Prepare

"In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety."

--Jeremiah 33: 15-16a

"And may Christ so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints."

--I Thessalonians 3: 13

"Jesus said, 'Then they will see "the Son of Man coming in a cloud" with power and great glory.  Now when these things being to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is near...Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away...Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.'"

--Luke 21: 25, 27-28, 33, 36

I love walking into churches this time of year.  I love that, as the crazy, busy world is throwing up decorations and publicizing Christmas sales, the church stands apart.  The church stands quiet with little decoration, save a wreath with a single candle lit.  There is an air of hopefulness, an air of expectation that doesn’t exist out there in the world.  It is Advent.  And it is my favorite season of the church year. 

As a little kid I loved Advent because it meant Christmas was right around the corner.  I don’t know how many of you have seen the YouTube video of the young boy receiving a Nintendo 64 on Christmas morning; he claws at the box screaming, “O my God” and “Thank you, Santa” and over and over again. Yeah,  that was me.  That’s how excited Advent made me.  The excitement wasn’t really about Advent itself, but about the morning of presents toward which the season seemed to be pointing me.

Me getting excited during Advent. (Not really, it's the Nintendo 64 kid.)

Each of our readings today points us toward something.  Jeremiah speaks of the day when the Branch of David will sit upon the throne; Paul prays for strength through holiness in preparation for Jesus’ return; and Jesus himself paints a picture of what it will look like when the Son of Man comes in his glory.  Each is pointing toward this same moment, but what exactly is this moment?  For what exactly are Jeremiah, Paul, and Jesus urging us to prepare?

Biblical scholars agree we are being urged to prepare for the eschaton, the completion of all things, the day when God’s work is done and God’s reign on earth begins.  I talked about the significance of such a time and the relevance of apocalyptic literature a few posts back.  Something similar is happening here, as Jeremiah, Paul, and Jesus are all pointing us to this day of fulfillment. All three Abrahamic faiths speak of this day. The Church in Paul’s time waited with great hope and expectation for this day,  thinking, of course, that it was coming very very soon.  They believed whole-heartedly that they were living in Christ's second Advent, awaiting the day of his return.  We can hear that hope and expectation in Paul’s writing to the church in Thessalonica. 

Brothers and sisters, we, like the folks in Paul's day, are living in the second Advent.  We too are being urged to prepare for nothing less than the reign of God here on earth.  Like them we prepare for this day with prayer, with quietness, with hearts that skip with anticipation.  It is the tension of already and not yet, which is a major piece of our lives as Christians. God’s reign has both already come in Jesus’ earthly ministry and the continued ministry of his body, the Church, but it has not yet met its full completion.  Thus our hearts and minds live in the “already” but are fixed on the “not yet.”  This is what Advent is all about, preparing a place into which God may enter, preparing our hearts, our minds, and our very lives for the reign of God to come breaking through, born once again, year after year.  This Advent period is the time for us to make ready a place in our own lives for God to break through in some new way.  As God broke through human history in the Palestinian wilderness, God is about to do it again.  But how exactly?  And how will we make our lives ready for that break through?  That’s why we have Advent, a period for stepping away from the madness of the world and quietly, reflectively ask ourselves those questions. 

Each year it seems Christmas gets here earlier and earlier.  I walked into Rite Aid just before Halloween and saw Christmas decorations on the shelves.  The world around us hardly leaves any space in which we can remain still or quiet.  

There is something seriously wrong with this picture!

Forget a war on Christmas, there’s a war on Advent.  The world wants to jump straight to the manger, straight to the presents; the hopeful anticipation, the prayer, the preparation, get lost.  The celebration of Jesus’ birth comes and goes and we’re left wondering how it happened so quickly. We do not prepare for God to break into this world by pushing Christmas earlier and earlier.  We do so with patience, with calm spirits, with prayer, with reflection, and with open hearts and quiet minds.  Personally, I'm someone for whom patience is not a virtue, and I am not particularly comfortable with quiet.  Yet Advent invites even me to sit with that discomfort and wait for God to break through. 

 So for the next four weeks let us take time to prepare a place within our hearts and within our lives for the Christ child to be born.  Hold on to both the “already” and the “not yet.”  Be mindful of where we are, but always be looking with great hope and anticipation of God’s reign coming among us in the wilderness of Bethlehem, and of our lives, both as a community and as individuals, as we are changed once again.  

This holy season prepares us for so much more than a morning of presents.  So much more than the arrival of the new Nintendo system (or in my case a new Transformer or new Star Wars film).  Advent prepares us for Jesus to be born again and again into our lives, pushing through the static of the world that often deafens us to the sound of his voice.  Each year there is a hope that is stirred in us at Advent—a hope that God will once more change the world as we know it, so that it looks a little more like the Kingdom.  Christmas is the time when that hope is realized.  Advent is the time for us to prepare for it. 

How will you prepare?