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Advent 1 (Year A)
BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER LECTIONARY FOR MASS REVISED COMMON LECTIONARY
I was glad when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the LORD!
Homily Service
of eschatological hope. From out of Jerusalem comes the word of the Lord, and this is one of the most powerful of eschatological hopes. Nation shall not lift sword against nation nor ever again be trained for war. Biblical hope, in other words, centers not on vindication or triumph but on the achievement of everlasting peace. Jerusalem is exalted as the source of this message, for whose realization all nations search. Romans 13:(8) 1114 (all) Here we meet the images that we associate with Advent: night and day, this time and the fullness of time, sleep and wake, darkness and light. The word salvation is understood by Paul as communal rather than individual. He has in mind the coming of the end time rather than a particular persons death. The deeds of darkness and works of light distinguish the one who is in Christ from the one who is not. No allowance is needed for the deeds of sin, because the faithful one has put on the Lord Jesus Christ, the armor of light.
Faced with the celebration of the nativity of Christ, and the final coming of the Son of Man at the end of the world, we need to be thinking in a dual way. Essentially the both come to the same point. The arrival of the Lord evokes our anticipation and preparation. As we think about gifts, cares, trees, decoration and entertainment, the challenge offered is to remember the meaning of what we are doing. The Lord 44
comes, bringing new life to us. We admonish ourselves to do more spiritual preparation. While we are motivated to prepare spiritually for the feast, we are also burdened by the tasks to be completed and the expectations to be lled. Add to that our daily lives, and we are primed for overload. We can easily fall into the trap of thinking that spiritual preparation is something beyond and above what we have already done. We want to reclaim the wonder we experienced when we were young, and each day dragged long as we approached the day itself when our deepest desires would be fullled. Most adults and many children, however, do not experience Advent and Christmas as seasons of merriment but rather of too much and of not enough. Too many memories of unfullled dreams, too much food and alcohol, too much work, too much commercialization, too busy. Not enough time and money, not enough love and energy, not enough prayer and peace and, for some, not enough food and clothing. Occasionally we do not have even enough time to know what we are feeling. How can we prepare for our own death and risen body? We know not when either occurs. Like a red alert, we are to be prepared all the time for anything. Someone said that preparation is nding the Lord in each task we do and discovering the Lord in every person we meet. God sancties us, and from that we become aware of the truth of Christs presence, and we desire to acknowledge the presence to ourselves and others. Isaiah 2:15 stirs us this year because places that are beating their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks are now visible. Nation shall not life up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. This years Olympic competition will not turn into wars. But there is still much farther to travel: Tragic civil wars resulting in massive destruction and starvation ravage the world. We must continue to take our stand against the deeds of darkness and night. We must instead strive to live in the light of Christ. In this season of preparation we anticipate the new creation where there will be justice and peace.
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Lo! He comes with clouds descending, once for favored sinners slain; Thousand, thousand saints attending sell the triumph of his train: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Christ the Lord returns to reign.
Excerpt from Charles Wesley, LBW, #27.
2. The night is far spent; the day draws near. (Romans 13:12) Passing away, saith the World, passing away: Chances, beauty, and youth, sapped day by day: The life never continueth in one stay. Is the eye waxen dim, is the dark hair changing to grey That hath won neither laurel nor bay? I shall clothe myself in Spring and bud in May: Thou, root-stricken, shall not rebuild thy decay On my bosom for aye. Then I answered: Yea. .... Passing away, saith my God, passing away: Winter passeth after the long delay: New grapes on the vine, new gs on the tender spray, Turtle calleth turtle in Heavens May. Though I tarry, wait for Me, trust Me, watch and pray: Arise, come away, night is past and lo it is day, My love, My sister, My spouse, thou shalt hear Me say. Then I answered: Yea.
Excerpt from Christina Rossetti, Old and New Year Ditties, in Literary Companion to the Lectionary, ed. Mark Pryce (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001) 23.
3. You must be prepared. (Matthew 24:44) I tell you, dont let your hearts grow numb Stay alert. It is your soul which matters. If only these wordswords in which I am laying bare my inmost thoughts could force you to destroy the deceit 46
Homily Service
the Lord Jesus Christ). He speaks of putting on the armor of light: spiritual aerobics to strengthen us in the coming year. The living honorably builds our spiritual muscle; the contrast of light and darkness symbolizes the opposition of good and evil; and putting on Jesus Christ provides the mode of daily living that strengthens and protects our gains. We begin this new year with the Gospel of Matthew, who takes Christs own words to unite Advent and Christmas/Epiphany. The coming of the son of man is repeated several times and then, your Lord is coming. Advent is both our coming to God and Gods coming to us. Our yearnings for an unnamed satisfaction is named as the coming of the chosen One. Jesus speaks beyond Christmas: his rst coming as God-man to the gentiles. Jesus tells us of that great nal Epiphany when the chosen One shall come in clouds of glory, gathering about him all the faithful of the earth. Advent is the time to be open to the unexpected intrusion of God, to experience God in unique and special ways, to accept the embrace of the divine becoming one with us. Advent speaks birth; it also speaks Advent speaks resurrection.
Babies and children around the world kept dying this past week. Some public figures kept lying to their people on all continents. Heavy storms took many lives last week. Gunre took many more. What about this rhetoric in which we engage: the unexpected intrusion of God; the embrace of the divine becoming one with us? Are we believers in Jesus the Christ some of the last unrealists on the globe? People worked in intensive-care units and emergency rooms last week. Some people taught other people to read last week, as a way out of their poverty and misery. All kinds of things happened to help people have life and to begin anew. Without that new life, the promise of risen glory makes little sense. Many people did these things because their belief in Jesus, the One who is coming, is the rm conviction that God fullls every promise.
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