The Reverend John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
December 2, 2007 1
Advent
Today’s sermon is taken from
the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 24, versus 37-44.
Mr. Smith is riding through
Manhattan with a reckless cab driver. At
the first intersection they come to the cab driver runs a red light. “Hey, what’s the big idea?” Mr. Smith yelled. “That was a red light!” “Don’t worry, fella,” the cabbie replied, “my
brother drives a cab too and he does that all the time.” Mr. Smith grits his teeth and tried to remain
calm, but he loses his cool when the driver runs a second red light. “Are you insane? You are just asking for trouble!” he
yells. “I know what I’m doing man,” said
the cabbie. “My brother runs red lights
all the time and nothing ever happens to him.”
At the third intersection the cabbie slows down, and he stops at a green
light. “What’s your problem?” the
passenger asked. “The light is
green!” “Yes,” said the cabbie, “but you
never know when my brother might be coming through.”
I’m sorry to begin Advent
with a dumb joke, but at least that taxi cab driver was prepared. After all, he never knew when his brother
might be coming through running another traffic light.
The first Sunday in Advent is
our opportunity to make ourselves ready, to prepare, watching and waiting for
the coming of Jesus. Jesus said to his
disciples, “Therefore, keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord
will come. Be ready because the Son of
Man will come any hour when you do not expect it.”
I think we need to summons to
be ready more seriously than we do. My
guess is that we will spend much more time in the next few weeks preparing for
the celebration of Christmas than we will spend in a lifetime preparing
ourselves for Jesus’ reign in our world.
I like to ready the comics
from time to time, and one of my favorites is the BC comic strip. A while back, about two years ago, it had a
Christmas cartoon that read like this:
One small ant said to his father, ‘“Who is Jesus?’ And the father ant replied, ‘He’s the reason
for the season.’ And in the next panel the
small ant says, ‘But dad, I thought Santa Clause was the reason.’ And the
father replied, ‘He is if you prefer Nintendo to everlasting life.’”
And that’s really the problem
in a nutshell, isn’t it? We are focused
on the things of this world. The promise
of a better world seems too distant and too remote.
In 1845 a group of British
explorers lead by John Franklin set out for the North Pole. The men estimated that their trip would take
two or more years. Yet they didn’t
prepare properly for this time frame at all.
They packed only the bear minimum quantity of necessary items like coal,
but the filled the holes of the boat with unnecessary luxuries like books and
fine china and silver utensils. And
wouldn’t you be surprised to learn that the men on Franklin’s expedition never
returned. Instead, years later their
ship was discovered, surrounded by the frozen bodies of the explorers. They had been unprepared for their
journey. These sailors were unprepared
for the world that awaited them. And I suspect
the same is true of us.
I want to suggest this
morning some ways we need to prepare for the coming of Jesus, as well as the
coming of Christmas. The two are not
exclusive, quite obviously. When you
prepare yourselves to celebrate the true spirit of Christmas, you also prepare
yourselves for the coming of Christ.
First of all, I want to ask
you to try to focus on your relationships.
Now in my humble opinion, relationships are what life is all about. You are thinking about gifts you can buy for
those who are significant in your life, and that’s really good. Gifts bring joy to both the receiver and the
giver. And that’s a wonderful part of
the Christmas season, but the Advent Christmas season gives us the opportunity
to do more than merely give gifts. This
is an opportunity to restore relationships that have been broken, to strengthen
relationships that have been weakened, and to make stronger relationships that
are vital to our emotional and spiritual well being.
I read a wonderful story
about twin girls who had been born twelve weeks premature in the Medical Center
Hospital in Worcester. They weighed in at
about two pounds each and had been placed in separate bassinettes. One started to do just fine and the other
began slowly to fade. Her heart beat
was rapid, she was visibly anxious, and nothing the nurses could do seemed to
be able to stop what they saw as her inevitable death. Then one nurse remembered something she had
read about treatment of premature infants elsewhere in the world. As a last resort, the nurses put little
Brial, the weaker twin, right into the bassinette with Kiriay her big sister. Now Kiriay was three ounces bigger, and in
the words of one of the nurses on duty, the results were both immediate and
dramatic. Little Brial snuggled up to
her sister and her heart rate immediately slowed to normal, her color came
back. The baby visibly relaxed almost, it seemed, with a sigh of relief. She accepted nourishment. The crisis was over. She would survive.
Friends, what our children
need this Christmas is not a bunch of things.
What they need is time with people who will love them, people who will
affirm them. What our spouses and
friends need this Christmas is not a new electronic toy or a new
accessory. What they need is us. The whole world spun into an existence out of
a desire for relationships; God’s desire for beings to share creation with
you. When God wanted to redeem this
world, God did it through a baby, God’s own son.
It’s all about
relationships. To prepare for Jesus’
coming, begin by focusing on your relationships. Then focus on your responsibilities. I am thinking
specifically about your responsibilities to Christ. Jesus really is the forgotten guest of his
own birthday celebration. This is the
best time of year for considering how devoted we are to the kingdom of God, to
Christ’s kingdom.
In the parish I served in
Westerly, Rhode Island, Helen was from a German family who had made their home
in Russia. And during Stalin’s reign,
German citizens were the targets of persecution and attacks. Fortunately, Helen and a small group of girls
escaped Russia. They traveled on foot
over rough terrain with no resources but the clothes on their backs until they
reached Germany. Helen’s parents weren’t
so lucky; they died in a labor camp in Siberia.
Once in Germany Helen found work as a maid. Her employer was cruel woman who threatened
to kill Helen if she ever left.
Eventually Helen was able to leave Germany; she emigrated to Canada
where she had a cousin. He offered to
let Helen work as a maid in his household.
She was penniless and didn’t know a word of English, so it seemed like
the perfect situation for her; except that Helen’s cousin was an evil man who
raped her repeatedly. He knew she had no
resources and no way to escape. And when
Helen became pregnant with her cousin’s child, her cousin and his church forced
her to leave town. She moved to another
town in Canada. Eventually she married
and raised a family.
I met Helen in her later
years after her husband had died. She
was a woman of modest means, but she was wealthy in faith and love. Our church was debating the need for hiring a
youth minister, and like most churches Christ Church operated on a very tight
budget. Where were we going to find the
money to hire a youth minister? Then at
the annual meeting, Helen spoke up. Ever
since she was a child, Helen had dreamed of playing the piano, and of course,
her troubled childhood in Russia and her exile to Germany put that dream on
hold. After her marriage, Helen and her
husband bought a piano, but the demands of working and raising a family left
little time for Helen to pursue her dreams.
For the last few months Helen had been saving up her money so that she
could begin piano lessons, but what was more important than telling your people
about the love of Jesus? Helen pledged
that night to give up her piano lessons.
She stood up, and in broken English, she said that she would donate the
sixty dollars each month that she was going to use for her piano lessons, to
the youth fund. The church vestry at
Christ Church was so moved by Helen’s generosity that it voted unanimously to
hire a youth pastor.
I believe Helen was ready,
not only for Christmas, but for Jesus’ coming.
And don’t get so caught up the superficial busyness of Christmas that
you forget the essential business of Jesus.
God sent his son to the world to save it. We are those God has called to continue the
work of Jesus which began two thousand years ago. Make this the season of true preparation. Focus on your relationships; focus on your
responsibilities; and finally, to prepare yourself completely, focus on Jesus.
A church in a small Swiss
town was renowned for its beautiful pipe organ.
The music from the organ was so moving, so resonant, so rich, that those
who heard it swore that they could see visions of God. Worshipers left that church each Sunday
inspired to live lives that reflected the glory and the reverence of God, and
because the awesome music of the pipe organ drew their hearts closer to their
Creator. But over time the organ pipes
began to lose their rich sound. The
music became thin and mediocre. The
church’s pastor brought in repairmen from all over Switzerland to examine this
pipe organ. None of them knew how to
restore its wonderful and bright sound.
One night a shabby-looking stranger entered the town, and he went to the
church and asked the caretaker to be allowed to stay the night. The caretaker was suspicious of the stranger,
but the caretaker’s young daughter was moved by the glow of the stranger’s
eyes. She convinced her father to let
him in. Later, the caretaker awakened to
hear the church sanctuary filled with music.
The music was not thin and ordinary; it was rich and resonant and
soaring tones that once filled the hearts of the worshipers. He ran to the sanctuary where he saw the
town’s people assembled, and they sat in reverend awe praising God for the
beauty that they experienced. At the
organ sat the shabby stranger. When the
music stopped, the caretaker asked the stranger, “Who are you?” And he said, “My name is Gott. G-o-t-t.”
“But who are you that you could restore the beautiful music of the
organ?” And the stranger smiled and
wiped some dust from the mantel of the organ.
Underneath it, in gilded letters, was the name Gott, G-o-t-t. “Many years ago, I built this organ with my
own hands,” he explained, “Now I have come to make it sing again.”
Advent and Christmas are
times of reaffirming our relationships and our responsibilities; but more than
anything else, it is a time for focusing on Jesus, for only the one who has
constructed us can heal us of our brokenness.
Be ready, come to God, be saved.
Amen