Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
Preparing
for Christmas: Close,….
12/9/2018 Advent 2-C
The word “ADVENT” isn’t used much in
common speech - its a kind of churchy word, or a more formal-sounding
word. If we spoke in a formal kind of
way about our Grammy coming to visit, we might say that, “I’m looking forward
to Grammy’s advent.” That’s what the word advent means… If we were writing a paper about technology,
we might comment on the advent of the television, or the advent of the
internet. A synonym might be the arrival,
or appearance, or emergence of a period or a person.
The Church calendar calls these Sundays before we celebrate
Christ’s actual nativity, the season of Advent, a time of looking towards, and
preparing for Christ’s arrival. Our
lectionary readings during Advent have to do with Jesus’ birth as well as the arrival of Christ at the
end of times - the two can get rather mixed in prophecy. Preparing for Christ’s arrival, however or
whenever, is perhaps the shortest way to describe the meaning.
For those of us
who already worship Christ, who already seek to follow and serve Christ, who
already seek to live according Christ’s good news of the realm of God- what
does this preparing mean? Christ is
already with us, filling our hearts and minds and imaginations - we’ve
already made Christ welcome.
Of course, as much as
we’ve welcomed Christ to our life, or opened our life to God, or as much as
we’ve answered yes when God sound and found us (to be more theologically
correct), there is always more. As
we live with Christ, we discover more closed doors and secret places in ourselves,
more longings in ourselves that are not yet open to God. We aren’t ever totally transformed into the
image of Christ Jesus. St Teresa of
Avila spoke of the inner journey of following Christ as one of exploring a
great castle, starting with the grounds just inside the wall, then hearing the
voice of God calling us into the next room which is bigger inside than out;
then the next room, and so on and so on - closer and closer, more and more
depth, more and more lost in love. As
long as we live, Christ can continue calling us closer.
Our growing relationship with God is
the same kind of thing with the coming of the kindom of God, the realm of
Christ, which has both come into the world through Jesus Christ, and yet is
still coming into the world as we live out the good news, and one day will be
here in full. So its both here, and coming. At the same time.
Now that’s confusing at first. In attempting to find a good analogy, I once
looked to my garden and the yellow squash plants. I planted a flat seed in the
ground, and watched as a little spout came up with its split seed carried on a
stem; then its first true leaves. Now,
already, at this point, it IS
a squash plant, right? It could be sold
at the garden center at this point, with the label yellow squash. ts not fully leafed out, nor flowered, nor
been pollinated, nor grown a yellow squash - but it (IS already a squash
plant. It is both a squash plant now,
with the promise of being more of a squash plant in the future. Then it puts
out all those large leaves as it takes in the sun’s energy and grows; then comes
the day when buds appear, and then the flowers open. Some of those flowers, with the right
pollination, will start to grow little yellow squashes. And more yellow squashes. And then more yellow squashes than we know
what to do with. The stem coming out of
the ground gets thick, and turns this way or that. All the time its a squash plant, however,
from when it first emerges until it comes to fruition and fulfills its
purpose.
So the realm of God came in Christ
Jesus, grows with the addition of all who believe, and is not yet what it will
be. So as we have Christ in our heart,
we then deepen our faithfulness as we live through life with God, and yet
Christ is still calling us on to what we will be in the future.
We have to keep an eye on our squash
plants - there are a bunch of molds and insects that can damage, even kill
them. And they need water and sun;
fertilizer can help, too, if the ground isn’t great. Now that honey bees have become endangered,
I’ve read about people going out with paint brushes, and transferring pollen by
hand from the pollen flowers to the bearing flowers. So there is still attention that needs to be
paid, and preparations made for the squashes to grow. The same with our life following Christ, and
growing in the realm of God. So there
is still the promise of more; even though we have opened ourselves and our
lives to Christ, we still have preparations to welcome Christ even more fully.
St Teresa of Avila, that I mentioned earlier, says that it
is Christ who calls to us from the future, and calls us into the next room of
the castle, as she calls the journey of faith.
It is God’s Spirit who creates that longing in our soul for more depth,
more understanding, more service, more depth.
We may initially feel this as a restlessness or disquiet. A friend of
mine called me recently to talk of an urge to look at seminary, something that
has occurred to her off and on over the last year - and since she has a career
in music that she loves, and even does music for her church, this has bugged
her and not gone away. Not that she saw
herself preaching, she quickly added - its not so much that she feels a call to
ministry - its more like wanting to dig deeper into the Bible, and to be able
to help those who asked her questions.
She is feeling that tug towards going further with her faith; a step
deeper wooing her, in the language of spirituality. Christ is calling.
For me, its been what I call “following my nose” - something
I hear about or read about intrigues me, and seems inviting to me, seems to
offer answers or insights for my questions - I have to go explore it and find
what this next thing God is calling to me from.
For example, when I was doing a youth ministry after college, the pastor
there told me that the Presbyterians had women at their seminary, and was
ordaining them. I was intrigued - as a
young woman, I was taught that only men
were preachers, although women did a lot as missionaries, and often led music
programs. That’s where I assumed I was
headed. But here was an opportunity to
study the Bible more, and test that odd idea that I might be called to ministry
among those Presbyterians about whom I knew only a little. I had met some Presbyterians, and they seemed
okay faith-wise. So I decided to give it
a year and see what happened.
While at seminary, I was intrigued by the worship professor
who, along with his spouse, led silent reflective retreats. I took a class with him, and learned about
the ancient art of soul friends, or spiritual direction. I did a silent retreat
with the class, and experienced prayer in a deeper way than I had. I decided that when I graduated, I would seek
a spiritual director. So I did; then did
a training course, where I heard about something else, followed my nose to that
and got a D. Min.
Some growth experiences were more like rabbit holes that I
tripped in, and fell, like Alice in Wonderland, to a far land - a land of
grief, loss and emptiness. So far, these
have also turned out, after a time of grieving, to be further rooms in that
castle of the soul with God. So the
journey is not really in our own hands to direct….God is calling, and sometimes
God’s ways are not our ways. Malachi’s
text asks, “Who can endure the days of the messenger’s advent? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like
a refining fire…” Sometimes the next
room of the castle is this kind of place - a place of examination of buried
motives, and letting the light of God shine on our places of wrong decisions,
or festering hurts.
You know, as we talk about it, John the Baptist’s quotes
from the Hebrew Scripture are apt - valleys filled in, and mountains brought
low - we are healed in some places and humbled in others - but the whole point
is to make a way for Christ into our life, a way that is level and straight, a
way that welcomes and is made ready. And God’s Spirit
is the one who does the road building.
When the Spirit moves us to look more deeply into Scripture,
then there is something in there for us.
When the Spirit nudges us to make our prayer life more important, there
is something going on that is from God.
When we finally give in to being healed of an addiction, God is
calling. When we realize we need to quit
a practice we know is wrong, that is the Spirit. When we find ourselves coming
to church seeking for something - we aren’t sure what, but somehow we’ve been
drawn here - that is God calling. And in
all of these, we are preparing for Christ’s Advent, Christ’s birth in a new way
in our lives.
Rather than try and resist, let us recognize that God is
calling us to a new thing, a deeper faith, a deeper understanding, a renewed
commitment - whatever it is, it is important to prepare the way for
Christ. In this season, may we feel the
working of the Spirit building a road into our hearts, and like Mary, say
“Yes.” AMEN.
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