Isaiah 2:1-5

Psalm 122

Romans 13:8-14

MATTHEW 24:37-44

PEACE THIS ADVENT

December can be a challenge. For some people, December is the busiest time of the year. For some, December is the most stressful time of the year. For some, December is the most expensive time of the year. For some, December is the most nostalgic time of the year. For some, December is the saddest time of the year. And for some, December is the most joyous time of the year. I expect that many people fall into more than one of these categories.

I have good news: if you fall in any of these categories – or perhaps one or more I haven’t mentioned – Advent has something for you. Advent is the season of the Church year we start today which runs until sundown on December 24, when the 12 days of Christmas begin.

Now, more than ever during the year, the Church listens to the beat of a different drummer than that of those who have been flooding our mailboxes with catalogues and our eardrums with various kinds of Christmas music for weeks now.

Advent means “coming to” and it starts with the fourth Sunday before Christmas and represents a time for us to prepare spiritually to celebrate Christ’s birthday and the message the angels brought on that glorious night: peace on earth and good will to all people.

To the busy, Advent says, “Slow down, and take time to savor the season.” To the stressed-out, Advent says, “You can’t do everything; choose what’s most important and who is most important to focus on.” To those worried about getting “tapped out”, Advent says, “The most valuable gift of all is one you and everyone else get free: the love of God. Christmas is not about the spending.” To the nostalgic, Advent says, “Memories can be wonderful, but remember that according to God’s plan, the best is yet to come.” To the sad, Advent says, “God aches with you in your sadness. Cry on Christ’s shoulder and let him put his arms around you and lift you up.” To the joyous, Advent says, “Let us spread the deep joy of this season with a world which needs to discover both depth and joy so much.”

One of the great hymns of Advent is, “O Come, O come, Emmanuel.” “Emmanuel” means, “God with us”. The message of Christmas is that God burst into our broken, sinful and distracted world to be with us whatever our circumstances, to offer us transformation and salvation through repentance and faith and to invite us to join in God’s transformation of the world in preparation for that Great Day when all will be made new by God.

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Jesus says in today’s Gospel that when the Son of Man comes, the world will be transformed, and we don’t know when that will be, so be ready and expectant. St. Paul says in today’s Epistle that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers” – the Great Day is coming – and therefore let us renew our dedication to live out the Great Commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself.”

There are four Advent themes, one for each week starting with this Sunday, which help us to focus on how to live out this great commandment. The four themes, in order, are Peace, Hope, Joy and Love, and to help each of us with our personal grounding in these themes, they are laid out in the two page insert to your service leaflet along with Bible readings for each week, meditations or discussion topics for the home, and other suggestions for observing Advent in your home, however many people live in it.

The passage for the first week of Advent is Isaiah 2:1-5, which we just read – and indeed the Old Testament passages this year for Advent and Christmas are part of “Isaiah’s greatest hits”. Isaiah 2:1-5 gives us a vision of the Kingdom of God, when God’s perfect peace shall reign over all the earth.

“Shall” is the important word in that last sentence: I didn’t say “might” or merely “should”. “The King shall come when morning dawns” says the hymn; peace shall reign after Christ returns to judge the living and the dead and destroys all manner of wickedness.

In the meantime, we can be part of God’s team preparing for that day by standing with one foot in the realities of the present and with one foot in the glorious future, by responding today with “the peace of God, which passes all understanding”.

This attitude and the actions which can flow from it come first of all from God, which means each of us spending time with God – yes, participating in worship in church, of course, but also by setting aside time for personal prayer and meditation if we haven’t done so daily before, and by adding to our time if we have.

Advent is an excellent time to start a discipline of daily Bible reading – for example, with the Forward Day By Day booklets – for those who haven’t yet. But more than that, find a quiet time and place (if only for five minutes), and close your eyes and breathe slowly and ask God to give you a taste of God’s peace. Then visualize peace, which in the biblical word “Shalom” means not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, healed relationships, serenity and joy.

Visualize shalom globally, locally, in your family or another one you care about, and do so while having confidence that shalom is God’s ultimate will for the world.

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So first, receive a taste of peace from God. Second, visualize the limitless banquet of peace which God will lavish on the world. And third, think of three things you can do to be an ambassador of God’s peace this Advent.

I would suggest one focus be global or national, one community and one personal or familial. Pick an organization to work with or contribute to which is working for shalom, which can include, for example, greater understanding among different people, justice for the poor and the oppressed, safety and healing for the victims of violence (whether in war or in their own homes) and even safety and well-being for other species besides human beings! Consider making contributions to such an organization in honor of people you give gifts to in lieu of one more easily forgettable box under a tree.

Building peace in your community might mean your county, town, neighborhood, school or workplace. It could, for example, involve reaching out to those who aren’t celebrating a major holiday in the next month and asking them what December is like for them and what holidays or holy days are important. Just asking that question marks you as an unusually sensitive Christian – because some people talk about December as “the holiday season” as though it is that for everyone. It isn’t. Building bridges of understanding is part of shalom.

Another idea: reach out to someone for whom the holidays look like they will be difficult. If it’s someone who has suffered a loss in the family in the last year, just say you were thinking of them and you care about them and leave an opening for them to respond if they wish. If you want to help someone in tangible need, the opportunity to do so is as close as our “Mitten Tree” in the Welcoming Area; directions for that are in the bulletin insert, which describes the needs of seafarers and of people in shelters. Also, the Women’s Link is adopting a particular family this season; flyers describing that family’s needs are on the table in the Welcoming Area.

Building shalom in families or among those closest to you can be challenging, but there are real opportunities. They could be as simple as surprising a grouchy neighbor with a gift of home-made cookies, or sending a Christmas card to someone from whom you have been estranged, or praying daily for the person you have the hardest time with, and for guidance for you. For some people, building shalom may mean going to an Alanon meeting; that’s the support group for family members of alcoholics who are seeking guidance and peace for themselves. It can happen.

And if you have children at home and one of them one day blurts out, “Why don’t we call so-and-so” (and names a relative who isn’t your favorite), well, remember Isaiah’s words which we’ll hear next week: “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Maybe, just maybe, God is calling your little child to lead the adults. It’s happened before.

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Doing something on three different levels both makes it more likely that we’ll have a sense of accomplishment somewhere and also reminds us that we’re part of a team – something we’ll see here as the Mitten Tree “blooms” – and that whatever difference we make in the lives of others, our own lives can be transformed by God as part of our efforts.

May God offer you God’s presence as your greatest present, and may each of us unwrap that present and spread its abundance everywhere we go. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with us.

The Rev. Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Monmouth Junction, New Jersey

November 28, 2004

The First Sunday of Advent