Advent II

The Rev. Rali Weaver

Despite all the tinsel and holy and snow to brighten the season this can be a very difficult time of year.

The days are shortening and nights are lengthening and the holidays seem to go by so quickly there is hardly ever enough time to get everything done. This period of waiting and preparation may seem to be a wilderness.

On this second Sunday in Advent we focus on hope- the kind of hope brought by a prophetic voice promising a savior. The kind of hope brought forward by a messenger who offers the light of hope in the darkness of winter.

Today I would say to you that these voices of hope are a necessary part of the preparation. We need prophecy, we need John to help us to point our hearts toward hope. In this period of Advent, as we lurch toward winter, in a weakening economy, in a transitory political situation, it would be difficult to focus our hearts on hope if we were not offered voices from outside of us.

I don’t know about you but my body wants to hibernate at this time of year. I want to sleep. And despite all the preparations and making merry, my body and spirit are closing down for winter. Often in retrospect when winter is all over and I finally thaw out in the springtime I am always surprised how any of us were able to get through the holiday season and muddle through the cold.

With that in mind, on this second Sunday of Advent as we sit on the forming edge of all the frenzy that comes amidst the closing down for winter and with bringing out the old and preparing for the new--

Poised for another holiday season to come and go—

I want to encourage us to slow down for a moment,

Take a step away from all the physical preparations

And take a breath, listen to the messages we hear and prepare our spirits for the season.

When you really think about it this is exactly what John was asking people to do.

He was baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins. Physically preparing them for the divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel by baptizing seekers in the Jordon River, which was a purification rite for repentant sinners, performed in "living water" in accord with Jewish customs of his day.

According to the Gospel of Luke it appears that John could not have been much more than 6 months older than Jesus himself. Yet by the time Jesus was prepared to begin his ministry John had already been preparing the way. When you listen to the prophecy in Isaiah and you read the text in Mark it is obvious that Jesus could not have preached his new gospel if he had also been responsible for preparing his own way.

It is clear from both our scriptures today that John’s message was necessary for Jesus’ good news to be heard. It is important that we remember that we need other voices to open our hearts to this season.

What voices do you year crying out in the wilderness to help you prepare the way for hope?

The second important message in our scripture today, as I see it, is that we must also prepare our hearts and minds and spirits too. I believe that we do this at Advent in our communion. As we say our confession we purposely cleanse our hearts and minds to prepare the ground for something new.

It is necessary to have time and space to make room for something new.

Imagine if when we elected a new President he entered the oval office the next day with no time to prepare the ground for his arrival? Without some space between what is known and what may come to pass we might easily get stuck in the same old ruts of everyday.

We all need that same time and the light of hope to make our hearts ready, for all the wonder of the birth of Jesus.

If the times were not so tough, if John had not be in the wilderness proclaiming new life what need would there have been for Good News in the first place? It is the fact that hope was born in the darkest hour that makes the birth of the child meaningful at all.

All of the seasonal messages at this time of year ring a familiar tune of hope being revealed in the darkness.

Even if Christmas is simply a secular commercial holiday- the miracle becomes that Santa can get resources to your home in the worst kind of weather, down a skinny dirty chimney?

And a family can be together again despite the long separation of time and distance and sometimes even emotions

And the new year will come offering each of us a fresh start, a second chance and a time to begin a new.

What we celebrate at this time of year are not the physical things-- not the light, nor the candles nor the greens nor the gift, nor the miracle—

What I hope we are giving our hearts at this time of year is the reminder that when things get tough-- when the weather grows cold and dark and lonely, I hope your heart holds the truth that what good, what light, what possibility, what new growth that has happened against all odds before-- can and will come again.

As I say this, I must confess that sometimes I even find this hard to accept..

Our brains can get accustomed to the way things are in the moment and make it difficult to see past to new possibilities.

I see this in my dog Sophia. Sophia is a golden retriever. It is in her nature to retrieve. If I take her out and throw the ball as often as I throw it in the same spot she can catch it every time.

But when I throw it in the same spot for a while and then throw it to a different location (usually by accident) she can’t find it.

Even if the ball is right in front of her face, even if I land the ball at her feet, if it is not where I have been throwing it before her brain has trouble locating it. She’ll go round and round and round in circles sniffing and trying to find it, often going right past it because her brain cannot see the ball because it’s not where she expects it to be.

Opening our souls and our hearts to new possibilities and to miracles doesn’t happen over night. It takes time. It takes reminders from your minister and urging from your friends. It takes conscious action on your part.

Through Advent we are offered a systematic preparation to assist us in realigning our spirits.

And I wonder in our more secular, more capitalistic culture what are we preparing for?

I think of knitting socks for no one in particular and singing in the shower when no one can hear. I think of the monks that practice vespers even when no other person attends and the Buddhists who meditate for the soul of the world.

There are preparations for our souls that have nothing to do with how many cookies we bake or who gets a Christmas card this year.

And so this day I ask: what preparation does your soul need to be awakened this season?

Is it more tinsel, more holly?

Or is there something else your soul cries for to make the promise of abundance in the midst of dearth a reality.

If you are to ever fulfill the real promise of this season – the one that offers Peace on Earth Goodwill to all –What must you do to prepare your heart?

I encourage you amidst the wrapping or the dancing or the bah-humbugging --to spend some time searching your own heart and asking what preparation it needs to open fully to this season.

May these days of advent and of waiting offer us warmth unto our souls. And let us approach Holy Communion this day to cleans our hearts for this new amazing hope to enter in.