Today is the first Sunday of Advent. In the US this is not something much noticed. The media is focused on the fact that there are only twenty-seven shopping days until Christmas. Even among believers, Advent gets swallowed up in celebrating Christmas. Exhibit A, here at St. James we are going to have our Christmas Tree trimming party in the middle of Advent. Back in the day, my mother didn’t put out the Christmas tree until Christmas Eve. If we are going to get the spiritual benefit of the season we have to do a little extra work to counteract this cultural tendency to blow right by Advent. Christmas is about parties, presents, pine scent and potables. Advent is about something else altogether. During Advent we wake, watch, wait and walk.
Advent asks us to wake up. “It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep,” says St. Paul. The Bible is telling us that we tend to sleepwalk through life and miss the presence and action of God. What puts us to sleep are our worries, cares, concerns, troubles, difficulties. We get obsessed with what is going on with us and so we miss what God is doing all around us. Have you ever been on a trip and gotten really cranky – you’re hungry, the people with you are quarreling, the traffic is heavy and the next rest stop is fifteen miles away. You don’t notice anything else. But take that same route when you’re feeling good, the music is perfect, you’re making good time and there’s laughter among your companions. What happens then is you pay attention to your surroundings and see the beauty of the trees changing colors, the symmetry of the fields ripe for the harvest, the glory of the sun-spangled sky with scudding clouds and migrating geese. The landscape was the same on both trips but because you were different, the way you experienced of your surroundings was different. The world became beautiful. We tend to see things as we are, not as they are. We must wake up to the fact that God has given us a beautiful world and if get over insisting how we want things to be we can wake up to what is and see the hand of the divine artist at work.
Once we are awake advent asks us to watch. Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come, Jesus told us. We have to be on the watch for what God is doing in us and for us. Think of the look outs on the Titanic. They needed to keep on the watch for what lay before them. Only by watching carefully could they stay safe. The problem comes in that we are watching for one thing when another catches us by surprise. There’s a story that Cardinal Martini, the former bishop of Milan, told about a small town in Italy where a wedding was being held. The reception was supposed to be in the piazza outside of the Church but it started to rain. The couple begged the parish priest if they could at least have a little celebration in the Church itself – a little cake, a little wine, a little dance and then we’ll go home. The pastor reluctantly agreed and pretty soon there was a little more cake, a little more wine and a little more dancing. Everyone was having a great time except the pastor who was increasing tense. The curate tried to calm him down. “Remember, Father,” he said, “that Jesus himself was once present at a wedding. “ The pastor snapped, “You don’t have to tell me that Jesus was at a wedding. I know that. But they didn’t have the Blessed Sacrament there!” Be on the watch so you can recognize that what God is doing might take you out of your comfort zone but will lead to greater love and happiness in your life.
But, of course, watching involves waiting. The iceberg doesn’t pop up the moment you start looking for it. We must keep alert to what God is doing. The problem comes in that we are not a culture that is very good at waiting. The British are famous for queuing up very quietly as they wait for the bus. Americans, on the other hand, get their phones out to find the WAZE app which will tell them how many minutes left before their ride. I remember my niece once complaining to her mother, “The microwave takes too long.” Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame caught the American spirit perfectly when she said, “The problem with instant gratification is that it takes too long.” So patiently waiting on the Lord is not in our wheelhouse. We must train ourselves to do so. We wait nine months for the baby to come. We wait hours for the bread to rise. We wait in the Spring for the tomatoes to grow. We must quiet ourselves down in prayer and wait for the window to open which will reveal to us the plan of God we can’t quite see yet.
As the scripture for this Sunday reminds us, after waking, watching and waiting we’ve got to begin walking. Let us walk in the light of the Lord, said the Prophet. And, all too often, we must start walking not sure exactly where we are going, what God is asking of us. How am I supposed to care for my family? What is my responsibility toward my neighbor? Where is God calling me in life? The important thing is to set out, to move, to walk confident that in time God will show the way. Walk always in compassion, in forgiveness, in generosity and in love for that is of God. The promise of Advent: start walking and God will take us to mountain of the Lord’s house and all will be well.