Luke 1:46b-55
Luke 1:39-45
"The
Christian ideal has not been tried and found [lacking]. It has been found difficult and left
untried." G.K. Chesterton
How are we to understand exactly what it
means for us as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of the "Prince
of Peace"? Something important happened
when Jesus of Nazareth was born, yet something even more important will take
place when Messiah returns to "judge the living and the dead", as the
Church's creed states. What this means for
us in our day-to-day living somewhere between the Incarnation of Messiah and
His Return can perhaps be anyone's guess, but I think the common thread that
connects the prophet Micah, to Mary, and to Elizabeth - but seems substantially
disconnected with us - is "anticipation"; waiting with great
expectation and living as though something marvelous is ahead of us. These biblical characters were excited about
the coming Messiah, the "Prince of Peace". Today?
We're just excited about Christmas, a date which will end even before
the sun sets.
Awaiting the "Prince of Peace"
by merely waiting for Christmas Day is a challenge for the Church because we
have so long associated Advent strictly with anticipation of Christmas. It is a natural and traditional assumption because,
as I have shared previously, it is the order of the Church's calendar though it
is not necessarily an order of actual events because, after all, we cannot wait
for something which has already taken place; we should be anticipating Christ's
return even as we will celebrate His coming into the world. We are further
challenged in the context of the promised "Prince of Peace" because
we are a nation at war.
Because of the challenges the world's
terrorists continue to mount against peace-loving people, virtually the entire
world is at war to one degree or another. Because of the fears and uncertainties about
the economic and political future of this nation, we are virtually at war with
one another right here at home! Because
of the fears and uncertainties about the future of the United Methodist Church
and the Church universal as a whole, we are virtually at war with one another within
the very Body of Christ!! Each
"player" in these conflicts earnestly believes he or she is doing the
right thing for whichever cause they profess, but how right can anything be
when we know someone will be hurt in the process?
Yet we cannot discount or ignore our
Lord who stated very clearly: "Do not think I came to bring peace on
earth. I did not come to bring peace but
a sword" (Matthew 10:34). How do we reconcile this with the promised
"Prince of Peace", the One whom we proclaim and believe has already
come? How about the angelic host who
announced to the shepherds, "Glory to God in the highest; and on
earth peace and goodwill toward men"(Luke 2:14)? Was it a cruel
joke? Did the Gospel writers get it
wrong? Or was John the Baptist's
question a valid one: "Are You the Coming One, or do we wait for
another?"
The
Revelation
indicates a 1000-year period in which the evil one will be locked into the "bottomless
pit ... so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years are
finished" (20:1-3). This
will be the time of the First Resurrection for "the souls of those who had
been beheaded for their witness to Jesus", the martyrs who gave
their all for their faithful work and witness, those who refused the "mark
of the beast" (whatever that "mark" may be), those who held
nothing back from our Lord and the work they were called to do.
For our purpose of understanding this
great cosmic mystery is Peter's announcement of the Lord's intent in the
seeming delay of His imminent return: "The Lord is not slow about His
promise, as some think of slowness but is patient with you, not wanting any to
perish but for all to come to repentance.
But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief ..." (2 Peter 3:8-10); that is, unexpectedly
for those who do not excitedly anticipate this Day that is yet to come, unexpectedly
for those who try to pretend it won't happen at all.
So the intent of Advent is very much a
New Testament thing but is also consistent with Old Testament prophesies. There are some OT references that seem clear about
the literal birth of Messiah, at least within a traditional interpretation, but
there are many other OT prophecies that go beyond the birth of Messiah when
referring to the "Day of the Lord".
These are the prophecies which are carried forth by the apostles of
Christ's Church and spoken of in the visions of The Revelation. That is, we still very much have something ahead of
us, something to anticipate, most certainly something for which we must prepare
not with dread or fear but with excitement; the kind of excitement only
genuine, God-given faith can produce!
"End Times", however, is hard
to teach and preach with a positive spin because "end times" is
immediately associated with "doomsday". Doom? For
those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, "the end" is a time
of mourning and grief. Who would look
forward to anything like this? And even
to speak of "end times" as spoken of by the apostles - and by Jesus
Himself - seems redundant today because we are 2000 years removed from the time
of Jesus. Within our human capacity to
understand, we might even reason to ourselves that since He hasn't come by now,
He's not coming at all! OR we are misinterpreting what is written for us in the
Scriptures.
We mark time according to clocks and
calendars in definitive terms; we cannot think in "eternal"
terms. So Advent themes get a little
tricky for us if we remove Christmas from the overall anticipation because we
can easily "count down" to a date we are familiar with and can see
coming, but we cannot "count down" to the Day of the Lord, a time
which "is not for you to know" (Acts 1:7).
Aside from this, however, "Count Down"
is not even appropriate because we do not know, cannot know, NEED NOT know of
the Day of the Lord until that Day is upon us.
Why? Because we still have lives
to live and a Gospel to proclaim! Good
News for any who are desperately searching for Good News, who NEED some Good
News in their lives! And the News is all
good, of course, but we still live in a world filled with conflict and
hatred. The same world which the
"Prince of Peace" had been born into, the same world - incidentally -
that rejected Him, mocked Him, and killed Him; a world not unlike the one we
experience even today.
It is time for the Church to get real
about what life in Messiah and His imminent return can really mean for us, and
it cannot begin and end on a single date on a calendar. Call me a killjoy, Scrooge, or Grinch if it
makes you feel better about yourself, but it is time to put certain holiday
traditions in their appropriate places.
Even if we try to put the "St Nicholas" spin on the
"jolly ol' elf" and feebly attempt to insert this tradition into the
Gospel of our Lord, is it not ironic that we would celebrate this bona fide
saint of the Church while making fun of the Catholics who venerate (NOT
worship!) the saints, including the very Mother of the Most High God herself?
It is time to give our children so much
more than a moment which will pass as surely and as quickly as the morning of
the 25th! It is just not possible to
teach children about Jesus and the Covenant by indulging in their every desire
for gifts and fantasy. And it is not
possible to be a true witness of the Gospel to an unbelieving world which has
outright rejected Christ's Holy Body the Church, when they are unable to distinguish
the difference between a "Christian" Christmas and a non-Christian
celebration of the holidays except by empty words chosen to designate the "proper"
holiday greeting!
There is a distinctive, feel-good spirit
about this time of year from which many of us have some of our most cherished
memories. This is the time of year when
we remember to share our many blessings.
This is the time of year when we reflect on that awesome moment in
eternity when the Almighty touched the human race in an unmistakable way, but
this is also that time of year during Advent (which, remember, means
"coming"; not "done come") when we are reminded that our
journey is not complete and the time to anticipate is not ended as soon as the
last package has been unwrapped; for it is as our Savior admonishes us: "No
one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of
God" (Luke 9:62).
The "Prince of Peace" is in
the hearts and minds of the faithful who live and work and act and worship with
confidence in the Risen Christ and the Eternal Covenant in an unbelieving - and
sometimes - hostile world. The peace of
Almighty God has been given to His Holy Church so that we can face the present
and the future with hope, with confidence, and with great anticipation for the
Eternity of the Kingdom which is upon us!
It is that Eternity which came to us in
Christ and the New Covenant. It is that
Eternity we become a part of NOT when we demand that our Lord follow us in our
own choices - but rather when we "take up our crosses" and follow
Him. For the Way of our Lord is the Way
Home. Confidence in that spiritual and
eternal reality is where our Peace comes from.
That Peace is Christ our Lord who is always before us - NEVER behind us. And we can and must give thanks always to our
Heavenly Father who grants this peace to His Holy Church.
In the name of the Father, the Son, the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
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