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Fr. Chris Yaw+
St. David’s Episcopal Church; Southfield, MI
St. David’s Episcopal Church; Southfield, MI
“Keep Awake”
Advent I, RCL, December 2, 2007
Advent I, RCL, December 2, 2007
Happy New Year, my fellow Subversives!
Perhaps more than any other time of year, what you and I are doing this morning is absolutely
counter-cultural.
First of all, Happy New Year!
As we know, it’s the first day of our Liturgical New Year--it’s not the world’s new year--but it’s
our new year--and what may be most conspicuous through the next 12 months will be our
saying goodbye to St. Luke and beginning our journey through the Gospel of Matthew which we
will be reading together every Sunday until next Advent.
Second, and perhaps more profoundly counter-cultural is all of this… dark purple stuff.
For you and I have just stepped out of a flashing electric red and green, jingle-bell world--
whose shopping malls and car radios are dripping with the slurpy sentimentality of what has
turned into the annual December ritual and Civil Religion of Shopping!
We’ve passed life-sized ginger-bread houses -- Two-story candy canes.
We’ve watched news broadcasts with lead stories about how people are camping out for days
to buy stuff -- About the mobs of people who charge into the malls to gleefully buy stuff --
Which are put side-by-side the studio experts -- who lament that the economy is going down
the tubes -- because we’re not buying enough stuff!
This time of year our newspapers give us far more ads than editorial content -- and we each
get about three trees worth of catalogs.
It is out of this assaultive world that you and I have stepped this morning.
Welcome to the dimly-lit, solemn-toned, wine-colored whisper of Advent.
--------------------
In this place you and I are reminded of the counter-cultural, even revolutionary nature of the
Christian religion.
We’re asked to sincerely question the powers of this age that subtly, and not so subtly seek to
overturn no less than the first commandment -- and put ‘things’ before God -- which is why
you and I prepare and make room in this place and at this time, for a very different kind of
holiday season.
--------------------
Indeed, the Christian season of Advent is one of the biggest surprises for anyone who is new to
the Christian faith -- or new to a Christian community that observes the ‘seasons’ of the church
year.
Our biggest surprise – and maybe even, disappointment -- is that you and I don’t sing any of
the usual ‘Christmas Carols’ during most of the month of December!
We save these for the twelve days of Christmas -- We don’t put out any of the characters in our
crèche -- but we keep it empty so we can gaze in anticipation at what’s to come.
Our wreath ribbons are purple -- although the red ones are waiting in the wings.
All this while the rest of our culture is getting revved up with joy and season’s cheer.
So what’s going on here?
Why do we do this?
--------------------
For starters, for hundreds and hundreds of years, Advent has asked us Christians to simply do
one simple thing -- it’s something that our culture has absolutely backwards -- you see, it’s not
shopping -- It’s to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.
It’s a bold declaration that asks us as a St. David’s community if we dare to believe that Christ
will return, as He promised -- and make our broken world whole.
It is also an intensely personal time -- in that you and I are asked if we dare to believe that
God wants to give birth to something new in our lives.
As our worship together takes on its somber tone -- we come to this place far away from the
hectic malls and mind-numbing traffic -- and look into our hearts to discover or re-discover
what it is we truly expect and long for -- what do we really want for Christmas?
--------------------
Instead of glowing tales of sentimental journeys to the manger -- the Bible readings of Advent
bring us a much more stark and abrupt beginning.
We do not begin in Matthew Chapter One and Two -- We begin in Matthew Chapter 24 -- an
apocalyptic text aimed at, if not shocking us, putting us into a serious and sober state of mind.
And this morning, Matthew does that by giving us a reading that contains three images.
The first is a familiar one -- it’s Noah and the flood -- “For as the days of Noah were, so will be
the coming of the Son of Man”
You and I ask, “the days of Noah?” -- what was going on in the days of Noah?
How were people acting?
The text tells us that people were, “eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage.”
Nothing wrong with that for most of us.
Although some, maybe like Rod Stewart, who’s spent his fair share of time and money in
divorce court might disagree.
He once famously said -- “Instead of getting married again I think I’ll find a woman I hate and
give her a house.”
Ok, so maybe Rod has trouble with marriage, but most of us are ok with it.
But if we look more closely at the context here and in Genesis, where the Noah story originally
appears -- we get the idea that the phrase “eating and drinking and marrying” becomes a
symbol -- a symbol for those people who lived primarily for the pleasures of this life rather
than living a life of love for God and others. (Edward Markquart)
The problem seems to be that the people in Noah’s age had fallen in love with eating, drinking
and marrying -- and they had come to see these qualities become ends in themselves.
They had replaced their real purpose in life, which is to help God put our broken world back
together again.
So, inevitably, what really floods these folk out is not water -- but their failure to embrace and
become what God intends them to be. (Brian McGowan)
--------------------
In the second image, we have ordinary everyday workers -- in fields and at the grist mill --
“Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.” -- all of a sudden, POW,
one’s gone, the other stays.
And in our third image, we have a homeowner who gets robbed -- They didn’t have Guardian
Alarm Systems, Lo-Jacks or “Google-Earth” back then so we imagine home robberies would’ve
been a bit easier to execute in Jesus’ day -- but nonetheless, all three of these stories, -Noah,
the workers, the thief in the night, all seem to have a similar strain to them -- all of them deal
with the element of surprise -- we need to be ready and stay awake.
In solemn sincerity, Advent bids us to ask similar questions of our lives:
Are we really ready if something drastic were to happen to us or our loved ones?
Are we falling asleep by getting caught up in things of temporal value at the expense of things
eternal?
If Jesus all of a sudden turned and looked at us -- would He find us looking at him?
--------------------
As a general rule, one of my New Testament professors used to say: “Eschatology
-which is a $10 word for the kind of biblical writing that has to do with the end times -- like our
reading this morning -- so don’t go home and say you didn’t learn anything at church -- and
don’t worry, you won’t be asked to spell it.
“Eschatology is never presented [in the Bible] for the sake of mere information -- “but always
and consistently as a motivation for ethical living.”
In other words, this text, is put here not primarily so we can have nightmares about the “End
of the World” -- or even so that cable TV preachers can make millions of dollars off of wild-
eyed conjecture -- but this text is primarily here to help you and me examine our lives and see
if they’re the kind of lives we’re happy living.
--------------------
I don’t know about you, but it’s really tough for me to live as a Christian at this time of year.
I struggle with the commercialism -- and all the status-minded attitudes that go with it. I
wonder is my attempt at generosity simply a buy-in to the greedy culture we’re asked to shun?
We Americans will spend more on Christmas than the Gross National Product of Ireland -- all
this while 30,000 children will die today of totally preventable diseases -- like dirty water and
mosquito bites.
And my participation in our annual saturnalian splurge down at the mall doesn’t always sit so
well with me.
I know I’m not alone here.
How is it forming me, I wonder -- How is it forming our children, how is it forming American
society?
And I’m playing a part in this -- How do I live in the world, but not of the world?
Which is why Advent -- which gives me a glimpse of this alternative world -- is so important to
me.
It’s been said that, “Those most conscious of the next world are the most effective in this
one.” And Advent presents itself to you and me this morning as that alternative world. It
reminds us that all of life, my live, our lives have an end and a purpose -- and it ain’t at a mall.
This isn’t all there is.
Christ is coming again -- and you and I are here this morning to prepare for it.
--------------------
One of my seminary professors used to say that the main thing in leading a Christian life is to
keep the main thing, the main thing.
The main thing, of course, is remembering who we are and whose we are.
We are sinners saved by grace called to a new life -- one in which we are ‘worthy to stand
before Him.’
And one that asks us to die to ourselves that we may live in Christ.
One of the Episcopal Church’s most famous preachers, Phillips Brooks, said this a century and
a half ago:
“Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger.
“Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers;
pray for powers equal to your tasks.
“Then, the doing of your work shall be no miracle;
but you shall be a miracle.”
Oswald Chambers chimes in:
“The best measure of the spiritual life is not its ecstasies -- but its obedience.”
Advent reminds you and me that the salvation of our souls set forth in Scripture is a thing of
difficulty -- requiring all diligence -- and to be worked out with fear and trembling.
Advent reminds us that the Christian life is pictured, on one level, as a continuous striving. As
one theologian put it, “many will fail to attain salvation -- “not because they took no pains or
care about it -- “but because they did not take pains and care enough.” (William Law)
Which is why Advent urges us to “Keep Awake.”
--------------------
If you noticed your bulletin cover, then you noticed this theme -- it is a 16th century Donatello
sculpture called “Agony in the Garden” -- you can see it at a church in Florence, Italy -- next
time you’re over visiting the Pope or picking up a ‘really authentic’ pizza.
It depicts Jesus off praying at Gethsemane while your and my spiritual ancestors are doing the
unbelievable:
They are falling asleep in Jesus’ presence -- something, of course, we would never do -- unless,
of course, you were a LEM or Acolyte and had to listen to this same sermon over and over. But
would you and I fall asleep in Jesus presence?
If we really thought about it we just might have to admit -- ya, we do it all the time. We do it
every time we fail to see Christ around us.
I am so easily lulled into a worldview that fails to cherish every moment of every hour of every
day -- forget that all of life is a gift.
But in my heart of hearts, I know it is -- and I know it’s Jesus’ gift.
In my heart of hearts, I don’t want to go through life wishing it would go faster.
I don’t want to go through life assuming that my only solace is my next vacation.
I don’t want to go through life feeling like it is nothing more than an endless succession of
tomorrows and next weeks -- that look exactly like every other yesterday and last week.
I don’t need Advent just to remind me to “Keep Awake”-- I need Advent to tell me to Wake Up!
--------------------
Advent is all about waking up to a new awareness of the fact that we know the secret of life.
We know how the story ends -- we know where we’re going.
And that, my friends, has an amazing impact on what we value right now.
One Southern preacher says:
“If the dam twenty minutes upstream breaks --
then the Rembrandt on the wall is far less valuable
than the rubber raft in the attic.” (Tom Long)
Folks, the time is short.
As the bumper sticker says, “you can sleep when you’re dead.”
Wake up, keep awake, stay awake.
--------------------
Henri Nouwen puts it this way:
“A spiritual life without discipline is impossible.
“Discipline is the other side of discipleship.
“The practice of a spiritual discipline makes us more sensitive to the
small,gentle voice of God…“… it sets us free to not only pray, “ - but to
allow the Spirit of God to pray in us.”
This morning, part of our subversive practice of Advent are these little blue books...As you
leave today you are invited to pick one up -- the ushers will be handing them out.
It is an Advent devotional booklet.
It asks us to take just 6 minutes a day to pray and read and reflect on the themes of Advent in
Scripture and commentary -- I hope you find them useful -- I hope they can help all of us keep
the main thing the main thing -- filling ourselves with the kind of thoughts and energies that
we really want to have fill us up this holiday season.
--------------------
One day the Buddha, badly overweight, was sitting under a tree.
A young soldier, trim and handsome, came along -- He looked at the Buddha and said: ‘You
look like a pig!’ -- The Buddha replied: ‘Well you look like a God!’
The soldier was stunned, so he asked: ‘Why would you say that?’
‘Well,’ said the Buddha, ‘We see what’s inside of us. ‘I think about God all day and when I look
out, that is what I see. ‘You, obviously, must think of other things.’ (Ronald Rolheiser)
--------------------
You and I desperately need Advent to help us see-
To help remind us that what we want for Christmas has far less to do with what we find out
there -- and everything to do with what we find in here [church], and in here [our hearts].
We want to keep awake, we want to be vigilant, we want to be discerning.
Maybe these things are what we really want for Christmas
May this season bring us patience-
May this season bring us vigilance-
May this season bring us the ability
to keep our eyes focused on what really matters.
-- a closer walk with Jesus, -- isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
Amen.
Lessons:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Psalm 122
Matthew 24:36-44
Perhaps more than any other time of year, what you and I are doing this morning is absolutely
counter-cultural.
First of all, Happy New Year!
As we know, it’s the first day of our Liturgical New Year--it’s not the world’s new year--but it’s
our new year--and what may be most conspicuous through the next 12 months will be our
saying goodbye to St. Luke and beginning our journey through the Gospel of Matthew which we
will be reading together every Sunday until next Advent.
Second, and perhaps more profoundly counter-cultural is all of this… dark purple stuff.
For you and I have just stepped out of a flashing electric red and green, jingle-bell world--
whose shopping malls and car radios are dripping with the slurpy sentimentality of what has
turned into the annual December ritual and Civil Religion of Shopping!
We’ve passed life-sized ginger-bread houses -- Two-story candy canes.
We’ve watched news broadcasts with lead stories about how people are camping out for days
to buy stuff -- About the mobs of people who charge into the malls to gleefully buy stuff --
Which are put side-by-side the studio experts -- who lament that the economy is going down
the tubes -- because we’re not buying enough stuff!
This time of year our newspapers give us far more ads than editorial content -- and we each
get about three trees worth of catalogs.
It is out of this assaultive world that you and I have stepped this morning.
Welcome to the dimly-lit, solemn-toned, wine-colored whisper of Advent.
--------------------
In this place you and I are reminded of the counter-cultural, even revolutionary nature of the
Christian religion.
We’re asked to sincerely question the powers of this age that subtly, and not so subtly seek to
overturn no less than the first commandment -- and put ‘things’ before God -- which is why
you and I prepare and make room in this place and at this time, for a very different kind of
holiday season.
--------------------
Indeed, the Christian season of Advent is one of the biggest surprises for anyone who is new to
the Christian faith -- or new to a Christian community that observes the ‘seasons’ of the church
year.
Our biggest surprise – and maybe even, disappointment -- is that you and I don’t sing any of
the usual ‘Christmas Carols’ during most of the month of December!
We save these for the twelve days of Christmas -- We don’t put out any of the characters in our
crèche -- but we keep it empty so we can gaze in anticipation at what’s to come.
Our wreath ribbons are purple -- although the red ones are waiting in the wings.
All this while the rest of our culture is getting revved up with joy and season’s cheer.
So what’s going on here?
Why do we do this?
--------------------
For starters, for hundreds and hundreds of years, Advent has asked us Christians to simply do
one simple thing -- it’s something that our culture has absolutely backwards -- you see, it’s not
shopping -- It’s to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.
It’s a bold declaration that asks us as a St. David’s community if we dare to believe that Christ
will return, as He promised -- and make our broken world whole.
It is also an intensely personal time -- in that you and I are asked if we dare to believe that
God wants to give birth to something new in our lives.
As our worship together takes on its somber tone -- we come to this place far away from the
hectic malls and mind-numbing traffic -- and look into our hearts to discover or re-discover
what it is we truly expect and long for -- what do we really want for Christmas?
--------------------
Instead of glowing tales of sentimental journeys to the manger -- the Bible readings of Advent
bring us a much more stark and abrupt beginning.
We do not begin in Matthew Chapter One and Two -- We begin in Matthew Chapter 24 -- an
apocalyptic text aimed at, if not shocking us, putting us into a serious and sober state of mind.
And this morning, Matthew does that by giving us a reading that contains three images.
The first is a familiar one -- it’s Noah and the flood -- “For as the days of Noah were, so will be
the coming of the Son of Man”
You and I ask, “the days of Noah?” -- what was going on in the days of Noah?
How were people acting?
The text tells us that people were, “eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage.”
Nothing wrong with that for most of us.
Although some, maybe like Rod Stewart, who’s spent his fair share of time and money in
divorce court might disagree.
He once famously said -- “Instead of getting married again I think I’ll find a woman I hate and
give her a house.”
Ok, so maybe Rod has trouble with marriage, but most of us are ok with it.
But if we look more closely at the context here and in Genesis, where the Noah story originally
appears -- we get the idea that the phrase “eating and drinking and marrying” becomes a
symbol -- a symbol for those people who lived primarily for the pleasures of this life rather
than living a life of love for God and others. (Edward Markquart)
The problem seems to be that the people in Noah’s age had fallen in love with eating, drinking
and marrying -- and they had come to see these qualities become ends in themselves.
They had replaced their real purpose in life, which is to help God put our broken world back
together again.
So, inevitably, what really floods these folk out is not water -- but their failure to embrace and
become what God intends them to be. (Brian McGowan)
--------------------
In the second image, we have ordinary everyday workers -- in fields and at the grist mill --
“Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.” -- all of a sudden, POW,
one’s gone, the other stays.
And in our third image, we have a homeowner who gets robbed -- They didn’t have Guardian
Alarm Systems, Lo-Jacks or “Google-Earth” back then so we imagine home robberies would’ve
been a bit easier to execute in Jesus’ day -- but nonetheless, all three of these stories, -Noah,
the workers, the thief in the night, all seem to have a similar strain to them -- all of them deal
with the element of surprise -- we need to be ready and stay awake.
In solemn sincerity, Advent bids us to ask similar questions of our lives:
Are we really ready if something drastic were to happen to us or our loved ones?
Are we falling asleep by getting caught up in things of temporal value at the expense of things
eternal?
If Jesus all of a sudden turned and looked at us -- would He find us looking at him?
--------------------
As a general rule, one of my New Testament professors used to say: “Eschatology
-which is a $10 word for the kind of biblical writing that has to do with the end times -- like our
reading this morning -- so don’t go home and say you didn’t learn anything at church -- and
don’t worry, you won’t be asked to spell it.
“Eschatology is never presented [in the Bible] for the sake of mere information -- “but always
and consistently as a motivation for ethical living.”
In other words, this text, is put here not primarily so we can have nightmares about the “End
of the World” -- or even so that cable TV preachers can make millions of dollars off of wild-
eyed conjecture -- but this text is primarily here to help you and me examine our lives and see
if they’re the kind of lives we’re happy living.
--------------------
I don’t know about you, but it’s really tough for me to live as a Christian at this time of year.
I struggle with the commercialism -- and all the status-minded attitudes that go with it. I
wonder is my attempt at generosity simply a buy-in to the greedy culture we’re asked to shun?
We Americans will spend more on Christmas than the Gross National Product of Ireland -- all
this while 30,000 children will die today of totally preventable diseases -- like dirty water and
mosquito bites.
And my participation in our annual saturnalian splurge down at the mall doesn’t always sit so
well with me.
I know I’m not alone here.
How is it forming me, I wonder -- How is it forming our children, how is it forming American
society?
And I’m playing a part in this -- How do I live in the world, but not of the world?
Which is why Advent -- which gives me a glimpse of this alternative world -- is so important to
me.
It’s been said that, “Those most conscious of the next world are the most effective in this
one.” And Advent presents itself to you and me this morning as that alternative world. It
reminds us that all of life, my live, our lives have an end and a purpose -- and it ain’t at a mall.
This isn’t all there is.
Christ is coming again -- and you and I are here this morning to prepare for it.
--------------------
One of my seminary professors used to say that the main thing in leading a Christian life is to
keep the main thing, the main thing.
The main thing, of course, is remembering who we are and whose we are.
We are sinners saved by grace called to a new life -- one in which we are ‘worthy to stand
before Him.’
And one that asks us to die to ourselves that we may live in Christ.
One of the Episcopal Church’s most famous preachers, Phillips Brooks, said this a century and
a half ago:
“Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger.
“Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers;
pray for powers equal to your tasks.
“Then, the doing of your work shall be no miracle;
but you shall be a miracle.”
Oswald Chambers chimes in:
“The best measure of the spiritual life is not its ecstasies -- but its obedience.”
Advent reminds you and me that the salvation of our souls set forth in Scripture is a thing of
difficulty -- requiring all diligence -- and to be worked out with fear and trembling.
Advent reminds us that the Christian life is pictured, on one level, as a continuous striving. As
one theologian put it, “many will fail to attain salvation -- “not because they took no pains or
care about it -- “but because they did not take pains and care enough.” (William Law)
Which is why Advent urges us to “Keep Awake.”
--------------------
If you noticed your bulletin cover, then you noticed this theme -- it is a 16th century Donatello
sculpture called “Agony in the Garden” -- you can see it at a church in Florence, Italy -- next
time you’re over visiting the Pope or picking up a ‘really authentic’ pizza.
It depicts Jesus off praying at Gethsemane while your and my spiritual ancestors are doing the
unbelievable:
They are falling asleep in Jesus’ presence -- something, of course, we would never do -- unless,
of course, you were a LEM or Acolyte and had to listen to this same sermon over and over. But
would you and I fall asleep in Jesus presence?
If we really thought about it we just might have to admit -- ya, we do it all the time. We do it
every time we fail to see Christ around us.
I am so easily lulled into a worldview that fails to cherish every moment of every hour of every
day -- forget that all of life is a gift.
But in my heart of hearts, I know it is -- and I know it’s Jesus’ gift.
In my heart of hearts, I don’t want to go through life wishing it would go faster.
I don’t want to go through life assuming that my only solace is my next vacation.
I don’t want to go through life feeling like it is nothing more than an endless succession of
tomorrows and next weeks -- that look exactly like every other yesterday and last week.
I don’t need Advent just to remind me to “Keep Awake”-- I need Advent to tell me to Wake Up!
--------------------
Advent is all about waking up to a new awareness of the fact that we know the secret of life.
We know how the story ends -- we know where we’re going.
And that, my friends, has an amazing impact on what we value right now.
One Southern preacher says:
“If the dam twenty minutes upstream breaks --
then the Rembrandt on the wall is far less valuable
than the rubber raft in the attic.” (Tom Long)
Folks, the time is short.
As the bumper sticker says, “you can sleep when you’re dead.”
Wake up, keep awake, stay awake.
--------------------
Henri Nouwen puts it this way:
“A spiritual life without discipline is impossible.
“Discipline is the other side of discipleship.
“The practice of a spiritual discipline makes us more sensitive to the
small,gentle voice of God…“… it sets us free to not only pray, “ - but to
allow the Spirit of God to pray in us.”
This morning, part of our subversive practice of Advent are these little blue books...As you
leave today you are invited to pick one up -- the ushers will be handing them out.
It is an Advent devotional booklet.
It asks us to take just 6 minutes a day to pray and read and reflect on the themes of Advent in
Scripture and commentary -- I hope you find them useful -- I hope they can help all of us keep
the main thing the main thing -- filling ourselves with the kind of thoughts and energies that
we really want to have fill us up this holiday season.
--------------------
One day the Buddha, badly overweight, was sitting under a tree.
A young soldier, trim and handsome, came along -- He looked at the Buddha and said: ‘You
look like a pig!’ -- The Buddha replied: ‘Well you look like a God!’
The soldier was stunned, so he asked: ‘Why would you say that?’
‘Well,’ said the Buddha, ‘We see what’s inside of us. ‘I think about God all day and when I look
out, that is what I see. ‘You, obviously, must think of other things.’ (Ronald Rolheiser)
--------------------
You and I desperately need Advent to help us see-
To help remind us that what we want for Christmas has far less to do with what we find out
there -- and everything to do with what we find in here [church], and in here [our hearts].
We want to keep awake, we want to be vigilant, we want to be discerning.
Maybe these things are what we really want for Christmas
May this season bring us patience-
May this season bring us vigilance-
May this season bring us the ability
to keep our eyes focused on what really matters.
-- a closer walk with Jesus, -- isn’t that what Christmas is all about?
Amen.
Lessons:
Isaiah 2:1-5
Romans 13:11-14
Psalm 122
Matthew 24:36-44
