A Reflection for I Advent All
Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, N.C. December 3, 2017 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
Missing A Day
Well, it has happened again;
another year and yet another missed opportunity to get a Lego Star Wars themed Advent
calendar. They get sold out fast and I have absolutely no reason to get one.
When my daughter was younger, we used to get an Advent calendar for her every
year. Some had candy or a little toy
behind each day. We had to teach her to uncover only one day at a time, instead
of going through all 30-24 days at a time.
This exercise was to try to teach her to live into, savor, and
appreciate fully each day, one day at a time, instead of rushing through life
grabbing all you can get. It was a little bit like when I would put her to bed
each night reading her a chapter of a book, like Charlotte's Web, The Secret
Garden, Treasure Island, Grimm's Fairy
Tales, The Jungle Book, Peter Rabbit, Black Beauty, the Pooh Books, and so
many others. We would read them one chapter at a time, to relish each event,
hear new words, imagine every scene, and stay awake joyfully to treasure those
fleeting moments. As she got older, she wanted to go on to another chapter and
finally she dismissed me and ended reading the whole book for herself because
she could no longer stand to wait. She became an English major and ended up
assigning bunches of books for colleges students to read and write about before
the end of the semester. One of the things she used to complain to me about was
the students rushing through the books or taking short cuts that they don't
fully appreciate what is going on.
Advent is a time to be
present, to see what is going on, but most of us want to rush through it to get
to the end. Jesus, in today’s lesson from Mark, advises his followers about the
end time and to “keep alert”, “keep awake”, to be present to what God is doing
in this chapter of their lives. Trust that there is an end to this volume, but
be present to the depth of each chapter.
Today we lit the Prophet's
Candle of the Advent Wreath as the symbol of Hope. The thing that we don't
fully understand is that the Prophets were not fortune tellers to predict the
future, but they wanted us to pay attention to the way the world operates here
and now so that we could avoid the future that is the logical consequence of us
not being present.
Of all the books that I read
to my daughter, the one that comes to my mind right now is The Secret
Garden. It is a wonderful Advent story of a spoiled little girl and a
sickly boy who find healing in paying attention to the neglected garden that
gives their souls meaning. That is what Advent is about - paying attention to
each daily gift that we are given instead of mourning a dead past or rushing
off to an impossible future. “Keep awake”.
Keep Alert”. “Be Present”.
Over Thanksgiving I did the
usual and worked a lot without slowing down to “Pay Attention!” I ended up
visiting my Doctor who gave me drugs and some with codeine. I wrote a poem
about my experience:
Missing
A Day
The
Doctor gave me something to keep
me
from coughing. Made me feel as if
fingers
had gloves on, clumsy and stiff,
but
it had an effect of sending me sleep.
In
those moments before the sleep came
I
wondered if what the difference was
between
time as if seeing through gauze
and
usual looking as it were all the same,
was
not all that much? Like a thick mist
of
an everyday that we don't see through
blocking
out wonder, being without clue
of
the holy moments and people missed.
Open
my eyes Lord Jesus that I see you
at
work in me to make your dreams true.
Last Sunday's paper had a
wonderful article by Roy Germano of the Los Angeles Times who found that his
pocket had been picked and his smartphone had been stolen from him. At first he
went through the withdrawal of having to check his phone each moment, to waste
his time and escape focus on what is going around him. He got himself a
flip-phone for the important calls and started being present. He no longer had
to spend his life tethered to “reading outrage inducing clickbait or emails
that can wait until morning.” He could focus in on his “daughter and what she
has to say rather than what for-profit tech company want me to think about.” He
found himself blessed by the thieves because, while he lost his smartphone, he
rediscovered the deeper chapter of his story.
Today at the 10:30 service we
will have a moment to slow down with a baptism. We will remember what the
promises made on our behalf were when we were baptized, that we would slow down
enough to recognize that there is a deeper reality in this life, that there is
a holy space between us and our neighbor, that God's love is the bond that ties
us together, and that we are called here to work for justice and peace,
respecting the dignity of every living creature. We will promise to make it a
priority to bear witness by word and deed to Kade of a life centered on a power
greater than ourselves and of the strength available even when, not if, we
louse up and need forgiveness. We will demonstrate that even if this life does
have an end, love does not. We promise that we will be there to live into each
chapter together with him and to be Present with him, each other, Creation and
with the Creator of all life.
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