The First Sunday in Advent, Year C,
December 3, 2000

By
The Rev. Ann M. Smith

Based on the Gospel Reading: Luke 21:25-36

"The kingdom of God is near." What meaning do those words take on during this season of Advent? Do they strike terror into your heart? Perhaps you begin to think, "Oh! Christmas is almost here. There just isn't enough time. I mean, I need to get to the supermarket to shop for all the baking that needs to be done for the holiday season. I haven't got a gift for Aunt Edith yet. Now is the time to make sure the carol service and the turkey dinner and all the other activities of Christmas are on the calendar so we don't overextend ourselves like last year. Oh yes! And my favourite party dress! I didn't take it to the cleaners and I do remember that it had a spot on it. And I had better get down into the basement and find the Christmas decorations. And isn't there a performance of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" somewhere in town? I'll phone this afternoon and see if there are any tickets left."

Let's be honest. For most of us, Advent is not so much a time to prepare ourselves spiritually as it is a time to prepare ourselves for the festivities that are inevitable during the holiday season.

Yet the real tension for both the early church to which Luke was writing, and for the Christian living in the twenty-first century, is that we are living in the time between the Christ of history and the fulfillment of Christ's reign at the end of history. It is obvious that Luke was speaking to people who were living in expectancy. They are told to read the signs of the times and to prepare themselves for what is to come. The signs of the coming of God's kingdom are intended to be signs of great hope in their lives as they are intended to be in ours.

How do we live with the tension? How do we live in expectation? How do we read the signs of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God? Do we even recognize the signs of God working in our lives? How do we prepare ourselves spiritually when we are being constantly drawn into the hectic pace of the holiday season? We live, after all, in a secular world that is preoccupied with the busyness of the season and is willing to live oblivious to its holiness.

The passage from Luke deals with the tension in a predictable and understandable way. There are signs around them of decay and destruction. Luke points to the signs and says, "See, the end is near. Shape up! Be ready!" They have been witness to cataclysmic events in their lives, events predicted to them in Scripture. They have seen the destruction of their city, Jerusalem, its total and utter destruction. They have seen the temple where they worship destroyed. Ironically it is the prophecy of that very destruction that helps them to keep their faith in God while they deal with their terror.

"Be ready!" is still the message of the coming of the kingdom. It is the message of this Advent season. There are two ways to approach it. We can see it as a message of the end of time and become so distracted by it that we lose sight of the hopefulness of the message. It is easy to look at the world as we live in it, as we know it, and see signs of decay and depravity. It is easy to see it as a message of terror. Do we see the signs of the kingdom as welcome? What are the signs of the coming of the kingdom in our lives? With what hope and expectation do they fill us?

Advent is a season of hope, hope for the future in the light of present reality. Ours is a world of harsh realities. There are any number of issues to illustrate that fact – AIDS, abuse, violence, ecological disasters. We may well wonder what the world is coming to. Perhaps as Christians it is more important to keep in mind what is coming to the world. It is time for us to make preparations, not in fear of what is to come, but in faith in God. Our God who has come, who is here, and who will come again. God has a way of coming. In that coming is terror for it is unknown; but also in that coming is promise. God has done something that changes the ultimate path of history. And even when nothing else is left, God is there. What hope that is!

Our culture pressures us into thinking of God as somewhere in the far distant past, as irrelevant to our time and culture, as a mere memory. But God lives, present with us. That is our hope. Our hope is in God's faithfulness, revealed throughout history. Our hope is in God's faithfulness revealed to us in so many ways, through our relationships, through our experiences.

Trust, hope and expectancy are the foundations of our faith. As Christians we need to be committed to a lifetime advent. Throughout our lives we will meet hunger and thirst. We will face disappointment and trouble. It is hope that gives us the courage to move on in our lives. How do we nurture hopefulness in our lives?

The Christian story is one of hopefulness. We need to put our own story alongside Scripture. We need to begin to make the connections between our story and Scripture. We need to begin to see the relevance of Scripture to our everyday lives. There are so many stories of hope – stories about people caring enough to make a difference in the lives of the poor, stories about providing food, shelter, and clothing to people in need; stories about building God's kingdom on earth; stories about reaching out in love; stories about God at work in the lives of ordinary people.

"When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads," Jesus told the disciples. It is good advice to all of us. The key issue in the spiritual life has always been discernment. If we are frightened and anxious, discernment becomes difficult. Fear clouds our minds. We don't make good decisions. It is good at times of uncertainty to look up, to have a sense of excitement at being alive at such a time of history.

This first Sunday in our Christian year, this Advent Sunday, is about hope – the hope that comes about from our trust in God. It is not just about hanging on. It is about a conscious decision to see the world in a different way than most others see it. It is about waking up and becoming involved with Christ in the task he set himself in this world, the fulfillment of God's promise, the reign of God.

We are to be spiritually awake. We are to actively nourish our relationship with God. We are to see the grace of God at work in the lives of men and women. We are to believe that the present reality will not have the last word. Can we look through the eyes of faith to a future in which God reigns?

Henri Nouwen, a Roman Catholic theologian and writer, says that "during Advent we are to wait with a promise in our hearts." Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. Fortunately for us, waiting as disciples of Jesus is not an empty waiting. We carry within ourselves a promise that makes what we are waiting for already present. Waiting for God is an active, alert, wide-awake, joyful, expectant waiting. As we wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we create a community ready to welcome him – and recognize him – when he comes. So let us wake up, be alert, and be ready for Christ to be born in us.

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