"Lighthearted"

          Doesn’t it seem that Christmas comes earlier every year?  I think I saw the first Christmas decorations go up in September.  One year I remember going to the bank a few days before Thanksgiving, and the portable radio stationed near the teller was set on 102.1 FM.  I smiled and said to the teller, “You realize that station is playing only Christmas music from now til Christmas day, right?”  She said, “It’s okay with me.  I like Christmas music.”  But the other teller, a guy, shook his head and said, “Yeah, and the district manager says we’re not allowed to change the station.”  I laughed and said, “I’ll pray really hard for you.” 

          For Christians, of course, this season before Christmas is actually called Advent.  Advent means “coming” or “arrival.”  In Advent we celebrate Christ’s first arrival at his birth.  And we celebrate Christ’s second arrival in power and glory, judgment and redemption at the end of time.  With an emphasis on simplicity, prayer and repentance, Advent is actually very much like Lent.  But instead of Easter at the end, we get Christmas.  So while most of the world has already moved to sappy Christmas songs and an orgy of shopping, Christians are called to a distinctive and peculiar response to Christ’s coming.

          Jesus says when he comes again there’ll be signs in the sun, moon, and stars.  People will be upset and confused by the roaring of the oceans.  Folks will faint with fear and be terrified of what’s coming.  And then everybody will see Christ coming “in a cloud of power and great glory.” 

          This is all so foreign not only to our experience but also to our thinking, isn’t it?  A character in one of Walker Percy’s novels thinks to himself, “It was not the prospect of the Last Day which depressed him but rather the prospect of living through an ordinary Wednesday morning.” (Walker Percy, The Last Gentleman, 16.)  Most of us don’t live in Last Day dread.  The Last Day does not really blip onto our “get through the week” radar.  On the other hand, Hollywood loves to make movies about The End.  Right now, you can go watch “2012,” and  “The Road.”–movies about The End.  In some ways, The End is out of mind, but in other ways we are fascinated by the thought, especially if Hollywood pyrotechnics are involved.

          What does the cataclysm described in Luke mean?  The short answer is we do not completely understand what all this means.  But certainly it means Christ’s coming again will not be subtle.  “Hmm.  Is that really you, Lord?”  Nope.  Christ’s coming will be obvious.  Christ’s coming will affect the cosmos.  When Christ comes again the universe is shaken.  Everything that seems so dependable and powerful is blown around.  So people are scared.  They’re confused.  Christ’s coming is a bull in the cosmic china shop.  Christ’s coming is going to scare folks. 

          But we who trust in Christ are invited to a different attitude.  Jesus says, “When all this happens, stand up.  Raise your heads, because your redemption is getting near.”  Don’t be scared.  Don’t try to hide, because your time of being made new, the time of the universe being made new, is getting near.  So you can be confident.  In spite of all the scary stuff, be glad.  We live not in Last Day dread but in Last Day expectation.

          Confidence and gladness are our attitudes, but then Jesus talks not only about attitude but about behavior.  He says, “Be on guard that your hearts aren’t weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.  You see, that day is coming to every person who lives.  So be alert.  Pray for strength to get through it and to stand before Christ.” 

          Well, we hear that warning, don’t we?  Christ is coming again–judgment day.  Get ready.  We don’t know when the end will come–whether our end comes when we die or when Christ comes.  We don’t know.  But Christ writes on the blackboard of eternity, “Warning–there is a final exam coming.”  Do we hear that warning? 

          But do we also hear the tenderness of our Lord?  Christ doesn’t want our hearts weighed down, heavy.  Christ is offering us light hearts, not heavy ones.  So he says, “Don’t get weighed down by dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life.” 

          Professor Barbara Brown Taylor says, “The days are long gone when most preachers can stand up in pulpits and name people’s sins for them.  They do not have that authority anymore.  What they can do, I believe, is to describe the experience of sin and its aftermath so vividly that people can identify its presence in their own lives, not as a chronic source of guilt, nor as sure proof that they are inherently bad, but as part of their individual and corporate lives that is crying out for change.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation, 29.) 

          Isn’t that what Christ is describing for us–the painful consequences of sin and a place that is crying out for change? 

          At a collegiate conference, the Rev. Heather Godsey, a pastor in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) talks about the casual sex, “hookup culture” many college students experience.  She says, “You go to the club and get very, very drunk.  That way you don’t have to claim responsibility . . . [and you don’t consider the sexual behavior] to be “a relationship with a person.” Godsey says of her college years, “Oh, my God, I lived that.” Eventually, she fell into depression and agoraphobia.  Finally, she came to realize that “hooking up” was masking her real need for intimacy. (Presbyterian News Service, Nov. 23, 2009) I don’t mention this as a way of picking on college students (who miss the mark as we all do) but as a way of saying that inevitably our sins are a substitute for something better that we really hunger for.  And, as Christ warned, eventually the substitute makes our hearts heavy.

          Advent’s a good time to reflect on the lives we’re living.  What are the attitudes and behaviors that make our hearts heavy?  What is it that we truly long for, instead of the sin we keep choosing?  Advent’s also a good time to be very careful with alcohol, the most abused substance in America.  And Advent’s a good time for those of us who don’t have drinking problems to think of a similar question.  Which sins are you and I committing that give us heavy hearts?  Which sins are we committing that feel so good at first, but later on we know we’ll feel so awful about?  What positive behavior or attitude can we substitute for our sin?  Christ wants us to have light hearts, not heavy ones. 

          Jesus also mentions not having our hearts weighed down with the worries of life.  As one scholar puts it, “excessive solicitude for material things.” (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke, X-XXIV, The Anchor Bible Series, 1355.) Or as you and I might put it, “Worrying too much about stuff!”  And boy isn’t that an appropriate command from our Lord at Advent when many of us get so stressed out getting ready for Christmas?  Christ loves us and wants joy not misery for us.  So we’re invited to let go of worries.  Christ beckons us let go of excessive concern about stuff.  We’re called to deeper trust in God and God’s plans for us.  Christ wants us to have light hearts not heavy ones. 

          So how do we get ready for Christ’s advent?  And how do we get light hearts?  Christ says, “Be alert and pray.”  In other words, don’t just drift through our days, months, and years.  Live as if each day, each moment could be our last.  Because it could.  So do some ministry we’d be proud for God to judge.  Practice kindness, patience, and justice.  Develop an attitude of thanksgiving.  (I noticed that one of our church members is reflecting on God’s blessings and actually writing a new thanksgiving on her Facebook page each day–what a wonderful discipline.) 

          What about other Advent disciplines?  Is there somebody we need to forgive?  Forgive.  Is there a relationship we need to heal?  Try to heal it.  And keep praying.  Try to spend several minutes in prayer every day.  Give our worries to God in prayer.  Give our sin to God to forgive.  Pray for guidance and empowerment to do God’s will.  Pray for the world and for those we love.  Give our life to God in trust. 

          Jesus says his advent, his coming can feel like a trap or it can be a time of joy.  It depends upon how we live.  Our hearts can be heavy, or they can be light.  It depends upon our attitude and behavior.  So be alert all the time.  Do the ministry we’ve been called to do.  Pray without ceasing.  Have a lighthearted Advent.  Have a lighthearted life.  Amen.