First Sunday of Advent, 1996 (#2)

End of Time

This is the first Sunday of Advent and it takes up some of the same themes, or the major theme, rather, of the past few weeks, which is this "end of time." And in a sense you could say that they sort of collapse the end of times and the period of Advent where the culmination of human history, we believe, is the appearance of Jesus and a sense of a very clear end of the old aeon; the end of the old time, and the beginning of , as Paul would say, a "New Creation." The warning here in Mark is the same one we've seen in Luke in the past couple of weeks; namely, to "stay awake." Well, that's all very nice, but what do you do in London, Ontario in 1996? I just came from Masonville, unfortunately I had to go over there, and, sure enough, there's no parking places... They've been playing Christmas Carols there for the past two weeks... What is Advent in this context? It's interesting that in the Middle ages, I'm not so sure that it was rightly called the Age of the Faith, in any case, certain forms of the Christian faith were much more determinative of the way society ran..., they used to talk about the twelve days of Christmas; namely, Christmas was extended from December Twenty-fifth to what used to be called Epiphany, January Sixth... That's where you get partridges and pear trees and all that other business... But there was this sense that Christmas ought to be expanded. Now contrast that with the normal situation here; I will predict that around eight o'clock the evening of December Twenty-fifth, or, certainly by eight o'clock the morning of December Twenty-sixth, most of us will be sitting back saying "Thank God it's over for another year." There is this enormous sense of relief and gratitude. I know in my neighbourhood Christmas trees will be out by one o'clock on the boulevard on Christmas Day--several houses already have them up.

What do you do with Advent? Stay awake for what?--the sales at Zellers, or stay awake for a parking place at White Oaks so you don't have to drive around for a half-hour as you people will have to do? I don't know... I truly do not know... But, given the enormous difficulties, I'd like to make a proposal on the basis of this passage from Isaiah. It talks about trying to become aware of our own sinfulness. How does one go about doing that when most of us are so pre-occupied with shopping lists, and the liquor cabinet being full enough for when company comes over, and who is going to go to what party... Well, this is my proposal: that every day from now until Christmas, I'm proposing that you take a minimum of five minutes and absolutely shut down everything... And one of the things you can do during those five minutes is say: "What can I do without so that I don't get completely unfocused, or completely exhausted, by preparations?" --Preparations which seem to prepare for what, I'm not entirely sure, the way things are working. I think that's a really useful exercise. Is this visit necessary? Is this cooking necessary? Is this planning necessary? Are all these activities necessary? I think that can be helpful. And that can be readily followed by, I think, this other larger question; namely, my readiness to receive the Advent of the Divine Presence in my life by looking at what obscures, or what obstructs that. I mean, sheer business, of course, is the first layer of problems. If we even get beyond the question of sheer business, then the more substantial issue arises: "Okay, if I'm not going to dissipate myself for the next three and a half weeks, then what am I going to do?" And then the question that Isaiah raises can be introduced: "Where have I failed in my humanity?" Because that's what sin is, at least as far as the Bible's concerned. The regular Biblical term for sin is deformity, failure, and it's always failure to be a human being as the Bible describes being a human being; namely, this character who is fully attentive to her or his world and all the people in that world that one will encounter...

This sounds fairly meagre. How are you going to resist Canadian Tire, saving like Scrooge and spending like Santa, or however they work that out, I can never keep it straight; and Eaton's; and Wal-Mart; and Zellers; and the whole panoply of seductions...Because that's what they are, they seduce away from this quiet, this wakefulness, this attentiveness to ourselves so that when we can think about the Advent of God into our lives.

Advent... Let us try again this year to use it in such a time that there really is something to celebrate at Christmas-Time--beside the fact that it's all over by the time it gets here.

To other sermons