On this first Sunday of the Christian year,
I want to make
a plug for the liturgical year.
I recommend the liturgical year because I believe in it,
but I know most
people do not.
Most of us think Christianity is one particular mood,
one experience,
one idea that we think all the time.
For example, some say we
are an Easter people
so we should use the liturgy for
Easter every Sunday.
The special tension this time of year is that on the secular
Hallmark Calendar
it’s already
the Christmas Season;
but on the
Christian calendar,
it’s Advent, which has a darker feel
to go with the short days of December.
The father of American psychology, William James, said back
in 1902
that some folks
try to stay optimistic all the time.
But that positive thinking religion shuts down a huge part of
their experience.
Constant smiling strains the face.
It doesn’t come to grips with reality.
It’s too shallow a pool of grownups.
James said that Buddhism and Christianity
are the most psychologically
effective religions
precisely because we make room for
the bad stuff.
Our faith is willing to look at the whole picture.
That’s where the Christian year comes in.
We can’t see the whole picture at once.
We can’t feel everything at once.
The Christian year makes a time for all our feelings,
moods, and
dispositions.
Sometimes we really feel God’s Presence.
We celebrate that experience in Christmas.
Those 12 days are all about God with us.
But, if we’re honest, we have to admit
sometimes God
doesn’t feel so real to us.
Sometimes God seems pretty far off, even imaginary,
while we’re
here in the mix and muddle of life.
That’s ok because if we always felt God’s Presence,
we wouldn’t
know what it is to long for God,
to hunger and
thirst for God.
Advent is the season of longing.
“Oh that you would tear open the heavens
and come down.”
Isaiah’s prayer is poignant, painful in its longing,
ardent in its
desire.
“Oh that” is an expression like “if only”
– but so much
stronger.
Isaiah wants God now.
We need God now.
That is the Advent prayer.
In Advent, we face our experience of God’s absence.
“Oh that” is a cry of raw desire.
Who is this God Isaiah longs for
and what do we
hope God will do?
Since the 7th Century, in December, the Church has
sung
the O Antiphons
of Advent.
They invite God to come and be with us.
Each Antiphon uses a different name for God.
to express a different thing we are
missing.
The first of these ancient prayers is,
is O Wisdom of our God on high.
The world can be so senseless, so inept, so cockeyed,
we need some
Wisdom in the conversation.
The second ancient Advent prayer is
O Leader of the House of Israel, give
us the law.
The world is lawless sometimes.
It gets pretty dog eat dog, everyone out for himself.
We need a taste of morality, a little attention to right and
wrong.
The third prayer, is O Root of Jesse’s stem,
sign of God’s love for all his people.
This world can be a loveless place.
We have more people hating each other right out loud these
days
than I remember
in my lifetime.
We could use some divine love flowing in the stream of
humanity.
Fourth, in Advent we pray,
O Key of David opening the gates,
come and free
the prisoners of darkness.
Do you ever feel stuck in your life,
trapped in a
memory, a grudge, or a situation?
We need a liberator to open the gates so we can move on.
Fifth, O Radiant Dawn come and shine on those who dwell in
darkness
and the shadow
of death.
Anthropologist Ernest Becker wrote a classic book, The Denial of Death.
He argued powerfully that we unconsciously organize our lives
to avoid admitting our mortality.
Paul Simon wrote,
So I’ll continue to continue to pretend
My
life will never end . . . .
We are too busy running from death to really live.
We need a Radiant Dawn to scatter the shadows
of death and
its denial.
Sixth, O King of Nations come and save humankind
whom you made
from the dust.
Save means to make whole, to put together what has broken
apart.
The nations, races, and even genders break apart
and set us
against one another.
We need a spiritual King to remind us we are all one dust.
Finally, we pray, O Emmanuel come and be with us.
Life gets lonely -- even in a crowd.
We need God to enfold us, know us completely,
and befriend us
so we can feel that we belong.
Those are seven ways the Church has expressed
what humankind
is missing
and who God is
for us.
But I’m going to ask you a personal question,
maybe the most personal
question.
What do you want?
What is the hole in your life?
What’s missing for you?
It may not be something that sounds spiritual or religious.
You may not think it has anything to do with God.
But let me tell you something about human desire.
Our hands down greatest theologian was St. Augustine.
He said, we all have one basic desire.
We are all born with a God-shaped hole in our hearts.
Our fundamental desire is for God.
But that holy desire is refracted like white light into a
rainbow.
It comes to us in the form of many different smaller desires.
But – now this is St. Augustine talking – if you follow any
desire,
no matter how
mundane, shallow, or materialistic – any desire
to its source,
what you find is God.
So, I ask again, what do you want?
What do you really, truly – just between you and me
in the confessional booth– want?
Don’t judge yourself for wanting something for yourself.
Don’t judge your desire as not being holy enough.
Tell yourself the truth. Admit what you want.
First, spend some quiet time by yourself, search your heart,
--use a
journal if it helps --
and find the
answer to that question.
Again, don’t polish it up.
Admit your honest desire.
You are making your grown up Christmas list.
Second, pray for it.
Don’t hide your desire behind just praying for others.
Don’t be ashamed to admit what you want.
If it’s a bad idea, God won’t do it just because you told him
to.
What will happen if you tell God the truth
is you and God
will get a whole lot closer to each other.
The Ancient Greeks and the even more Ancient Egyptians
taught that the beginning of wisdom
is to know yourself.
That takes enough courage to be honest.
God has given us that much courage.
You can do it.
Advent is the time to get to know yourself
and tell a bit
of truth – just in the privacy of prayer.
It’s the season to get real with God.
Then watch what happens next.
