospel, we are told that Jesus was speaking to his disciples, the closest people who were following him. And he speaks to us today. He might tell us that it is OK to prepare for Christmas, shopping, decorating, buying presents, singing carols. I hope so, because I love that part of this season. But Jesus also tells us to “keep awake” for there is so much more going on here, so much more for which we need to prepare. Even if the second Coming of Jesus is still a long way off, or right around the corner, well, an end does come to each human life, and we do not know on what day that is coming, either. And so we hear the voice that says, “stay awake and be ready.”
We modern disciples of Jesus may have to strain to try to hear these three Advent voices today. Despite the holiday rush and noise we can hear them if we listen carefully, and they speak of common themes—be prepared, keep awake, live lovingly and faithfully in the meantime.
And so, we look around us, perhaps trying to wipe the sleep from our eyes, trying to be fully awake. We look at our troubled world to see what swords need to be beaten into plowshares. We look at our church to see where healing needs to happen. We look at our families and relationships to see where reconciliation is essential. We look around us with a vision before us – an Advent vision that we have heard in these voices of Advent. The vision held out by the voice of Isaiah of a people of peace. The vision held out by Paul of a loving people walking in the light of God’s never-ending love for us. The vision held out by Jesus of a people preparing for his return by making the best of the time that is given to us.
For God trust us with this our moment in time. And we make the best of our time in the midst of our own everyday and perhaps ordinary lives by simply loving our neighbor as ourselves. You see, if we listen carefully enough, we may hear more voices today, voices that call us to make the best of our time. They are the voices of people in the world with not enough food. They are the voices of people in the world with no place to live. They are the voices of people in the world with not enough love. They are voices of people in the world who are lonely or afraid. It is the voice of creation itself, often exploited and neglected.
These voices are here at St. Stephen’s today represented by the Heifer Project, which provides self-sufficiency to those in need around the world by gifting them with animals.
These voices are represented by our Angel Project, which provides a brighter Christmas to some in our immediate community.
These voices are represented by the Winter Nights shelter, which will be housed at St. Stephen’s the first week in February.
These voices are represented by our Caring for Creation efforts to participate in the healing of the earth by living more responsibly.
These are voices calling this morning for our participation in the transformation of the lives of others and of our planet, and they are as near as the entry way to the church or the parish hall beneath us.
For there is a quality of life asked of us who follow Jesus that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.
It is the quality of life that Jesus shows us is possible for us.
It is the quality of life for which God created us.
It is God’s gift to us.
It can be our best gift to God, to the world, and to each other.
But first, we have to pay attention to the voices of Advent.
Are you listening?