ZECHARIAH 14:4-9

PSALM 50:1-6

1 THESSALONIANS 3:9-13

LUKE 21:25-31

Sermon – 11/30/03

Advent reminds us that we only have a limited amount of time. And no, I’m not talking about the number of shopping days before Christmas! The Church’s Season of Advent – which starts with the fourth Sunday before Christmas, today – reminds us that we only have a limited amount of time before The End, the End of History, the End of Life As We Know It, before the Second Coming of Christ in glory to judge both the living and the dead. The amount of time we have is unknown to us – as I’ve said before, Christ might return a million years from now or this afternoon – but whatever the amount of time, it is limited.

And therefore, when we realize that our time is limited, we are called to focus. Usually people get this message when they find out they’re going to move, or a child’s about to leave for college, or a loved one is dying. What is really important to do before one’s life changes?

Advent is a time we’re all called to focus, to voluntarily adopt this discipline, to ask ourselves what’s really important. As someone said, “The main thing is to keep making the main thing the main thing.”

We have some clue as to what “the main thing” is in our Epistle this morning, a selection from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Church in Thessalonica, Greece, which focuses on “what to do before Christ returns.” Paul writes, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all the saints.”

So, we should “increase and abound in love” and “strengthen our hearts in holiness”. Devout Christians may differ as to exactly what this may mean, but I believe our different perspectives and priorities on growing in love and holiness may help enrich us all in our journeys. The one thing which is clear is that the most loving and holiest person on earth is more dwarfed by the love and holiness of God than Sand Hill (on which this church is built) is dwarfed by Mt. Everest. So if we want to grow in love and holiness we need to accept how far short we are and invite God to come to us and lead us. That, of course, is exactly what the Story of Christmas is all about.

But at no time of the year does the secular world offer up more distractions to Christian spiritual growth than the weeks preceding Christmas! This can be the most frenetic – and expensive – time of the year for many people, at least some of whom finish the season exhausted and with (at least) ambivalent feelings about the whole season.

So this morning, I’d like to offer my “six point plan” for savoring, not just surviving the season. It has six themes, one for each Sunday in Advent and for each Sunday in Christmas Season. And to make it easier to remember, the first letters of the first word in each point spell out the word SAVIOR, S-A-V-I-O-R. “Slow down, Abound in love, Volunteer, Increase the time you spend with Christ, Open your heart to his gift of himself to you, Rejoice. SAVIOR.” That’s what we’re celebrating, whatever the TV networks and the malls are doing – celebrating the coming of the Savior.

“Slow down, you move too fast” Paul Simon sang. If you’re thinking, “I’m too busy to slow down”, that’s a clue that you really need to. If you do not have a regular discipline of daily (or almost daily) prayer and Bible reading, Advent is an excellent time to start. Pick up the free booklet “Forward Day by Day” which offers a listing of the daily Bible readings for Episcopalians plus a brief meditation on one of them. Or use one of the one page long “Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families” in The Book of Common Prayer, pp. 137-140. There’s a page each for four different times of day – whatever works for you. Five minutes is better than no minutes.

Or, you could read and meditate on the Collect for the Sunday each week; that’s the prayer the Presider at the service says near the beginning just before we all sit down. Or, slowly read the infancy narratives in Luke and Matthew; the Sunday morning Bible Study is doing a chapter a week (Luke 1 and then Luke 2, Matthew 1 and Matthew 2). Open the windows in an Advent Calendar one by one – not all in the last week before Christmas. Get an Advent wreath – we have them here for free – and light the candles and say prayers daily in your home. Do something; whatever you do, savor it.

The second letter in SAVIOR is “A” so Abound in love. If you’re thinking, “I don’t feel it, how can I do it”, well, as I believe C. S. Lewis said, do loving things and eventually you may feel loving feelings. Today we might say, “Fake it until you make it.” If we do something that is loving, the beneficiary of the love is benefited regardless of how we feel...and we can begin to be changed as well. I’ll leave it to you what to do; if you’re unsure, ask God for guidance, and I’m sure God will put opportunities in your path as well as open your eyes to the opportunities already there. So, week two: Abound in love.

“S-A-V”: V is for volunteer. Sure, you could help out at a soup kitchen, but how about volunteering to pray for, visit, do errands for or write cards to people who are sick, shut-in or bereaved this season? This can be a very difficult time of the year for people, and especially if it is for you, also, reaching out to others can make a difference to both of you. And our Townships have people who are experiencing hard times economically who can be anonymously “adopted” for the season by an individual or family who can give them a Christmas basket. The possibilities are endless.

“S-A-V-I”: I is for “Increase the time you consciously spend with Christ.” This includes but is not limited to quiet prayer and meditation: it means being conscious of and welcoming Christ’s presence with each of us wherever we are. Including a silent prayer like this, “Lord, I am about to visit the most ‘difficult’ member of my family. May I listen to and follow your ‘coaching’ during this visit that your will may be done and your love may flow through me.” Week four (which includes Christmas Eve and Day): Increase the time you consciously spend with Christ.

“S-A-V-I-O”: O is for Open your heart to Christ’s gift of himself to you. Yes, this season is for helping others – but if we “unwrap Christmas” completely, we find at its center a gift addressed to each of us and to all people: Emmanuel, “God with us.” Receive and savor the gift: this is for week Five, starting Sunday, December 28.

“S-A-V-I-O-R”: R is for Rejoice. The sixth Sunday in this succession is the second Sunday of Christmas Season, January 4 this year. If we spell out the rest of the letters, we will start 2004 – and finish the 12 Days of Christmas Season – renewed enough to really rejoice, not just collapse.

Slow down, Abound in love, Volunteer, Increase the time you consciously spend with Christ, Open your heart to his gift of himself to you, Rejoice. For us to abound in love and grow in holiness, we need the Savior. Thank God, the Savior comes.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church