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Let me ask,
“How many of you are morning people?” Well, let me just say I
don’t understand you people. Get up and embrace the day! All
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I don’t get it and I can’t do
it. Let’s just say that mornings and I don’t mix, never have,
and probably never will.
My problem with
mornings is that I just can’t wake up. I have to set my alarm
clock a whole hour before I need to get up so I can lay
in bed long enough to wake up.
One time last
fall I was scheduled to be the liturgist for the 8:15 morning
service. I set the alarm for 6:45, which should have given me
plenty of time to wake up, get up, clean up, dress up and fill
up before I needed to be at the church. But something happened
that morning. The alarm went off. But I just didn’t wake up.
When the sound of the morning news program that played on the
clock radio finally began to stir me into consciousness, I
rolled over with one eye slighted cracked open expecting to
read 6:45 on the clock… only to discover that it was already
7:53.
Let’s just say
that Sunday morning began in a less-than-worshipful mood
around the Nelson house. I was cutting it close –too close –
but I just couldn’t get the motor running. Bridget literally
had to push me out of bed, help me get dressed, put a stick of
gum in my mouth, open the back door, point me toward the
church, give me a push in the right direction and then pray
that the Lord would help me find my way. I was a sight to be
seen walking down the hallway to the front office. Disheveled,
unshaven, the left side of my hair sticking straight up, a
frog lodged in my throat, my eyes just barely cracked. Let
the record reflect that on that morning the Reverend Jeffrey
Scott Nelson was present for worship…but let it also reflect
that he doesn’t remember a thing about it…he wasn’t awake.
Sure his eyes were open… but his brain was asleep.
For all I know
on that morning, Jack Harnish might have preached the sermon
of his career. On that morning he might a preached about
exactly what I needed to hear, the very thing that would have
answered some long-asked question or healed some long-lasting
hurt. I wouldn’t know. I missed it. I wasn’t awake.
When I turned
to the scriptures for this first Sunday of Advent I was
awakened. You know, I am always caught a bit off-guard when I
turn to the lectionary and the scriptures set aside for this
first Sunday of Advent. As we prepare to journey together
toward Christmas, I am always expecting the scriptures to be
more familiar – you know, the nice Hallmark moments of mangers
and angels and shepherds and all that “Peace on Earth” and
“Good Will Toward Men” stuff. But that is not what we get in
today’s scriptures. There’s no nice, warm, cuddly, baby Jesus
to be found anywhere. Instead we get the adult Jesus, the
about-to-die Jesus, giving this apocalyptic description that
seems like it could have come right out of the pages of
The Left Behind series. It is a bit confusing that the
lectionary doesn’t have Advent start with talk about the day
Jesus was born, but with the time he will come again. No
Bethlehem. No Mary. No Joseph. There is no promise that “all
is calm” or “all is bright.” No, instead we get roaring seas
and shaken heavens. The scripture for today is filled with
words like “anguish,” “perplexity,” and “terror.” We get a
vision of the Son of Man rising in a cloud. And we get a
warning: “When these things begin to take place, stand up and
lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
In short…stay awake. A nice way to start Christmas, huh? (No
wonder Advent cards have never caught on. Can you imagine
sending a card to your Great Aunt Martha with today’s
scripture on it? Hey Wake Up! The Son of Man is coming…
and we think he’s ticked. Seasons Greetings from the Nelsons.
I have to be
honest with you. I have struggled all week with this text. And
it is not just because this is a tough and confusing text. I
like the hard and confusing scriptures, and I am not afraid to
tackle the tough issues of our faith. But not now. Not this
week. It’s Christmas, and I don’t know about you, but this
year has been tough enough, and if there was ever a year where
I just needed Christmas, well you know, this would be the
year. So I have wrestled with why the church would place such
a stark and challenging text at the start of the Christmas
season.
And so, after
much thought, prayer and consideration this is what I have
come to: This first text of the Advent season begins with a
future vision of Christ’s return because it serves as a
reminder to us that this journey toward Christmas is not a
journey in remembrance of some past event, but rather these
next four weeks will serve as a season of preparation for
Christ to come again…to come again into our lives…to come
again into our communities…to come again into our world. You
see, if the journey of these next four weeks is only so that
we can celebrate a event that happened 2000 years ago, if
these next weeks only culminate in a birthday party for Jesus,
with all the food and fun and decorations and presents that
make birthday parties birthday parties, then I am afraid that
we will miss much of the promise and the power that this
season has to offer. But if we follow the wisdom of this text
and look to this season as one when Christ will come again and
reshape our lives and our world, then we would be wise to wake
up. Because if we stay asleep, we might miss it.
But it is hard
to stay awake to Christ’s coming into our lives. It is hard to
stay awake because so much around us just makes us want to go
to sleep. Listen to the words of our text again: “There will
be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations
will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing
of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what
is coming in the world, for the heavenly bodies will be
shaken.”
“Nations will
be in anguish.” (A portion of Matthew’s gospel that is used
for this Sunday in other years says: “There will be wars and
rumors of war.”) Who says the scriptures don’t speak to our
contemporary age? My hearts breaks over the war in Iraq. I
mean that in no partisan way, but it just breaks my heart with
all of the bloodshed and violence. In the Darfur region of the
Sudan, genocide is occurring… with 400,000 already killed. The
turmoil in
Israel and
Palestine continues to escalate. Just watching the news or
reading the paper makes me tired. I want to shut it off, fall
asleep and wake up when it is over.
Add to that the
next verse that says: “Men will faint from terror,
apprehensive of what is coming in the world, for the heavenly
bodies will be shaken.” Again we don’t have to look beyond our
own community to feel shaken or apprehensive. The reality of
job loss in our community is very real. We all know someone
who is out of work or fears they might be soon. Everywhere we
turn, houses are up for sale. I struggle with what it means to
preach a gospel of hope during what seems like very dark days.
It is wearing us out wishing we could just go back to bed and
dream of happier times.
And then
something happens, especially this time of year, that makes
Jesus’ admonition to stay awake especially hard, and that I
don’t think the writers of the gospels could have ever
anticipated. And that is the pure craziness of Christmas
season. 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. To
make it through the season, people might feel like they have
to sleepwalk – put it on “autopilot” to get it all done. “Shop
till you drop” and plan on waking from the Christmas coma
sometime around January 2nd. And yet these seem to be the
precise moments that the scriptures tell us to wake up. It is
into the midst of doubt and uncertainty, into the moments of
fear and trembling, into the moment we wish we could just
sleep through, that our scriptures tell us that Christ is most
apt to come again…if we are awake enough to receive him, that
is.
So, as we
prepare for this journey, let me suggest that the way to stay
awake this season is to pay attention to the places Christ’s
coming are most apt to happen. First, let us be awake to how
Christ might come into our local community – right here into
Oakland County, Michigan. Remember, Christ comes into the
world in a particular place and at a particular time. Jesus’
presence in cities like Bethlehem,
Nazareth, Capernaum,
Bethesda
and Samaria would change those places. Jesus reached out to
those particular people and ministered to their needs.
To be awakened
to Jesus’ coming again this Christmas let us ask, who are the
people, and what are the needs of folks living in our
community? Where would Jesus go if he were to visit Oakland
County this season? Who would he be spending his time with? We aren’t
collecting underwear this holiday because it’s a nice thing to
do. No, we are collecting underwear this season as a sign that
when Christ comes to
Oakland County, underwear will not be a luxury. We collect it as a way of staying awake
to the needs of our neighbors. And during this season, let us
also be mindful of those who live right here in
Birmingham for
whom the downturn of the economy has been especially hard. If
you know someone out of work this season, take them to lunch
or write them a note and let them know they haven’t been
forgotten. If the opportunity arises, ask them if they could
use some help this season. To be awake this season is to be
awake to where Christ is entering our local community.
A second way to
remain awake this season is to remember that while Christ
comes into local communities, his coming was also for the
entire world. Imagine if Jesus’ message was only intended for
the people in and around the region of the ancient Middle
East. Imagine if his message of hope and peace and justice and
forgiveness was meant only for the folks of his same race and
religion. Imagine if the salvation Jesus offered was bound by
geography or language. If that were the case… if the impact of
his coming had never left his local community, then you and I
wouldn’t be here today. This season makes quite a claim. It
claims that the one whose coming we celebrate, and whose
return we anticipate, wasn’t the savior of a particular people
or place, but was the savior of the world. And if that is the
case, then to be awake this season is to ask, where in the
larger world is Christ’s coming especially anticipated?
I don’t know if
you realize it or not, but this year the first Sunday of
Advent coincides with World AIDS Day which I believe is a
window into one of the places we must be awake to the coming
of Christ this season. It is estimated that 40 million people
worldwide are touched by this epidemic, and of those 40
million, 23 million (well over half) are concentrated in the
sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, two million Africans died as a result of the disease. It is
easy to forget that this is happening. It isn’t often in our
news- papers. A generation is dying, and I pray that the
church isn’t sleeping through it. That is why I love what the
youth are doing through their Penny Project. They are helping
us stay awake to needs of the world Christ came to save. By
simply paying attention to our spare change, we can do little
things every day that will make big impacts in the world
around us. Be awake this season to the needs of the larger
world. As a gift to your family or another loved one this
year, sponsor a child, buy a chicken or a cow from the Heifer
Project or continue to save your pennies for the Penny
Project. Do something to keep you awake in the world that
Christ’s coming this season will impact.
And finally,
let us be awake to places that Christ will come this season
into our individual lives. As we mentioned earlier, the
Christmas season is so full and can go by so fast that it is
easy to miss the moments where Christ comes into our lives.
Have you ever gone through all the Christmas motions, made all
the cookies, bought all the gifts, attended all the services,
parties and programs only to be left sitting in a daze at the
end of it all wondering what happened? This season be awake to
what is happening in and around you.
My friend Mary
gave me a suggestion about how not to miss the important
things and moments in life. She learned this at her wedding.
She worried that in all the hustle and bustle of the big day
that she would miss it…not savor it…not really experience it.
The same thing can happen to us at Christmas. So she was going
to make sure to stop at one moment to take a mental Polaroid
of the moment she didn’t want to let slip by. It came when she
walked into the reception hall and saw all the friends and
family who had come from all over the world to be a part of
this important moment. She stopped and took it all in and
implanted forever in her mind that picture. So now whenever
she wants to remember that day, that is the picture that comes
into her mind. She was awake enough to capture the moment.
This Christmas
let us be awake to moments when Christ comes into our lives –
awake enough to capture them and not let them slip by. Maybe
it will be around the dinner table or around the tree. Maybe
it will be a candle lit in the sanctuary or a moon-lit night.
Maybe it will be when a card from a friend really touches you
or a gift that someone gives really surprises you. Whatever it
is that tells you that Christ is in our midst, let us be awake
enough to capture that moment and hold it, because the truth
is we are going to need it. The first Sunday of Advent reminds
us that Christ comes in the midst of tough times and in
surprising ways – so let’s just be sure we don’t sleep through
it.
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