Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Advent says, "Here comes Jesus. Get up, get dressed, get ready to meet the King!" Does Advent mean we should make ready for his coming at Christmastime, and prepare ourselves for the holy season, so that it will not be lost on us this year, buried in tinsel and glitter? Yes, Advent means that. Does it also mean that we should be prepared always for Christ's coming -- his entrance into our hearts and lives, whenever that occurs -- that we should anticipate the advent of his Holy Spirit? Yes, Advent means that, too. Might it also refer to Jesus' coming again? Yes, of course. That's what St. Paul had in mind when he wrote to those Roman Christians: "Now is the moment for you to wake from sleep. Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is near." Anticipation, expectation, preparation: these are the themes of Advent.

Joyous Excitement and Anxiety

But anticipation is a mixed emotion. It brings excitement, but it also brings anxiety. An actor, anticipating the curtain on opening night, is full of excitement, but (at the same time) he is nervous, jittery. He goes over his lines one last time, and finds he hardly knows them. Or a commoner summoned to appear before an earthly king thinks it the thrill of a lifetime, looks forward to it desperately for weeks and weeks. But he is also anxious about it. "What if I oversleep?" "What if I can't find the way?" "What is I say the wrong thing?" Or a sixteen-year-old, taking his driving test, about to be licensed. Excited beyond words! But also (if he has any sense) concerned. Will I pass the test? Will I be responsible behind the wheel? So the anticipation of Christ brings with it joyous excitement, but also anxiety. I want Jesus to come at Christmastime, I want him to come into my heart. I want him to come at the end of time. But I also want him, whenever he comes, to find me worthy. And that's the rub.

Paul uses a wonderful image for this. He describes someone waking from a deep sleep, knowing that the night is far gone, and anticipating the dawn. He prepares for it. He lays aside the works of darkness and puts on the armor of light. John Wesley says he "throws away his night clothes, fit only for darkness, and puts on new." Paul makes it painfully clear what he's talking about: "let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead (take off those old pajamas, fit only for darkness) and get dressed in Jesus Christ ." Wake up! Get ready! Dawn is about to break.
 

We are Sound Asleep

Twenty-four days 'till Christmas, and every one's a shopping day! Whoopee! The stores never close. Twenty-four days to get the house decorated, to buy all those presents and wrap them, to get the cards addressed and mailed, to cook all that food. But also, my dear friends, twenty-four days to wake up and put on Jesus. The night is far gone. His coming, the dawn, is always near. But we are sound asleep. We are asleep to the injustices of this world, to the great disparities between rich and poor here at home, and the even greater disparity between rich and poor nations, where some enjoy an embarrassment of riches while others stagger in grinding poverty. Asleep to the wickedness of those who would take advantage of the poor and the ignorant, who would trick them with promises of easy wealth. Asleep to the hunger in our own souls, not nourishing our spirits daily with the Word of God. Asleep to moral decay around us, where human behavior is no longer measured with God's yardstick but is measured, instead, with the stretching tape of relativism, where we decide what's right and wrong based on the polls. These are things of the night. "Let us live honorably as in the day." "The night is far gone, the day is near." 

Get Up and Get Ready for the Dawn Right Now

The Psalmist prays that God would "teach us to number our days." Paul might have put it this way, "Don't let us sleep our lives away. Teach us to wake up and make each day, each hour count." Among the Roman Christians, apparently, there were those who reasoned differently. They said, "Well, since the day is near and Jesus will soon be back, we can relax. We can coast the rest of the way. We can lie abed until the light of his coming shines through our window, and then wake up. Maybe we can even engage in a little debauchery." But Paul -- always earnest in his morality --warns them: "No, it's still dark. We know the dawn is almost here, and we need to get up and get ready for it, but the hour of our joy has not yet arrived. We have to discipline ourselves. We have to make each day count. Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff, and Bonfire of the Vanities and now, his new best seller, A Man in Full," asked Maury Schaeffer, on Sixty Minutes last week, to calculate how many days he thought he had. (Wolfe suffered a serious heart attack a few years ago, and since then, he said, he has learned to think of his life in days, not years.) "It humbles you," he said. "How many do you think, Maury? A thousand? Maybe two or three? Not much more. And a day goes by so quickly! So easy to waste. Christians add a faith dimension to that sense of daily count-down. We will stand before God in judgment soon, we say, or Christ will come back soon, and we must be found awake and watchful (not wasting even a minute) for we "know not when the Master of the House cometh." Advent says it, too. Time is short. Wake up, or you'll miss Christmas -- the real Christmas Don't waste a moment of this precious, getting ready time!

Every Day We are Alive is a Special Occasion

Ann Wells tells of the day when she and her brother-in-law found themselves going through her sister's bureau. In a bottom drawer the brother-in-law found a beautiful slip, hand made of silk, still wrapped in tissue paper, the price tag still on. He said, "We bought this in at a fancy shop in New York City. She was saving it for a special occasion. I suppose this is that occasion." "And he put the slip on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician." And then my brother-in-law turned to me and said something that changed my life. "Don't ever save anything for a special occasion! Every day you're alive is a special occasion." Ann Wells says at that moment the words "someday," and "one of these days" disappeared from her vocabulary. "If it's worth seeing, or hearing, or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now. I wear my good blazer to the market. I no longer save my expensive perfume for parties. We set the table with our best china and silver every day." I keep hearing what he said, "Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special occasion."

Get Ready, Jesus is Coming

The calendar of the church, with its changing colors, its holy seasons, and feast days, and saints' days, like all calendars, serves to remind us. Get ready, the Nile is about to flood. Get ready, it's time to plant. Get ready, monsoon rains are coming. Get ready, mom's birthday is next week. Get ready, we're having people to dinner. And, when (on the church's calendar) we come to the Advent season, it says, "Get ready, Jesus is coming. Let us not waste a day or an hour sleeping. Let us wake and prepare ourselves for the day."