Jeremiah 33:14–16
Psalm 25:1–10
1 Thessalonians 3:9–13
Luke 21:25–36
Year C
I.N.I.
Song from the Iona Community: “Come, Holy Spirit” Each phrase is repeated.
Come, Holy Spirit…
Come, Holy Spirit…
Maranatha!
Come, Lord, Come.
The most ancient of Christian prayers, a single word in Aramaic, Maranatha, rings most fervently in time carved out as we advent…Come, Lord Jesus.
We want to be ready. We don’t want to be caught off guard.
A recurring childhood dream played on my anxieties, I’m sure. The details could vary from dream to dream, but the constant in each was that I couldn’t keep up. In that dream, whether it was following my family into the car or racing my friends on the beach, no matter what I should have been doing and where I should have been, as I exerted all my energy and strength, in the end I would utterly, hopelessly, fail. Where my legs should have carried me with all speed, in the end it was like my feet were bricks. In that dream I would be stuck in molasses, and then finally wake up, with heart racing, wondering why I couldn’t get to where I was going.
In recent years I was appointed chair of the New England Synod Worship Team. I was the point person for major events, ordinations, synod assemblies, significant funerals, and festive occasions. My boyhood dream came back, this time with Bishop Payne beckoning me to the cathedral-like worship space from the sacristy. Like a sprinter from the starting block, I would go in response to the bishop and my serious responsibility, but I would end up in the wrong room, become lost, and wouldn’t make it to the show in time.
Come on! Get going! Be alert!
Adventing is, first and foremost, a cosmic event of grand proportions.
What we are faced with is the imminent return of Christ, which the earliest of believers after his death and resurrection thought would happened before they died (Maranatha!). And the puzzle they worked through was what to do with their life. Should we go on with business as usual? Shall we marry, have children, and continue to do our work? Or shall we make ready for the parousia, the Greek word for the Lord’s coming, like the arrival of a head of state. If Christ is coming, perhaps the community of Christians might just hunker down together in prayer constantly. If Christ is coming, perhaps the earliest Adventers would reject all the trappings of their surrounding culture because it no longer had meaning for them. Time itself was pregnant, a new era was on the verge of revealing itself.
Today, we also want to be ready. We don’t want to caught off guard.
So we continue the ancient prayer, the posture of waiting with baited breath, fervently singing “Wake, Awake, For Night is Flying,” or “Soon and Very Soon, we are going to meet the King,” knowing that they may or may not have a chronological basis, like tomorrow or in 2012, or at the outset of the next earthly catastrophe or terrorist act. Yet we do look mindfully for how Christ might be revealed in time and in the midst of upheaval, both personal and global.
Jesus encourages his listeners always to have a perspective. Keeping God’s just rule in mind, keeping in mind eternity already and not yet within grasp, he says don’t escape in debauchery or drown in despair, but keep your head up. Recognize redemption right in front of you, close as the nearest tree ripening, near as the company you keep, while you pray, Maranatha.
I invite you to navigate the time of Advent, looking forward to what is yet to be revealed while noticing signs and wonders already right in front of your eyes. I invite you to enter into Advent against the onslaught of those who only want you to release your money to buy goods. I ask you to come together to pray, to give toward others in need, and to find a measure of joy in one who already came to break the bonds of sin and is so available, particularly in a weekly meal around the altar.
Imagine another recurring dream, a dream of Advent, where the people of the world are one big old tree, who yearn to be close to God and to have the world’s hunger satisfied. We count David as our root and marvel at one righteous branch named Jesus. We are nourished with the water of baptismal identity. We grow from this ancient wood that we have emerged from, as we wait and watch. We want to be ready so share in the growing, even as snow falls and cold descends, as we are warmed by the lifeblood in the tree of life and the company of those who live with us in the garden.
And whether slow or fast, in a dream or a fog, in the face of our fears and the occasions of joy, we make our way. Because we want to be ready.
Song from the Iona Community: “Come, Holy Spirit”
Come, Holy Spirit…
Come, Holy Spirit…
Maranatha!
Come, Lord, Come.
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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