Fr. Dale’s Advent Homily
1st Sunday of Advent (Cycle C)
November 30 – December 1, 2024
Gospel: Luke 21:25-28
The scripture reading that you’ve just heard may have taken you by surprise. Does me. You’re thinking about Christmas. Me, too. You can’t help it, after all, you’ve just survived one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year, and the reason, advertisers said, was to give you an early start on Christmas. Just what we needed… Probably some of you put up your outside Christmas lights recently and the most organized of you have begun addressing envelopes for your Christmas cards…
Then, when you came to church today, you heard such un-Christmas-like words as these; “There will be signs in the sun, the moon and the stars … people will faint from fear, the powers of heaven will be shaken. Be on your guard, lest that day catch you unrepentantly, like a trap.”
The First Advent
So what kind of scripture reading is this, just when “we’re beginning to feel a lot like Christmas?” It is scripture for Advent, that’s what it is. But it’s been a year since we last celebrated Advent, so allow me to remind us of what Advent means. Advent is the season in our church calendar that includes the first four Sundays before Christmas. The word itself, advent, means “a coming”. But in truth, it means two comings, because Advent reminds us of Jesus’ first coming, to Bethlehem, over two thousand years ago, and His Second Coming, which we still await, when Christ will come in judgment. The traditional mood of this season, in the church calendar, is a mood of repentance, as we prepare ourselves for both the celebration of Christmas, and the eventual return of the Lord. I think it ought also to be a mood of great joy – joy that God sent His Son into the world so that (A) we would be saved and (B) that God still has plans for our planet to this very day.
The first time Jesus came, not many were really looking for Him. Probably every loyal Jew in those days expected that OH someday God would send the Messiah, some were longing for some special intervention by God, but only a few were really looking. After all, how many people came to see Jesus at His birth or soon thereafter? The shepherds came but, as far as we know, they weren’t reallylooking. Instead, an angel came looking for them. One might say that they came to the manger purely by grace. The wise men came – and they were really looking. Their story is one of the miracles of all times that some men from a generally pagan background were led to the newborn King. And then there is Simeon and Anna; they were definitely looking. The Gospel of Luke indicates that they had been waiting for years for the coming of the Messiah…
I sometimes ask myself; if I had been living when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, would I have gotten in on the event? That is; would I have been like Simeon and Anna, or like the wise men – so intent on finding Jesus that I would have really found Him? I suspect the answer can be found in the earnestness with which I wait for Him now…
which is to say… in MY own time.
When Jesus came to Bethlehem, he did not finish the Christmas story. His birth was only the beginning. Mind you, it was a powerful beginning, so powerful that the eastern world re-numbered the calendar around His birth, B.C. and A.D.
The Second Advent
But the job was not finished at Bethlehem, and not even at Calvary. Power was let loose in the world to transform our planet, but the Christmas story was not finished. Jesus came to save the world from sin, but I don’t have to tell you that sin is still a very active force in our world. No, the job is not done yet.
That’s why Jesus announced, as He left His disciples, that He would come again. And that is why Paul and Peter and Jude and John – all have said that Jesus would return some day. And that is why at Advent season, we not only seek to prepare ourselves for a true celebration of Christmas, we also remind ourselves that God isn’t done with our planet yet. Jesus will come again…
But this is such a mysterious subject that many hesitate to preach about. Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour when He will appear. If the second coming is going to be a surprise, it seems pretty audacious for me or any other homilist to begin setting dates…
Jesus gave some succinct advice. He said, “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place. Be alert!”
I think that Jesus was saying that there are not enough warning signs on this road of life, and that the only secret is to keep on the alert. If the times are good and prosperous, be alert. If the times are filled with bad headlines, keep alert.
So at the beginning of this season, I am sounding an Advent Alert! If I had been around two thousand years ago, I would not have wanted to miss Bethlehem. Now, just in case, I don’t want to miss the second time our Lord comes. And the secret is very simple.
Keep alert.
Live as if there was once a Christmas,
and a still bigger Christmas is on the way…
Learn to live “being on your toes”!