Prepare

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
November 27, 2022

1 Advent A

          Now that two of our granddaughters are old enough to know their numbers and count a bit, I have been on the hunt for age appropriate Advent calendars.  I have found chocolate Advent calendars, of course, but also Advent calendars with socks, little toys, holiday critters, legos, and of course the not age appropriate adult beverages like coffee and tea.  I have two peevish priest problems with these calendars.  First, they all assume that Advent begins on December 1.  Advent rarely begins on December 1.  Secondly, these are really count down calendars as if Advent is a season of simply marking time. How many days left until Christmas? The theology here is simple: when the chocolate is gone, Jesus is here.

          And while that theology of Advent is perhaps a bit shallow, I have to say that I like that version of Advent better than anything I hear in the gospel lesson this morning. On this first Sunday of Advent, when we might hope to hear something inspiring about the coming birth of the Christ child, instead we hear Jesus compare his return with high level security, the preparation, or lack thereof, for the Great Flood, and a woman being taken up from her work grinding wheat. Where is that Advent calendar with those little Legos?  Aren’t we supposed to welcome Jesus rather than lock him out or prepare for disaster? I much prefer Isaiah’s vision of people beating their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations not lifting up sword against nation, and no one learning war anymore. Isaiah calls us to wait for this day by walking in the light of the Lord. Jesus calls us to prepare for his return as if we were expecting a thief to break into our home.

          Whose image of the coming of the Messiah is correct? Isaiah’s or Jesus’? In true Anglican fashion, the answer is, of course, "yes." While Isaiah gives us a vision of the world coming together in peaceful unity, Jesus reminds us that there is no calendar of any kind that will give us the date of the Messiah’s arrival. Jesus’ message is not that his return will be a flood, a kidnaping or a theft, but that God will break in among us while we are going about our everyday work, living our everyday lives, with no advance notice, so we need to be prepared.  There will be no 4 weeks of Advent to prepare, no little calendar with a pair of socks behind each door to tell us when to be ready. We will have to be ready because the call to the holy mountain, to gather in peace as God’s people, will come without warning.

How are we to be ready? I am reminded of the way that people and whole cities, states, and countries for that matter, prepare for hurricane season. Tremendous energy and resources are used to board up houses, fill sandbags, stock groceries, water and other necessities, and move to higher ground, because the people’s lives depend on being ready for the wind and rains to come. But is disaster preparedness really the metaphor we want when we think about being prepared for Jesus?

          Preparation for anything involves practice. If we want to be prepared for a recital, we practice. If we want to be prepared to host a dinner party, we practice our recipes on our family. If we want to be prepared for the test, we practice. And, because Jesus himself talks about floods and kidnappings, if we want to be prepared for disaster, we practice. So, if we want to recognize the Christ child when he is born, we practice recognizing those places where he is born among us now. How do we practice that? The apostle Paul gives us some idea of how we practice in the letter to the Romans. In the passage just before our reading from Romans this morning, Paul tells us to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. This morning we hear Paul tell us to lay aside works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Practice being people of light. We are to practice living fully, fulfilling all the law simply by loving one another and living honorably, and doing this with all the intensity and energy we would put into preparing for a flood, kidnaping, or a theft.

          Advent calls us to a season of intentional practice by calling us to live as if the Christ child will be born in our midst this very minute to usher in the Reign of God. The irony is that, if we live as Paul and Jesus call us to, we will be doing our part to make the future peaceful kingdom that Isaiah describes a more present reality in this world now. Jesus told us that no one knows the hour, the place, or the manner in which he will return, this is true. But Jesus also proclaimed that the Kingdom of God has arrived, and told us that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, growing among us until sometime in the future when the Kingdom will appear in all its fullness. Jesus calls us to prepare for his coming by living as if that for which we wait has already arrived.

          So we wait and we practice. Advent is so much more than just counting down the days until Christmas. Advent is the call to be prepared, not by stockpiling necessities or by locking all our doors, but by living in the light, looking for those places where the Christ Child is born in our midst now. And when we live into Advent, Isaiah’s vision of the peaceful city will come just a little bit closer.   

Amen.