First Sunday of Advent

Advent homily   First Sunday Luke 21: signs of the times  2015

We begin our season of Advent this early pre-December morning, a season during which we prepare ourselves, in heart, mind and body, to welcome our Lord God in the Flesh.   None of us have ever seen Jesus in the Flesh but we look forward to his return to us on some day yet to come.   In this  time, an in-between time, between the first coming of Jesus as a baby and His return to us as the resurrected humble king of the Universe, in this in-between time we reenact his first coming by celebrating him as we celebrate the birthdays of those we love.   We prepare songs and celebrations, cards and messages, and gifts and decorations. 

Right for us to do this for this is the major birthday of the Universe.   But we ponder in the winter darkness of morning and evening what this birth must mean.......

The presence of Christ's Kingdom is mysterious.   If the Kingdom is already here among us, why is it not more evident?  How do we make it stand out among us?   What in addition is to come?   We best approach an answer to these questions not by trying to wordsmith answers.   

Theologians encourage us to learn from our experience.  For example: get to know a pregnant mother close to term.   Get to know her and her  new born baby entirely dependent on loving parents.  The parents’ decision of love within the physical realities of their lives and the baby’s complete dependence on them helps open the door for us into God’s Kingdom.  No wordsmith necessary; no photo record necessary.   

This universal presence of parents with child leads us in our efforts to triumph over evil.  They console, strengthen, encourage, inspire and fill us with promise.   But we come to know the grounds for this triumph only in our God who sends Himself in Jesus to be dependent like any other baby and to be born and loved by Mary and Joseph.   This family leads us in our triumph.  Without Jesus, humanity falls short of a mystery and becomes a hollow question without an answer.

In this season, then, mind you take an interest in some parents and their newborns.    Rejoice with those parents who watch their babies grow; weep with those parents who lose their young ones.  But always, then, let it cross your heart and mind that these touchstones with new life prepare you to welcome Jesus every day in those who are in need.   And are we not all in need?   These touchstones, too, prepare you to welcome him again among us in the flesh on the last day.

Postscript:   On Wednesday morning, December 2, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, left their 6-month-old daughter with Mr. Farook's mother.   By nightfall the reason became clear.   The couple went on a rampage at a social services center in San Bernardino, killing at least 14 people.   (synopsis from the News York Times)

Mother, father and child.   Because the scenario created by this family is too appalling to imagine, it is an exception that proves the rule: parents with a child inspire us and call us to greater good.