This morning I want to share with you an Advent story. A story of moving from the darkness into light.
My friend shared a story with me this week. She told me about a good friend of hers who for convenience sake I will call Louise and change the circumstances slightly to protect her anonymity. Louise is dying of congestive heart failure. She has suffered a life of mental illness, and lives with her son who also suffers from mental illness. And her life is really hard, and difficult, every moment of every day. And Louise often finds herself dwelling on past mistakes – to a crippling degree. And she told her doctor, and asked for her doctor’s help and her doctor said to her, “Louise, every time you start thinking that way, just say to yourself, “Louise, now just throw that in the garbage”.” And she told my friend that it works, every time she starts thinking unhelpful and shaming thoughts she says “Louise, just throw it in the garbage.”
Louise has made the decision that with the little time she has left in her life she does not want to waste it on suffering over things that happened in the past, nor does she want to suffer with anxiety about the future.
And honestly, this is the heart of our gospel lesson. Our Gospel lesson on the surface does not seem to be relevant at all. This reading seems very far removed from the way we think about the world today. I am pretty sure most of us do not live our lives thinking that the end is just around the corner like many of Jesus’ contemporaries did. I, for one, do not expect the coming of Christ in the upcoming week. But having said that, the Gospel is still relevant – it is relevant because it is worth living in a way like our days are numbered and it is worth living in a way that we would be happy to meet up with Jesus to tell him what we have been up to during our lifetime.
Advent invites us through its focus on the end time to consider deeply the way we are living. It invites us to ask the question – are we living in a way that reflects our Christian values? Are we living in a way that we are faithful to God’s call to us? Are we really that clay in God’s, the potter’s, hands that we read about in Isaiah, or are we are own potter and master craftsman?
Put another way – the Gospel calls us to consider if we had limited time here on earth, which of course we do – how would we live differently? What would we let go of? What would we ultimately be concerned with? How would we spend our time, our money, and our talents?
One of the ways that we can do that is by pausing and doing away with the removable distractions in our lives to focus on wonder. And like Louise, to throw those distractions in the garbage, at least for Advent. The theme of our Advent Devotionals, Practicing Wonder with All Your Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind, which are available in the Narthex, is to pause so that we can experience Christ’s presence in our lives. And when we can experience Christ’s presence in our lives, we can also start to discern how to bring more of Christ’s light into our lives through the choices we make.
And lest you think this is a selfish endeavor – let me assure you it is not. As we pause to feel the presence of Christ, and allow the light of Christ to light up our lives, the more we are able to shine more brightly so that others too can share in the light of Christ.
At the end of the Eucharist in the Church of England service there is a post communion prayer which speaks to the importance of filling up on Christ, not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of the world – and that is what I would like to end with this morning as both a helpful Advent prayer and also an Advent charge.
Father of all, we give you thanks and praise, that when we were still far off you met us in your Son and brought us home. Dying and living, he declared your love, gave us grace, and opened the gate of glory. May we who share Christ’s body live his risen life; we who drink his cup bring life to others; we whom the Spirit lights give light to the world. Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so we and all your children shall be free, and the whole earth live to praise your name; through Christ our Lord.
Amen
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