Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Christmas is coming. But we know what that entails, right? Coat it up with Santa's fur red coat or with brightly colored, sugary candy canes, but most people could tell you the basics of the holiday. It's meant to celebrate Jesus coming into the world through his birth to the Virgin Mary.
And even though Advent, as a season, has much older origins in the church, it's easy to forget what this season is about. At worst, it's just an extension of Christmas, as if Christmas Day was the end of a month long celebration and not the start of a 12 day festival in honor of our Lord coming into this world. At best, it's a sort of pre-game preparation for the big party during Christmas. But even this pre-game notion doesn't fully get at what the purpose of Advent is and why we celebrate it.
And we get at what Advent is really about in the Gospel reading this morning.
In the reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is telling His disciples about the coming of the Son of Man. The event that is supposed to mark the end times. And in describing what is to come, Jesus turns to the story of Noah to illustrate what will happen.
Its a story that is as familiar to Jesus' disciples as it is for us today. Mankind has grown so sinful and terrible, that God can no longer sit idly by. He decides to send a mighty flood to help cleanse the world and start creation new.
But God does find one righteous man. Noah. And He tells Noah what to do. He is to build an ark, a giant ship, which will house himself, his family, and enough animals needed to repopulate the Earth.
Its not simply that God reaches out and protects Noah. It's not simply that God strikes down at all but Noah. Because what God does affects more than a few. The flood affects all. Even Noah. It's just that Noah wasn't sitting idly by, merely eating and drinking, like the rest of the people around. He was preparing. He's making himself ready for what is to come.
Being prepared. Being ready. This is the point behind the other examples that Jesus uses.
As Jesus says, the end will come like a thief in the night. But if we knew the robber was going to come, wouldn't we make sure we were ready so none of our possessions were taken? Wouldn't we have the police on standby and bat in hand so that when the thief came he or she would not be able to take anything from us. If we knew something bad was coming our way, wouldn't we make sure that we were ready to take it on? To keep it from harming us?
And that, Jesus is saying, is what we need to do for the coming of the Son of Man. We need to make ourselves ready. We need to be prepared.
And so we can now read the second example in a different light. Two people in the field with one taken and one left behind. This isn't the so-called rapture that modern, apocalyptic book series would have us believe it is. This isn't the supposedly Biblical notion that when the end comes, only half of the world will be taken up before the final, final end. What Jesus is saying is this: The Son of Man will come. Some will be ready for Him, and they go with Him. Others will not be ready. They will not be watchful. They will not heed Jesus' command to stay awake. And they will miss Jesus' coming for them. And they will be left.
We are asked to be awake. To be watchful. To be ready. To be like the handmaiden at the stained glass window by the altar with her lamp ready to follow Jesus through to door to the great banquet. We are called to be prepared.
And we are not called to be ready at a certain point. We are called to be ready now. Because we don't know when any of this will happen. We don't know where the end will come. To be honest, the details of the end are mostly limited to "be ready." Be ready for when, as we shall say in the creed this morning, "He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead."
And that is the true meaning of Advent. To help us to be prepared. To help us to bring Jesus into our hearts. To prepare a place for Jesus to reside in us as we symbolically prepare a place for the Christ child to come up during Christmas.
In many ways, Advent is like Lent. It is a time for us to prepare ourselves to fully listen to Christ Jesus. It is a time for us to get ready to accept His coming into the world with all the glory and grace that entails for us. Advent is the time for us, as Christians, to start anew and continue to prepare ourselves to be vessels of God's glory in the world. Because this is the beginning of the new year, which we celebrate today by moving from the old lectionary year of year C to the new year and the readings it will bring for us as a church in year A.
So I challenge you all this Advent season to not be anxious and too far looking ahead to Christmas except in preparing for Jesus Christ to come into your hearts just as He came into the world as a tiny child. I ask that you take the time to stop and listen in the midst of the various parties and preparations you have to make for Christmas Day. Remember what this time is truly about. It's not about the decorations and gifts that the world outside these walls would have you think it is about. It's about stopping, listening, and taking the time to let Jesus Christ into our hearts. It's about fulfilling our baptismal vows and letting Jesus Christ permeate through our lives, our actions, and our very selves. It's about giving ourselves over to the God who loved us so much that He was willing to come into the world as a tiny, vulnerable baby, just so that He could bring us all back to Him.