It’s different here this Advent
as we approach the feast day for which this congregation is named.
Many of us are grieving the loss of loved ones
or other losses
like how we celebrate Advent and Christmas here.
We have been through anxious times
and they are not over yet.
We lament and cry out for the restoration of human connection and touch.
How shall we then carry out this Advent?
What will this Advent have to give us in this troubled time?
The scripture readings for this first Sunday of Advent
may seem eerily apropos.
You might, in listening to them, start thinking about
“end times” and “second coming” and huge, cataclysmic events.
From Isaiah, who knew disaster and exile, we hear these verses:
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
so that the mountains would quake at your presence--
as when fire kindles brushwood …
so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
From the Gospel of Mark:
“In those days…the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from heaven…”
Well, the readings today really sort of encourage “end times” thinking.
We have a description of the Coming of our Lord as a huge cosmic event
not just as when the earth is shaken
such as at Mt. Sinai
when God appeared on the mountain to Moses
and gave him the Law,
and God’s Presence was exhibited in
the quaking mountain and cloud
and bright flashes of lightening
and huge, thunderous sound like trumpet blasts.
The foundations of the earth were shaken.
In the Mark reading it is the heavens that are shaken,
and stars fall like so many ripe figs
when the tree is given a vigorous shake.
How can we possibly prepare to face that?!
We couldn’t even prepare for this current pandemic
even though it had been predicted.
However we are told to, nevertheless, keep alert, be awake,
during all the hours of darkness by which we are surrounded.
While others are asleep,
unconscious in their awareness, literally or spiritually,
you be awake, watchful, alert.
This quality or capacity of faithfulness
is held up to us as of great necessity and with great urgency.
Now, I am NOT talking with you this morning
about the final, apocalyptic coming of Christ at the end of time.
There is another kind of coming, it appears,
that is perhaps even more significant,
or at least more personally relevant and immediate,
for which we must be on the watch.
It is the Advent of Christ showing up in our lives
as a spiritually potent presence
even while and especially when
we are in the midst of going about our daily lives.
I would like to suggest that it is not so much seeing Christ in others,
to whom we minister or who minister to us,
but more than that,
and not limited to human interchanges alone
in which Christ’s Presence can be recognized.
It is Christ between us,
as the dynamic at work in community or in encounters or in solitude,
when the transcendent becomes immanent,
when we sense God’s Presence or Voice or guidance,
when we know deep in our being
that what is going on at the moment is
beyond our known capabilities, out of our control,
but utterly all right,
because the Resurrection Spirit of Jesus is present and at work.
This One who takes us by surprise is potently present,
and we just suddenly realized that.
Now here’s the point.
It is not intermittent events of Christ’s Presence bursting in on us
that take us by surprise – that’s not it –
but rather one long, continuous event of Presence
that has been drifting in and out of our awareness.
Christ’s Coming is not a series of Advent occurrences,
but a steady, relentless Presence
to which we intermittently open our eyes and see and recognize and are startled and amazed at what we have encountered.
What if we were to wake up and stay awake to this Presence?
All we experienced would be the coming of Christ.
I would suggest to you
that a bone fide course of action for the faith community to take is this:
1) Heed the prophetic call to repentance. Be engaged in reconciliation one with another.
2) Give up attachment to belongings. What! In December, that month of crazed buying, with that focus on acquisition Christmas morning?! (Listen to our kids and ourselves talking – the question we ask each other on December 26 is “what did you get for Christmas?”)
3) Be in fellowship with others of the faith. This is going to take some intentionality and creativity to be with those others where you can have mutual support in carrying out 1) and 2) preceding.
We have some digital options to help with this.
1) Repent.
2) Give up attachment.
3) Be in fellowship.
This is a good prescription for Advent and for everyday:
But I have to say
that Christ showing up in our lives, as a spiritually potent Presence,
can be personally cataclysmic.
To see him as he fully is
would shake our perception of the reality we have relied upon.
It would be like the stars falling out of the sky.
But when we realize that Jesus has shown up,
the Kingdom of God is at hand,
that realm of reality where power is topsy-turvy
and peace reigns, not war,
and where the greatest is one who serves.
In the Gospel reading Jesus speaks of the heavens being shaken,
but then gives a very encouraging image
of the fig tree putting forth its leaves
letting us know that summer days are coming.
And then he says,
“Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.”
And thus it has been for every generation.
Always in every generation there are faithful souls
who have been awake, alert, watching,
who have seen the coming of Christ.
