The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN
December 3, 2023
People always seem to be in a hurry, especially this time of year, in a hurry to rush to the store and spend money, in a hurry to put up the tree and bring out the decorations, and in a hurry to send out cards and well-wishes to folks they haven’t seen or heard from in years.
The stores are putting up the decorations earlier and earlier, wanting to create that “rush” toward Christmas. Wanting people to buy this and buy that and make their personal woes disappear by creating financial ones.
It almost seems that putting up the decorations earlier will somehow make Christmas come faster… I always ask myself, what are folks really looking for this time of year?… are they looking for the “feeling” of Christmas to come? –
Do they think the feeling will come by putting candles in the window, tinsel on the evergreen, or mistletoe in the doorframe? Do folks really want to spend all that money on stuff they don’t need?
What do folks want to happen? Do they really want Christmas to come sooner… It’s surprising because they only celebrate for a day when it finally arrives.
The saddest thing I’ve ever seen was someone who put their Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving and tossed it on the street on December 26. They’d had it up so long that it was all dried out by the time the actual day of Christmas came…
We’ve been swallowed up by secular society that has coopted Christmas to make themselves money… That’s where we are today. Right here, amid all that social chaos, the commercial world has created twirling around us.
We are here right here! Right here starting our new year. Today is the first Sunday of Advent, the first Sunday of the Christian year. This is the Sunday we begin to retell the story... we retell the Christian story again.
And our story starts out just as chaotic as the world around us, with the exhortation from Jesus to wait! Wait for his coming again... Wait and keep watch for the Son of Man to come with great power and glory, and the elect will be gathered from the four corners of the earth! But no one knows when this will happen, so we are to be aware, stay alert, stay awake, and watch!
Advent for us is a season of waiting, preparation... a season of watching and being alert. This may seem strange for those hurrying to get to the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. But that’s not what we’re waiting for… That’s something that has already happened.
That’s why this season is so important… we start our year by being told to stay awake and prepare for Jesus’ coming again.
The two stories go hand in hand. Today, we are more like the ones back then who awaited the birth of the Messiah. We know not the day nor the hour when it will happen, so we must continuously watch and wait.
The difference is we know who we are waiting for. We expect that Jesus will return just as he said he would. And here’s where we start our story. We begin with joyful anticipation, with the expectation that we will see Christ face to face.
But it is only a comfortable thing for some of us to do. In fact, it makes us worried and anxious... the longer we wait, the more anxious we get and the more jittery and fearfully excited about the unknown we become. So, most of us choose not to wait at all. Or we make waiting a passive thing that we just routinely do instead of something we actively do. We may passively wait, like in the grocery store or bank queue. But active waiting is much different. It’s intentional, it’s deliberate, and it requires preparation.
Most people who know me know that I love parades. So, the example that I can think of would be a parade. Parades when I was a little boy were a big deal. People would line the streets and wait, wanting to get a good place and a good view. They prepare most of the morning, and the little children get excited.
They were excited about what candy would get thrown at them or what old cars, character floats, or fire trucks they would see. We only know that the parade has started because we hear the sound of horns or the drums in the bands at the head of the parade. The excitement begins to build as each sight and sound goes by. The excitement was expected, but there was some mystery surrounding the event. That’s the waiting I am talking about...
The people of old waited to be delivered by a messiah, who the prophets told them would be born. So, they lived in a continual state of readiness and preparation because they did not know the day or hour of his arrival.
We wait today, at the beginning of Advent, in the same way. But we are not waiting for a baby to be born in a barn; that has already happened, and it is a beautiful story... and there will be twelve whole days set apart on the calendar for us to celebrate!
But today, we are called to wait, prepare, be pregnant (if you will) with expectation and excitement, and be actively watchful. We are called to take some time out, be still, and look and listen for the Christ who will come when we least expect it.
Taking time out at this time of year is counter-cultural because so much is expected of us… go here, do this, do that, buy this, buy that… We have gotten tied all up in society’s expectations, told what to do and where to go. So much so that it has become our tradition and our way of dealing with the season.
We have done it for so long that we don’t know anything different, like the people who have lived by the train tracks for so long that they no longer hear the sound of the train. We get accustomed to the “noise” surrounding Advent so much that we no longer notice it.
Or if we do, it doesn’t jolt us awake as it once did. I invite you today to the observance of a Holy Advent. To be still and wait… I want to not be in a rush to put up the decorations but wait and let the anxiety build, be watchful, and expect something holy to happen.
As children, we used advent calendars that we opened each day of Advent, counting down the days until Christmas. We were innocently filled with anticipation as we waited to see what would be behind the next little door, what treat we would receive, or what story it would tell us.
Some of us use the advent wreath in the home, like the one in our worship space, to help us mark the weeks until our savior returns. We light one more candle each Sunday until all the candles are lit. And we realize as the light grows that God is getting nearer and nearer to us.
We are called today to keep a Holy Advent, a special place between the birth of a baby and the coming of Christ in glory. A place somewhere between the “already” and the “not yet.” As we strive to live in the middle of the chaos of our life to live a holy advent, we not only get to know better the One that has already come into the world, who lived as one of us, who died and rose again.
But we also start to prepare ourselves to live in the realm that God has prepared for us and promised us. And then we can begin to experience, even now, some of what that life might be like.
So prepare, stay alert, watch, stay awake, and wait. For Jesus gets nearer to us each and every day. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus, Come.
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