Sunday, November 30, 2008
St. Clement’s Catholic Church; Saratoga Springs, NY
Isaiah 63: 16b – 17, 19b; 64: 2 – 7
Psalm 80: 2 – 3, 15 – 16, 18 – 19
1 Corinthians 1: 3 – 9
Mark 13: 33 – 37
There is a story about a family preparing Christmas dinner. As the mom and young daughter were working in the kitchen, the daughter noticed that her mom cut the Christmas ham into two pieces, placing them in two separate pans. She asked her mom, “Mom, why do you cut the ham into two pieces and place them in two pans?” To which the mom replied, “That’s the way your grandmother cooked ham. Ask her when she comes for dinner.” So when the grandmother came to the house that day, the young daughter asked, “Grandma, why do you cut the ham into two pieces and place them in two pans?” To which the grandmother replied, “That’s the way your great-grandmother cooked ham. Ask her when she comes for dinner.” So when the great-grandmother came to the house that day, the young daughter asked, “Great-Grandma, why do you cut the ham into two pieces and place them in two pans?” To which the grandmother replied, “I did? Oh yes, now I recall. I cut the ham into two pieces and placed in two pans because when your great-grandfather and myself were first married we didn’t have a pan big enough to hold the entire ham.”
Traditions. They are a part of our life and part of our family stories. We all have them and at times we may not even know what they are or why they exist. Our church family has many traditions and one we begin to celebrate today – the season of Advent. However, like many traditions that exist we may have forgotten exactly what it means and why we still celebrate them.
A major part of the tradition of Advent is the lighting of the Advent wreath. Now many of us, especially those who are young, would probably wish we could light all four candles today and just get to the celebration of Christmas. The wisdom of the Church is that we light the candles one week at a time and they help us to patiently wait for the celebration of Christmas. Each week another candle will be lit so that by the end of the Advent Season all four candles will be aflame and show us that the time to celebrate the birth of Christ the Light breaking into our world has come.
In the first reading from the prophet Isaiah we have a wonderful yet haunting line. Isaiah was writing at a time when Israel was in exile, things looked bleak for them and he laments that it seems God is nowhere to be found. Isaiah cries out: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you.” (Isaiah 63: 19) His cry is that God come down to fix things for Israel, to help them out of the dark situation they are in. Even today Isaiah’s cry could be ours. Our world is seemingly in a mess. The recent tragic events that occurred in India this past week, the financial crisis our country is experiencing, people continue to struggle to find food and clothing and employment, war and violence still rage throughout our planet and in our neighborhoods. It seems to be a bleak, dark time to live on planet earth. We too may want to raise our eyes to the heavens and cry out like Isaiah: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.” God come down to visit us and save us from the awful situation we find ourselves in.
The truth of the matter is that 2,000 years ago our God did split the heavens and visited us. In the still of a cold December night, God leapt down from the heavens and came to his people. His presence brought light into our world. Yet, we still yearn for that light. The season of Advent is a time for us to prepare to bring Christ into the world again. At Mary’s yes, the Word became flesh. We will not bring Christ into the world in a physical sense but our Advent preparation is to help us enable Christ to be brought into the world on a daily basis by the way we live our lives.
I am sure that over the years many a preacher has told you to be patient, to try and slow down during the month of December. That is the hustle and bustle of the season we need to stop and truly reflect on the great event that we are preparing to celebrate. We all have a long list of things to do: the cards need to be written and mailed out, the gifts need to be bought and wrapped, the cookies need to be baked, the tree needs to be bought, the lights need to be hung … the list is quite long. There is so much we need to do that it is just impossible to take a break. True, so what I ask all of us to do is to write the cards, bake the cookies, buy the gifts, hang the lights, put up the tree and that when every we do one of these things we remember why we are doing so. We write the cards to extend God’s blessing to our family and friends. We put up the lights to remind us that it is Christ who brings light to our darkened world. We bake cookies to remind us that the Word was made Flesh and comes to us each time we receive the Eucharist. We may not be able to completely stop and slow down but we can still prepare for the Birth of Christ as we reflect on why we do what we do this month.
For those of you who are parents, especially you who are mothers. Think about the time before the birth of your child. You probably wished the child would be born right away but for nine months the child grew in your womb. The time was needed for your child to grow and develop. You did not sit by idle but you were actively waiting. You painted a room, picked out clothing, choose a name – all the while waiting for the great event. Advent is very similar; we might want it to be December 25th right now but there is much that we need to do – we need to prepare ourselves to bring the Christ into the world again.
This past Friday we heard about the tragic events at the Walmart on Long Island. A worker was trampled to death as the doors of the store were opened on Black Friday. The tragedy was compounded by the fact that when shoppers were told the store was closing due to the tragic death, some of them replied: “But you can’t close the store. We’ve been waiting here since yesterday morning to get in and shop.” These men and women waited and when the time came their passion turned to tragedy. There time of waiting came to an end and the result brought death. We are people who are waiting to and hopefully when our waiting is over we can have similar passion that is unleashed but not a passion that causes death but a passion that brings life. A passion of a people who wish to bring Christ into the world. A passion that allows love to come to a world that seems devoid of love, a passion that brings peace to a world seemingly full of violence, a passion that brings joy and hope to a saddened planet, a passion that brings the light of Christ to a darkened world.
This is why we patiently wait. This is why we light one candle at a time, so that like the Advent wreath we may enflame our love for God slowly but surely. So, bake the cookies, hang the lights, write the cards and buy the presents but never forget the reason you are doing so. With each reminder of the Christmas Season we can prepare ourselves to allow Christ to enter the world. Our hope is that when Christmas day dawns we may be full of light, love and joy. We may be people who have prepared well; that we may be people who are like Mary and allow the Word of God to enlighten the world.
Patience. Prepare. Watch. Is part of the tradition of our Catholic family.
AMEN!
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