Advent I Fr. Forrest Burgett
Trinity Anglican Church Given 11/27/11
“The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” (Romans xiii. 12.)
We are beginning a new church year. We lit the first of four Advent candles. We will hear the exhortation today. We are celebrating Advent – a season that is both anticipatory and penitential. As Lent anticipates the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Advent anticipates the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Christmas season arrives on December 24th, we will remember his humble beginnings on earth. We will marvel at the depth of the love that brought about this divine miracle. Some of us will wonder what it would be like to meet Jesus in person.
The antiphon today proclaims, “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee.” Our Gospel describes Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. St. Matthew is quoting an ancient prophecy by Habakkuk and directs our thoughts to the intent of Advent. As we think about the Lord coming to us in Advent, we often think only of the joy of remembering Jesus’ first coming. His meek appearance gave no indication of the overwhelming sacrifice we know he came to make. At Christmas, it is hard to find anything but joy in the promise of God’s gift to mankind. But Advent is more than preparation for Christmas.
Christmas will be joyous, but even good news can have a sharp edge to it. I’m sure all of us have, at some time, looked out the window and noticed a friend or relative arriving unexpectedly. We all relate to the inevitable panic about to occur. We are thrilled to see them, and look forward to catching up on everything that is happening in their life. Then the realization hits us. We are not ready for visitors. The morning paper is still on the dining room table with a half-finished cup of coffee. Slippers are by the easy chair, forgotten when we shuffled off to bed in our stocking feet. Even worse, we realize the last time this visitor came, we were equally ill prepared.
The two minutes it takes for the visitor to get to the door are spent vacillating between hiding the most flagrant examples of sloppiness and preparing excuses for the things we won’t have time to hide. Then, the first ten minutes of the visit are encumbered with silent vows to do better next time. We promise to keep things in their place and expend the time to dust before it is too late. We question how we can modify our priorities to insure that we are always ready for visitors. We know that with a little preparation each surprise visit can be made so much better. Of course, eventually we relax, certain they have seen all our faults and we have nothing more to hide. Finally we can enjoy the visit. We can openly and honestly welcome them when we realize they accept us as we are.
Isn’t it funny how relatively insignificant events in our lives parallel the really important things in life? This example is so commonplace in our lives; almost all adults have experienced it at one time or another. As common as this experience is, the basic lesson to be learned from it is invaluable if applied to all aspects of our lives. Compare it to confessing our sins to God. As Anglicans, these confessions are privately rehearsed as we say the General Confession. But that doesn’t change the process. As we approach confession, we realize that we are not much better prepared than last time. Then we decide which offences to overlook for this week; and we begin to make excuses for those that can’t be ignored. We wonder how, in the future, we can avoid those that cannot be excused. Eventually, we just confess our sins. They are acknowledged. We endure the embarrassment of repeated backsliding. We promise to perform a penance to prove our good intentions and avoid future repetition of the same sins. Finally, we are fully aware that God has accepted us as we are. Once that is done, the rest of our visit with God is pure joy.
Let us return to wondering what it would be like to meet Jesus face to face. Remember when we were children - how we were thrilled to be with someone we admired? Remember how nervous we were about living up to their expectations? With Jesus, both the thrill and nervousness are maximized. He is the only perfect example the world has known. What would we do if we saw Jesus walking to our door? In that first instant, we might be duplicating the scenario we described before. We would be embarrassed by the condition of our physical surroundings. Then we would realize that Jesus isn’t really worried about papers on the table or slippers on the floor. Jesus is worried about how often we pray. Jesus is worried that we fail to praise and thank God for His glory and generosity. Jesus is worried about our inability to remember the Ten Commandments when temptation rears its ugly head. Jesus is concerned that we are not good stewards of God’s bounty.
The good news is that we probably don’t have to worry about Jesus appearing at our door today. The bad news is we know we will eventually appear at His door one day. Frequently, we forget that Jesus is present in our lives every day. However, on that day we will no longer be able to overlook his presence. Remember the traits attributed to Santa Claus in the Christmas jingle?
“He knows when you’ve been sleeping.
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake.”
This silly jingle bears truth about our relationship with Jesus. He does know everything and He loves us in spite of our failings. This reminder is appropriate and relevant every day of our lives. Jesus really does know what we are doing every day. Jesus really does know what is buried in our hearts at any given moment. Jesus really does know what we are thinking. Some people made fun of President Carter when he expressed his regret about “lusting in his mind”. Great truth lies in his regret. That truth and its inevitable result is expressed in the following saying:
“Guard your thoughts, for they become words.
Guard your words, for they become actions.
Guard your actions, for they become habits.
Guard your habits, for they build character.
Guard your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
We are embarrassed when we think inappropriate thoughts in the presence of others. Our embarrassment is greater if we inadvertently express those thoughts verbally. It is even worse when we allow an action to reflect those thoughts. Imagine the embarrassment of facing Jesus and realizing that He knows our thoughts, hears our words, sees our actions, knows our habits, understands our character, and will judge our destiny.
Some people have convinced themselves that God can’t see the evil things we do because it would corrupt His innocence and goodness. God is the creator of innocence and goodness. We cannot corrupt him. We can only disappoint him. It is truly a mystery that God can know all and not be changed by it. But, be assured, God does see everything we do. And, when we are judged, we will be judged by His eternal unchanging standards.
The original intent of Advent was to have a period of penitence and preparation in anticipation of the Incarnation. The tradition of penitence and emphasis on preparation during Advent has been overridden by the secular Christmas Frenzy. Even the 1928 Book of Common Prayer does not require fasting on the days of Advent. Still, it is common practice to a particular discipline as part of our penitence and preparation. Our motivation is the same as we express in Lent. However uncommon, discipline is practiced by some; and is recommended to all wanting to be prepared for our visit with Jesus. Our sins can be acknowledged and our hearts swept clean of inappropriate thoughts. We can improve our prayers and praises and thanksgivings to God. We can be better stewards of God’s bounty. We can have our spiritual house in order and prepared for the joyous remembrance of Jesus’ nativity.
We identified similarities between Advent and Lent. There is also a big difference. Lent has a single path to the Crucifixion and Resurrection. Advent has two parallel paths. We anticipate the joyous celebration of the Nativity of Jesus, which will come in its own time. And at the same time, we must be penitent at the thought of facing His judgment, at a time we will not know. Our Epistle today provides guidance for maintaining the proper balance. “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”
“Not every man that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (St. Matthew vii. 21.)