O come, O come Emmanuel. Amen.
The
message of Advent is “prepare.” But you might ask, “prepare for what?” To
celebrate Christmas with a heart full of joy? To be ready to serve those in
need? To be faithful so that when Christ comes again we will be judged as
righteous? It matters what we are preparing for. The way that I prepare to go
to the hardware store isn’t at all the way that I prepare for a meeting with
the Bishop. If your teacher tells you that there will be a test tomorrow, but
doesn’t tell you whether it’s going to be in math, history, biology, or
English, well, it’s going to be a lot harder to be prepared. Too often, the
message of Advent is “prepare for Christ’s coming,” and we’re left wondering
what that really means. If we don’t know what it is that we’re preparing for,
it’s nearly impossible to actually be ready.
Last
Sunday, you’ll recall that the sermon focused on the question “How do we
prepare?”. I offered a few suggestions – we prepare by paying attention to
history, mystery, and majesty. History means knowing that God truly acts in
history, and trusting that God isn’t “out there,” but is very much with us.
Mystery means coming together in prayer to get to know Jesus better, it means
seeking his peace in the midst of the violence of the world. And majesty means
knowing that Jesus comes as a king, meaning that he receives us in love and
mercy. An easy way to remember all of that is to say that we prepare by being
in relationship – with God and with others.
So
with other, what exactly is it that we’re preparing for? What does it mean that
we are getting ready for Christ’s coming? Every second Sunday of Advent, John
the Baptist is the focus of the gospel text. In our text from Matthew, he
announces “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” If you had to
summarize the entirety of the Gospel into one phrase, that one would have to be
considered. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. What we are
preparing for is something radically different.
As
powerful as that sentence is, it’s also not entirely clear. That first word,
“repent,” really doesn’t mean what we often think it does. To repent does not
mean to feel shame, guilt, or fear. Repenting doesn’t mean saying “I’m sorry”
or even stopping doing certain actions. “Repent,” in Greek, is a compound word
– metanoia. Meta, you might recognize as being the prefix in metamorphosis,
which is the process by which a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. Meta means to transform or change. Noia, means “mind” or “thinking.” Think
of the word “paranoia,” to be out of your mind, it’s that same Greek root. So metanoia, or “repent,” means “to change
your mind.” This is actually one of the most important things that I think
every Christian should know: that repentance isn’t about apologizing, but changing
your mind, seeing things differently, interacting with the world in a new way.
After
the call to repent, to change our mind, John the Baptizer says “for the kingdom
of heaven has come near.” Another way of saying what John says is “Jesus is
showing you a new reality, a new way of seeing the world, that God’s reign of
peace, justice, love, and mercy is here.” There are two things to point out
about this. The first really is a counter-humanist perspective. So often we are
misled into thinking that it is our accomplishments which are building a
better, more inclusive, world. This is a trap that those that we might label as
“liberal” fall into. We pat ourselves on the back and think “Look at how
progressive and open-minded I am.” All we’re doing is showing love; and that’s
not about us, but God. Notice that John doesn’t say “Repent, for it is your job
to build the kingdom of heaven.” No, with no human interaction, John announces
that this kingdom has already come near. Our task is not to build that kingdom,
but rather to pay attention to it. Our task as followers of Christ is not the
change the world, but rather to see that God’s love has already changed the
world. And once we have seen that change, it transform us and it becomes our
task to testify to that deeper and truer reality.
If
you’ve seen the movie The Matrix, you
might think of that as an example. In this science-fiction movie, the main
character learns that his entire life wasn’t real, but rather something he
experienced in a computer simulation. Once he is woken up to this true reality,
he can’t go back to his blissful ignorance. The same is true in faith. Once you
see, feel, know the loving presence of God in your life, you are beckoned to
repent – to not only see things differently, but to be transformed.
The work of faith is to
focus on the kingdom of heaven rather than focusing on the kingdoms of this
world. Repentance is the invitation to change our minds about how the world
really works. The world says that you are judged by the company that you keep,
Jesus spent his time with those who were rejected by others. The world says
that your life would be better with a new phone, new car, new jacket this
Christmas, Jesus says that he has already given you abundant life. The world
says that blackmail and vengeance are great ways to find success, Jesus says
“forgive as you will be forgiven.” The world says it has to be this or that,
Jesus shows us that love has no boundaries. The world says “has anything good
ever come out of Bethlehem,” Jesus says that Bethlehem is the cradle of God
Incarnate. The world says that Jesus was guilty, God has said that he is the
King of kings and Lord of lords. The world gives us idolatry, violence,
injustice, exploitation, slavery, scarcity; Jesus gives us love, peace,
justice, dignity, freedom, abundance.
The work of repentance is
to realign our focus to see God’s reality as the operative force in this world.
And this is the second takeaway that comes from the nearness of God’s kingdom –
we’re going to have to let go of some things. It has been said that God cannot
change who we’re becoming until we let go of who we thought we were. The way
that the world defines you isn’t your true identity. How you look in the mirror
is no indicator of your goodness or worth. How many people recognize you when
you walk into a room is no indicator of your power or dignity. How much money
you have is no indicator of your intelligence, work-ethic, or value. Let go of
all those measuring sticks, get out of the rat race. Repent, see yourself
differently, as a beloved child of God, because that is what you are.
And the same is true for
the systems which we are a part of – democracy, capitalism, status, wealth, government,
borders, even death – these are all false realities that we’ve ceded power to.
Empires, fame, stocks, bank account balances all rise and fall, but at the end,
all that will ultimately last is love. If we can see that reality now, even if
it’s a reality that operates under the illusions of the world, it frees us to experience
the salvation of the Gospel here and now. That is what John the Baptist’s
teaching is all about. That is why he calls us to repent. This is what Jesus’
life, death, and Resurrection are all about. Who, after Jesus’ brutal and
humiliating Crucifixion, would have ever expected life to come next? The whole
point of Jesus coming to earth isn’t about somehow balancing the cosmic scale
of debt, but what God coming to us in Jesus is all about is showing us the
heights, the depths, the wideness of God’s mercy and love. So the work of
Advent is to repent, to change our mind about how the world works to see this
love as the current that gives energy to all of life.
I do realize how radical
this is. This is why the people who actually live this way are either martyred
or ignored by the world. Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, and Dietrich
Bonhoeffer were all killed because they dared to stand up against to these
false realities. Many of the saints of the Church were considered to be
rebel-rousers in their own day, dismissed for being too impractical or out of
touch with reality. This is where turning to the text from Isaiah might be
helpful.
Did you catch that? “The
wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the
calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the
lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of
the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.” That’s
absolutely crazy. Wolves eat lambs, not lie with them. If I saw one of my
daughters playing over a viper’s den, I’d scream with all of my being for her
to run away. This is a subversive, disturbing, and unimaginable reality.
You might even find it to
be easier, more comfortable, and
preferable to live captive to the ways of the world. You might say “That’s a
nice vision and all, but that’s just not how the world works.” And you’re
right. That isn’t how the world works, which is why it is so difficult to have
dual-citizenship as members of both the kingdom of heaven and the kingdoms and
institutions of this world. Jesus never promises that repenting is easy, he
only promises that it leads to abundant life. As jarring and impossible as the
vision from Isaiah seems, it shows that God intends to usher in an entire new
world order. But the interesting thing is that this reign of peace and love is
already here, even if it’s not fully completed. The kingdom of heaven has
already come near.
It’s a question of
whether or not you expect to see this, whether or not you’ve repented and
changed your mind about what is possible. One of my favorite illustrations of
this comes from the subway system in Washington DC. Several years ago, on a
cold January day, a man was playing a violin outside a subway station, with the
case open for donations. This isn’t an odd sight to see outside a subway
station, so no one thought much of it. He played during rush hour, so thousands
of people passed him by. No one offered any applause, and after 43 minutes of
playing, there was $32.17 in his violin case. But this wasn’t any ordinary man.
Playing the violin wasn’t another street performer, as everyone suspected. It
was the Grammy award winning and world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell. No one
stopped to pay attention to the music he played, they just heard notes in the
background. What they missed is that he was playing some of the most beautiful
and complex music ever written by composers like Bach. And he wasn’t playing an
instrument that he picked up at the thrift store, as we would assume most
street performers play. No, he was playing a Stradivarius violin that was
hand-crafted in 1713 and is valued at over $3.5 million. Just two days before
this social experiment, Bell had played a sold out concert where tickets went
for over $100 each. That scenario is about as believable as a cow and bear
grazing together. No one expected to see that reality at the subway, and so
they didn’t.
God’s dominion of love,
mercy, and peace is here. By repenting, that is, changing our minds, about the
true nature of this world, we can take part in God’s abundant blessings of
salvation today. What do you expect to see? What thoughts do you surround
yourself with? Research has shown that if children watch violence in television
shows they act more violently and that those who watch commercials are more
likely to want to buy a product. We’ve all heard the phrase “you are what you
eat,” and it’s just as true that you are what you consume. Taking in partisan
news is going to make you partisan. Laughing at jokes that degrade women,
Muslims, or immigrants actually degrades those people, as well as you. Having
Advent be about the stress of gift buying makes you a slave to advertising and
corporations.
And when you see genuine
moments of the nearness of heaven, how do you respond? Sometimes the beauty of
love and charity is too hard to look at, so we dismiss it as overly idealistic
or sentimental. The nearness of heaven should, when it catches us off guard,
move us to tears, warm our hearts, and lift our spirts. So take some time this
Advent to slow down and listen. Enjoy the beauty of the lights, the ringing of
the bells, the singing of carols, the giggles of children – and know that they
are testifying to the truest reality of God’s kingdom which surrounds us.
To be sure, one day,
Christ’s final coming will be known and that hope and glory will be unmistakingly
visible. But that doesn’t mean that Christ doesn’t continue to come in each and
every moment of life. This is what we are preparing for – something that has already
begun. In the midst of the mundane and everyday life, the kingdom of heaven has
come near; it is a reality that is deeper and truer than what we ordinarily
see. The peace that allows lions and oxen to eat grass together is already
present. The mercy that allows enemies to become friends is here. The love that
brought the shoot out of the stump out of Jesse is all around us. We just need
to repent – to change our minds, to see things in a new way, to see and live
our lives by knowing the Good News that God is with us and that love and peace
are present possibilities. Amen.
