First Sunday of Christmas, Year A
Deacon Richard Buhrer
I want to tell you the story of my Advent this year. Some months ago my niece came to live with me. She was, even then, mountainously pregnant, could not find work and had no other place to live. So like St, Joseph, as an old man (or so I sometimes feel) I have been watching over a young woman pregnant from Someone else, waiting for the birth of her child.
All of my commitments have been provisional for the last several weeks. I have had to warn everyone that my commitments will be fulfilled only if my niece is not in labor giving birth of her son.
Last Tuesday afternoon, her time was fulfilled. She summoned me, as we had agreed, to the hospital. I struggled to complete my commitments at the hospital, to leave all my patients safe and cared for, and then I left for her hospital, stopping at home for things she had forgotten in her haste that afternoon. All that long evening, I kept watch at her side. The progress seemed glacial up to a point: Two centimeter and 50% effaced; an hour later two centimeters and 80 % effaced; another two hours four centimeters and 90% effaced.
Then the process accelerated: in 15 minutes, she went from six centimeters to complete dilation and the time was finally at hand. As the nurses were bustling around the room making the final preparations for the birth, I had this strong sense just short of vision that angels were swirling, dancing and singing in joy around us as this new life was coming into the world.
And then at 1:34 AM amidst great rejoicing after only a very short final phase of labor a perfect little man-child came into the world: Branden Tyrell Bibbins. A new life, a new beginning, completely new possibilities, unforeseen grace and beauty had come into the world. Hallelujah!
And here we are, celebrating an even more wonderful birth. Yesterday we focused on the story from the human perspective with the Angels, the Shepherds, the Mother of God and St. Joseph gathered around the manger that contained the creator of the universe. Silently, hidden from all those who thought themselves wise and powerful, in the humblest of circumstances, the Universe irrevocably changed in the instant of that birth—with that first breath and that first cry. The alienation between the World and its Creator ended in a heartbeat and the way to God and to godliness was opened for us and can never be shut again.
All the readings today proclaim that the light has come; the day is at hand; the dawn has come upon us. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God. What he created was light for the life of all humankind. The light has come into the world and the darkness has not overpowered it.
Now, we live in awfully dark times: the war in Iraq, the economy, healthcare, the future of Social Security, the plight of the homeless, the seemingly endless strife between tribes and nations, and the unfulfilled quest for justice and peace for the poor throughout the world. If we dwell (without praying) on the scope and weight of evil in the world, we could despair and pray for death.
But that is why it is so important for us to remember and to believe that the Day is begun, the Sun of Righteousness has dawned upon us, that his light enlightens those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death and will guide our feet into the way of peace. Our Hope has come upon us, all unexpected and we need no longer fear anything in heaven or upon earth.
The great innovation in Christian thought as opposed to the Jewish thought from which it was born is this: Many of the Jews of Jesus’ day expected the Day of the Lord, but they thought it would come at a particular instant and end time and majestically restore the Kingdom to Israel. The Christian innovation is this: The Day has indeed begun, but the End Time is not an instant, it is an age. It is not a fait accompli; it is a process. We are called not only to revel in the Day, but also to participate in its arrival, to help it to arrive in the world around us. We are called to work to build the Kingdom of God, to establish Peace on earth, to be the Body of Christ in the World He loved.
“Arise, shine, for your light has dawned,” the Prophet Isaiah calls to us over the ages. We are called to wake up and live in the new light, the light that is here in our midst, in spite of all the darkness that prevails in our world.
Scripture and the Tradition offer us many “rules” by which to measure whether we are walking in the Day. The most important of these is probably our Baptismal Vows:
· Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?
· Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
· Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
· Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
· Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
Another source is the First Letter of John: “By this we know that we are His disciples: that we have love one for another.”
And a third comes from Paul’s letter to the Galatians:
“Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and this like these…. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit are love, joy peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with is passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit let us also be guided by the Spirit.”
And yet a fourth is the passage from Galatians that we read today: “27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”
We can examine our lives and hearts and know, with some certainty, whether we are walking in the Day. We can know by reviewing our baptismal vows, by looking for the presence of divine love, charity in our lives, by looking at our lives for the presence of the fruit of the Holy Spirit and by seeing if the radical equality of baptism is manifest in our parish, our city, our Church, and our World.
The great caution in all of this is that what we accomplish is not important, what we attempt is. The Lord Jesus died an abject failure, rejected by the Jewish establishment of his time and crushed by the imperial war machine of Rome. St. Peter and St. Paul died shameful deaths accused of the crime of arson for the burning of Rome. The Litany of Saints is not a catalogue of successes (according to the mind of the world) but more likely a catalogue of misfits and failures.
So let us be comforted by today’s proclamation: the Light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overpower it! Let us cast caution to the wind, let us be faithful to the apostles’ teaching, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers; let us resist evil and repent and return to the Lord, let us serve Christ in all persons, striving for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being. Let us put on the armor of light, let us walk confidently in the Day dawned now upon us.
Because the God who made the suns and stars of the universe deigned to lie in a manger, to suckle at a woman’s breast, to cry and pee and poop and grow and learn and speak and teach and suffer and die, so that we might be saved and brought home to him forever. Amen. Hallelujah.
