We have now had one week of Advent. Last week, if you recall, Fr. Marsden spoke eloquently about how much he loves hearing all of the Christmas music from Thanksgiving on, and how much he enjoys the shopping and all of the other ways people celebrate Christmas, before Christmas, during this season of Advent. In a very non-morose way, he admonished us to try to keep the spirit of Advent in the midst of all of the busy-ness and hoopla of the season.
In the same spirit, I will try not to be too morose in what I have to say to you today. So, how are you doing this Advent? Have you stayed away from parties and other festivities? Have you refrained from decorating for Christmas, and instead used your Advent wreath as your main decoration, saying your Advent devotions? It’s still not too late to incorporate Advent prayers into your schedule, and I recommend that.
I also believe (and this is a very non-morose part of this sermon!) that there is a place for the festivities that go on in every community in preparation for Christmas; for Advent is a season of hope, a season in which even the world around us seems to be saying, “Things as they are are not what God intended them to be, and Christmas is a beginning of the reign of God in which things are being put right.” No longer, when God fully rules the hearts and minds of his people, will there be violence and hatred; no longer will infants be born addicted to crack cocaine and infected with AIDS; no longer will the dollar be described as almighty; no longer will friend betray friend, the widow and orphan neglected, and hunger exist in the land.
John the Baptist, whose smell, mode of dress, and breath, would not be appreciated at any of your social gatherings, and who called a brood of vipers those who had made the effort to leave the city and hear him preach, basically proclaimed the same message of hope. Quoting Isaiah, St. Luke said that John’s voice was a “voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
In quoting this passage from Isaiah, St. Luke had a definite purpose in mind. He wished to emphasize the last statement: “And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” No one will be excluded. Young and old, rich and poor, people of every race and nation: all fall under this vast umbrella. None are to be denied the reconciling hand of God.
Since the beginning of the Church, the Church has taken these words seriously. While the Church has certainly had times when she was more faithful than at others, it is hard to imagine what the world would be like without Christ. At the root of modern medicine and care for the sick and dying, is the Church’s healing ministry over the ages. Our modern concept of the value of the individual has much of its meaning because of Christianity. The development of science, music, art, and literature as we have these disciplines today are inconceivable without the influence Christianity has had over them.
Yet ours is also a day in which many feel that the culture has outgrown Christianity. I never thought I would see the day when Christianity was ridiculed on television by talk show hosts, or made fun of in television shows. In films Christians are often portrayed as unsophisticated, dull, unenlightened, and incompetent. This as an adolescent phase in our culture not unlike what a child goes through in the teen years when parents are outgrown, only to be rediscovered in later years as people who suddenly got a whole lot smarter. My hope is that our culture will grow out of this phase sooner rather than later.
I am currently reading a book in which the author has nothing good to say about the Christian faith. Christianity according to this author deprives people of everything good in life, sucking the joy out of living. He believes our society would be better off if there were no Christians.
That view is finding expression in many quarters in our day, yet it is so far from what I have experienced living a Christian life. Our faith affirms the goodness of life, the joy that comes from knowing Christ and from living in Christ. The Church, far from being a joyless fellowship, is the place where true joys are to be found.
I am not suggesting that the reasons for Christ’s coming have been solved, that if left to our own devices we would not ultimately destroy ourselves in our pride and self-centeredness. What I am saying is that we have not been left to our own devices. God has come to us decisively in Christ Jesus and Christians throughout the ages have acted in response to his presence. The world is a far different place than it would have been had there been no incarnation.
Yet each of us must discover anew, and for most of us again and again, that it is Christ who gives life; it is Christ who reconciles; it is Christ who heals. And as we discover this reality, we are led by him to share his life with whomever we come into contact and to be the vehicles through whom his salvation is known.
At the same time that we prepare to celebrate the breaking of almighty God into his creation in a totally unique way, through his incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth, bringing about the salvation of the world, we know that much of the work of Christ has yet to be done. Not only do we know that the world around us needs the reconciling love of Christ, but also even our own lives fall far short of being truly ruled by our Lord Jesus.
Advent reminds us that the work is not done. Christ has yet fully to be present in our every act, word, and thought; yet we have hope, for we know that he is near.