Okay, here’s my nightmare: it’s
Sunday morning. I open my eyes. Oddly, I can see light peeking through the
curtains. That shouldn’t be. It’s winter. I’m supposed to be up in the early
morning darkness. I look at the clock, and it says 9:55 a.m. I’ve missed the
8:15 service, and Adult Forum, and I’ve got to hustle or I will miss the 10:30.
I look at the alarm clock, and it is obvious that I forgot to turn on the alarm
before I went to sleep the night before.
A missed alarm clock…worst nightmare
ever.
Have you ever had that experience?
When you have such a nightmare, you wake up with your heart pounding in your
chest, in a cold sweat, thinking “It’s just a nightmare, it’s just a nightmare,
it’s just a nightmare.”
In some ways, it’s scarier than the
dream about falling, or the dream about being chased by bears, or the dream
about having to speak in front of a group and not knowing what you’re supposed
to talk about, because this nightmare is so very, very possible. We COULD sleep
through the alarm clock, either because we forgot to set it or because we were
so deeply asleep that we didn’t even hear it.
We’re terrified of missing
something, of sleeping through it, of being caught in the act of not being
present to something…
…and the first Sunday of Advent is
all about being present to the big thing that is coming.
Look at the passage from the gospel
of Matthew, which is all about being ready for the coming of the Son of Man. We
do not know the day. We do not know the hour. All we know is that he is coming,
and we had better be paying attention. We had better be prepared for his
arrival.
That calls for an alarm clock. But
how do you set your alarm clock if you don’t know the day or the hour?
You can’t. Your only option is to
stay awake and aware continually, so you don’t miss his arrival.
Hmmm…can I stay awake nonstop
between now and Christmas Eve?
Somehow I doubt it. Well, maybe the
apostle Paul will have some good advice for me – the Letter to the Romans is
one of his most impressive pastoral instruction manuals. What does Paul say?
He says things that are pretty much
as unhelpful as the gospel.
First he says that the time is near.
Okay, that narrows down how long I have to stay awake, sort of. Then he gives
me the most useless instructions possible. Don’t party. Don’t argue. Don’t do
all the things that are part of every single family and office party that the
month of December can deliver. Live in the light. Put on the armor of light.
And all this as we approach the time of the year when the days are the shortest
and the mantle of darkness extends from when I wake up until before supper.
Light…where am I to find some light?
And armor of light? I wonder if
armor of light comes in my size. What will they say when I show up at the
office Christmas party dressed in it? Will someone say “Buzzkill” or maybe, “There
she goes again, getting all religious on us when all we want is to have a good
time.”
How do I take all this “get ready”
business and fit it into the crazy season that bombards me with “Holly Jolly
Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” playing in every store I enter,
even Home Depot?
Doesn’t the Lord know I’ve got a lot of work to do before
December 25th?
But what is December 25th
all about? Is it about the gift list and the Tacky Lights tour and the two
thousand cookies and the cards and the Christmas letter and the travel
arrangements and the tree? Is it about the ticking of the clock, that alarm
clock, that reminds me that I haven’t gotten halfway through my list yet and
everyone knows you’ve got to mail gifts by December 15th?
Or is it about moving into a
different kind of time, hearing a different clock ticking? Is it about
understanding that a different kind of wake-up call is awaiting me?
Is it about recognizing that, even
as we await the coming of Jesus Christ, both in the nativity story and in the
promise of Jesus’ second coming, that each and every moment, even the darkest
ones, are pregnant with possibility? All this talk about “stay awake, keep
aware” is it not just about the Christ, but about the chance that we may
encounter Christ and live into our relationship with Christ each and every day?
Yes, we are waiting for Christmas.
Yes, we are awaiting Jesus’ second coming, about which Paul and his followers
exchanged letters. Yes, we know that momentous things will happen that have been
written about and prophesied in Scripture.
But we are also charged with staying
awake and keeping aware that glimmers of glory moments are all around us in
every moment.
It may be rainy and sleeting and
cold some days. It may be a time when we miss those who are far from us. It may
be a day when the deep ache of a chronic illness, or simple old age, makes us
think that there is no longer any good purpose to our life.
But if we keep our eyes sharp and
our hearts open, those glimmers of glory moments flicker across the night sky
of our souls.
Over the past couple of weeks or so,
there has been a lot of talk in the news about a comet, named ISON, that is
enormous and has the potential of coming near our planet, with all sorts of
dangerous consequences. Astronomers have been having a field day with their
computers, calculating when and where it might pass near earth. But before it
was to come in our direction, it was
supposed to take a pass near the sun.
Now, the other day it took that
solar pass, and after it rounded back into our astronomers’ view, they were
quite convinced that it had been destroyed by the heat of the sun. All they saw
was a trail of dust…
…until the moment that they
determined that comet ISON didn’t burn up, at least not all the way. There is
still some of it left, and it’s brightening and moving along quite smartly.
 |
| Projected path of comet ISON |
Of course, the media focuses on what
is gone from it, how much smaller it appears after its near-death experience on
the far side of the sun. And yet it still glows, and streaks across the sky. It
may yet head in this direction, a glimmer of glory that we would have to look
even harder to see in the darkness of space.
But hear the words of astronomer
Karl Battams: "From the
beginning, ISON has confused, surprised and amazed us, and in hindsight its
latest little escapade really should not shock us. Nonetheless, this has been
one of the most extraordinary comets we have ever encountered, and just goes to
reiterate how beautiful, dynamic and exciting our universe is."
There
are glimmers of glory moments around us if we look hard enough. In the smile of
a grandchild. In a hug. In the relief found after pain medication is
administered. In a phone call from an estranged family member. In the
possibilities, the infinite possibilities, that God lays before each day, if we
stay awake and pay attention…even the possibility that God would come to live
among us as the tiniest of babies in a remote town half a world away, and that our
lives would be forever changed by that birth.
Our
God is a God of possibilities, of a million “what-ifs.”
With
that in mind, put down the to-do list. Think of God’s “what-if” list…what if
the world were peaceful? What if we loved our neighbors, all of them? What if
no child was hungry or cold? What if no gunshots marred the still night sky?
What if we were truly transformed by the child to come? What if we stayed awake
with or without the alarm clock’s insistent ring and were aware of that glimmer
in the sky…a comet…a star…a baby’s cry? What if?
Amen.
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