Father John McGinn, Rector

Saint John’s Episcopal Church

Sandwich, Massachusetts

 

December 10, 2006                                    Advent 2

 

 

I don’t know about you, when you wake up in the morning, but there seem to be so many things that need to be done in the early hours of the morning.  One of the things I like to do is go out and pick up my copy of the Cape Cod times and to begin to read the sports page.  I don’t start from the beginning, I always start with the sports page, and just as I sit down with my glass of water, my young grandson Colin, who is living with us, comes over and asks if I would like to feed the animals.  I know what this means because every day we have this ritual where he brings out his monkey, gorilla, tiger, frog, dog and other stuffed animals and I imitate their voices as I pretend to eat broccoli and bananas.  Through out this I keep thinking that I have so many thins to do, but there he is asking me to make the monkeys ask for bananas.  I guess most of you who are parents and grandparents can relate.

 

We can get so busy in our lives and have so many things on our agenda and be so stressed out that we forget to play with the children around us.  Particularly at this time of year, Advent, there are parties to go to, packages to wrap, concerts to see, Christmas cards to write, how does anyone get it all done?  We can get so busy that we forget to reflect on the meaning of it all.  That is what I invite you to do for the next few minutes.  Forget your outside cares and concerns, pretend that you have nothing to do except contemplate the coming of Jesus.

 

Now listen to the words of the prophet “Prepare the way of the Lord.  Make straight paths for him.  Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill made low, the crooked road shall become straight and the rough path, smooth and all flesh shall see God’s salvation.”  Here is the purpose of our gathering this morning:  To prepare the way for the Lord.  In some way many of you have been preparing for Christmas for several weeks.  That is why you have been so busy; hanging lights and buying gifts, planning parties, writing cards, and all the tasks that are associated with the season.  It is funny, if you didn’t know better you would think that retail stores are the most religious centers in all the land; they have been preparing for Christmas since Labor Day. 

 

I am no complaining, I love to hear Christmas carols playing in the mall, festive lighting displays and decorations.  Last night Marion and I took that wonderful trip down Main Street in Centerville.

 

Even Jewish people like to celebrate Christmas, at least the secular part of it.  It is a secret the Rabbis don’t like to talk about, but it is true.  Many Jewish families are overwhelmed with the cultural atmosphere of which they are a part.  Rather than fight it, some have decided to join it.

 

A barber named Lou tells of an incident that happened in his shop.  He was cutting the hair of a little boy while the father waited and the boy was fascinated with the barber shop Christmas tree adorned with lights and decorations.   He asked his father why they couldn’t have a Christmas tree in their house, and the father replied “Because Jewish houses don’t have Christmas trees. “  The little boy thought for a moment and replied, “Daddy why did we have to buy a Jewish house?”

 

We can sympathize with our Jewish friends.  The trappings of Christmas are everywhere. Much planning and preparation go into this holiday, but wrapping presents, sending cards and decorating cookies are not the kind of preparation the prophet had

in mind.  The preparation he has in mind is much more profound; the preparation of the inner person.  “Prepare the way for the lord, make straight paths for him.”

 

We need to prepare our hearts, we need to look within.  The message of the prophet is one of repentance.  Of turning to God, and of asking ourselves if our hearts are really in tune with God.  Please be careful as you examine your heart for God’s presence.  This is a time when, one size doesn’t fit all.  Your experience with God may not be the same as mine, but that does not mean it is not as real. 

 

I’ve read about Washington Gladden, A famous clergy man at the turn of the century.  Washington felt real agony because he could not find Jesus.  He had been thought and thoroughly believed that he needed to make his peace with God, and accept Jesus and be born again.  He tried for years to gain the assurance of divine love.  He listened intently to those who had experienced it at prayer meetings, he attended revival meetings and he followed the suggestions that others prescribed, he tried to surrender himself a thousand times, but nothing could make him find or feel what others did.

 

Many nights in his room under the rafters of his father’s farmhouse, he looked out at the stars with complexity of spirit because he had not found Jesus.  Then one day he met a minister who was sensitive, and kind and clearheaded, this minister told Washington Gladden, that if he did his best to walk in loving service, he could trust God’s love whether he had an ecstatic experience or not.  That was the word that he needed.  Washington began to walk the way Jesus walked; he was led into a life of noble service 

He brought incisive application of the gospel to the social issues of the day and helped shape the history of the church in America.  It was Washington Gladden who wrote that great hymn, “O, Master, let me walk with the.”

 

Washington Gladden had no sudden conversion in his experience. He found Jesus by seeking to walk daily in Jesus steps, but in walking in Jesus steps he was there for Jesus’ coming.  Your experience of Jesus may be different than mine, and God speaks to us in terms of our own needs.

 

 Advent is a time for preparing our hearts.

 

A voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him, every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked road shall become straight, the rough way, smooth.

 

Advent is also a time for renewing our hope.  The coming of the messiah was looked forward to by every Jew.  And when the messiah came, righteousness would be restored, peace would be universal and God’s people would no longer be persecuted.  It was a hope sustained by the Jews through long periods of captivity.  Advent is meant to be a time of hope. 

 

In many ways our society is cynical.  We are suspicious of our fellow man and often look for the worst in other people and circumstances. Until Christmas comes.  Then something happens, we let down our guard and allow ourselves to believe that things may be better than we imagine. 

 

I read recently about a bike shop that was always busy, especially in the run up to Christmas.  One winter a boy wandered in dirty and poorly dressed, and not from a well to do family.  At first the staff was worried about shoplifting, but it was clear the boy was harmless.  He had just come in looking closely at the bikes that had been brought in for the Christmas sales.   He would stand out of the way in the corner watching the men work.  This went on for some time, and he spent a lot of time on the repair side of the store.  Then one day after a large group of customers had just left, the young child made a bee line for the repair workers and laid a rusty bolt on the counter.  “Excuse me, would you be able to put a new bike on this bolt?”  The men laughed. Only a child would think of putting a bike on a bolt.  The men’s laughter, though not intended to be mean hurt the boys feelings, and he didn’t understand, but he knew something he said must have been wrong.  He backed away and ran out of the shop.  A few weeks later he was back, but this time he was reluctant to make eye contact.  He kept his head down and carefully inspected each of the new bicycles.  Looking at the floor he went over to the service area, fingering a hole in his pants.  One of the workers called out to him “Hey kid, you forgot your bolt.”  And wheeled out a bicycle made completely of parts salvaged by the workers on their own time.  A bike on a bolt. 

 

This could only happen at Christmas.  There is something about this season that opens our hearts and renews our hope.  “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him, every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked road shall become straight, the rough way, smooth.  And all flesh shall see God’s salvation.”

 

Notice, "all flesh shall see god’s salvation.”  Advent is a time for reaffirming our humanity.  The good news of Christmas is not just for those who look like us, or sound like us.  God’s salvation is for all people everywhere.  I do not know about you but the past few weeks have been very depressing for me.  One reason is all the things said about the Middle East and Iraq.  We have a committee made up of important Americans led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton and they are very frank about the war in Iraq.  It reminds me of Advent 1971 when I was serving in the republic of Vietnam. 

 

It is hard for me sometimes to grasp how difficult that time was in my life.  As I read Time magazine and other things Marion sent to me, I was able to realize that in our country the Vietnam War was at the bottom of things when it came to support.  People were disgruntled with the war, and as someone serving there, I didn’t think the war was a great idea either but I thought I was doing my best to serve my country.  At the time in advent of 1971, my son Ted was born, Dec 1, we just celebrated his 35^th birthday last week.   I can’t tell you how depressed I was, not about his birth, but that I wasn’t there. I was not there to see him, and a few days later Marion sent the first picture of him and it depressed me even more because I wasn’t home. 

 

We worked 12 hours a day back then we worked from 6am to 6pm.  I found myself getting so depressed that I got sick, and I got bronchitis and could only work a few hours a day before I had to go home and rest.  When I would go back to our room that I shared with another soldier, our room was cleaned by a Vietnamese woman that we never saw, and I was lying in the bed and in came this Vietnamese woman.  I sit up and she is startled because she did not expect to see anyone in the room.  She came over and began to clean up around and she said some things that I could barely make out.  Finally over my bed she noticed there was a cross. And in the situation that I was I began to tell her what the cross meant.  I was telling her about how Jesus died on the cross and how this was the time of year when we remember his birth and that he was born on Christmas and the time before Christmas was called advent and I am sure she was just shaking her head along with me, not getting much at all. 

 

She left, but every day she came back.  One day she brought a picture of her 6 children.  Christmas day came and I was home because I wasn’t feeling well and I think a lot of it had to do with the depression I was in about not being home with my family, missing my new baby son, my wife and others. She came in and pointed at the cross and said “G.I.  Jesus birthday!”  I hugged her.  I don’t know why, but I cried, it meant so much to me that she said that.  “G.I. Jesus birthday” She had taken the time to remember that.  And would that every war story had that kind of ending.

 

 

The advent Christmas story is an affirmation of the unity with all humanity.  Ultimately every person on this planet is God’s child, every man our brother and every woman is our sister.  Christmas is a foreshadowing of a world that is yet to come when Christ reigns over all. It is a word of pure hearts, of undiminished hope, and good will for all humanity.  AMEN

 

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