November 17, 2013
Have you ever seen the life-stressors chart? It’s a chart that lists all those life events that result in increased stress in our lives, and includes things that you’d expect, like being arrested, trouble with your boss, or foreclosure. Stressful, right? But also on that list are good things that you wouldn’t think would be on the list like vacation, retirement, marriage. These things are on the list because change is stressful. Change is hard, even if it’s good change.
In two weeks, we enter Advent. A time of new beginnings. The new church year, the birth of an infant God. The reading from Isaiah talks about creating a new heaven and a new earth, and that the old things will be forgotten. This reading spells out the vision of a new, reborn, transformed world, where no one will die too early, not infants or not seniors. Where people will not labor in vain. Where the wolf and the lamb shall feed together.
We hear this story today about things made new as we near Advent, and the connection between new things and the child God is apparent. Christ makes all things renewed and restored. This is a good change, God entering our life again.
But like all change, new things, even new restored things, change is hard.
In my experience, there are two distinct ways new things are hard. First, new things come out of chaos, out of hard places. Some of the most beautiful wildflowers came up after the desolation caused by the Mt. St. Helen’s eruption. And ancient oak groves were best maintained by burning the fast growing forest plants and trees that crowd the mighty oaks out of their air, water and sun. Earthquakes create new mountains and new landscapes. And on a human level, community tragedy can birth new commitment, compassion and forgiveness. Chaos and destruction happen, and new things spring forth.
The Gospel talks about this. Jesus is telling the disciples that before the end times, there will be great chaos. Wars and insurrections, nation rising against nation. Famines and plagues. Betrayal from family members. Pretty horrible chaos.
The Thessalonians were sure that that the end was near, that cataclysmic end, not unlike the image portrayed in modern tv and popular book series. Their world was in chaos, and because of the chaos, they knew the end was near. Jesus said the end would come only after chaos, right?
Amidst the chaos, many of the faithful did, what people often do in times like that. They stopped in their tracks. They stopped participating in the society and contributing to the work of the community. Instead, they sat waiting, waiting and suffering, waiting for that moment when Christ returns. Paul is asking the community to continue in community, contributing and participating. Don’t be idle. Don’t freeze like a deer in the headlights. Don’t sit and wait.
This counsel is hard. It’s hard to continue to forge ahead when the world is so chaotic and uncertain. It is much easier to stop, and wait and see what will happen. Or wait for the chaos to end. Or to stick your head in the sand. If I don’t see trouble, trouble can’t see me.
A problem with this perspective is that the end, as it’s talked about in these readings and in most of the readings between All Saints and Advent isn’t referring to a finish line, or a destination or a big cataclysmic melt down. It isn’t as Webster’s first definition reads, “the point at which something no longer continues to happen or exist”. Rather, the original language translation is closer to the third meaning in Websters, “an outcome worked towards”. It’s more like the fulfillment or culmination. More like we us the word “ends” as in “the ends justifies the means.” In that context, ends is more like the a resolution.
We know that on this earth, we are Christ’s hands and feet and heart and actions. That creates problems with the Thessalonians’ idea of just waiting it out. If the Thessalonians were just sitting around, who was loving, teaching, feeding, caring, sharing? Who was going to help bring about “thy kingdom come, on earth?” Paul urges the Thessalonians to forge ahead, even amidst chaos and their misguided idea that because there was chaos and turmoil, the world was going to just stop.
This is definitely not an easy proposition, to take a step when you don’t know what’s ahead at best, or when you know exactly what horrible things are ahead at worst. And yet, that’s what Paul is urging them to do. He concludes with the cheer, ‘Do not be weary in doing what is right’. Regardless of the turmoil, keep doing what’s right.
New and glorious things spring from chaos, and turmoil. And we need to keep doing what is right in its midst.
The second hard thing about new things is highlighted in the Gospel reading. New things often come at the cost of something old. Jesus is telling the people that they will gain their soul. And, it will come at the price of the destruction of the Temple, the temple that was the center of the Jews’ faith. To tell them they were going to gain anything at the cost of their Temple would have been very stressful, and likely an unwelcome offer.
When we receive any new thing, even a glorious wonderful new thing, something ends or ceases or is destroyed. If you get a beautiful new gift, you’ve given up some storage space, a free shelf, or gotten rid of something you already had to make room. If you have a new baby, you give up full restful nights of sleep.
Always something ceases, the space, the condition, your attitude. You are not the same after having received or experienced something new, and the world as it was, will never be again. True, the Temple, adorned with jewels, will come down. But after that, something new will be born.
So here we sit. At the end of the calendar year, on the edge of something new. We’re on the verge of Christ making all things new, all over again. And as I have experienced new things and change and as the Epistle and Gospel tell us today, new things come from chaos and result in something ceasing.
I think that the change we’re staring down, the birth of Christ will be surrounded by those same challenges - chaos before and the necessary destruction of something to make room for the change.
Advent is designed to be a time in the church year when we prepare for this new thing, the reentry of Christ into our world and our lives. And given today’s readings, I think there are a couple of things that our Advent should do.
First, I think Advent is a time when I need to continue to do what is right, and not weary, amidst the chaos. What IS the right action for me? What should I do, or practice during Advent that would put me in a better place to fully experience the new thing that comes at Christmas?
Second, Advent gives me time to destroy my proverbial Temple. What is it in my life that needs to go away or be taken down, in order to make room for God incarnate? Has Christmas become too commercial, and I need to shed some long-held belief or practice that’s interfering with Christ’s arrival?
Advent is the time to make those changes because it’s our time to prepare. To figure out what IS right, and continue doing right, And to dismantle or destroy the Temple that leaves no room for Christ. The problem, as I see it, is that Advent is only 4 weeks long. That’s not a lot of time to think through all of this chaos and destruction and imminent new things. To set your course, and end up at Christmas prepared. Instead of cramming that all into Advent, I’d propose that this is an excellent time to think about Christ coming into our lives again, and each of us laying out our individual Advent preparations. We’ve got two weeks. And then we should be on the Advent Journey.
For me, the BEST part about a vacation is the planning. I love thinking through the destination, the side trips, the transportation, and the accommodations. That generally takes way longer, often months, than the final vacation, weeks.
For the next two weeks, we have time to plan our trip. We know where we’ll end up, at Christ’s entrance into this world all over again. But what route should I take? Is it important that I address the chaos, figuring out how to be unwearied, or to continue to do what’s right? Maybe instead, I need to make plans to demolish the proverbial temple that’s in the way.
We have four short weeks in Advent to prepare for Christmas. We can’t make the preparations or reserve our flights, until we plan our journey. Try to find a few quiet moments to plan your trip now. As you know, it will be Christmas in no time.
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