Advent 2 C

Imagine that you are told that the President is coming to visit your home. What would you do to prepare?

Advent 2 C

Transcribed from a sermon given on

December 9, 2012

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Arroyo Grande

This past week I saw a small thing on the news about the president going to visit a middle class family. It was one of those photo opportunities. I imagined what it would be like to be a member of that family. Can you imagine getting the call, “The president is going to come to visit.” I don’t know how much time they had to prepare - certainly at least a few hours because the secret service had to come and all that. But can you imagine how you would feel. Immediately it would be, “Oh my gosh, when did we dust last.” And I have to vacuum under the furniture because I don’t do that. And then as you’ve got the house fairly clean you are thinking oh my there is all that stuff that we put down in the basement. The secret service are going to go down there and what are they going to find? You know. And the husband is going to be out there mowing the grass and blowing the leaves.

We know what it is like when someone important is coming to visit. We know what we do to prepare. Now I help with a lot of weddings, and I can’t tell you how many new carpets have been put into houses of the family of someone getting married. When people are going to come and see the house we have to get everything in order. We have to prepare. And of course if you have kept the house pretty clean all along it is not nearly as difficult as if you have been a little slovenly and haven’t done much of anything. But we all know what it is like when someone comes to visit, especially when it is someone important.

It is different if it is your friend. Now if it is the president of the United States or your spouse’s boss you are going to want everything to be just perfect. Not because you care about that person but because you care about what people are going to think of you if your house is a mess. But if the one coming is your old friend that you haven’t seen for years, your beloved friend, you want to clean the house so that it is warm and welcoming and they will have a good time.

So here we are, it’s Advent and we are hearing about “Prepare”. Get ready! It is going to happen. Any time. We don’t know when. At least that family had some knowledge that the president was coming. We aren’t promised any foreknowledge of when we are going to be encountering Christ. “Prepare!”

In spiritual teachers throughout history and in different religions have talked about the house as representing our spiritual life. Sometimes in dreams the basement is seen to represent your unconscious, while the attic is your higher self or spiritual self. It’s an image that is used a lot, so we can use that in our own sense of preparation. What are we getting prepared for? We are getting everything just right for the visitor.

Now how do we prepare? John the Baptist says that the way we prepare is to repent. Every year at Advent and at Lent we hear about repentance. It’s the word that comes up over and over again in Advent and Lent. Repent is a translation of a word that means to turn around, to see things in a new way - to turn your life around. This year for Advent in my own personal Advent reflections I’m playing with an image of repentance as how I look at things. Of whether I am looking primarily at me or out at others and at God. Are my thoughts about what I am doing and what is best for me and what I am going to do or am I thinking about God, and what God wants - and what other people want. When I go to buy Christmas gifts am I thinking, “Oh, they are going to think highly of me when I buy this. Or who do I need to buy for because they are going to get me a gift and they’ll feel bad if I don’t get them something?” Is it all about me? Or is it “Oh, I can bring joy to this person with this gift.” Of course it is mixed. It always is. But I am reflecting on trying to be aware of which direction am I looking? Am I looking at myself or am I looking outside.

Well in our preparations, when we look at ourselves we are focused on what is this visitor going to think of me. When we begin to focus outside, we begin to look at who is this person who is coming that we are preparing for? And the truth is that when we really see, when we get beyond ourselves and open our eyes to see who it is we are preparing for, we find we are preparing for our very best friend. The one being that loves us totally and unconditionally. This is a friend that’s going to come in and not take a glove and see if there is any dust on top of things, but say, wow, it looks so much better than last time I was here. Because Christ knows that we are a work in progress.

That is one of the wonderful things about this passage from Paul. He talks about may the one who has started a good work in you, which I assume he is referring to the Holy Spirit, continue to do so to prepare you for the coming of Christ. It is an ongoing process. It is a continuing process. We don’t “get it” and then we are right. What it is is that we are constantly in a process of becoming. Becoming more and more of what God delights in. And God takes delight in this process that we are going through.

So here we are. We are in Advent. We are getting ready. And these first couple of weeks are all about this kind of grumpy John the Baptist who yells, “Watch Out! Get ready!” But it ends on Christmas with the angels singing about great joy and good news. Because the one we have been preparing for is the one who is our best friend, most beloved, and the most wonderful guest we could ever welcome into our homes and into our hearts.