"Advent Challenges"
A Sermon of
The Rev. Dr. David A. Killian, Rector
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
Second Sunday of Advent
December 4, 2005
Text: Mark 1:1-8
I
You may have heard the story of the preacher who served a church where a prominent man in the congregation would readily go to sleep during the sermon. Not only that, he snored rather loudly. This annoyed the preacher considerably, and so having endured this for months, one Sunday, while this man snored, he said to the rest of the congregation in almost a whisper, "All who want to go to heaven, please rise." The entire congregation rose up, save for this man who slumbered on. And then, in a loud voice, a virtual shout, he yelled, "All who want to go to hell, please rise." The man, in his start, stood up. He looked and he saw the preacher scowling at him from the pulpit and he said, "Preacher, I don't know what we are voting on, but it looks like you and I are the only ones in favor of it."
Very few preachers would embarrass a member of their congregation like that, but John the Baptist might have taken that risk. Now, John didn't have trouble keeping people awake during his sermons. He had a fiery style. He was a genuine eccentric. If we ever wonder about the limits of clerical eccentricity, we see that John extended the boundaries and created a lot of space for the rest of us. He was clothed with camel's hair and he ate locusts and wild honey. If he came here to our parish today, he would keep us in rapt attention.
If John were to come to All Saints, what would he say to us? I think he would challenge us to be counter-cultural as he was and to put our relationship with God first. Here are three challenges that he might put to us: First, put your faith into action. Second, find time for God. Third, find time for each other.
First, put your faith in action. Today's reading from Peter speaks of a "new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home." What a beautiful vision, yet it needs to be put into action. I think of Dr. Martin Luther King as someone who put faith into action. On the night before he was killed, Dr. King rallied support for the garbage workers of Memphis: "It's all right to talk about 'long white robes over yonder' ... but ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's all right to talk about 'streets flowing with milk and honey,' but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day God's preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee."
And so, if John the Baptist came to All Saints today, he might challenge us to put our faith into action, both on the national level to improve education and end poverty, and locally to teach our own children. For example, one mother gets her children involved in a local shelter's winter coat collection. She takes them out shopping for their own winter coats, and while they are in the store, they buy a new coat for a needy child. William Blake said it well: "He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars."
II
Second, I think that John the Baptist would challenge us to find time for God. John lived in the wilderness and was alone with God most of the time. Out of this spiritual reservoir came John's preaching and witness. I think of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton as someone who found time for God. In The Seven Story Mountain, Merton chronicles his spiritual wanderings from a life empty of God to a life lived only for God. He wrote about his first Christmas at Our Lady of Gethsemani Monastery in Kentucky:
"Christ always seeks the straw of the most desolate cribs to make his Bethlehem. In all the other Christmases of my life, I had got a lot of presents and a big dinner. This Christmas I was to get no presents, not much of a dinner: but I would have, indeed, Christ, God the Savior of the world." And then Merton goes on to say, "You who live in the world: let me tell you that there is no comparing these two Christmases....The emptiness that had opened up within me, that had been prepared during Advent and laid open by my own silence and darkness, now became filled. And suddenly I was in a new world."
How can you and I be in a new world this season? It could begin with a decision to spend time with God, to create our own spiritual monastery, our own chapel, our own holy time and place. Most of us will not enter a Trappist monastery as Merton did. But we can create a spiritual monastery in our own homes. We can find some time during the day that is ours. We may get up a half-hour before everyone else to say some quiet prayers. We may take a walk during our lunch hour to give thanks for the blessings of the day. We may find it helpful to sit in a special chair. I have a special chair that is my meditation chair. When I sit in that chair, I feel at peace. I settle down. My mind focuses on God. This is my time to commune with God. I may have distractions. My mind may wander. My prayer will not be perfect. This doesn't matter. Prayer does not have to be perfect to be pleasing to God. The important thing is to take the time -- time is one of the most precious gifts that we can give to God.
III
Thirdly, I think John the Baptist would challenge us to find time for each other. In our Christmas shopping, we may spend more time than we should shopping for the perfect gift, never quite sure that the gifts we buy are things that the recipient will use or even want. The best gifts I received as child were not the presents that my parents bought for me, but the time they spent with me. On a snowy Sunday morning like today, I remember the times that my dad helped me deliver the Sunday morning newspapers when I had a paper route. Even though he worked hard all week, he roused himself at 6:00 am. We picked up the papers, assembled the various sections and then he drove me through the neighborhood as I dropped them off on doorsteps. I cherish the times that dad came to see me play basketball when I was in high school. I would look up in seats to see if he was there -- he didn't have to yell loud for me to know that he was behind me, supporting my efforts, cheering me on whether we won or lost. I am grateful that he took an interest in my homework and helped me work out math problems. I cherish the time that my mother gathered us around the table for family dinner -- and after the dinner for a game of scrabble. The Christmas presents they gave were thoughtful, but the biggest gift was the gift of their time.
So this Advent, I am thinking about John the Baptist, Martin Luther King, the mother and children who buy a coat for a homeless child, Thomas Merton, and my mother and father. They are teaching me to put my faith into action, find time for God., and find time for each other. Amen.