ISAIAH 40:1-11

PSALM 85:7-13

2 PETER 3:8-15a,18

MARK 1:1-8

Sermon – 12/8/02

Advent, this four Sunday Season that begins the Church year and is symbolized by the Advent wreath, is taken from Latin words meaning “coming to.”

So what are we coming to?

“Christmas” is the obvious answer, although to some marketing people “the Christmas Season” started about 30 seconds after Halloween, if not earlier. Marketing people think Christmas starts whenever they start advertising and it ends on December 25. Which means that, for harried consumers who have been brainwashed into believing that “’everything’ has to be done by December 25” we are even now in “crunch time.” Especially if you had other plans for last Thursday besides shoveling snow, and now feel even further behind.

Is December, then, all about worrying over gift lists, standing in line (or going online) to buy, buy, buy, writing and opening Christmas cards, going to workplace Christmas parties and family gatherings...or not? Is December all about Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker”, Dickens’ “Christmas Carol”, wishing people a “Merry Christmas” and hoping that this year, you might feel more, well, “Christmassy” than before sometime before New Year’s Eve?

Those things and many other “holiday traditions” can be nice, but if that’s all a person “consumes” over the next month for spiritual nurture, it’s like a hungry person being given only the dessert tray. There’s a lovely sugar rush, but still hunger, so the options are to stay hungry or to eat more desserts until the person feels sick. And, no matter how full, is still unnourished.

So let me share two wonderful bits of news. First, the Church does not start celebrating Christmas until sundown on Christmas Eve. And then we celebrate for 12 days, finishing by remembering the coming of the Wise Men on January 6. They were, remember, the very first people to give someone “Christmas presents”. We at St. Barnabas will soon have handouts available on celebrating “The 12 days of Christmas”, and on Sunday, January 5 we’ll remember the coming of the Wise Men. So, as Paul Simon said, “Slow down, you move too fast.”

Now, part of this wonderful bit of news is that in some cultures, notably Hispanic countries, it is January 6 which is the gift-giving day. After all, the Wise Men didn’t deliver their gifts until at least then, and neither Jesus nor Mary nor Joseph got “bent out of shape” about it.

So, if you’re “going crazy” trying to get everything done, don’t tear your hair out (something I certainly don’t risk doing), just aim for January 6! And if people accuse you of being “late”, tell them you’re being “Hispanic” this year in your approach to the Christmas Season. (It works for me!) And besides...the “Wise Men” were wise. Think about it.

My second, and deeper point, is this: Advent is not a time to taste superficial “merriment” which leaves us either hungry or sick; Advent is a time to prepare for Joy.

God has prepared wonderful nourishment for us, nourishment every bit as sweet as anything we could ever taste but nourishment which satisfies our deepest hungers, makes us well, healthy and – joyous. Not merely temporarily merry.

To prepare for this wonderful feast, we need to be made new. As long as we think Christmas is something we can buy, we cannot sit down at this bountiful banquet table. Christmas is a gift from God. And as long as we think we don’t need to change ourselves inwardly and in our behavior, we cannot sit down at God’s bountiful banquet table, and we will stay hungry.

Before Jesus started his public ministry as an adult, John the Baptist “appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” It was not accidental that John, to use a term from rock concerts, “opened” for the main attraction, Jesus. John reminded people that Judgment Day was coming and that now was the time to get right with God by confessing one’s sins, since only then could one receive forgiveness and new life.

And this is why we started this morning’s worship with the Penitential Order and the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. Last week, after reflecting on the reality that “Christ will come again in power and great glory to judge the living and he dead,” I posed the question, “How then must we live?” The Ten Commandments are an awfully good place to start, even though – especially though – much of American popular culture has little space for most of these commandments.

“You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.” How much of our economy is based on inciting jealousy between people, so that people spend beyond their means just because other people have things they don’t? And not just people, but municipalities, states and nations get into coveting, whether it’s “clean ratables” which generate tax revenue, major investments by manufacturers or weapons systems, respectively.

Trying to obey this commandment means trying to create in oneself an island of serenity and contentment in a sea of greed. Sounds challenging – and good.

“Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy” is actually closely related. There is a reason “take a day off” is on God’s “Top 10 list” for us. It’s not good for us to work all the time. And yet one of the major trends I’ve seen in my 21 years of parish ministry is that now, far more people have schedules like mine, which include at least some work on evenings and weekends. I try to compensate by taking time off when I have a heavy schedule; some others don’t – with consequences for their health and their closest relationships.

In the creation story, God got everything done that needed to be done in six “days”. So can we.

If we’re not willing to take “Sabbath time” for renewal to thank God for giving us seven days each week, let’s take time off just for ourselves, for our own well being, which is part of God’s intention. Then, maybe we’ll realize that serenity and contentment (there they are again) are greater experiences than what we used to be striving frantically for, and we’ll make thanking God for those gifts part of our Sabbath experience.

Commandment #7: “You shall not commit adultery.” It’s painful the extent to which this commandment is ignored in America (and in the world) today. Adultery is a devastating act to everyone involved, and not just to the marriage or marriages that are profoundly damaged (if not destroyed) as a result. The impact ripples go out from there to children, other family members, friends, others, society in general. Betrayal and lust are not
“more exciting kinds of love”, they are the opposite of love.

Sex without commitment goes beyond adultery alone, of course, to sex with no connection to a marital relationship at all, which cheapens all those involved and can lead to serious long-term problems.

The reality is that, at least in my humble opinion, no thrill is more profound than that potentially found in the experience of two deeply committed loving people within (for “straight” people) Holy Matrimony. In a marriage of equals in which both people grow closer to each other and to God there can be delights almost beyond description. But not beyond achievement, with proper care for this crucial relationship. Thrills, yes, and also serenity and contentment.

Those are just brief reflections of three of the Ten Commandments, and how materialistic culture tries to seduce us away from them by making promises of fulfillment it can never keep. To look at the “Top 10” list further, check out the Catechism in the Prayer Book, page 847-8, or go to the original phrasing in your Bible in Exodus Chapter 20. The path to true joy is through our repentance and God’s forgiveness.

This Advent let us aim for lasting joy, not temporary merriment. And let us prepare by acknowledging in our personal prayers to God where we have fallen short of his design for our lives, receiving God’s forgiveness and guidance so we can do better, and then resolving to make this Christmas truly different in the way we treat ourselves, those closest to us and the whole of God’s creation. Then, we can live the Good News of new life in Christ which is God’s greatest gift to us, at Christmas and all through the year.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church