Sermon for the 30th of Advent - First Sunday of Advent
I was in town on Friday evening and the Christmas lights are all up, black Friday discounts are being promoted….I even came across carol singers…..So in once sense, it’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas.
And yet, it’s not – it’s the first Sunday of Advent, and in the church calendar, Advent is most definitely NOT Christmas.
Were the readings we heard this evening a bit of a shock for anyone? No sweet stories about Jesus coming as a baby, instead we’ve had images of judgement, we’ve had exhortations to beat swords into ploughshares, to turn from darkness to light, and to keep awake – and the Son of Man is described as coming like a thief in the night.
These are hardly comforting images, or things we associate with Christmas!
Rather they challenge us to think about the end times – Jesus coming again, the consequences of our actions, judgement.
Because Advent is the time that we turn our attention to preparing to meet Christ – not simply to meet him as a baby in a manger, but to meet him coming again, as Lord and Judge of all.
Today’s message is clear – wake up – prepare to meet Jesus – be ready.
And yet, at the same time, we are in a time of waiting – we don’t know when Jesus will come again, we don’t know what guise he will appear in – we may not recognise him.
It’s all very well being told to be ready, but it’s very hard to stay on constant alert, expecting Jesus to come at any moment.
So, what can we take from these readings, and particularly Jesus’s teachings in our gospel reading?
Firstly, we need to recognise that we go through life, largely asleep – and Jesus is saying “wake up!”.
This is a command to open our eyes to what is around us, to see where God is working, to look beyond what we want to see, to what actually is – and to find God in the people we meet and the communities we encounter.
Secondly, we need to surrender our certainties. We live in a world with a lot of very strong opinions floating around [and those who know me, know I’m not immune from such opinions!].
But Jesus is clear that we may not recognise him. Do we ever see Jesus in those we find difficult, annoying or plain offensive? Probably not often…and I wonder, if we can’t recognise him in the people we encounter, will we really recognise him anywhere?
Put another way, we need to learn that we may be wrong about things…. We might have made the wrong judgements about people, we might have chosen the wrong path – actually I think it’s safe to say most of us have done these things – so let’s be honest that we don’t always get things right – let’s be a little more humble in our opinions.
Maybe then we will be able to see Jesus a little better in others, and be more receptive to the different ways God may be working in our world.
Thirdly, we need to be prepared to be robbed. If we open ourselves up to God, it’s quite possible we will lose some of comforts – be that material, or bits of ourselves.
Debie Thomas reflects that: “Maybe Jesus breaks in because our valuables have become liabilities, and we need an intruder to sweep in and take what we won’t willingly give up.
What are we clinging to that Jesus needs to steal? Our apathy? Our self-righteousness? Our fears? Our unforgiveness? It’s no coincidence that Jesus comes when we’re asleep and vulnerable. When else would we relinquish the false gods we cling to?”
Rowan Williams puts it another way in an excellent talk her did, the link for which is in the weekly email. He says that in advent, we are invited to recognise that we are mortal and let go of clinging to our own self – the idea of me – because in surrendering all that we are, in giving up our selfish focus on “me”, that is where we will find true life.
In advent, we are invited to join in this giving of our very self – giving to God and giving to those around us – a giving that ultimately will end with our bodies in the ground, becoming nourishment for new life on earth or, as some Christians used to say, “food for worms”. Advent invites us to accept this reality and to open ourselves to the possibilities of life that then arise.
Jesus says “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it” (Matt 16:25).
This is not a soothing invitation that we can easily accept in our usual preparations for Christmas. But as Episcopal priest Fleming Rutledge reminds us, “Advent begins in the dark. It is not a season for the faint of heart.”
Whether we like it or not, the invitations Advent offers us are hard; they don’t look pretty on Christmas cards, we don’t really sing about them in carols. But they are essential and life-giving, nevertheless.
So I wonder today, whether we can begin to wake up, begin to let go of our selfish desires, and prepare to meet Jesus… giving all that we are…..losing our lives for his sake, so we may find true life and discover how much God really does love each and every one of us.