Year B
Mark 13:24-37
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Advent: The Real Meaning of Christmas
For many years, I have taken pleasure in buying Advent calendars for my family and for the young people at church. Most years, I have bought the simple, two-dimensional types featuring some seasonal picture and twenty-five paper “windows” that can be opened, revealing perhaps other pictures, scripture verses, song lyrics or a piece of chocolate. The idea of an Advent calendar, of course, is to provide a tangible — perhaps fun, perhaps educational — means for counting down to Christmas. The Advent wreath helps in this countdown to Christmas also. Making the Advent calendar and Advent wreath cherished traditions that are passed down from generation to generation.
Yet, today, on this first Sunday of Advent all our readings suggest a very different sort of Advent calendar. Rather than just counting down the 25 days of December to the celebration of Christmas, our texts point to an entirely different Advent countdown. A countdown that is not just about remembering Christ’s first coming, it is also looking forward and preparing for his second coming. The difference between the countdowns is what we are preparing for. The secular world measures this time of preparation by the number of shopping days until December 25. The Episcopal Church and several other denominations measures this time of preparation in terms of the number of days remaining until the time when Jesus will return to the earth in glory and power.
Advent is the season that says the real meaning of Christmas is not only in the birth but in the waiting for the Lord’s return. This may not be the “season” that we are feeling on this late November Sunday after Thanksgiving, but it is most certainly the season that we are in. A season, that does not come with the sorts of beloved traditions that the weeks leading up to Christmas do for so many. No one is decorating their homes with symbols of the eschaton. Dickenson carolers are not singing, “We wish you a merry parousia!” Indeed, this profound and different season of preparing goes mostly undetected by many American Christians, and naturally the rest of the culture around us is oblivious to it also.
But here we are, nonetheless. And this Sunday gives us an opportunity to hear about the forgotten Advent season. If we tried to cut Advent out of the bible we would lose half of the OT and most of the New. Jews and Christians have always, though in a wide variety of ways, lived within and by the story of God’s order appearing within the world’s confusion, God’s fiery light burning away the darkness or nations trembling at God’s presence, as Isaiah pleads today. The NT re-uses the OT language and imagery of God’s breaking into world history, ‘the day of the Lord,’ and what will happen on ‘the day of the Lord Jesus Christ’. It does seem that if we get Advent right, we get the rest of the year and the scriptures right.
I don’t know about you, but knowing this completely reverses my personal expectations about celebrating Christmas, let alone getting ready for it. Now, don’t get me wrong. I like to bake Christmas cookies and decorate my home. I like to shop for Christmas gifts. But if the theme of this first Sunday in Advent is to focus our attention on the real meaning of Christmas, then we need to realize that we need to change the manner in which we prepare to celebrate Christmas. We need to recapture the sense of eager anticipation about the second coming of Christ which was present in the early church. God is calling us to look beyond “today and tomorrow” to the time when Jesus will come back and usher in God’s kingdom in all its fullness.
Unfortunately, many throughout the church during the past 2000 years or more, have taken these apocalyptic words of Jesus and used them to paint a frightening picture of the coming of God’s kingdom. The early Christians were not frightened by it but eagerly looked forward to it. In fact, they expected it to happen in their lifetime. They were disappointed that Jesus did not return when they thought he would. And those who claim that the return of Jesus will be “terrifying” are misinterpreting the words of Jesus. Jesus was saying that God’s final kingdom will come with such power that the forces of evil will be toppled.
Yet, in today’s world, I would venture to say that far too many devoted Christians have “doom and gloom” images about this future so it’s no wonder that we tend to ignore this dimension in our Christmas preparations. We can be like people who live by train tracks for years who no longer hear the sound of the train. We get used to the noise of Advent but it ceases to jolt us awake and has become instead a low, dull rumble. We fall asleep to this spiritual season. Even hearing about clouds, trumpets, angels, cosmic catastrophe, a Christian version of Star Wars and Apocalypse Now, can lead us into thinking that it’s all make-believe anyway. But it isn’t.
It is the hope of God’s coming kingdom that undergirds our faith as Christ followers. The hope of Advent is the return of Jesus in power and glory. Paul, today in his first letter to the Corinthians, stresses that “Our Lord Jesus…will strengthen us to the end, so that we may be blameless on the “day of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He thanks the church in Corinth for the ways God has graced the congregation with every spiritual gift to continue God’s work in the world until Christ returns. We need not be frightened but trust as Paul trusts God to complete in the Church what God has begun in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is what we should celebrate at Christmas.
Instead of wrapping Christmas in trivia to prevent the glory bursting out, we ought to celebrate the story of heaven opened, glory unveiled where God’s love meets ours. Advent is the beginning of the church year. What we believe and feel about the future determines what we feel and do about the present. Jesus’ second coming might not appear to have much to do with everyday life but it does and it can have a powerful effect on us. This morning we discover that we are preparing for much more than December 25. Because of the birth of Jesus, we also are preparing for that grand and wonderful day when there will be no more pain or sorrow or suffering or death.
We are getting ready for an event which has no equal in our human experience and for which we are to wait with eager anticipation. No one knows when it will happen, but we do know that it will happen. To believe in God’s future is to see why it is vital to stay alert and take action in the present. Christmas has become cozy, so allow your eager anticipation of that event to spill over into your anticipation of preparing for Christ’s glorious return… it could be just around the corner. We don’t know for sure but what we do know is that we are not to be frightened.
Just as Jesus told his disciples so long ago “Do not be afraid” he calls us to trust and hope. To take this time to grow closer to God. To keep alert and awake, and to live our lives in accord with the One who has already come, died, and been raised. For in doing this, we will be prepared for the “Day of the Lord” which will be a glorious time when God returns all creation back to God’s self. Advent calls us to stay awake and do our bit in bringing it closer.