Stay awake. Know what is happening. Be prepared.
Good morning. Today is the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of a new church year. During Advent we seek to prepare our hearts and lives for the arrival of the Babe of Bethlehem, our Savior who is the hope of the world. We cherish this season because it leads us to the joy and peace of Christmas.
Our lectionary readings for today are meant to be instructive, to teach us how we are to enter this reflective season of Advent. The wisdom of centuries has come down to us in the selections of these passages, because the sages of old have found that they serve us well as we spiritually prepare for the arrival of the child Jesus. In the Isaiah passage for this Sunday, we learn that we should expect some great things in the future. God will be at work in the future just as we have seen in the past. In fact, some things are going to happen that even in our wildest dreams we might not expect. God will bring peace among the nations; armaments will be dismantled and war will be no more. Be prepared for some wonder.
St. Paul adds some color to this scriptural call to be prepared. Now is the “moment for you to wake from sleep.” “The night is far gone, the day is near.” In modern parlance, SHAPE UP. The time of the end is near. We do not have time to waste in drowsy laziness. Shape up.
The gospel today is even more specific. And it gives us marching orders as we move into the Advent season. Jesus clearly says that we are not going to know everything about the future. But we are going to know what we need to know. And that is: we need to be prepared. If we just drift along, oblivious to what is happening around us, we join the ranks of Noah’s contemporaries as the flood of tragedy rose around them. Stay awake, Jesus says. Know what is happening around you. Be prepared.
These statements of Jesus most likely refer to the second coming of the Son of Man, sometime yet in their future and sometime in our future. But this strategic attitude (readiness, alertness, preparedness) is the same frame of mind and spirit that we need to curry during this Advent season, that glorious time of the year when we commemorate yet again the first Advent of the Son of Man, the arrival of Jesus at Christmas time.
We also know that the month of December brings to us the culmination of our yearly stewardship emphasis. Each year we are challenged by our leaders to think ahead and do some planning about our support for this parish and its witness to our community. In just two Sundays, we will have a stewardship in-gathering when we bring together the results of our planning. Stewardship is, in essence, a concrete investment of time, talent, and treasure. We invest in the coming year of parish life here at St. Paul’s. We must engage in this spiritual practice with as much care as we take with any and all of our investments.
This year I have been thinking during this stewardship season about some of the founders of St. Paul’s here in Manhattan. The earliest groups of New Englanders who came to the Manhattan area contained some Episcopalians, and the Philadelphia Society sent a missionary priest here to establish a church. They organized themselves, obtained property, and began construction of a stone church in 1858. By 1860, when Kansas was still a territory not yet a state, the stonework of St. Paul’s at the corner of 6th & Poyntz was complete. That stonework still stands. Our second rector, who personally knew some of these pioneers, reflected on their dedication in an 1888 anniversary speech. Of our first Sr. Warden, Ambrose Todd, he said: “The rocks in these walls he helped to dig from the quarry. These beams and rafters over our heads he helped with his own hands to cut from the forest.”
We cannot see the large limestone blocks in these walls from the inside of the nave. But we can still see those very blocks from the outside. The wooden beams Mr. Todd helped craft are long gone, but the stone walls still enclose us as we gather for weekly worship 165 years later. Talk about stewardship of time, treasure, and talent. Thank you, Mr. Todd, for what you gave us. May we be as interested in investing in the future of this place as you were.
One of the most arresting aspects of our gospel passage this first Sunday of Advent, is the saying of Jesus that likens the second coming of the Son of Man to that of a thief sneaking into someone’s home and robbing a family who is unaware of what is happening. The Son of Man is like a thief? This saying of Jesus echoes throughout the New Testament. The figure of speech must have landed on the ears of those first audiences like a clap of thunder. Peter, John, Luke, Paul, and Matthew all refer to it. Jesus did hang on the cross between two thieves, but he did not teach that he also was a thief. But he will return like a thief does – with stealth and surprise.
So, on this first Sunday of Advent, we have our marching orders for this first season of the new church year: Watch, be alert, stay awake, be on your guard. As we commemorate the first Advent of our Savior, we look forward to the second advent of Jesus. Both the Advent season and the Easter season pull us into the future. Yes, we celebrate what has happened in the history of redemption in the past, but we look forward to the final stages of our redemption that are yet in the future. “Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ is coming again.”
Artist: Ivan Kramskoi. Title: Somnambula. Object type: painting, oil on canvas. Date: 1871.