A Sermon Preached on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2016
By the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin

Isaiah 2:1-5  Psalm 122  Romans 13:11-14  Matthew 24:36-44

The pastor of the little country church had been invited to dinner. The family came only occasionally to church, and they had invited me over one evening. So I looked forward to spending time with them and hoped that they might become more involved in our parish’s life. Pleasantries were exchanged for a while in the living room, and then we were called to the table – the teenage son and daughter sitting across from me and Mom and Dad at either end. As soon as the food had been placed on the table, both children began to serve themselves. Their mother stopped them saying, “Scott, Karen, wait – it’s time for grace.”

“Grace?” They both looked at their mother with bewildered expressions. The jig was up. Clearly grace was not a part of their daily ritual at all. Mom smiled at me with an embarrassed look, we all laughed, I offered a brief grace, and on we went with dinner.
The children – or maybe their mother – did not know what time it was. Do you know what time it is?

The apostle Paul thinks that you do:

In his words to the church in Rome, and to us today, he tells us: “You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. The night is far gone, the day is near.”

We hear these words on this first Sunday of Advent. In many ways this is a beginning time: the beginning of Advent; the beginning of a new church year; preparing for the beginning of a new life, the birth of Jesus. And yes, it is the beginning of that annual procession through stores, the decorations, and hectic preparations and all of the tasks leading up to December 25th.

But today, the voices of Paul, and of Jesus, and of Isaiah, all remind us of something else. It is a time to look beyond beginnings and toward fulfillment: we walk not only on the road to Bethlehem, but to the mount of Zion, to a time and place where all people will be taught how to turn weapons of destructions into instruments of cultivation and peace. On this first Sunday of Advent, we do not hear words telling us to get the manger ready. Rather, we hear words telling us to get our lives ready, to be awake and alert, and to prepare ourselves to to participate in nothing less that the salvation of the world.

Is the salvation of the world on your “to do list” for this next month? That is no small task. Of course, our readings today do not suggest that it is up to us. The primary focus in scripture is always on what God is doing. But they do suggest that our choices, our actions, and our awareness all will make a difference. And they suggest that as we approach Christmas our eyes focus not only on the manger, but on that mountaintop where war is studied no more.

Paul asks the question, “Do you know what time it is?” He might just as well have asked, “Do you know whose time it is?”

Whose time is it? It is God’s time. And in Advent we are invited to be awake and alert, to sensing and seeing where God’s loving and redeeming work is making itself known in the world.

At the end of Advent, we will celebrate that redeeming work happening in the most unlikely of places, an animal stall and a manger bed. During Advent, we are invited to see that redeeming work in other unlikely places: in our lives, in our homes, in our relationships, and in a world still beset by sin and suffering. To live as honorably as we can, in every choice we make. It is no easy task, even as we observe the traditions of the season. For a simple observation of them will not prevent us from losing track of what time it is, and indeed, at times can keep us from knowing and remembering.

I am reminded of a photograph I saw about 10 years ago. It comes from a photo album. In the photo, a man is lighting the candles on a Christmas tree. It is one of those beautiful German Christmas trees, with real candles on each of the branches. The man lighting the tree is in uniform. It turns out he was the owner of the photo album. He was also the assistant to the commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp. And there he is, in his uniform, carefully lighting the candles of the camp’s Christmas tree. 

He was keeping to the traditions of his time and place. And yet he had no idea of what time it really was, of whose time it really was.

How do we continue to know what time it is, and whose time it is? Perhaps we can start by going back to that family dinner table. If you do not currently say a brief grace, by yourself or with your family at each meal, don’t feel guilty – but you can start there. With a reminder that each meal takes place in God’s time, and that each meal, like the bread and wine at the altar, is God’s food, holy food.

If you have never observed a devotional time at home, Advent can be a wonderful time to start that. Yes, light the candles of the Advent wreath, and yes, listen for the songs of angels but also listen for the sound of swords being beaten into plowshares.

Look at the person across the table, or across the church, or across the political divide, and be alert and awake to their inherent dignity and worth, and be motivated always to act in love towards them.

There are small and easy things we can do to remember what time it is. But at other times it will be challenging. And the witness of other Christians can help us in that regard. Just this morning I read about one such Christian. The Rev. Sharon Risher often thinks these days about what she calls her “humanness”: the passing impulse to crave the execution of another human being. Sharon is the daughter of one of the nine churchgoers murdered last year at Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston.

She is tempted to want to see the young man who shot her mother punished with death. But then she said this: “You can’t do that if you really say that you believe in the Bible and you believe in Jesus Christ. You can’t just waver.” 1

She knows exactly what time it is. She knows whose time it is. I am not sure I would have the moral strength to respond as she has responded. But her words have awakened me. They have alerted me to my responsibilities as a Christian.

So finally, be alert and be awake to your life, and to the ways in which God may be inviting you to help move us all one step closer to that manger and to that mountaintop. If you listen, you may be as surprised as those two teenagers were to hear the words, “It’s time for grace.”

Now is the time for grace. Now is the time for hope. Now is the time for our glad participation in the fulfillment of all that God intends. 

For we do know what time it is.

Amen.

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1 From the New York Times, Saturday November 26, 2016: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/26/us/death-penalty-dylann-roof-charleston.html