TRINITY XXVI

November 16, 2008

St. Augustine Anglican Church

“For we shall see him as he is.”

The Rev. Gerald Parks +

One has only to look outside to notice that the season has changed: what was growing and blooming in the warm sunshine has now been kissed by the first frost and taken on the dull luster of winter. Likewise, the long green season of the Church year is coming to an end and will soon be replaced by the more fitting somber color of Advent, as we prepare for the coming of Christ. The great lesson of this is that in Jesus things change but endings are not an end. Just as the earth refreshes itself in the winter to prepare for yet another growing season in the spring, so does the Church put away for a time its focus on living as Christians, to instead focus on refreshing in us why we should so live, in harmony and in union with Him whose name we bear.

Yes, it seems that everything is pointing to the fact that Christmas is coming. One has only to have entered a local Dillon’s store since early October, at the latest, to see that the cherubim and seraphim, and the elves and reindeer, have been proclaiming the news – which wouldn’t be so bad if our Lord had been born on Halloween. As it is, though, a person shouldn’t be judged too harshly for getting confused over which secular holiday takes precedence over another. Stores don’t care how you spend your holiday money – or in what order you buy their goods: candy for Halloween, a turkey for Thanksgiving or a tree for Christmas. So, they promote all of them at the same time, hoping that when you finally get to Christmas, what they call the “holiday spirit” will have caused you to spend far more money than common sense or your bank balance would indicate.

Speaking of which, I received an advertisement this past week telling me (I kid you not) of a wonderful deal on pink and lavender Christmas trees. To make it seem even more tantalizing the ad was in full color, and advised that the sale price was only good “while supplies last.” I can’t tell you how many times in nearly seventy years I have seen either a pink or a lavender Christmas tree – oh wait, I can, NONE! That may explain why there is such a surplus now, but in case you want one I know where they are to be found if they haven’t already sold out.

As Christians we have learned to adapt to such things in the secular world that surrounds – which isn’t too big a deal most of the time. As long as the color is green, both literally and figuratively, and we are just concerned with living our lives and getting along, Christians and secularists, though they differ on the essentials of what a good life is, can appear on the surface to be very much the same. But when the color changes from the green of summer to the colors of fall and the purple of the Advent Season, Christians are called to prepare themselves, with reflection and repentance, for the coming of their Lord – something that secularists and others not of our faith cannot do. Because they do not know Christ even though they may attend church once in a while (especially on Christmas), their interest is not on the holiness of the season or the miracle of the Incarnation of Christ, or what all of it means to them as a means to salvation. Their interest is in giving and receiving gifts, and feasting and partying: that is the “holiday spirit” they are expected to have. But it is only a part (and a small part at that) of what our Lord’s birth should really mean, for what is missing from it is Jesus Himself.

This business of leaving Jesus out of mostly all the aspects of our lives, while claiming to follow Him, is common accepted behavior among certain Christians. Through lack of knowledge, or perhaps the lack of a willingness to be taught or learn, they are unaware that the Season of Advent looks forward not only to the birth of Jesus (the first coming) but also to the end of time, when Christ shall come again in glory to judge the world – both the living and the dead. St. John, writing in today’s Epistle (1 John 3: 1-8), tells us, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3: 2)

What that should tell us is that, yes, we should celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas, and we should be glad for the promise Christmas brings. But it also tells us that we should under no circumstances forget that the holiday we celebrate is only part of the picture – a mere shadow of what is to come. The “main event,” as they say, has yet to happen, and it is that day that the Season of Advent calls us to consider, the day when all things shall be made plain, “for we shall see him as he is.”

Finally, as we reflect on the meaning of Advent, let us not forget the other part of the Season that Christians are called to as they await their Savior – the repentance of the righteousness. St. John writes, “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3: 8)

In a world that thinks itself too sophisticated to believe in sin or the need for repentance, but sees no problem with a Christmas tree that is pink or lavender, perhaps it is too great a stretch to think that somehow the true meaning of Advent and Christmas will dawn on society. But surely, if we believe in something so preposterous as a risen Lord, as we say, then we can also believe that He is capable of converting a sinful world. And on that we have His word.