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November 29,
2009, First Sunday
in Advent, All Souls' Episcopal Church
Awaiting the Son
Mark 13: 33 – 37 Luke 21: 25 - 31
Happy New Year!!………As Father Petley reminded us last
Sunday, Advent begins a new church year, and, as always,
every year, Scripture tells us all through Advent to “Watch”
and “Prepare” as we anticipate the Coming of the
Christ-child, and watch for Christ’s Second Coming.
You know…………..It’s all too human to
not
prepare. This short coming happens to adults…….. and to
children.
In
the 2nd grade, the teacher gave the children the
assignment of finding out what their parents did for a
living. They also had to spell out the vocation and use it
in a sentence. The next morning, she called on Mary, who
said “My Mommy is a baker. B-A-K-E-R
If
she was here now, she would bake us a cake.” Eric was called
on. “My Daddy is an electrician. That’s E…..uh….T…R A C…..”
The teacher said kindly, “You’re just nervous, Eric. Sit
down, collect your thoughts and we’ll come back to you………
Tommy, you’re next.” “My daddy is a bookie, said Tommy.
“That’s B-O-O-K-I-E. And if my Daddy were here right now,
he’d give you 20 to one that Eric is never going to spell
electrician!”
Eric was not prepared!
We
are supposed to be prepared in all facets of life. The price
on mastery in any field is through preparation. Prepared to
recite our homework, Prepared to finish the task and report
to the boss, Prepared for our annual ice storm power
outages. Prepared for retirement. No one is going to deny
the need for preparation for the physical aspects of life.
When you are thirsty, it’s too late to think about digging a
well!
Now……the obvious question then becomes on this 1st
Sunday in our Advent Season: How should you and I prepare
for Christmas……..prepare spiritually with our hearts ?
John provides us with his famous clarion call to “Prepare
Ye the way for the Lord.” …………..But what does this entail?
Perhaps we could ask the simple question: can we not be
more
willing to let Christ…..to allow Him…. into our hearts and
lives, to think and pray daily, to bring us to an even
fuller relationship with Him? Will God work in you and
through you this Advent? Will people know us better by how
we respond to God this Advent….. by the fruits we bear? ?
My
main point today is that this important preparation
must be deep
down…..in the human heart!
We
are talking about
not
just outward actions and activities which are important in
themselves such as our beautiful Advent Lessons and Carols
this afternoon, and I hope to see all of you there, but, you
see, only the
heart
knows how to find what is precious. This may sound
simplistic, but it is not! …..it is not!!….All through the
Bible….the prophets, the Psalms, the disciples and, of
course, Jesus Christ tell us how we must
feel
with the
heart
So in order to prepare our
hearts
for Christ, and to do all that we can do to be certain that
the message of Christ lives on by what we do and say, by
who we
are!,
.we
must be bold and open to allow His Grace to enter our
total being.
And
even though we will someday “wither and fade away” like
grass (In the psalmist words), our preparations can have,
long lasting effects when they are
heartfelt
and where His Grace blossoms in our lives long beyond this
Advent Season where we continue to touch the lives of those
around us. We read in Proverbs: “As a face is reflected in
water, so the heart reflects the person.”
In
1924, George Gershwin wrote Rhapsody in Blue, or he
almost
wrote it ! He had roughly sketched it out, and another
musician, Ferde Grofe, was in the process of doing the
orchestration. However when the time came for the world
premiere with Paul Whiteman’s big band, ( Many of us mature
types remember his music ), Gershwin was actually on a train
from Chicago to New York when he read in the paper that the
premiere was coming up sooner than he thought. He had not
yet written a single note for all of the intricate piano
solos. It would seem that Gershwin was not in the least
prepared.
But all his notes
were in his heart and head.
In fact Gershwin supposedly worked out the intricate rhythms
for the works well-known opening with the clickity-clack of
the train helping him as it traveled along on the New York.
Now you might say that “Gershwin was a genius”, and you
would be right. You also might say that “Gershwin was
“winging it “. and you would be
totally wrong……You see, his entire life
was a preparation for the music and
that moment.
The music was more specifically in his heart and it came to
fruition. Always ready…..always prepared. Now applying the
theme of this story to you and me today, can our lives these
next few weeks be always ready and always prepared and come
to fruition in a heart-felt loving preparation for the
Birth of the Christ-child?
As
I just said, Advent does ask us also to be prepared for the
2nd Coming of Christ. Paul and the primitive
Christian community believed that the Second Coming was
around the corner, and that the end of the age was near.
Paul was not the only early Christian anticipator. Justin
Martyr, Irenaeus, and Hippolytus of Rome on up to Augustine
all looked for the Second Coming in their lifetimes. All of
them had stepped out on Biblical thin limbs to specify the
signs and the portents of the End. Each time their
particular limb has snapped!
You
and must faithfully live with split vision. The One Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church makes the affirmation every
Sunday in the 2nd paragraph of the Nicene Creed.
“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the
dead, and His Kingdom will have no end.”
The
End will come, but not by a meteorite, Not by a nuclear
holocaust. Not by an outbreak of a super-bug. Not by
anything humanly wrought will the End come:
but in God’s
time.
Jesus said
“About that day or hour, no one
knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only
the Father.”
We
are to stay awake to His last Coming even as we
celebrate His first coming in the flesh in Bethlehem.
Our Lord is telling us that just as the farmer tilling his
field must keep his eye on the furrow and one on the
distance that lies ahead, ; so we, as His expectant people,
must keep one eye on His coming at Bethlehem and one eye
toward the heavens, from where He will come again in glory
as our Gospel proclaimed.
Some years ago, a tourist was visiting the Castle Villa
Asconti along the shores of Lake Como in Northern Italy. As
he stepped into the gardens and vineyards, only the gardener
was there to greet and escort him. Everything was perfectly
kept. The visitor asked when the owner was last there.
He
was told, “Twelve years ago.”
“Did he ever write?”
“No.”
“Where did he………..the gardener……….. get his instructions?”
He
said, “From his agent in Milan.”
“Does the master ever come?”
“No”
“But you keep the grounds as though your master was coming
here tomorrow.”
The
old gardener quickly replied,
”No, …………not tomorrow… Today,
Sir…today. I keep the gardens as if he was coming here
today!
We
are expected to live each day as if the End is
today!
Here we are approaching winter; the air bears a chilling
hint of what is to come. But our world is filled with war,
terrorism, greed, and poverty of body and soul. So, I ask
again: What can we do this Advent to prepare? The poet
Christina Rossetti gives us our answer in a familiar
Christmas hymn that uses her poetic words. I’m sure you’ll
remember:
“What can I give
Him, poor as I am?
If I was a shepherd, I would give Him a lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would do my part:
Yet what can I give Him? Give Him my heart.
This next 4 weeks, will you give Him your heart?
Helen Keller, the saintly lady who became both blind and
deaf in early childhood gives us our final thought: she
wrote this:
“The best and the most beautiful things
in this world
Can not be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.”
Dear Lord……..Please help each of us this Advent ….to
feel
with our hearts, the coming of the Christ-child.
“In the Name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost”
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