Advent I, Year C (2015)

Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Psalm 25: 1-9; I Thessalonians 3: 9-13; Luke 21: 25-36

This is a  homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, November 29, 2015.

“GRASPING GOD’S GREAT,
BIG PLAN AND OUR PLACE
IN IT”

(Homily texts:  The Collect of the Day, I Thessalonians 3: 9–13 and Luke 21: 25-36)

Our Prayer Book offers so many wonderful resources for worship. Among these is today’s Collect, which sets the stage for the season of Advent very well. Here is the text of that Collect:

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This wonderful Collect gathers up the two themes of Advent: Preparing to greet the coming of the babe who was born in Bethlehem by holy and righteous living, and preparing and watching for the full arrival of God’s reign when the Lord comes again.

It seems to me that we can explore these two themes using the image of participating in a team sport:

Significant in many people’s Thanksgiving activities is the watching of a lot of football. Sports occupy an important place in our society, and in our lifetimes, many will become a member of a team in one sport or another. Our team memberships can range from a back yard “pick up” game, to a school team, or – perhaps, if our skills are good enough – to membership on a college or even a pro team.

All teams have things in common:

• We become a member of the team, either by volunteering for membership, or by trying out in some way to demonstrate our skills and abilities.
  
  
• Depending on the situation, we may have an assistant coach, or a specialized trainer to shape and develop our abilities.
  
  
• Once we become members, we have to learn how to work with others on the team, and to figure out how our skills and abilities fit in with theirs.
  
  
• Part of the integration process involves learning what the ultimate goals of the team are, and how our individual role in achieving those goals unfolds.

Keeping in mind what’s just been suggested, allow me to suggest the idea that the process of becoming a Christian follows much the same path as we’ve just considered in sports: Becoming a Christian involves becoming a part of a team, God’s team.

On God’s team, we might compare God the Father to being the team owner ... the team owner has an overall vision and plan for what the team will accomplish. (We’ll talk more about this shortly.) God the Son, Jesus Christ, acts like the coach of the team, showing by His example how we are to contribute to the Father’s plan. And God the Holy Spirit can function like an assistant coach or a trainer to hone and sharpen our skills.

Our team membership has to begin somewhere. At some point, we have to volunteer to sign up. For the Christian, that signing-up process begins at Baptism. For, in Baptism, we die to ourselves, and we rise to a new life in Christ, as St. Paul says so eloquently in Romans 6: 3 – 9.

Fortunately, there’s no need to demonstrate our skills or our fitness for membership on this team.  For if there were some sort of a tryout, none of us would qualify. And yet, God accepts us, already knowing our individual skills and abilities.

In Baptism, God accepts us just as we are, already knowing what our shortcomings are, already knowing what our talents and skills are, and already knowing just what sort of training we will need in order to become a valuable member of the team.

It’s as if God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all stand at the baptismal font, welcoming us into the team.

No matter how talented we might be, in order to be a good team player on God’s team, we are going to need training….Jesus is our coach, for He has shown us what team membership looks like.

The Church plays an important role in shaping the individual team member, for one of the main reasons the Church exists is to offer ways in which each individual will come to know more about God, and about the duties of being a team member. On Sunday mornings, we hear Holy Scripture read, we are offered a sermon or homily which (hopefully) enlightens and challenges us in our Christian vocation as a member of the team.

Indeed, at the time of Baptism, the parents and Godparents of the one being baptized promise to bring the person up in the faith. We, too, as the Church, the Body of Christ, also promise to bring that person up in the knowledge of what it means to be a member of this holy team. That’s why it’s so important for parents to cultivate the habit of coming to Church regularly, and to pass along that model to their children. That’s why it’s so important for the Church to offer training opportunities such as Sunday School and Bible study, so that we may learn and hone our skills and abilities.

The next step involves honing our own skills. The Holy Spirit acts as an assistant to the coach (who is Jesus Christ), enlightening us and giving us the vision to succeed in our calling as a member of God’s team. The Holy Spirit acts closely with the coach, Jesus Christ, to ensure that we live out the call of our baptisms.

Here, we can glean some insights into proper behavior for the Christian from our lectionary readings for this morning. First, let’s look at St. Paul’s admonitions to the early Christians who were living in Thessalonica: Paul’s prayer is that these Christians will “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” A bit later on, he adds the hope that God would “strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints.”

Paul’s concern is that the individual team members would uphold and model the values of the team. Those values involve love for one another and holiness.  Paul adds, in a theme which is central to the season of Advent, the concern that these team members keep in mind the team owner’s (God the Father’s) overall, big plan for the team, which involves the Lord Jesus’ eventual return with His saints. The Lord’s admonition, heard in this morning’s gospel reading, is for the team members to be alert at all times, not wasting their talents, skills and abilities on dissipated living. Our wonderful Collect for this morning states this necessity well, as it asks God to assist us to “put away the works of darkness.”

Loving other members of the team, and loving those who might someday become members, integrates us into the team more fully, and connects us to the overall plan of the team owner, the Father. Sometimes, doing the “hard business” of loving can be very challenging. For all of us are incomplete, not-yet-fully-trained members of the team. We still carry with us some behaviors we learned before we became team members, and some of those traits are difficult to experience and live with. And yet, if we recall that the welcome we received from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit at the time of our baptisms was, essentially, a welcome borne out of love, a deep and abiding love, a love that says, “We’ll take you, even if you are imperfect and are not yet fully trained and formed,” then if we can recall God’s radical welcome to us in Baptism, we might be better able to show the kind of generosity toward other team members that is essential for the team to function well.

Finally, there is an overarching, great, big plan which comes from the team owner, God the Father. (This is another of the great themes of the season of Advent.) That goal, that plan, is for God the Son, Jesus Christ, to return in glory at some time in the future. At that time, the team will celebrate the completion of its part in achieving that goal, for the team, the Church, will have worked to bring about the day when God’s reign and rule will be complete. In the meantime, whenever we team members take the field, we are to work to fulfill the owner’s desires and plans to bring about a world in which God has “made all things new”. (Revelation 21: 5).

AMEN.