Christmas Eve & Day 1

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
Houston, TX
By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Christmas Eve (Christmas Day 1)
The Nativity of our Lord
24 December 2006

Text: Luke 2: 1-14 [15-20]; Isaiah 9: 2-7
Others: Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11-14

“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; & he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” People are often surprised when this passage was neither written by George Frederick Handel nor a New Testament writer describing Jesus birth directly. In fact, Isaiah lived & penned these about 700 years before Jesus was born. He spoke of a new creation as deep darkness gives way to light, & more & more the Hebrew people came to look for a Savior, a Messiah, who would free the have-nots from the tyranny of whatever foreign occupation currently ruled them.

Tonight we sing a new song to God who created us & who recreates us in Jesus Christ, and we hear the nativity narrative which is so familiar that we forget how ironic the details are: a baby born in a royal line from King David & destined to be Messiah is born out where the animals are housed—placed in a feed trough. Mary wraps him in bands of cloth—provided by whoever took pity on this poor couple. How frustrating to Joseph not to be able to provide better accommodations for his Mary & the baby boy!

What about those shepherds? Although they’re not afforded a star to follow across the sky, an angel & then a multitude of angels appear out of nowhere to beckon them to the manger to adore the Christ child. At least some of the shepherds trek into town to locate the baby with his Mom & Joseph who don’t actually hear the angels themselves but hear about it from the mangy shepherds. Do we shut off good news because we hear it from an unexpected messenger? Yet, a child has been born for us, a son given us, just as he was to the Holy Parents.

Through the centuries, Christians have pondered the circumstances of the incoming of God’s Kingdom in the world, not through coercive tactics or displays of power, but in the ordinary circumstances of human life.

In 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was listening to Christmas bells 6 months after the battle of Gettysburg, aching for his wounded son as he penned

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

“There is no peace on earth,” I said,

“For hate is strong And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep,

God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.

The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!

Recently, I’ve re-heard the story of the two opposing armies during World War I who laid down their arms on Christmas Eve to join each other in verses of “Silent Night,” the carol of Peace on Earth sung in whatever language, even in wartime.

Christmas Eves past have varied drastically for me. One mark of my growing up was the year I was allowed to stay up for the Midnight “Watch Night” service (after all, we were Methodists back then) after which I participated in setting out my little sister’s “Santa” around my grandparents’ tree. I have to admit that being “grown up” was not without its detractors as I learned the precious tea cart I would have given my eye teeth for was intended for my sister. The holy child was born for both of us anew that Christmas, a son given even to those of us of tender years.

The Christmas I was “great with child” myself sparkled with the magic & mystery of the snow-bedecked Bavarian Christmas trees, our first away from family yet blessed with a church family who provided the necessities for the babe who came, mercifully, 3 days later with the help of German “schwestern” & a midwife who spoke no more English than I spoke German that year. Though in that Christmas I felt most connected to the “child born for us, the son given to us,” it was a world apart from the next Christmas when our little family was torn asunder by divorce, & only the church family surrounded the boys & me as we limped through the holidays far from home. Yet, that child born for all of us sustained each of us through a season when we felt pretty bereft.

Several years later, a new husband made sure I made it to family Christmas mass at a new church despite recent gall bladder surgery & a walking cast. We & 4 little boys threaded our way through a passel of small “sheep” with leotards & cotton ball tails to the front row, participated in a Christmas pageant as professional as ours was at 5:30 this evening, & then comforted a small teary-eyed Michael who sobbed—not because one of the older boys had socked him one, but because he had lost his first tooth during Communion & wondered if Santa Claus & the tooth fairy would come in the same night. Amazingly, they both made it that year as did the child born of Mary came again in our hearts the year the 6 of us stood outside with lighted candles praying one minute for every day Americans were held as hostages in Iran. That same Christ child was with the hostages that year as I believe the savior was also available in some personage with those who held them captive. He was once again the Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace.

The coming of the Savior this year is entangled with layers of significance as I’ve been able to be with all 4 of Bill’s & my boys as well as other relatives and, in 2 different ceremonies, we are laying to rest Bill’s ashes, moving into a new phase of my life when two younger generations nourish me as “Oma”. We still have 3 “mothers” who came before, & nothing pleasures me more than getting to spend time with both my granddaughters at this holy time as I learn once again how to be the surviving spouse.

We hear much of the Biblical Mother Mary at this time of year & know little beyond her having joined the community of disciples sometime during Jesus’ public life, the Mother present at his crucifixion, burial, & resurrection. She became one of the first apostles to spread the good news of God’s salvation throughout the earth.

What will YOU ponder through this Christmas season? What difference will the Christ child’s coming to ordinary shepherds make in YOUR life? What response will you make to the angels’ message of hope & call for peace when you leave here tonight? How will the child born for us, the son given to us, invite you to cooperate in the bringing in of peace & good will to ALL people when you go forth from this Eucharist this evening? Lo, unto you—and me—and all of us, indeed all the world, a child is born, a son is given!

Advent IV

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
Worshipping with St. James’ Lutheran Church
Houston, TX
By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C Advent IV
24 December 2006

Text: Luke 1: 39-45 [46-55]
Other Readings: Micah 5: 2-5a; Canticle 15; Hebrews 10: 5-10

Welcome to the 4^th Sunday of Advent. Tonight will be Christmas. And today we focus on Mary the mother of Jesus as we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s coming among us. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary in what we call the Annunciation, her immediate response to his invitation to her was that although she didn’t see how she could be the mother of Jesus since she was still a virgin, she was willing to do whatever God willed for her.

Mary’s next action was to connect with an older relative, her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant for the first time. Isn’t that typical of a teenaged girl, to seek comfort & advice from an older woman? And what an incredible situation for them each to find themselves in: Elizabeth finally birthing the longed-for son, John the Baptist, a half-century after usual child-bearing years; & Mary, just past childhood herself & still single, preparing for the birth of God’s own son.

We know, just as Mary does, that Elizabeth is pregnant also, but Elizabeth has had no angelic visitation to tell her about Mary’s pregnancy, yet when Mary arrives & greets Elizabeth, John leaps for joy in his mother’s womb, & Elizabeth interprets that action as his greeting to Mary’s child whom she calls “my Lord.” John the Baptist’s leaping in Elizabeth’s womb might remind us of Rebekah’s twins Esau & Jacob who struggled in her womb. It was the younger twin Jacob who gained his father’s blessing & became the leader. Likewise, Jesus, the younger cousin, became greater than John the Baptist.

Elizabeth’s response is a Holy Spirit-inspired oracle or song of praise honoring Mary, both because Mary is carrying the Christ child, but also because she is willing to allow God to use her for such a special purpose. Mary responds to the Word of God as a disciple eager to do God’s will. It is Mary’s faith which Elizabeth praises the most. Elizabeth shows her humility in relationship to this younger cousin when she asks what she’s done to deserve the honor of greeting her Lord’s mother. Of course, the answer is that neither Elizabeth nor Mary has done anything to deserve the honors given to them. The Spirit chooses whom it will & only waits for the chosen ones to say yes.

Then, of course, Mary responds to her cousin—but also to all of us who may speculate on the significance of such out-of-the-ordinary happenings. The praise psalm with which Mary bursts forth is usually called the “Magnificat” because of the first word of the hymn in Latin. Let’s look today at the amazing hymn that Mary sings, not praising Elizabeth or either of their babies but rather praising God through whom all the exciting changes in hers & Elizabeth’s lives are happening.

In the first half of the Magnificat, Mary takes a look at herself & recognizes that God’s choice of her to be bearer of the Messiah is an incredible gift. Hers is a joyful psalm of praise for a God whom she’s encountered personally & whom she calls her Lord & Savior since he has chosen her, a young peasant girl, to bear this special child. She highlights her lowly position by calling herself his servant; Mary thinks of herself in solidarity with the poor. And when she says that all generations will call her blessed, the honor is due to God’s use of her, not because of any goodness that she has exhibited but rather because of the trust which God has placed in her by relying on her to fulfill this task. She restates when she says that God has done great things & it is God’s name which is holy. She takes no credit herself.

The second part of the Magnificat expands this incredible choice which God has made in having the peasant Mary bear God’s son. Now Mary recognizes that God’s ways are indeed not the ways of humans & that what God has begun in her, God will continue by turning the usual priorities of the world upside down. She says that God’s mercy is available for those who fear him now & in the future. “Fear” here really means “honors with great awe” or “recognizes God as sovereign.” God showers mercy on those who recognize & honor God as sovereign. One of the ways we recognize that God is in charge of our lives is to come together as we do today to worship God, to offer praises as well as prayers to God in the midst of a faithful community. Our sharing worship as two faith communities is part of God’s work of reconciliation in the world. Regular worship helps us keep our perspective in remembering that God is God & we aren’t.

When Mary speaks of God’s showing strength with God’s arm, we are reminded of all the times in the Old Testament that God acts decisively either to provide for the chosen people or to chastise them when they are behaving like everything is up to them. After all, isn’t that where we get in trouble many times; when we think that God can’t act without our brilliant minds to decide what’s best? Mary says that God’s response to our arrogance is to scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. I’ve seen many a drug addict or alcoholic who stumbled just when he or she thought their way was better than God’s & tried to outdo the recovery program. How often do we have to have the thoughts of our hearts jumbled before we realize that God really does know best & wants us to respond instead of rebel?

We might argue with Mary when she says that God has brought down the powerful from their thrones & lifted up the lowly. We might say that the powerful still look pretty powerful to us & that we still feel pretty ineffectual. Two things are important to understand here. First, even though Mary describes God’s actions on behalf of the poor & dispossessed as already having been accomplished, we know that in many ways, we will not see such an upheaval in our world until the end of it when Christ returns in glory. Mary uses the past tense to affirm her certainty that that is how God acts. In addition, if we affirm that God’s ways are not ours & that God’s priorities often seem opposite our own, why do we believe that God will turn our lives & that of the wealthy upside down in the areas that WE want God to. Perhaps our part in all this is to get in touch with what areas of life God removes powerful from their thrones & that may not be in the areas we would choose.

I don’t know about sending the rich away empty, but as Christians, we are called to fill the hungry with good things. For 4 years I served an Episcopal mission in Midtown Houston, Lord of the Streets, where we served about 250 people a hot, sit-down breakfast after service every Sunday morning. That was often their only hot meal on weekends & the only meal where they didn’t have to stand in line all week. Teams from various churches, schools, & civic organizations cooked & served each Sunday starting before 7:00 a.m. To most of those homeless parishioners, we would be considered rich even though we feel pretty ordinary. What we know is that those teams certainly fulfill God’s call to care for those who are needy.

The last part of the Magnificat is a reminder that Israel was God’s first chosen people & that God promised Abraham land would be given to him & he would have descendants as numerous as the stars. The New Testament writers saw those faithful to Christ as the New Israel, so we are all Abraham’s descendants. Mary sings that the original covenant is expanded to all faithful people in her song of praise. The incredible promise in the last part of this song tells us God will continue to be faithful to us; ultimately, we have nothing to fear.

“What?” you might say. “What if I die?” The writer to the Hebrews tells us in today’s epistle reading that Christ’s offer of his body once for all means Christ has conquered death &, further, God is faithful to us even when we die. This holiday season is a bittersweet time for me, my first Christmas without my loving husband Bill who loved Christmas with childlike wonder. What I have to declare to you—& remind myself of—today is that Bill died knowing he was moving into God’s waiting arms. He had no reason to fear even death for God was with him. I rejoice in that affirmation every time I celebrate the Eucharist.

The verse left out of today’s Gospel lesson is a narrative comment: “And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. I cherish this last sentence because it reminds me that this story really is about 2 human women getting their needs met as they prepared for their sons’ births. Mary’s return to Joseph & to have the baby Jesus reminds us what the celebration tonight & tomorrow are all about: God came to earth & dwelt among us as a human who knew life as we know it fully, with all the struggles & joys, pains & glory. Come back tonight to celebrate the coming of Christ with your church community. Let us give thanks for these 2 human mothers & the gifts they gave the world by their faithfulness. Amen.

Advent III

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
Houston, TX
By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C Advent III
17 December 2006

Text: Luke 3: 7-18
Others: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6); Philippians 4:4-7

“What then should we do?” the crowds asked John when they came to be baptized. The tax collectors also asked, “Teacher, what should we do?” Then the soldiers asked, “And we, what should we do?” At this time of year, many of us also ask, “What should we do?” It’s not that we don’t have enough to do & everything we do involves traffic & crowds & hassle—right? So it’s a good idea for me, & perhaps for you, to stop short & ask, “What should I do?” as we prepare for Christ’s birth this year.

Before we get too much into the specifics of the Gospel today, let’s remember that it’s Advent. We begin a new liturgical year again by looking inside ourselves, preparing to greet Jesus as enters the world as a human being, born like us to a human mother & father in that far-off city of Bethlehem yet also born into our community again this year as Savior & Lord.

As we prepare for our Lord’s coming, we are out of sync with the rest of society who thinks Christmas is already here. Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving led to Muzak Christmas carols. For most folks, there’s much frenetic activity crammed between Thanksgiving’s gluttony & New Year’s bubbly. Each year, I hear folks reach Christmas Eve just wishing the whole celebration were over. How often I’ve seen folks spend the actual holiday moaning about whatever they’ve not accomplished that would make the holiday perfect instead of enjoying what is already the gift of the day because of what God has done.

Advent encourages Christians to apply brakes to the frantic rush, to take time out to slow down to consider why all the mania. I know you’ve heard me say this before, but it bears repeating: Advent calls us to take time to breathe, to truly stop, look, & listen to stories of the Christ child’s arrival in a manger to prepare the way for Christ to come into our lives. We don’t sing Christmas carols yet in church; our songs are those of anticipation & expectation, calling to God-with-us to come into our hearts as Christ enters the world anew.

This is Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, Latin for the Epistle today: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Today’s mood is one of urgent expectation. “Let’s get on with this Advent, this Coming.” The apostle Paul today tells us “the Lord is near” & encourages us not to worry, to keep on doing the things that we have learned & received, for the God of peace is coming soon.

So we Christians ask John the Baptist, along with the crowds, the tax collectors, & the soldiers, “What should we do?” Here’s old John, Jesus’ cousin, a strange man born in his parents’ old age, dedicated to a strict sect which doesn’t shave or touch alcoholic beverages. He comes out of the desert, dressed in peculiar clothes, eating a weird diet of locusts & wild honey, calling people to prepare for the Lord’s coming by repenting & being baptized.

Now repentance doesn’t just mean saying you’re sorry. Repentance digs much deeper than that. Repentance means changing things in your life, turning around & going a different way. Repentance means putting things right in relationship to others. John tells those who have come to be baptized that they should bear fruit worthy of repentance. John tells them their baptism should make a difference in the way they live their lives.

John tells those who come to hear him & be baptized by him that they can’t depend upon the fact that they are the children of Abraham in order to be saved. Who their people are or what their ancestors could claim won’t cut it. They are called upon to repent & get right with God themselves. We might say, “You mean it doesn’t matter that we’re Episcopalians or that our mamas took us to church all the time when we were growing up? That doesn’t make us automatically the ‘in’ group?” Nope, John says, you have to take personal responsibility to repent, to behave differently. We make such changets

And those who come to be baptized said, “What should we do?” You know what? John didn’t say, “Come, live like me! Get rid of your fancy clothes & cars & eat locusts & wild honey & grow your hair long.” John didn’t expect everyone to use him as a model. John customized his response to each group who came to him. He seemed to know what the particular temptations were of each group who was asking. The way the tax system was set up, it was expected that the tax collectors would overcharge. John told them to charge only what their taxes were, no extra for themselves.

The soldiers also asked, “And we, what should we do?” They worked for the Romans just as the tax collectors did. Their job was to keep peace in this occupied country, & they often did so by strong-arming, pushing their weight around. I think today we would call it police brutality, & many LOTS’ parishioners & others have experienced such dealings first hand. John tells the law enforcement officers not to take money which doesn’t belong to them, not to threaten people or accuse them falsely, not to take more money from the occupied people than the tax itself. John tells the soldiers not to flaunt their authority, not to bully people. These were all temptations for the soldiers.

The crowds ask, “What then should we do?” John says to be generous & share with the poor—those who have no clothing or food. John tells them not to be greedy. John tailors his responses to the temptations of each group who asks him “What should I do?” What temptation would he recognize in you?

Today I ask, “What should I do?” Would you like to ask John, “What should I do to prepare for the coming of the Christ child? What should I do to be ready for Christ who comes to judge the world?” John’s first response to each of us is that we should repent. John says this Advent season is a time to examine our lives & see what doesn’t work in them—what is unloving or what takes unfair advantage of others or what is greedy. What is your “game,” your wall that keeps Christ & others out?

Often, my wall is busyness. I stay busy because what I have to do is important, don’t you see? Who else could do all the things I do as well as I? Don’t answer that! What is your wall? What keeps us so occupied with “doing” that we forget that we are human “beings?” John tells us to make room in our lives & hearts for Jesus to come in. John tells us when we repent, we will bear fruit. His advice is very radical. He tells us that we are to share our possessions generously & to turn from ourselves to concern for others. How can we be sure those others deserve our generosity? We can’t always, & that’s not our job. He asks US to repent & to reach out to others with love & generosity.

Our gospel tells us that the people were filled with expectation—what Advent is all about. Expectation is desire based on faith & prayer. And John reminds us that he comes only to help us prepare the way for our Savior. God sent John because God’s desire comes first. God desires us to desire God. So God reaches out to us expectantly in the person of John.

John reminds us that he baptizes only with water but Jesus comes after to baptize with the Holy Spirit & fire. The Holy Spirit, or wind, & fire are symbols of judgment, & judgment is certainly part of this passage. He tells the people that the axe is lying at the root of trees which do not bear good fruit, & then he tells us that the Spirit’s winnowing fork is at hand to separate the chaff from the wheat so that the chaff will burn away. Even if we live in the city, we can imagine the heavy grain falling to the ground & the lighter outer covering, the chaff, blowing away in the wind.

And we need to remember today that John’s message is indeed good news. The message of judgment comes with the offer of repentance & forgiveness available—& we need it throughout our lives, not just once or twice. John tells us that the Messiah is coming soon, that we have the time we need to prepare our hearts for his coming. We Christians are invited to Christ’s holy table each Sunday where the Christ child comes to us in the form of bread & wine, Christ’s body & blood, so that we may be renewed to go forth to bear good fruit. This is indeed a generous & gracious God we serve. We are invited to the table each week to be replenished by Christ himself who comes not only as a babe but also as our Savior. We renew our baptismal vows week by week when we come to this altar to partake of Christ’s body & blood in communion with our Christian brothers & sisters.

As we continue our Advent journey this year, we turn once again to ask, “What should I do to bear fruit worthy of repentance?” I urge you to take time to ask Christ that question this week? “What should I do?” And then listen for a response.

I urge you to take time this week to ask yourself, & the Christ child, “What should I do?” Hopefully, you will sense the urgency of Advent, and continue to call to the Christ child, “Come, Lord Jesus. Quickly come!

Advent II

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
Houston, TX
By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C Advent II
10 December 2006

Text: Luke 3: 1-6
Other Readings: Baruch 5:1-9; Canticle 16; Philippians 1: 3-11

Most of you know I just moved to a new house, & several of you came over to help me pack or unpack. In fact, there are still several boxes. . . . Moving is never easy but was infinitely less complicated this time than 3 years ago when Bill & I moved after 27 years in our condo in Sharpstown. Not only have I only 3 years of accumulated “treasures,” but this time, you & others of my friends helped me pack & unpack them. In addition, I am healthy this time where 3 years ago, I had a miserable cold the whole time between my move & Christmas.

What is peculiar is that Bill & I had anticipated our move back then for over a year. We had planned & talked about what furniture we would keep & where we would put which items for months. But the only preparation we’d done until Thanksgiving was verbally & on paper. We hadn’t packed a box. We hadn’t given away anything. We weren’t ready for the move.

Then it happened. The time came & we had to make our move all at once. We had to react instead of respond because we hadn’t made the necessary preparations. So that move was as horrendous as was my cold.

Advent, this time of year 4 Sundays before Christmas, is a time of preparation. “Advent” means “coming” & is all about joyful preparation & expectation for something exciting just ahead for us. These 3 weeks (since Advent IV is also Christmas Eve this year) are like the time I should have spent packing before our move. Advent is the time for sorting out what’s important that we want to take into a renewed relationship with God & what can be jettisoned because it no longer serves the purposes it once served for us. We don’t have to be moving house in order for Advent to be a crucial time of year for each of us.

As is often true with important times, there are key characters connected with them. Today, we encounter one of the most peculiar Biblical characters: John the Baptist. Ole John was a character, that’s for sure. He was so strange that it’s hard to believe he was Jesus’ cousin. In the first place, he was an only child of an older couple, so you know he was spoiled rotten. Maybe that’s why he ran around in those funny clothes & invented the craziest diet anyone has ever heard of (well, perhaps except for the grapefruit diet!).

Luke the Evangelist makes a big deal out of exactly when John the Baptist popped onto the scene, & who was ruling where at the time, but the big deal is that John was the Advent person; his whole purpose was to get us ready to welcome Jesus, his cousin. Let’s pay attention to what John told us we’d better do.

In today’s Gospel, Luke says John heard God’s word in the wilderness & God responded by stirring up a following of people to prepare their lives for a Messiah. The Jewish people had been watching for a Messiah for centuries, & though some prophets’ predictions had come true from time to time, there wasn’t a lot of Messiah-watching going on by the time John came along. The first lesson this morning gives a whole new slant on the end things, the time when righteousness & peace are to dwell on the earth. Baruch tells the people to take off their garment of sorrow & affliction & to put on forever the beauty of the glory from God. What wonderful imagery for a new day dawning & new hope for more abundant life! Can’t you imagine Baruch’s children gathering from east & west to rejoice that God has remembered them? When we assemble here at Hope each Sunday morning to hear the Word, to sing praises, to pray to God, & to break bread together, we have a little taste of the joys Baruch says God intends for all of us.

Likewise, John told the people of Judea they needed to shape up & open their hearts to that which is to come. He said, specifically, they needed to repent & be baptized. Most of us have been baptized, but even those who have been Christians all their lives need to evaluate what’s not working in our lives & turn away from it in order to be able to fully accept what is to come. John said that we all sin & fall short of the glory of God so it’s not a disgrace to get on with the business of cleaning up our acts & making room for God in our hearts. John offered the age-old ritual for changing: bathing. Baptism is a symbolic way of burying the old self & starting over, asking forgiveness for what we’ve done amiss & choosing new ways of behavior. As we clean out our closets each Advent, we are like the people John the Baptizer gathers around him, helping them prepare for the Savior’s arrival.

That’s what the Baptizer says to us this Advent, too. John says, “Come on down, you who are tired of merely existing— & those who want life more abundant—clean out the cobwebs in your hearts & your bodies & make room for the coming of the Christ Child.

How might we make ready for Jesus’ birth in our hearts again this year? Gee, haven’t we done this before? Don’t we “do Christmas” every year? Well, yes, DUH, December 25th comes around, but what does it mean in our hearts & lives? Will we get to the 25th again & wonder what happened & why it feels like Christmas is passing us by? Could be, but it’s not necessary. You & I can do a better job of preparing for Christ to enter into our souls this year than I did for that move 3 years ago.

Daily reading of the stories about Jesus’ arrival & of various Lenten meditations helps us see what we might do differently once we “repent & return to the Lord.” St. Paul rejoiced when he wrote to the Philippians in today’s letter because the Christians at Philippi were living out their Christian lives & sharing with others. What were the Philippians doing that St. Paul thought was so great & that we might want to look at to follow this Advent? They were known because they were loving people. Paul said “your love may overflow more & more with knowledge & full insight to help you determine what is best.”

St. Paul didn’t expect the new Christians to magically know how to behave, how to make good decisions. He encouraged them to grow in knowledge—that means worshipping together, regular Bible study like happens at 9:00 in the parish house each Sunday, & gathering with other groups like the Brotherhood of St. Andrew & the Daughters of the King to strengthen us to show forth that love we Christians are supposed to be known by.

I’m not just talking about other people’s sins today, either, my brothers & sisters. I’ve been pretty grumpy with several folks around here lately so I have some readjusting of attitude to do myself. You see how my lack of preparation spills over into a bad attitude & affects those around me? I might not be the only one who needs an attitude adjustment which isn’t chemically-induced this season.

The specifics about what John the Baptist’s call to repentance & change of life means to you will depend on you, & the only way you’re going to know what you’re called to do in preparation is to slow down, sit or kneel down, & ask God to show you where your heart needs to be cleansed. I would encourage your making that quiet time a part of your day every day between now & Christmas. Look around to see how you can perhaps be the occasion for the Christ child to appear in someone else’s life this year. I’ve given several suggestions for true gifts which keep on giving on the pew bulletin cover today. The gifts which come to us at this season don’t really happen because we’ve been very, very good but rather because we’re being very, very loved. God initiates the gift of the Christ child as well as the adult Christ this Christmas.

I look back at the lesson from Baruch this morning & recognize a quote from Isaiah. God orders every high mountain & the everlasting hills to be made low & the valleys filled up so that the ground may be level & Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. It was just that sort of clearing of the way which used to be done when the king would come in procession through a territory. I watched such preparations being made for the new rail lines down on Main Street when I was executive director at LOTS. We watched the roads made level & the rails & protection platforms & other necessities built so average citizens can now make their way more efficiently through the city to their work or home or errands. How much more should our preparation be for the King who comes as a little child yet lives in us as a wise man to enter our hearts anew? May your Advent season 2006 prepare you for unparalleled joy as the Christ child appears. Amen.

First Sunday of Advent

Sermon for Hope Episcopal Church
The Reverend Martha Frances
Year C, The First Sunday of Advent
3 December 2006

RCL Text: Luke 21: 25-36

Other Readings: Jeremiah 33: 14-16; I Thessalonians 3: 9-13; Psalm 25: 1-9

Do you remember the movie The Titanic: a story of contrasts, of cataclysm, of young love beginning & an old world ending? A young debutante boards the luxurious ocean liner planning to fulfill her mother’s expectations that she marry well, thus saving the family name & reputation & providing for her own & her mother’s financial & social future. On this voyage, she meets her true love, the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, & chooses to forego fortune & security for the man of her heart & dreams. Meanwhile, the old world order, with its latest in shipbuilding genius & Victorian opulence, disintegrates into unbelievable disaster. For the folk aboard the Titanic, the apocalyptic prophecies of Jeremiah & St. Luke were coming true. For both the young society maiden personally & for the rather rigorously-ordered society in which she lived, the old was washed away & a vastly different world begun.

Our readings today depict the world’s end & the day when the Lord becomes King arriving for the listeners. Jesus announces the nearness of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God with cosmic signs of the sun, moon, & stars, the roaring & waves of the sea, & nations confused. People react with fear & foreboding because the powers from heaven will be shaken; then the Son of man will come in a cloud. Sounds a lot like a scene from The Titanic or another disaster film produced in the last several years, doesn’t it? What on earth is all this about? Movies like The Titanic, based on actual historical events, help make such Biblical prophecies more real to us. It’s possible that for most of us, events have happened which have turned our lives upside down, & our worlds as we knew them have come to an end.

At Thanksgiving of 1973, snug in our apartment in Munich, Germany, with my precious 11-month-old son & a mischievous 3-year-old, I was fulfilling a dream of living overseas. My husband returned from work one night to inform me he didn’t want to be married any more & was going off to take care of starving people in Ethiopia. My life as I had known it was over. He never made it to Ethiopia; we returned Stateside where we tried unsuccessfully to put our marriage back together. His heart was not in the marriage’s survival, & I found that God could do for my boys & me what we could not do for ourselves, so the 3 of us began a new life in Houston. Eventually, I met & married a wonderful man who adopted the boys, my soul-mate Bill who died just recently after our 24-year marriage.

Disasters happen in all our lives, yet God provides opportunities for new beginnings just as I had with Bill. You may be going through such an earth-shaking event right now. Just such an experience of endings & beginnings our scriptures illuminate today. How appropriate are these readings at the beginning of a new year! Remember that in our church year, our liturgical year, today is New Year’s Day. During Advent, we liturgical Christians are truly out of sync with the larger society as we begin the preparation time marked by 4 Sundays leading up to Jesus’ birth. Many centuries ago in Gaul—our present-day France—people found they needed time before the Christmas celebration itself to ready their hearts & minds for the birth of the Christ child. We now call this time Advent—Latin for “coming” or “arrival.” Now, we don’t just remember the birth of a baby in Nazareth 2000 years ago—give or take a decade—for we also ready ourselves for Jesus to arrive anew in our lives to dwell within us for the next year, & then we look forward to the time when Christ will return at the end of time to take us all to himself with God our heavenly parent.

Now we all know Christmas is going to come whether we’re ready for it or not. When our 4 boys were young (Bill brought 2 boys into the marriage also), they used to moan that they couldn’t wait until Christmas. Meanwhile, I was about to panic, feeling there wasn’t near enough time to do all that needed to be done before December 25th. As we headed to Midnight Mass every year, I would still be marking chores off my list & making yet another list to get done after church when the boys were safely in bed. Does this sound familiar? So why do we need preparation time for a festival that will happen anyway? Is Advent just another thing to DO during an already heavily-scheduled season? I declare today, on the 3rd of December 2006, that it doesn’t have to be. Actually, as I’ve begun to take Advent seriously over the past few years, this season has become simpler for me.

The 4 Sundays of Advent with their scriptures remind us to be vigilant & watch for the last days, to enter courageously into God’s reign to meet Jesus Christ, both as an enfleshed human being entering into our world to truly be with us, but also as the Lord of our lives as he comes to judge at the end of the world. Each week as we come to church & hear these great end-time prophecies heralding the beginning of another world order, as we sing of signs of endings all around us, we have opportunity to ask ourselves what we’re doing the other days of each week of Advent, especially this year when there are only 3 weeks. Are we so worried about preparations for Christmas, either figuring out what to give our loved ones or feeling bad that we can’t afford to give what we’d like to, that we miss the point of the whole holiday/Holy Day?

My years as vicar of Lord of the Streets certainly helped me rearrange my priorities for the Advent season. Somehow, getting just the right decoration for the tree or delicacy to serve at the Christmas dinner seems petty when one works daily with folks who need a warm coat to protect them & a safe place to spend a sober New Year’s when one is newly sober oneself.

We learn much from each week’s Advent readings about the God who calls us to repentance & new life as well as about who we are called to be. St. Luke tells us this God/judge has an expectation that good things will happen, that the fig tree sprouting leaves will soon bear good fruit, & that God’s reign is already coming upon us. Does this sound much like a judging God whom we should fear? Jesus calls us, the faithful, to stand & raise our hands in joy since our redemption is drawing near? Only in this passage does Luke use the word “redemption,” so we probably ought to pay attention to it. How many are old enough to remember redemption centers for Green Stamps? We saved books of stamps we received when we bought groceries or gas or something (double stamp day on Wednesdays meant a crowded grocery store), & we could get wonderful household goods in exchange for those stamps, almost as if we were getting free prizes! I didn’t like licking all the stamps to put in the books, but I was thrilled as a newlywed when I had saved enough stamps to get my maple table & chairs. Michael & Sara still use that table today though neither is old enough to remember Green Stamps!

During Advent, we await the coming of Jesus the King eagerly & actively, just like we used to stick those stamps in their books. We prepare our lives for the King’s arrival. St. Paul tells the Thessalonians—& tells us—he prays God will restore whatever is lacking in their faith, making them—& us—increase & abound in love for one another & for all others. Life was difficult for the early Christian community just as it is at times for us, & St. Paul urges us not to give up. He prays that God will strengthen our hearts in holiness so we might be blameless before God at the coming of Christ Jesus.

How may we prepare our lives for Christ’s coming at Christmas? I hope you ponder this question prayerfully this week, but I have some suggestions: We can make a commitment to Sunday worship & even perhaps to Wednesday healing service & the two special Advent events. We might reevaluate activities which clutter our lives between now & Christmas, choosing from the glut of busyness those events & activities which enrich our lives or those of others. We can wake up each day with an attitude of gratitude for our lives & then watch for chances to behave in a grateful manner to those we meet. We can respect the dignity of all the people we meet, even if they do something which irritates us. We can ask Jesus to show us ways to do something for others, to focus on what we can give instead of what we receive. We can buy gifts for the young men out at Boys’ & Girls’ Country, bring goods for the Christmas food baskets, & perhaps even catch up on our 2006 pledge &/or make one for 2007. In what other ways can you give this Christmas to those who cannot reciprocate with a gift for you?

St. Paul recognized the holiness of the Thessalonians, telling them they could be blameless before God. We can ask God to continue to create us so we can be all God intends us to be. Perhaps you can give some time as a volunteer at a shelter or to help feed the homeless, not just at Christmas, but perhaps on the 20th of March or the 15th of August. How about volunteering at MANNA? Harold or JoAnn will tell you what is needed there. Of course, I don’t have to tell you that one reason for such

charitable actions is that when we behave in such a giving manner toward others, we are doing good works unto Christ himself. However, during this Advent season, I urge you to undertake charitable deeds for the sake of the discipline which we develop as disciples. As our new year begins, may we be willing for Christ to enter the new nooks & crannies of our hearts that God’s reign may break into our hearts & lives & those of the Christian communities of which we are a part.

I pray that throughout the weeks of Advent, each of us allows God to cast the works of darkness out of our lives so we can be filled with God’s light as the Light of Christ enters the world once again at Christmas. I pray we allow that light within us to shine into others’ lives for God’s glory.

Let us pray:

Come as the wind & cleanse,
Come as the tie & bind,
Come as the fire and burn;
Convict,
Convert,
Consecrate,
Until we are wholly thine.

Amen.