|
“It’s
beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go.”
It is, isn’t it? Thursday morning we all awoke to the first
snow—a signal of change in season. Friday night, while
channel surfing, I happened on another sign that Christmas is
upon us: little Ralphie and his Christmas quest for a Red
Rider BB gun. “It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas.” I
don’t know if anybody else noticed it this year, but it
seemed as if the stores went right from Halloween to
Christmas. Wrapping paper, ornaments, Santas, elves, reindeer,
stockings, candy canes, tinsel—all of it seems to have taken
over the aisles of our local clothing stores, drug stores,
video stores, hardware stores and grocery stores. “It’s
beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” And our homes
are probably beginning to look a little like this, as
well—full of boxes, which are full of the stuff that makes
our households look like the season that the rest of the
culture already seems to have started. “It’s beginning
to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go.”
It
is also beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. Two local
radio stations began playing continuous Christmas music on
November 1st. And
if you listen closely, there is often the gentle ringing of a
bell that fills the air of shopping centers and grocery
stores, telling us to remember those that Jesus said the
Kingdom belonged to first—the least and the last. It is
beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.
So
my question for us this evening is, “Is it beginning to
feel a lot like Christmas?” Can you feel it coming? And
what does it feel like? There is the joy and excitement that
seems to fill the air as we watch how the children in our
midst can barely contain their excitement about the season.
But if we are honest with ourselves and with each other (which
unfortunately is something we don’t always feel like we can
be at church), we might admit that we don’t always like the
feelings that accompany the beginning of the Christmas season.
Too often, the coming of Christmas can make us anxious,
harried, frustrated or even tired. There can be so much that
feels like it needs to be done—cookies to bake, cards to
write, trees to decorate, stockings to hang, parties to go to,
parties to plan, gifts to buy, gifts to wrap, gifts to
deliver, gifts to open. The list of people to try to please,
and the list of expectations that seem to need our attention
in order to “produce” the perfect Christmas experience, so
often seem to rob the whole experience of any joy it ever
could have hoped to offer. The frenzy and the hurriedness of
our culture’s pursuits of Christmas can leave both the most
devout of believers and the most cynical of unbelievers asking
the very same question, “Whose birthday is this anyway?”
Oh yes, it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.
There
are other reasons why the feelings that come with the start of
the Christmas season can make the season difficult, can make
Christmas feel not-so-Christmas. The material expectations of
our culture’s Christmas can make it difficult for families
who find themselves on the downward side of our economic
roller coaster. For many, this will be the first Christmas
since a member of the family or friend has passed away, and
every tradition now seems empty or distant. Others come to
this season after a year that has seen significant
relationships in their lives struggle or come to an end, so
Christmas with all of its promises of family moments can
instead feel like a constant reminder of all that isn’t
“calm or bright.” This year, the Christmas season comes in
the midst of an ongoing war where the end seems more uncertain
than ever. It begs us to ask, “Does the coming of the Prince
of Peace really matter?” For many, the truth is that
Christmas can be difficult, hard and lonely.
That
is why, this Sunday, we begin a different season altogether.
We begin the season of Advent.
Advent is a season of waiting and watching. It is a
season of prayer and preparation. It is the time to seek
whatever light we can find, even as the nights grow longer and
darker. In its wisdom, the Church has long known, unlike the
culture around it, that you cannot just rush off into
Christmas. You cannot jump headlong into the awareness that
God has indeed come to us. So the church gives us these next
four weeks to prepare ourselves. Advent is the season of
preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ into our lives,
churches, communities and world. So that is what we begin
together this Sunday and continue each day of the next four
weeks—the journey of preparation for the greatest of gifts
God could ever give.
We
begin our journey in the place we begin every journey: the
scriptures. Today’s scripture comes from the 13th
chapter of the Gospel of Mark. It is one of the texts that the
Common Revised Lectionary, the listing of scriptures that many
of our churches follow each week, lists for the start of
Advent. On first read, this text might seem a bit strange for
Advent and Christmas. It is a text where Jesus speaks, and in
his words we hear him talking not about his first coming, but
about his second. Here Advent does not begin with any visions
of a manger, shepherds, wise men, a star or any of the
peaceful images associated with Jesus’ birth.
Instead,
Jesus speaks of the coming of the Son of Man in all his
glory—clouds, power, angels and wind. So perhaps the first
lesson to be learned tonight is that Advent and the
celebration of Christmas are not only the remembrance of an
event that happened some two thousand years ago. Quite the
opposite, in fact. Jesus is talking about the future, about
awaiting his reentrance into the affairs of humanity. Advent
is not about remembering the times in the past when God came
so close that people could actually touch him, but rather it
is preparing for the reality that God could, at any moment,
enter once again into our lives, churches, communities and
world. Advent and
Christmas are not the nostalgic remembrances of a long gone
and romantic past, but instead are the seasons that dare us to
live into the future full of hope, looking for and expecting
God to come again, and again, and again. Christ will come
again…maybe even during Christmas.
It
is so important to remember the setting of this text. It comes
at the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus has arrived in
Jerusalem, where he will eventually die on the cross. The heat
is on. The stakes are high. In the verses just preceding this,
Jesus warns his followers of the confusion and suffering that
lie ahead for them. He is foreshadowing his own death.
You
can only imagine the way these first followers must have felt:
scared, unsure and doubtful.
It is into this moment that Jesus says, “Look,
despite what it looks like…despite the evidence around
us…despite the feelings raging inside of you…this is not
the whole story. The story is not over. I am telling you that
I will never leave and I will always come back for you.” The
scripture that begins our Advent journey is one taken from the
most uncertain times in the lives of the disciples, and we
retell it tonight because it stands as a reminder to us that
Advent—the coming of God into our lives—often begins in
the very places of confusion, frustration, suffering or
disappointment. So if you find yourself in this place of
anxiousness this season, rest assured this is the place where
Christmas begins.
Into the
midst of this otherwise-chaotic situation, Jesus offers
interesting, almost counter-intuitive advice. It is right
there in the last verse. There, in verse 37, Jesus says to his
disciples, “And what I say to you I say to all, ‘Keep
awake!’” So, how do we prepare for Christmas? How do we
begin this Advent journey? By staying awake. By keeping our
eyes open. That is how Advent is to begin.
I
have to admit, there are lots of things I would say to my
disciples in the midst of what appears to be the beginning of
the end, and not one of them would be to stay awake. The old
political organizer in me says, “This is a time for action!
Print up a flier. Fire off some e-mails. Let’s organize a
march, a protest, a demonstration to see if we can stop
this.” When it looks as bad as it looked for Jesus in our
scripture, the old Campus Crusade evangelist in me says,
“Hey, get some tracts and let’s start passing them out.
We’ve got to spread the word. Save some souls. This is not
the time to just be sitting around.” But Jesus just says to
stay awake. So different than my impulse in troubled or
uncertain times when the trembling soul in me simply says that
it is time to lock out the world, shut my eyes and pray like
I’ve never prayed before. But Jesus says, “Stay
awake…keep your eyes open…be aware…keep watch. What I
say to you I say to all that stay awake.”
Stay
awake. This can be hard advice at Christmastime. It seems that
so much of the culture’s expression of Christmas tells us
just the opposite. It subtly says to go to sleep. Don’t
think about it. Put it on autopilot. Get it all done. Shop
till you drop and plan on coming to sometime around January 2nd.
In the midst of the holiday season, prone to
sleepwalking, Jesus asks us to stay awake.
Staying
awake. It is harder than it sometimes seems. Have you ever had
one of those moments when no matter how hard you were trying,
you just could not keep your eyes open? That no matter how
hard you fought, your eyes just began to feel heavier and
heavier, and soon your head was nodding up and down to fight
off the unplanned trip to dreamland?
I
remember one such moment very well. It was my freshman year of
college in my 9:00 a.m. World History survey course. I
had a choice seat in that class: on the far right side of the
room, towards the back, in a desk right up against the wall.
It was out the way and out from underneath the
too-watchful eye of the professor. One morning I arrived at
class, sat in my seat and was listening to the lecture, when
the notebook I was taking notes in suddenly began to blur. It
was then that I could feel the tiny little weights being
attached to each eyelid as they ever so slowly began to be
pulled shut. Suddenly, each word of my professor’s well
thought out and (I am sure) fascinating lesson on the cultural
shift of civilization from hunter/gatherer societies to
agricultural communities sounded as if it were being spoken in
a different language. Then the head bobs began. Down and back
up, jerking as if I was a boxer up against the rope, hoping
and waiting to be saved by the bell. But no such luck.
Suddenly everything just went black.
Have you
ever had that strange sensation when you were sound asleep
that somebody was watching you? Well, let’s just say I
suddenly was feeling it that morning in history class. I
opened my eyes to discover every eye in class turned towards
me, my head nestled gently against the wall, my mouth wide
open, and a gentle snore coming from deep within. Coming to, I
heard my professor say to me, “I’m so sorry to have
disturbed you.” Staying awake: often a task that is easier
said than done.
I
figure that there are at least three things that make it hard
to stay awake. The first is when we are exhausted from too
much activity. I know we have all had days that have been so
full, so jam-packed that by day’s end it is all you can do
to stay awake to grab a bite to eat, watch a little TV, read
the paper or check your e-mail before you find yourself fast
asleep in the living room chair. Too much activity makes
staying awake a challenge.
The second
thing that makes staying awake difficult is not enough rest.
Did you ever go three or four days in row where you either got
to bed late or had to get up especially early? By the end of a
string of these days, we find ourselves sluggish, tired, maybe
a little cranky, looking for an opportunity to sneak away for
a nap. Not enough rest can make it hard to be alert and awake.
The
third thing that can sometimes make staying awake hard is a
lack of focus or something to hold our interest. I think that
is what happened to me that morning in World History. While I
am sure there is great importance in understanding the
cultural shifts in ancient societies, for some reason, that
morning it just couldn’t hold my attention. When our days
become devoid of things to keep us active and engaged, things
that truly capture our hearts and imaginations, it can be as
if we are actually going through life asleep.
Three
things make it hard to stay awake: too much activity, not
enough rest, and nothing to hold our focus. So if we are going
to be true to Jesus’ admonition, then we will have to do
three things. Do less. Rest more. And find our focus. I am
going to ask us to do these three things this Advent so that
we might stay awake. The first is to do less. I want you to
look at your to-do list.
Find one thing on it and cross it off. Just one
thing—something that you feel obligated to do, something
that feels like a hassle—and I want you to cross it off your
list. Bridget and I talked about it and we finally figured out
that no matter how hard we try, we never will get a Christmas
letter out to family and friends before Christmas. We always
try. We always stress about it. We always fail. So this year,
it is off the list. We have decided that everybody is going to
get an Epiphany letter from us. Staying awake during Advent
comes when we free ourselves to do less.
The
second thing I am asking us to do this Advent is rest more. I
want you to go home tonight and look at your calendar and
carve one block of time for Sabbath. Mark off one time block
for rest, reflection, refreshment and relaxation. This is
something you are going to have to negotiate with family,
spouses and partners, but it is something that we each must
do. Bridget and I are taking one weekend away. I admit that
this is hard for me to do in the midst of the busiest season
of the church year, but we are going to do it. We need to do
it. We want to be awake as Christ comes once again into our
lives.
Finally, I
am going to ask us to stay awake this Advent by finding our
focus. I am asking you to do this by finding a half hour every
day to be in prayer and reflection. To help, we have prepared
a small Advent devotional guide that you can pick up on your
way out. It is designed to help us remain focused on the
spiritual essence of this season.
“And
what I say to you I say to all, ‘Keep awake!’” Let us do
that this Advent by doing less, resting more and keeping our
focus, so at the season’s end we can say with confidence
that it is really beginning to feel a lot like
Christmas—like God with us, God within us. Amen!
|
