How
Do We Live in This Time of Waiting?
Homily
by The Rev. Marcia McRae
St. John’s
Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA; 1 Advent, 1 Dec. 2013
Year
A RCL: Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122;
Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:36-44
Something
is different here today: We see purple candles, purple hangings
& vestments, so we know this Sunday is different from recent
Sundays when we have had fewer candles & green accoutrements.
With
our color-coded worship,1
even if we lose track of time, we have visual cues in church to
remind us of the season of the year. Today
we mark the 1st
Sunday in Advent. Advent is our annual countdown to Christmas and the
start of the new church year2.
So: Happy New Church Year!
Like any new year, Advent gives us a chance to reflect on the past, anticipate the future, and make a resolution for change. Most of us make well-intentioned resolutions for the new year that may last a bit of time. When we forget or fail to follow through, we can get discouraged and drop our failed plan.
When
we decide to do something different, something new, we can be more
successful if we give ourselves room to experience the change: do it
for a while, then reflect on it.
What worked? What didn't? Why?
How
can we adjust it as we do it again but differently?
So we do it, we
reflect on it,
& we do it anew.
So you
want things clean & presentable, right?
What
is something to do differently this year in Advent & Christmas &
beyond that will help us to grow closer to Jesus? What will help you
to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”? as
St. Paul writes to the Romans.
Advent's
purple color reminds us of the purple we use in Lent, the season of
penitence3.
It is good to be reminded that we have aspects of our lives that we
can improve & may need to confess to God to ask forgiveness.
This
can help us do something differently
& live in a new way.
Advent's
purple is a royal color4
that reminds us Christ the King will come again.
Jesus tells us in our Gospel: the day & hour will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.
What an interesting contrast Jesus gives us:
he will come
like a thief in the night!
Jesus says, a person who stays awake can
prevent a thief from breaking into the house. When Jesus comes, I
want to welcome him into my house. If I am asleep, I hope he breaks
in & wakes me up!
Advent
gives us time to consider the future.
- What can we do that will make God's kingdom of peace more accessible to others?
- What can we do – where we are – to reach out as Jesus' hands & heart to individuals who do not know Jesus?
- What can we do to help people beat swords into plowshares? To help them learn violence – & war – no more?
- How long does it take people to learn something? How long does it take us to unlearn an old habit? How can we learn to live in peace?
According to the Jewish Study Bible, Jeremiah “does not imagine a future without borders or distinct nationalities.”5 “International conflicts will still occur, but nations will no longer resolve them through warfare. Instead, nations will submit to the arbitration at Mount Zion. The Temple will become the headquarters of a divine Security Council with the membership of one [that one being God!] & (with) unsurpassed ability to ensure compliance.”6
God will ensure the peace that surpasses all understanding.
How long will this take? We do not know. As author Luke Timothy Johnson says:
“God's time seems long to us.”7
We are like children waiting for Christmas: it takes so long!
As we
have pondered here recently, our perspective of time is so different
from God's. I
remember a perspective on time in a favorite book of mine, Plato
and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...8 (& I adjust the text in parts)
A
person prays to God: “I would like to ask you a question.”
God
says, “Go ahead.” The human says,
“Is it true that a million
years to you are but a second?”
God says: “Yes, that is true.”
The
person asks:
“Well, what is a million dollars to you?”
God says:
“A million dollars to me is but a penny.”
“Ah,
Lord,” the person says, “may I have a penny?” God replies:
“Sure! Just a second.”
God
lives in eternity. We live in clock-watching time. We can get
impatient & confused when things don't happen with the timing we
expect.
Right
now we live in Advent that gives us time to prepare for Christmas &
anticipate Jesus' coming again in God's good & perfect time.
In
perfect time, we will see the fulfillment of what Isaiah tells us of
the time of peace:
we will see peace in its fullest sense –
prosperity, happiness9,
justice, absence of war.
Advent
offers us time to pace ourselves differently. We can slow the hectic
pace of this season with simple things, like making time for a brief
reflection on scripture & a quiet time to pray to God.
Whether
you live alone or with family,
this can be a gift to yourself.
Many
of us use an Advent wreath to help us focus on a daily time-out.
Lighting the Advent wreath candles gives us specific time to thank
God.
In
this time we can take time for a much-needed deep breath to slow our
hectic pace.
This helps us make room for peace
in our hearts &
minds.
With
peaceful hearts & minds, we can be more attuned to the needs around
us. Needs can be simple. We may give a smile or kind word to a
harried store clerk or offer a hectic shopper to move ahead of us in
the check-out line.
Jesus
says: My Beloved Brother, My Beloved Sister, when you do this for the
one of the least of these, you do this for me.
Can you give Jesus
that much-needed smile or kind word?
Can you let Jesus break in line
in front of you?
Can you?
Will you?
Bibliography
Cathcart,
Thomas. Daniel Klein. Plato
and a Platpus Walk into a Bar...:Understanding Philosophy Through
Jokes.
New York: Books. The Penguin Group. 2007.
English,
June A. Anglican
Young People's Dictionary.
Harrisburg:
Morehouse Publishing. 2004.
The
Episcopal Handbook.
Church Publishing. New York: Morehouse Publishing. 2008.
Holy
Bible with the Apocrypha.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Johnson,
Luke Timothy. The
Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters.
New York: Doubleday. 2003.
Levenson,
Jon D. Sinai
& Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible.
Minneapolis: A Seabury Book. Winston Press. 1985.
The
New American Bible for Catholics.
South Bend: Greenlawn Press. 1970.
New
Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha.
Eds.: Herbert G. May, Bruce M. Metzger. New York: Oxford University
Press, Incorporated, 1977.
Wall,
John. N. A
Dictionary for Episcopalians.
Chicago: Cowley Publications Book. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc. 2000.
2
Ibid.
3
Wall,
John. N. A
Dictionary for Episcopalians.
Chicago: Cowley Publications Book. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc. 2000. P. 2.
4
English,
June A. Anglican
Young People's Dictionary.
Harrisburg:
Morehouse Publishing. 2004.
P. 2.
5
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
P. 788.
6
Ibid.
7
Johnson,
Luke Timothy. The
Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters.
New York: Doubleday. 2003. P. 501.
8
Cathcart,
Thomas. Daniel Klein. Plato
and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...
P.
173. Note: I have paraphrased parts.
