Advent, the season, Jesus tells us, for being on guard. But, of course, Jesus tells us to be on guard our whole life. We look at some recent tragedies and see how quickly we can disappear. The flight of Payne Stewart' s Learjet from Miami to Dallas suffered some kind of pressurization leak, sending the plane on autopilot to Mina, North Dakota, to crash. Or the Flight 990 to Egypt that careened into the ocean 60 miles south of Nantucket probably at plus the speed of sound, breaking up into unimaginable parts.
We sympathize with the relatives of these people and we pray for those who died in these crashes. And yet we reflect, they boarded their planes in all innocence, as we would have, the last thing in their minds being that they would be dead before the day was out.
"Be on guard," Jesus says in today's gospel. Is his warning like the Christmas jingle "You better watch out, you better not shout...Santa Claus is comin' to town?" Hardly. Jesus is not telling us to be good for some reward. He is telling us to reform our lives and to live the gospel he came to preach--a gospel of justice and love, a gospel of peace and forgiveness, a gospel of service and community.
Why should we live Jesus' gospel? Not for the fear motive, that we might escape hell. No, but to fulfill all justice. We had sinned; we must repent and live like Jesus. He is with us now in faith, in our poor brothers and sisters. He will see us in heaven in glory. But fear of punishment is not the motive, as with Santa Claus, who will leave us without presents if we're not good. No, our motive in Jesus is reverence for the Almighty God who has redeemed us, set us free--yes, from sin, death and Satan--but mostly who has promised us happiness for living as His Son, Jesus, told us to...happiness now on earth, and full happiness in glory in heaven.
This waiting has many qualities to it.
- In the movie Mrs. Brown, Queen Victoria is sunk in a deep depression after the death of her husband Albert when her advisers come up with an idea. They send for her pony to be brought to Balmoral, accompanied by a handsome Scot named John Brown. She is not interested in being cheered up, and is infuriated when she looks out in the royal courtyard to see John Brown standing at attention beside her saddled pony. Day after day she refuses to go down. Day after day he returns. Finally she sends someone to tell him that she is not now and may never be interested in riding. John Brown is unmoved. "When her majesty does wish to ride," he says, "I shall be ready."
Another story brings out the theme of "watching."
- One morning in the early 1890's, four workers were busy in a cornfield. One man with a scythe was cutting the corn and leaving it in long swathes. He was followed by a boy who was making bands of twisted cornstalks and laying them on the ground at intervals, side by side. The third worker had a small wooden rake with three six-inch teeth on it, and with this he was gathering bundles of the cut corn, and placing each bundle on one of the bands left by the boys. The fourth worker, following the others, was making each bundle into a sheaf by twisting the band tightly round it and tucking in the end. At half-past ten, they stopped for a lunch break. They sat down and opened their lunch packets which contained sandwiches of home-fed cold bacon. The boy looked at his food as it lay open on a cloth. He had been converted the night before at a chapel meeting, so he clasped his hands and closed his eyes to say grace. When he opened his eyes, his sandwiches had gone. The dog had taken them! The farmer had seen it all. Much amused, he said to the boy, "It is a good thing to pray--but you must also watch!"
Lord's work here on earth--that we care for the poor and lowly-- is precisely His will in heaven right here and now. This concern for our brother can be seen in the venerable story of two brothers.
- Two brothers shared a field and a mill. Each night they evenly divided the grain they had ground together during the day. Now as it happened, one of the brothers lived alone; the other had a wife and a large family. One day, the single brother thought to himself: "It isn't really fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have only myself to care for, but my brother has children to feed." So each night he secretly took some of his grain to his brother's granary to see that he was never without. But the married brother said to himself one day, "It isn't fair that we divide the grain evenly, because I have children to provide for me in my old age but my brother has none." So every night he secretly took some of his own grain to his brother' s granary. One night the brothers met each other halfway between their two houses, and suddenly realized what had been happening, and embraced each other in love. God witnessed their meeting and proclaimed, "This is a holy place--a place of love--and here it is that my temple shall be built." And so it was. The holy place, where God is made known, is the place where two brothers were watchful and observant of each other's needs.
"Waiting for God's reign means that we can find God in the most seemingly insignificant aspects of our lives. Henri Nouwen tells a wonderful story about a conversation with an older former professor of his. While they strolled over a beautiful campus, the professor told Nouwen, with a certain melancholy in his voice, 'You know...my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work." The watchful person is not undone by dealing with the everyday concerns of the present.
The prophet known as Isaiah, in our first reading, offers an image that each of us might carry with us through the weeks of Advent: "We are the clay; you, God, are the potter." In other words, you, God, are our source and center, our creator, redeemer, mentor and guide. To be clay is to know that I am vulnerable, breakable and entirely dependent upon God. To be clay is to be a work in progress, willing to surrender my thoughts to God's thoughts, my ways to God's ways, my will to God's
Pottery was an everyday experience of the people of Isaiah's time. Theirs was a culture familiar with terra cotta jugs, bowls and plates. Clay amphorae, or jugs, were made to store wine, oil, honey, vinegar, medicine, grain and even money. Potters plied their trade with skill and speed, in order to meet the demands for their versatile but often fragile products.
Beginning with a lump of formless clay, thrown onto a rapidly turning wheel, the potter's deft fingers seemed capable of bringing to life and usefulness whatever he/she could imagine. If a piece broke or became uncentered, however, it soon resembled a lifeless, formless mass. To salvage it, the potter would rethrow the lump unto the center of his wheel and being again. In a sense, this is what the prophet desires for his people, namely, that God, their potter, would salvage them from their brokenness, re-center them and begin again to shape them in the divine image.
- "It is said that when someone asked Martin Luther what he would do if he knew that he must die that very afternoon, he answered that he would go to his garden and plant a tree. When asked a similar question, St. Francis de Sales said he would think some more about what a white knight in a chess game would do on E8. It is holy carelessness to live the present day to the fullest, for tomorrow is God's and so ours too."
We might leave with something of a puzzler from Zorba the Greek. "Maybe you'
re right, boss, It all depends on the way you look at it. Look, one day I
had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting
an almond tree. 'What, granddad!' I exclaimed, 'Planting an almond tree?'
And he, bent as he was, turned around and said, 'My son, I carry on as if I
should never die.' I replied, 'And I carry on as if I was going to die any
minute.' Which of us was right, boss?"
1) "Relating the text," Pulpit Resource 27 (4): 38 (Logos Productions Inc., 6160 Carmen Ave. E., Inver Grove Heights MN 55076-4422), Oct., Nov., Dec. 1999.
2) Anthony P. Castle, Quotes and Anecdotes for Preachers and Teache s "Waiting on the Lord," (Kevin Mayhew Limited, Leigh-0n-the-Sea, Essex: 1979) pg 144.
3) "Homily model," Good News 26 (11): 404 (Liturgical Publications Inc., 2875 South James Drive, New Berlin WI 53151), Nov. 1999.
4) "Homily model," Good News 26 (11): 404 (Liturgical Publications Inc., 2875 South James Drive, New Berlin WI 53151), Nov. 1999.
5) Pa tricia Datchuk Sanchez, "Isaiah," Celebration 28 (11): 497 (Celebration, P.O. Box 419493, Kansas City MO 64141), Nov. 1999.
6) "Relating the text," Pulpit Resources 27 (4): 38 (Logos Productions Inc., 6160 Carmen Ave. E., Inver Grove Heights MN 55076-4422), Oct., Nov., Dec. 1999.
(Comments to Jerry at padre@tri-lakes.net. Jerry's book, Stories For All Seasons, is available at a discount through the Homiletic Resource Center.)