DEACON ALAN LAYDEN’S HOMILIES

December 2, 2007

First Sunday of Advent        

Happy Matthew’s Year.

            Notice that I didn’t say Happy New Year.  We will get to that at the end of this month.  This is the 1^st Sunday of Advent.  As such, this is the start of a new liturgical year, in which we will focus much of our attention on Matthew’s gospel.  My favorite.

            On another more practical note, we are starting off this liturgical year in our newly painted church building. The outside finished last summer and inside finished yesterday.  And, as soon as they are finished, we will be sitting on our newly refurbished pews.  Also, we now have a fourth stained glass window on our north side.  Along with this newness we are going to be introducing to you our new Parish Vision Statement and Parish Mission Statement.

Wow, that’s a lot!  Now, how can I tie all that has happened, is happening, and will be happening at St. Anthony to today’s readings?   It is in that phrase from Isaiah, "In days to come," 

This phrase begins a vision that Isaiah sets as a goal for the people of his time and us in our first reading today. It expresses a hope for the future. It is a hope that keeps the light in our spirits from being extinguished in each and every “present crisis of the moment” that we find ourselves in. If we didn't have hope for the future, how could we continue to struggle against our present difficulties? Isaiah feeds our hope today lest it be starved by all the seemingly hopeless situations in the world around us.

Isaiah's times (The eighth century B. C.) were not unlike our own, filled with lots of conflict and danger. The Assyrians had just ravaged the northern kingdom of Israel. Besides this physical and emotional distress, the people were suffering a major spiritual crisis as well. How could God let this happen? Wasn't God supposed to protect the children of the covenant? These disheartened people erroneously reasoned that they would have to seek military protection from the Assyrians.  To do that so many of the people in Judah and Jerusalem wanted to make political and military alliances with other nations. 

Isaiah had a different vision for Jerusalem and the nation. He called for a spiritual renewal and a re-commitment to the covenant and trust in God. He saw in Jerusalem and the Temple, "the highest mountain," the possibilities of them bring potential beacons for all the nations. He called the people to be faithful to God, to put aside plans for a military solution to their problems and instead to seek peaceful ways. Isaiah promised that if the nation followed his call it would be a beacon to all people and Jerusalem would be a place where God's ways would be taught by word and example.

Was Isaiah just daydreaming about something that would never happen?  He was if we think we are on our own in this. But, just like Isaiah, we are not. We have God’s grace active and working in us to enable us to live out God’s vision of peace for the world. We can still take Isaiah’s vision as our guide this Advent and let it stir us to conversion, away from violence and towards peace.

On this first day of Advent, when the prophet stirs up visions of peace in our hearts, we remember those suffering the ravages of war, especially in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. All sides suffer the sadness, death and destruction that war and oppression leaves in its wake. We also remember today the families displaced by war and political unrest. Here in our own country, where we just celebrated Thanksgiving a week ago, we pray for military families separated by war during this holiday time. We also pray for those in Iraq and Afghanistan who have been victims of deadly sectarian violence and military actions in their own cities, villages and neighborhoods. And, of course, we pray for our enemies. Our times are not unlike those when Isaiah wrote and called people to express their desire for peace by acting against violence, and beating their swords into plowshares.

As spoke of what I felt this first reading was about I use the word vision several times.  Just like Isaiah, a group of our parishioners, under the guidance of Fr. Olman have developed a vision for us here at St. Anthony to strive for.  Our Parish Vision Statement is:

We are a Christian community committed to each other and the world through ministries of faith and works of mercy.  We respond and bear witness to the call of Jesus through the Word of God, celebration of the Eucharist and compassionate Christian fellowship.  We believe that our diversity unites us in our mission of continuous formation and active participation in building the Kingdom of God.

They also spent some more time developing a Mission Statement too.  This mission Statement is, in a sense, the action we are going to strive to do daily here and in our lives to reach that Vision.

Our community follows Jesus by Praying, Loving and Serving God.

As I stated earlier, this is the 1^st Sunday of Advent!  In the early church, Advent included a period of fasting for those preparing for baptism on January 6, the feast of the Lord’s baptism. While we no longer practice a penitential Advent, still it is a season that invites us to a change of heart to prepare for the coming Christ—who today warns us to stay awake and be prepared, "at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."

During our year of preparation, we will be focusing on Matthew’s gospel. He begins the gospel with Christ’s genealogy: "Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham (1:1). Jesus is a Jew, a distant son of Abraham and a descendent of David. David had been promised that one of his descendants would be God’s appointed over the people. Jesus is that descendant of David and the Prince of Peace who fulfills Isaiah’s vision. At this early stage of Advent we are not yet kneeling before the crib. Rather, we are expecting the adult Christ and we want to conform our lives to his ways. The evangelist uses Jewish apocalyptic writing to express the suddenness and unpredictability of Christ’s coming. Matthew’s church, like our own, was immersed in everyday concerns and preoccupations which, while not evil in themselves, could distract believers and cause them to miss Christ’s coming.

It is not necessarily about sin. Most of the people in Noah’s time were not doing anything wrong; nor were the two men in the field and the two women grinding at the mill. They were just doing their daily jobs. Since Christ’s coming will catch people off guard, there is an urgency required of us this Advent. We can’t delay making necessary changes in our lives, changes we may be putting off. In the light of the gospel, leisurely repentance just won’t work. Be assured that Jesus returns to our daily lives. He shows up at unpredictable times when we are doing what we do each day. Since his return is unpredictable he calls us to be always on the alert. In addition, what we are doing now will someday come to an end, and how does that awareness affect the choices we are making this day? 

True, we may never see our world living in peace; conflict seems part of our human genetic make up. But this isn’t all of what we are, and we who hear Isaiah’s vision for a peaceable kingdom are renewed in our determination to put flesh on that vision in our daily lives. We prepare for the coming Prince of Peace by living as members of a kingdom not yet complete, but coming daily into our lives in unexpected and surprising ways--- for Christ comes at an hour and place we do not expect.  And that fits with our Parish Vision Statement.  And, our new Parish Mission Statement:

To me, it is how we respond to the advice Paul gives on being prepared when he says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.  Which to me follows Christ’s advice that “So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come”   

My, but we have done a lot and there is still more to be done.  Are we ready?

Thanks to Jude