December 3, 2023 – The First Sunday Of Advent
Fr. Cal Calhoun
In the Name of God, Emmanuel, God with us: Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Amen.
Happy New Year! Today is New Year’s Day in the church calendar! The church calendar has this annual cycle of anticipating and preparing for the birth of Jesus in Advent. Celebrating that birth at Christmas. Marking that Jesus is the messiah, not just for the House of Israel, but of all humanity at Epiphany. In the season of Epiphany we visit the early parts of Jesus’ ministry. In Lent we prepare for Easter as Jesus journeys to Jerusalem. In Holy Week, we remember the Last Supper and the Cross. Easter brings us the resurrection and in the Easter season we remember the resurrected Jesus. The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the long season of Pentecost, sometimes called Ordinary Time, takes us through the Scriptures until we do it all over again.
I know we are prone to have New Years’ resolutions, but we usually plan those for January 1st. Well, I want to suggest a resolution for this new church year, starting today. I want you to be counter-cultural. A rebel. I want you to swim upstream, against the current! To buck the trend! What is he talking about?? I hope you are saying.
What generally happens between now and Christmas was never imagined in the tradition of the Church. Advent is marked by watching, waiting, anticipating. See the banner that says: Watch. That banner will change each week in Advent. Next week it will say Prepare. The week after that Rejoice as we engage the story of the Incarnation when the Angel Gabriel visits Mary. And on the fourth Sunday of Advent the banner will say Behold, something amazing is coming.
Advent is a season of watching, waiting, preparing. It is not a season of celebrating. That’s the counter-cultural part. Our commercially driven, consumer minded society would have you celebrating Christmas right after Halloween…if not before!
Our readings point out what we are to be about. From Isaiah: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down.” God coming down, Emanuel, God with us. “From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who, wait for it… see what I did there? The God who works for those who wait for God.
From Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “for in every way you have been enriched in him,” “so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
From our Gospel: Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the Master will return. So the gospel gives some purpose or urgency to our waiting. We are not just hanging out, watching TV or playing video games kind of waiting. We have some intentionality around our waiting. So not just wait, but watch. Beware, keep alert. Something amazing is about to happen. You don’t want to miss it.
In Advent, we are like Mary: expectant. The expectant mother knows there are preparations to be made. There is waiting, but it is waiting with a purpose. The expectant mother knows anticipation. She is waiting for a time of great joy! The arrival of the child. And the expectant mother waits with a bit of trepidation, because she also knows things don’t always go as hoped.
In Advent, we wait with anticipation for the arrival of the Christ child, something we should celebrate like nothing else, the arrival of our savior. And in Advent, we wait with some trepidation, because we are also waiting for the second coming of Jesus. I am reminded of the young man who asks Jesus, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies, “You know the commandments: You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not defraud. Honor your father and your mother. The man replies, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” I don’t know about you, but that is not me. I afraid I haven’t kept all those since my youth. So, while I am hopeful about my chances, I don’t know for sure what Jesus’ second coming might bring. So, some trepidation.
These weeks leading up to Christmas are not about celebration. They are about watching, and waiting, preparing, rejoicing in the first Advent of our redeemer, and holding a bit of trepidation about the second coming of our redeemer.
The 12 days of Christmas? They are the 12 days after Christmas. The history of the church has us celebrating after the arrival of the Christ child, not before. Jesus doesn’t get his presents until Epiphany! Think about the money you could save shopping those after Christmas sales if you exchanged presents on Epiphany!
I would ask you to resolve to be counter-cultural this Advent. Wait and watch with purpose, prepare for the Christ child. How do you do that? The manger, the crib, the nursery is here. You watch by preparing a place for Jesus in here. That means maybe adding something to your pray routine, or starting a prayer routine. Doing something extra, prayers in the morning as well as prayers at night, or vice versa.
Now, is all celebration in Advent off limits? No, we will rejoice with Mary on the 3rd Sunday in Advent. Don’t cut out all celebration, but don’t have celebration be your purpose. Waiting, watching and preparing, that is your purpose.
Br. David Vryhof from SSJE, the Episcopal monastery in Boston, says this about generosity: If every one of us gave everything we had to the Church or to the poor, we’d need other people to take care of us. Few of us are called to actual material poverty; instead we are called to be wise stewards of what we’ve been given, and to be generous in sharing it with those who suffer life’s hardships.
I like that quote for a couple of reasons: first, it reminds me of the generosity of this community of Good Samaritans as we anticipate placing out commitments on the altar. Second, it reminds us that all or nothing is seldom a solid strategy. Reality lies in the gray between black and white.
And so it is in Advent. Be counter-cultural with your New Year’s resolutions. Resolve to wait, watch, and prepare for the coming of the Christ child. Is celebrating bad? No, but don’t make it your purpose in Advent. Make preparing a home for Jesus here, your purpose. Amen.
Year B – Advent 1 – December 3, 2023 – The Rev. Cal Calhoun
