swine flu

Advent One 2009

..............................................................................................................................................................................................

I'm afraid I'm going to sound like Scrooge. I certainly don't mean to. It's just that I take the Gospel seriously, and I hear the words of Jesus as a warning: "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with...the worries of this life."

In the secular world, Christmas carols have already begun being played non-stop on the radio. You can't go into a store without being bombarded with songs and signs of the season....but the emphasis in on the wrong season. In the secular world, these weeks preceding Christmas are a time to 'shop until you drop,' a time to 'party,' a time to overextend your credit and your waistline. The secular world teaches our children that the waiting of these weeks is for the big day of opening presents - plowing through box after box at breakneck speed and then taking a deep (perhaps secretly disappointed) breath and thinking, "Is that it? Is that all there is?"

It's not that the pre-Christmas shopping frenzy is exactly a "work of darkness" that our opening Collect says we need to 'cast away' and yet I can't help but think that the true spirit of the season is lost in the midst of all the frenetic activity.

Advent is supposed to be a season of expectant waiting but not the way we see it in the secular world. Advent is a time of waiting for Christ to come into the world and into your heart. It is a time of waiting till Christ will come again, reconciling all things, healing all things, making all things well. It is a time of expectancy and hope.

Trying to preach this message in today's world is like shouting on the runway trying to be heard over the roar of a jet engine at full throttle. The 'competing noise' of the world overwhelms the 'still small voice' of God trying to get our attention. How sad. We've been seduced, I fear, by a culture that somehow manages to convince us we're just no good if we don't have enough stuff. And we pass this lesson on to our children exponentially - each generation getting more deeply entrenched in the pursuit of stuff and equating it with self-worth, with how much we show 'love.'

I am encouraging you not to yield to the temptation. Look in the mirror and know that God loves you just exactly as you are and that God could care less about your stuff.

Focus on the true meaning of the season of Advent and ask yourself this question: "What are you waiting for?" What is it that you really need to be full inside? Or rather, "Who are you waiting for?" If you really want to feel fully alive, fully who you are called to be, the answer isn't about what you need - it's about who you need. Your stuff won't do it for you - the only answer to our existential emptiness is Jesus Christ.

As I was praying about this sermon, I was led to write a poem about Advent waiting. Maybe it will help you think about what this season's expectations and hopes might bring...about what we're really waiting for in this world.

I am waiting....

For a very clear answer from God to all the questions.

But first I must be willing to admit my questions.

I am waiting....

For all the turmoil in the world to cease and for peace to prevail.

But first I must we willing to do my part in bringing calmness.

I am waiting....

For the end of anxiety and anger, the lifting of depression, the renewal of hope.

But first I must be willing to walk the path of sustained serenity.

I am waiting....

For people to talk with respect to one another and to hear one another's pain.

But first I must be willing to truly listen.

I am waiting....

For the Christ-child to be born into the world in all his vulnerability and love.

But first I must be willing to give him birth.