1st Sunday of Advent – Katharine Armentrout
Asking Questions as We Wait
The lighting of that Advent candle on the wreath creates a light of love and hope that shines into our winter darkness. That light also shines into the beginning of our liturgical year. It lights our way into Advent – the time when we prepare for the coming of the Christ child AND we prepare for the coming of Christ at the end of the age.
You see Advent carries both meanings. Advent means that we are not just waiting for Mary and Joseph to get to Bethlehem and the birth of the Christ-child, but we are also anticipating that consummation of the promise that Jesus will come at the end of time in Great glory. As one writer said: “[Advent] is a time to reflect on the unexpected nature of Jesus’ humble birth and join in the anticipation of when he will come again to reunite Heaven and Earth once and for all.”
The very name “Advent” comes from Latin, meaning ‘a coming’ or ‘arrival’; and its concept comes to us from the earliest time of the church, before the gospels were even written. The early church was waiting, waiting for the “parousia”- for the promised second coming of Christ. For His Advent. And it is this waiting that is the focus of our Advent season.
Now, for those of us old enough to remember, Advent had a definite penitential overtone…a worrying, almost a dread waiting for judgment. In fact, there was a time when fasts were called for during Advent; and until relatively recently, the color for Advent was the color purple – the color we use for the penitential period of Lent.
But the Church, and we as people of faith, have come to focus on this time as one of hope. It has become less penitential and more about a prayerful time of anticipation and preparation; the hoped-for fulfillment of God’s promises. Advent now is not so much about being penitential, or, worrying about what is to come, as it is a time to prepare, both as individuals and as a community of faith, to be ready for the arrival of Jesus and His transforming call to love and ministry.
Thus I think we can see this time as a season of hope, a chance for new birth and a renewal of our commitments as people of faith, as we await His coming. As a symbol of that sense of hope and deep spiritual waiting, we now use Sarum blue liturgically, a color that brings us a spirit of hope and inner peace.
So the question becomes what do we do in Advent? Do we sit and passively wait? I don’t think so. What do you do when you are waiting for someone’s arrival? You prepare. Now I don’t have to tell you that the Big Box stores have been preparing for Christmas since the beginning of October!! And it is not just retailers who are jumping the season. Coming home from the prison last Monday evening, still in the month of November, Terry and I saw many houses that already had their Christmas lights on and their Santa Claus figurines out in the front yard.
But I think they are not only rushing the season, they are missing the very important parts of preparation – what this season is all about. Preparation is not only decorating the house, buying presents and sending out our Christmas cards. Advent offers us important time to take stock. To take stock of how we are living out our lives of faith. Getting ready for the arrival of our Lord, I think, means that we need to take the time to assess just how He will find us when He arrives. Will he find us as faithful witnesses to His love, find us at work telling His story?
I think Jesus paints a picture of what we need to be doing while we are waiting in our Gospel this morning – Together, together as a group, we are called to care for His household while we wait. Jesus says, “When the homeowner leaves his house, he puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Keep awake.” I think Jesus is telling us that as we wait, we need to be about the tasks he has given to us as His church, and that we all need to be working together.
In order to do that we need to look at how we are doing those tasks and how well we are using the gifts for those tasks that we have been given by the Holy Spirit.
In other words, I think that Advent is the time when we are called to take an inventory of our faith-life. That may sound business-like but spiritual directors from earliest times have encouraged a faith-life inventory. Confession is one way to do such inventory. It is an important assessment for those of us who try to live out our baptismal promises. But confession is normally done individually. We try to look, as a friend likes to say, at “the ways we have fallen short of glory of God”.
But I think we are also called at this time of Advent to look at ourselves as Holy Family, as Christ’s church in the community. We need to take a look at how we, Holy Family, are living out our call as witnesses to Christ’s never-failing love. I think we are called to examine how we are being “church” to our parishioners, and equally importantly, how we are being church to those in our community.…
Paul, in most of his letters, was writing to the churches, not to individuals. It was the “church” which was to carry forward the Good News of Christ. He counseled them on how to be church, how to carry the message of Jesus to others, and, at times, chastising them for the ways they were falling short. In other words, his letters helped the churches take a long look at their life as a community living out God’s love.
So does Holy Family do something like that? Is there a way to take our spiritual inventory? Yes, at year’s end all the committees submit their Annual reports for the work that they have been given to do. Just a look at our Touchstone for this week tells you that we have many committees hard at work here, and there will be a new one that will work to incorporate new members. All of this is important to our functioning as “church”.
But, and you knew that I would have a “but”, while the facts reported out by the committees in our Annual Report are one aspect of our life together and are very important, they don’t comprise all that we are called to be as “church”. As Church, we are called to be “the Body of Christ” in the world. To do that we need to worship together, learn together, to seek and serve Christ in all people. I think we need to be in conversation about what might the Holy Spirit have in mind for us? And how are we doing spiritually? Conversations are needed.
The Holy Spirit is here to stir us up, to goad us into study, into asking questions and wrestling with what other things we, as Holy Family, need to be doing as “church” in this place. You might wonder what are some of the questions that might be asked when doing a spiritual inventory of our church. Some of the questions could be: How close are we to living out our Mission statement? How are we following up with the ideas for “church” generated by our Small Group Input sessions? To enrich our spiritual lives, do we need to be more attentive to study and learning? Are there different ways we can do worship and prayer? Do we need to find ways to be more present to our older folks? Do we need to be connecting with other churches to help the needs in Jasper? In other words, what might the Spirit be calling us to do in the New Year as God’s people that might not be captured in a committee report?
And I think our church teachings make it clear that each person here today should be involved in this inventory-taking. Certainly the Vestry and George, the Committee chairs, should be involved, but also each of us should participate. Just like our gospel today makes clear – many are needed to take care of the Master’s house. You might ask: “Why should I be involved? I am not on a committee or on the Vestry”
Yet each person here this morning is a minister of the church by virtue of his or her baptism. Did you know that? You are each a minister. Under the teachings of the church, found on page 855 of the Prayer Book, Lay people are listed first in answer to the question: “Who are the ministers of the church?” The answer reads “The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests and deacons.” While George and Ted, and other priests and deacons, are called to serve at the table, it is you, “all you all”, who are also ministers of this church. With the privileges and also the responsibilities of that role.
This comes from our teachings as the church. Look at page 855 of the prayerbook and you will see that I am not making this up: “The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church.” “To take their place in the life, worship and governance of the church”.
I think Holy Family needs each of you faithful souls to be part of this inventory of how we are doing as the Church of the Holy Family and where God might be calling the church.
And so, as we wait in this season of Advent for the coming of Christ, the season lighted by the Advent lights of love and hope, my prayer is that this time of waiting for the arrival of our Lord will be a time of intentional and prayerful waiting – a time of questions, a time of reflection, a time of wondering what God is calling each of us to do, and a time of dreaming about how Holy Family could be even more a beacon of Christ’s presence in our world. Amen