A Sermon for the First Sunday of Advent (Year B)
December 3, 2023
Text: Mark 13:24-37
Now, O Lord, take my lips, and speak through them. Take our minds, and think through them. Take our hearts, and set them on fire. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I came across an article on Facebook a few years ago that was written by an Episcopal priest from the Diocese of Missouri. Since it was close to the First Sunday of Advent, the title of the article immediately caught my attention. It was simply called, “The Waiting.”
In her article, the author wrote about an experience she recently had while waiting in traffic for fifteen minutes in order to get to a meeting at her church.
Since my family and I were living in the Birmingham area at the time, I could easily relate to the author’s experience. Living in Birmingham meant always having to plan ahead to get to where you’re going because you never knew if there was going to be an accident on the interstate or construction work going on. And, you could always count on rush hour traffic to add an extra twenty to thirty minutes to your trip.
We all know very well what it’s like to sit and wait in traffic, don’t we? We know what it’s like to yell at the driver in front of us who won’t speed up and go as fast as we want them to. We know what it’s like to get angry with the person who cut in front of us in order to get ahead in traffic.
And, those of us from Andalusia know what it’s like to get frustrated when cars are backed up on the bypass during the summer as people are trying to make their way down to the beach.
In her article, the author described those same feelings of frustration and impatience that we all get while waiting in traffic to get to where we’re trying to go. She also suggested that the season of Advent can help us slow down and take a breath during the busyness of the holiday season and to appreciate the present moment rather than worrying about all the things that need to get done in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas.
She wrote, “The irony of the fact that I spent a good part of yesterday submerged in Advent liturgy was not lost on me. It’s only a few days after Thanksgiving, but the Christmas season has descended upon us with a throb and clash of activity. Yet we Episcopalians stubbornly push back against the headlong leap into Christmas for another full month, observing instead the subtle discipline of waiting, of anticipation and patience in the face of instant gratification.”
I love that phrase the author used in her article. “The subtle discipline of waiting.”
To me, it captures so perfectly what the season of Advent is all about. It’s about slowing down and being intentional. It’s about waiting in hopeful expectation as our celebration of Christmas draws closer and closer, week after week. It’s also about preparing for that great day when Christ will return to be our judge and finally bring to fulfillment all of God’s creation.
The season of Advent is a wonderful gift and an important part of our tradition in the Episcopal Church. Through it, we’re invited to practice “the subtle discipline of waiting.”
But waiting is hard, isn’t it?
As Episcopalians, I think it’s especially difficult for us to wait because it contradicts everything else that’s going on around us during this time of the year.
It’s difficult to wait when everyone around us is already singing “Joy to the World,” and we still have four weeks of Advent left at church before we start singing Christmas carols.
It’s difficult to wait when the commercial side of Christmas seems to get earlier and earlier each year. This year, stores were already busy advertising for Christmas and stocking their shelves with holiday items and decorations before Halloween was even over.
Now, I’m not suggesting that these things are right or wrong, and I’m not saying that we shouldn’t celebrate the holiday traditions we’ve come to know and love. What I’m saying is that it can be difficult for us to see the benefit of waiting when our culture teaches us that there’s really no need to wait—that we can and should have everything we want, whenever we want it.
As Christians, we’ve learned a thing or two about waiting, haven’t we? It’s really become part of who we are, especially when you consider the fact that the earliest Christians expected Jesus to return soon, certainly within their own lifetime. Yet, here we are. It’s been over two thousand years since Jesus walked the earth, and we’re still waiting for him to return.
In our lesson this morning from the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks to his disciples about the day of his return, saying, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.”
This isn’t the Gospel lesson we expect to hear on the First Sunday of Advent, is it? As the world around us is already celebrating the joy and excitement of Christmas, we’re sitting here in church talking about the Final Judgment.
This passage from Mark’s Gospel is full of alarming images and warnings from Jesus for us to “beware” and “keep awake,” for the Son of Man is coming again with great power and glory. It isn’t sparkly decorations and Christmas lights. It isn’t “Joy to the World” or “Silent Night.”
It’s Jesus saying to his disciples, “In those days, after that suffering the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”
That sounds scary, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do on December 3rd, is think about the end times.
I’d much rather jump ahead to the joy and festivities of Christmas, but the Church would have us do otherwise. The Church has set aside these four weeks of Advent for us to prepare not only for the coming of Jesus at Christmas but also for his coming again at the end of the age.
Jesus’ description of the Final Judgment in our Gospel lesson for today isn’t meant to scare us or intimidate us. But, it is a wakeup call. It’s meant to inspire us and fill us with the hope and urgency for the day of his return. It’s a reminder of God’s love for us, a reminder that God will never leave us and that one day, all of God’s creation will be restored.
Until that day comes, we wait, but we don’t wait for Jesus to come and fix everything for us. We use the gifts we’ve been given to prepare for his return.
We continue to do the work that God has given us to do as the hands and feet of Christ in the world. We continue to work for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being. We wait in hopeful expectation, keeping in mind that the Christ we find in the manger at Christmas is the same Christ we find in the homeless person on the street or the hungry person in need of a warm meal.
Yes, waiting is difficult. With all the darkness and evil in the world, it can be easy for us to get frustrated and impatient waiting for Jesus to return. We don’t want to wait any longer. We want so desperately sometimes to jump ahead to the ending—for Jesus to come back now.
But, there are gifts to be discovered in the waiting. We’ve been given the gift of time on this earth to join with Christ in his redeeming work, to carry the light of Christ with us wherever we go, and we’ve been given the gifts of grace and mercy to share with the world, to strive more and more each day to turn toward Jesus and to love others in the same way that Jesus taught us.
So, my invitation to you this Advent is this—
Be patient in the waiting, but also be eager for Jesus to return. Use this time in Advent to slow down and take a breath and think about your calling in Christ as we prepare to welcome the newborn King at Christmas, and let us all look ahead to that great day when Christ will come again to be our judge and to bring to fulfillment God’s dream of a world redeemed in love. Amen.
The Rev. Eric Mancil 