“Let Me Help You with That Holiday Stress”

           

             A popular song way back when I was a teen was titled “Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is”.

            I think a lot of us know what time it is right about now. It is a time when we have finished up our Thanksgiving celebrations, perhaps started our Christmas shopping, perhaps have pulled out the Christmas decorations or at least thought about doing so, perhaps have dug out the Christmas cookie recipes and holiday CDs, and perhaps have had more than a few of the first inklings of that good, old-fashioned holiday stress.

            But being the good Christian folk that we are, we know that it is time for more than just all that holiday stress. It is also time to remember the story of the baby who came into the world long ago, bringing with him the promise of hope, peace, joy and love. And so it is time to get out the crèche, put on a live Nativity scene, pull the Christmas stories off the shelf.

            And yet, the church has the persistent habit of reminding us that it is another time as well. It won’t let us set our clocks forward and jump ahead to Christmas, the anniversary of the birth of Jesus; it won’t let us rest comfortably in a romanticized way-back-when for all the coming four weeks. No, the church turns our attention to the future, and to the present and how we might live in it.

            We live in a time when people are searching for meaning, trying to understand their own lives, seeking to get in touch with their inner selves, but also searching for how their lives fit into the big picture, searching to find something larger than themselves in which to place their trust, their faith, and their hope.

            With all the busyness of our lives, with the way life has of just overwhelming us with all the day-to-day stuff, it can be easy to lose sight of this deep, inner longing. But it is still there.

            This is why the church season of Advent is such a beautiful time. A time that is about so much more than holiday stress.

On the one hand, Advent is a time when we tell the story of people who came before, who, like us, were waiting for the promises of God to be fulfilled, and who strove to live faithfully as they waited. Advent is a time to remember that we are not the first people to live in an in-between time. We sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, about the longing of captive Israel for the coming of the Messiah, the one whose coming we remember on Christmas. We read from the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, telling the people to live in expectation of the branch of Jesse springing forth, of the day when a new covenant would be written not on stone or paper, but on the hearts of people. We listen again to the story of how Mary and Joseph anxiously awaited the arrival of the one they would name “Jesus”, meaning “He saves.”

     And on the other hand, Advent is a time when we remember and retell the promises of God to us. Promises not only of what, but also of when.

            First, the what.  Since the time of Jesus, Christians have believed that the death and resurrection of the one who was born in a manger had ushered in a new period, the new era of the reign of God. It was more than just a matter of the calendar, of BC and AD, it was a qualitatively different time, a time when salvation was possible in an unprecedented manner. The age of darkness was being replaced by the age of light; a new heaven and a new earth was on their way; the time was dawning when the fulfillment of God’s promises of a reign of peace and justice and abundance for all was just around the corner, and might arrive in its fullness at any time. Through Jesus, God had broken into the world and history and had begun to set things right. 

            So what does this "what” have to do with you, and with your life, and the meaning of your life? Everything, of course. Your life is not lived in a vacuum, just a marking of time between the two dates on your eventual headstone. You have a part to play in a great drama of redemption and recreation, you are one to whom God draws near to bring you home.

I sometimes think this is hard for us to own. Popular culture tells us that there is always “the Chosen One”, one person somehow destined to be the one with the great part to play in the drama of salvation. In the Star Wars series, Anakin Skywalker, otherwise known as Darth Vader, is “the Chosen One”; in the Harry Potter series, Harry is “the Chosen One”; in “The Matrix” trilogy, Neo is the “the Chosen One.” But Jesus tells us that we are each chosen, that God plays no favorites, that we all have starring roles in God on-going drama of salvation. 

            Second, the when. Jesus himself warns his followers not to obsess over the when, wasting their days in trying to decipher the signs of the times or portents in heaven. Instead, he urges them not to fall asleep, to be ready at all times, for the promised day could come at any time, “like a thief in the night”. And so Paul tells the Romans, in the reading for today, to stay awake as well, to get up before the dawn, to not get so caught up with the minutiae of what passes for all the stuff we think we have to get done that we fail to be alert for what God is doing among us. He writes, “But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-to-day obligations that you lose track of the time, and doze off. The night is over, dawn is about to break.”

            Stay awake, and wait, and watch. And, oh yes, realizing that the day is dawning, that it will come with the same certainty that the world keeps turning, live as if that day is already here – not living lives of excess, of bickering with one another, of nursing grievances, of seeking only our own, of using others for our own pleasure, of even running around frantically trying to get everything ready to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Jesus long ago.

            We think we know what time it is, but this is what the time really is.  Time to be ready to meet the living God just around the next bend, coming perhaps, as Jesus foretold, on a cloud in glory, but more likely in the guise of someone in need: a hungry person, a homeless person, someone who is sick or imprisoned, someone who is lost or alone.   

            So maybe this is one answer to that holiday stress – to remember what time it really is, and to embrace that time, and to joyfully make the most of it.

            Amen.

            Let us pray. Gracious God who came to us as a tiny baby long ago, remind us always that salvation is nearer to us now that when we became believers; that even now you come to us where we are, as we are, working to never leave us the same. As these days grow short, as our days grow shorter, awaken us to a new joy of life, that this day we might resolve once again to truly live. Amen.