Friday, December 1, 2017

Meditation for the Second Sunday in Advent: Get Ready or Else!



Meditation for the Second Sunday in Advent
Readings:  Isaiah 40: 1-11;  Psalm 85: 1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3: 8-15; Mark 1: 1-8

Get Ready or Else!
            Being ready and prepared when something big is about to happen is important.  I still remember the day that I realized I better go by the grocery store and buy some batteries for our flashlights since a hurricane was coming our way. 
            I waited until late in the day since I had a lot of work to get done before I went home.  As I left the church I thought to myself, “Are you kidding, with all the hype on the news about the impending storm do you really think there will be any batteries left at the grocery store?”  Panic buying was the order of the day when it comes to such things.
            As I walked into the store sure enough there he was.  He seemed to be smiling at me.  It was a large cardboard display of the Energizer bunny.  His midsection was a cut out of the famous drum that he beats on those commercials that tell of him “going, and going, and going.”  But alas he was not going that day.  He was “gone.”  At least all the batteries that were in the drum sized container were gone.
            I was not prepared.  I had waited too late.  The readings for this second Sunday in Advent are about time and being prepared for a big day that is coming.  So when I preached on these Advent scriptures that year I put on a set of pink bunny ears, dawned a pair of sun glasses, and walked around the altar area beating a big base drum.
            After my people recovered from this not so holy moment I tried to explain that this is what Jesus might have done today in explaining these scriptures.  The smiling, empty Energizer bunny was a modern day parable of me not being prepared and waiting until it was too late.
            Isaiah proclaims that it is time for some prophet to “cry out.”  “Well then what shall my cry be?” asks the prophet.  God hands the prophet a cue card that reads, “Tell my people that they are but grass and that they will wither up and be blown away by the wind.”  Merry Christmas!
            What kind of “good news” is this?  Then the prophet is told to prepare a way in the midst of this wilderness of dried up grass.  God’s long awaited deliverer is coming right in the middle of the dead grass to bring some much needed new life.  He will be the very “Word” of God.
            But the people, and that would us, need to be prepared.  Advent begins with a warning that if we are not ready we are going to miss something.  Why did Jesus need a warm up band?  I mean he was the star of the show.  Why not just appear on stage and start singing Christmas carols?
            Seems like God thinks that we are not ready unless we prepare.  Jesus’ Christmas birthday cake will not come from a box.  The ingredients will need to be sorted and prepared by human hands.  There will be no pre-wrapped Christmas gift that will fall from heaven.
            A bewildered unwed teenager will have to wait.  A mystified Joseph will have to take a leap of faith and wait to see if dreams contain reality.  And a wondering world will need to scratch its weary head as the Christ child is born out back in a barn.  This is not what the world was waiting for but is what the world got.
            We who know the story so well mostly think we do not need to prepare.  After all we have our manger scenes and candlelight services.  Why do we need the Advent warning to watch and wait and prepare.
            Because in spite of our layers of Christmas traditions, we are usually not ready.  Advent, in ancient days, used to be considered a “little Lent.”  It was at first a season to be reminded that we needed to repent before the Christmas party.  We have done away with the need to repent these days as we start hearing Christmas carols just after Halloween. 
            Our Christmas trees and sweet ending Christmas movies have paved over that “way” that goes through the wilderness.  Well, God will not have it.  God knows that now more than ever we need some “clearing and cleaning.”
            So you can wait if you want to and try to get ready at the last minute but if you do, part of the real story will come up as empty as that pink bunnies’ belly.  Getting ready is important.  Walking slowly to the manger is more needed than ever in our “run as fast as you can” world.
            And yes we do not like to hear that we are “like grass that will wither up,” but the last time I checked we are.  But God comes for the grass and we are to remember that truth even at this hoped for joyous time of the year.  We are to remember who we are.  It is supposed to be a bit humbling so that we can appreciate that the God who created billions of galaxies decided to become “grass” with and for us.  Emmanuel will come again; God with us.
            So go ahead John, scream at us again this year from your wilderness.  Your breath smells like bugs and honey but that’s all right.  You are dressed like some guy we might give a dollar to on the corner who slept last night under a bridge, but you are and always will be God’s messenger.  
            “Get ready or else,” is the message.  We do not need to worry about “putting Christ back into Christmas.”  We need to worry about not being ready to find him in our wilderness of hurry and layered traditions.
            So I hear the drum beat of that prophetic bunny reminding me to sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” to “ransom” us before we leap into “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.”  As a pastor I often got into a slight bit of trouble for not allowing the singing of Christmas carols in the first part of December.
            I put on my Grinch hat and said, “No.”  I would remind my dear people that we are not at the Mall, we are in church.  We are not going to do what the world is doing.  We are going to wait.  We need to get ready, or else we will miss something.
            May you be blessed as you prepare.  Read the readings about the withered grass and the wilderness.  It is important. Emmanuel is coming, but not yet.  Get ready or else.

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