Waiting - hopefully

 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 NRSV

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Happy Advent!  It is the beginning of a new season.  Turkey comas are a thing of the past, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are, thankfully, behind us.  The air is filled with Christmas music and my neighbors seem to be competing in the annual “Highest PG&E bill at the end of December” contest.   Bushes, trees and the eaves of houses are weighted down with miles and miles of lights, while projected light displays play on the fronts of homes.  It is not at all uncommon to see Nativity scenes sharing yard space with Sponge Bob Santa, Rudolph, and the Grinch.   Likewise, in some municipalities religious symbols share space with more secular decorations.  For example, for many years the center of the traffic circle in Old Town Orange displayed a Nativity Scene, a giant lighted Menorah, and a Santa house.  I haven’t been there in a while, so I don’t know for sure whether they still do that.  But it’s pretty common to see both Santa Christmas and Jesus Christmas in decorations in homes and public spaces.   And no  - there are not two different Christmases, just two different ways of focusing on and thinking about the holiday.)  In other countries and cultures, the birth of the Christ and the gift giving day are completely different - often gifts are exchanged on St Nicholas Day, December 6, and Christmas Day is strictly a religious holiday.  But in the U.S. we do it all at once.  So it’s really no wonder that we get Jesus and Santa confused sometimes.

Not at church, though.  At church we only do Jesus Christmas. 

I must admit, when I first saw the decorations in our church this year I was a bit taken aback.   To me, it looked like a mixture of Jesus Christmas and Santa Christmas in the sanctuary.   We have trees and ribbons and toy soldiers and reindeer and family pictures and a fireplace . . . and Advent candles and greenery and wreaths . . . all in one place.  It was disconcerting, at best.   It is not churchy.  And everyone knows that we can only have churchy stuff in church.  I know that I can be a bit rigid about churchy stuff - like the colors we decorate in for the different seasons, and using Advent music during Advent, and so on.  

But  there are a couple of things that I know. I know that rigidity is not a good thing.  I know that when we say “We’ve always done it this way,” or “We’ve never done it this way.” that we are saying we are unwilling to consider different ways of doing things, that we are stuck in the what used to be, and not ready to head into what is coming.   Those two phrases have been the death knell for entirely too many congregations.  So I started to think a bit more about the decorations that we can see all around us today. 

I don’t know about you all, but I learned about Mary and Joseph and the birth of the Christ Child and the Magi and shepherds and angels and all of that at home, from my parents, probably in front of the fireplace in our living room, with its mantle covered in family photos.  One of our favorite Christmas activities was setting up the Nativity scene in the living room, and telling the story to each other again.  Even playing the parts as we set each character in its place. (Not Baby Jesus, though.  He didn’t get set out until Christmas morning.)  I learned about Santa from them, too, and later I learned how to “help” Santa.  You know, like the way we all help Santa - and Jesus -  by bringing in canned tomatoes and toys to be distributed to families in need by Selma Cares.    We, the people of this congregation, think of ourselves as a family.  Our gathering here together is a family gathering, and maybe we can think of this space as kind of God’s living room. We call it God’s House, after all.   So maybe, maybe this living room up here isn’t such a stretch after all.   Maybe it’s good to be reminded that Jesus Christmas is in our homes as well as in our church. 

One thing that this lovely display surely reminds us of is waiting.  That’s what we do during Advent. We wait, and prepare, and hope.  Some of us are waiting to see what will appear under the tree on Christmas Day.  Some are preparing for the cantata and for welcoming visitors to the Community Church Open house and for all the many events going on in town over the next few weeks - not to mention family dinners and parties at work.  And all of us, hopefully, are waiting and preparing for the coming of the Christ.  Not the child. We will celebrate his birthday, of course, but we know he has come. We know the story of his birth and his ministry, his death and his resurrection.  What we are waiting for now is for his return, for that day when all will be set right. What we are working toward now, is the setting right of the world, as we are directed to do by God.

As I thought about how we wait and hope for the return of the Christ into the world, I happened to think of this little dog.  Generations of music lovers will recognize this picture as the logo for RCA Music since 1899.  “His Master’s Voice” was painted by English artist Francis Barraud, who noticed that the little dog he inherited from his brother Mark loved listening to recordings of Mark’s voice.   I have seen cats and dogs respond the same way to answering machines when they hear their human’s voice coming out of that little box.  Nipper the dog is fascinated, listening to the voice of his master even though he cannot see him, even though he has gone and not returned - yet.  He is hopeful, always, because that’s just how dogs are.

We have heard our Master’s Voice, and no, we can’t see him anymore than Nipper can see Mark Barraud.  We know that our Master, Jesus the Christ, has left this earth.  But we also know he will return, because he promised that he would.   We wait and we hope, but we cannot just wait passively.  While we wait, we must be about the work of setting the world right.   According to N.T. Wright, in his study guide for the book of Acts, “The gospel is all about God putting the world right — his doing so in Jesus, his doing so at the end, and his doing so for individuals in between, as both a sign and a means of what is to come. . .we are the people in and through whom God is putting into effect the setting right that happened in Jesus, and anticipating the setting right that will happen at the end.” (pg. 110) 

The putting right of the world, our part in it, is simply following the directions Jesus gave us.  It is done by simply obeying the two greatest commandment, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ and ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’   (Matthew 22:37b-39)  The putting right of the world means ending oppression and injustice, caring for the sick and wounded, especially those wounded by church or by people in positions of power.  One of the ways we can engage in putting the world right, just this minute, is in listening to and believing the victims of rape and assault and harassment who are coming out in public for the first time - female and male - who are gaining the courage to stand up to their abusers.  Or sharing our own stories with others.  It means telling those in power that some things simply are not acceptable, and that they can no longer get away with behaving however they want just because they are authority figures or celebrities.  

We must do these things because Jesus told us to do them.  In Matthew 25:31-40, Jesus said that blessings will fall upon those who treat everyone as if they are he.    ‘Come,” he said, “you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him,‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family,[g] you did it to me.’   Doing these things puts the world right.  Doing these things prepares the way for the return of the Christ.   These are the things we, Christians, are called upon to do - all the time.  

And so we wait - hopefully.  We have heard our Master’s voice, and like Nipper, we wait hopefully for his return.  It could be today, or tomorrow, or in another one thousand years.  As Paul said to the church in Corinth, “ the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you—  so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.“  We do not know when that time will be, but we wait hopefully, working to set the world right, strengthened by our knowledge of Jesus, and by our obedience to his teachings, and we pray for him to return, saying “Come, O Long Expected Jesus.”