FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT DECEMBER 3, 2017
The weather app I consult first thing each morning contains a segment stating the times of first light, sunrise, sunset, and last light. It also has a little circular graphic depicting the hours of light and darkness in the day, darkness on the bottom of the circle and daylight on the top. Today, for instance (Thursday, November 30), we will have ten hours and nineteen minutes of light and the remainder of our twenty-four hours will be spent in darkness.
As I consider what I might be able to do in a day, I realize the daylight hours will be full and go by quickly. I would like more time in the light, and I look forward already to the turn in the year that will make daylight longer.
This is a fitting time, therefore, for Advent to begin. It is a short season of waiting and watching for the light of Christ—for Christ’s coming, both the first and the second.
Our readings from scripture this Sunday bring promises of the gift of strength for us in the meantime of our waiting, of the durable words of Christ that will never pass away, and of our being restored and renewed by His appearing. What they ask of us is to be alert and aware, to stay awake in the darkness.
In the darkness of our world, which seems more uncertain and confusing by the day, what we find when we gather together is light and hope and peace. And we take these with us when we go back out into our world as light-bearers.
I hope you are able to come this Sunday to become part of the light, both in our worship at 10 a.m. and also in the Festival of Lessons and Carols that will usher in the season at 4 p.m. These are both ways we can follow Jesus’ command to “Keep awake!”
As we draw closer to Advent, the hours of daylight grow shorter, a reality reflected in our lectionary readings for these last Sundays of the Church year. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they are not living in darkness, that they are “children of light and children of the day.” As they await Christ’s coming again, they are to arm themselves with “the breastplate of faith and love” and “for a helmet the hope of salvation.” This will help them remember that “God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation” through Christ. We need this encouragement, too.
Our gospel lesson, the second of the three great parables concluding Matthew’s “apocalyptic discourse,” is the familiar parable of the talents. Our readings of this parable usually focus on the “talents” themselves, their value and the use to which they are put. We might do well to consider instead the attitudes of the three slaves (us) toward their master (God). How each sees the Master—as hard, demanding, punishing or as good, generous, creative—determines how each will live, both now and in the age to come. What is your image of God?
This Sunday at the baptism of Hudson Morgan Israel, as we gather at the font, we will sing Hymn 490 from The Hymnal, 1982, “I want to walk as a child of the light.” The refrain says, “In him there is no darkness at all. The night and the day are both alike. The Lamb is the light of the city of God. Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.” In our prayers for Hudson, we will ask for that light to be within him and known to him all of his life. We will promise to help him know God as loving, generous, and kind. We pray the same for all of our children and for ourselves.
Following the All Saints’ Sunday vision of the New Jerusalem in which all God’s children are present together, the Sundays that close the long season after Pentecost begin to look toward Christ’s coming again. For the next three Sundays our gospel lessons will come from Matthew’s “apocalyptic discourse.” The most interesting aspect of this portion of Matthew is not the discourse itself, but the three great parables he tells at its close.
This Sunday we will read the first of these, the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. This is a parable about how to live in the “meantime,” the time between Christ’s resurrection and his coming again to usher in the Kingdom. Not only does Jesus admonish his followers to “keep awake,” to be alert, he also tells us to prepare ourselves by doing the patient, consistent work of looking out for Christ and doing the things he has taught us to do. We are to be vigilant and ready to act in the service of Christ.
This Sunday will also be the day following Veterans Day, and we will remember in our prayers all who “in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy.” We will also pray “that we may not rest until all people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines” (Prayer for Heroic Service, BCP 839). As part of our remembrance, you will see the names of Christ Church parishioners who served in World War II displayed on either side of the west vestibule doors, where they were painted in the years following the war. The preservation of these names is the loving work of Christ Church archivists Lucy Rouse and Carolyn Levensailor, and their present display is the work of present archivist Douglas Kearley. Douglas has also provided “remembrance” poppies for the day, honoring a continuing custom in Great Britain, where this “Remembrance Sunday” honors those who served in World War I.
Like many who have gone before us, we live in an uncertain and challenging world, when it would be easy to give in to fear, to anxious reactions to threats around us. The faith we have received provides us with the tools we need to stay alert and to continue the work we have been given to do in our time. I am thankful that we are free to gather for worship and work together as the Cathedral Family.
Wednesday of this week (November 1) was All Saints' Day, a major feast that is so central to the life of the Church that it may be transferred to the Sunday following. This is exactly what we will do this week on All Saints' Sunday. All Saints' is the day of awareness of the unity of the living and the dead through the eternal presence in God of all things, all creatures. Ilia Delio, a Franciscan sister and scientist has written, "God is not a super-natural Being hovering above earth, but the supra-personal whole, the Omega, who exists in all and through all."
Our lessons from scripture this week capture some of the elements of this vast, cosmic reality. We will begin with a reading from Revelation that describes the "vast multitude" of souls gathered in worship before the throne and the Lamb. This is a glimpse of the center of the New Jerusalem, the universal and eternal worship that takes place before the throne of God-at the end of the age and eternally. We participate in it as we anticipate it, even as we recreate the memorial of Christ's sacrifice each week. The first letter of John underlines our becoming by reminding readers "we are God's children now" while "what we will be has not yet been revealed." But that's not all: "when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is." The Gospel lesson from Matthew's Sermon on the Mount contains "The Beatitudes," a listing of the blessings God will bestow on believers in the new age, which are also requirements now for entering the kingdom of God.