Year A Advent 1 2022 Something Big Is About To Happen

 Year A Advent 1, 27 November 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Something Big Is About To Happen”

Collect: Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your 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 living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Matthew 24:36-44

Jesus said to the disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

What time is it?

Time for you to get a watch.

In middle school that was funny. But truly, we have just gone through a time that Kasey and I jokingly called “Blursday.” Time shifted through COVID. Things shifted. Time became either too precious or meaningless. Blursday.

Blursday.

People were curious with Jesus. What did things mean? What “time” is it? What is the meaning of the moment? 

Jesus said to the disciples, “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 

God knows. God knows what time it is. 

Most of the time I heard that, “God knows,” as a phrase of exasperation. But it's not. Or rather, it doesn’t have to be. 

When I was in Muslim majority countries, I often heard a comparative phrase, Enshallah. Roughly translated, “God willing.” Ask for a taxi to pick you up to go to the airport at a certain time, the response might be, “Enshallah.” That was disconcerting, “No, not Enshallah, 6 am. I have to be at the airport by 7. No God-willing, no Enshallah.” It expressed a level of fatalism that was  disturbing. If things happened, or did not, Enshallah! But I do not think God is about fatalism. I think that it is, and for us it can be, something more.

I think when we say about what time it is, “God knows” or “God’s will be done,” it can be a Statement of Faith. Jesus even said that only the Father knows. Being a human, fully human, he was in the stream of time, caught up in it just as we are. Even Jesus may have had a Blursday. We all do at some point.

In our Collect today we see time mentioned, time current, and time immortal: 

Now in the time of this mortal life in which your 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 living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal;

Mortal, Immortal. Time in this world, and the Eternal Now to come. There are two words for time in Greek, and I have probably mentioned them before. We have the ticking of the clock, Chronos, the time we find ourselves in. The word chronometer, which is another way we say watch, is that piece to measure the Chronos. But Chronos is what we deal in. It is the river we swim in. 

But there is another word for time. Kairos. A propitious moment for decision or action. We swim in Chronos, but God deals in Kairos. Think if you were immortal, beyond time and beyond space even. What is the ticking of the clock to you? You step in and out of the Chronos as you want. You have the perspective to wait for all the dominos, every last one, to be in place. That is Kairos. And in the fullness of time, when the last domino is in place, that is the moment when God flicks and what appears to us as miraculous or magical happens. Being outside of time, God can be very patient.

In our Eucharistic prayers you will often hear that phrase from Paul from Galatians (4:4) “In the fullness of time…” Those propitious moments when we say, “Now is the time!” The iron is hot, so we strike. The time is right. Timing is everything. So many phrases to say the same thing. Kairos. We are trapped in Chronos, but we are led by Kairos. 

As I started, this is a Statement of Faith. I believe that God is God, and I am not. Too often, I am surprised in God’s timing. I shouldn’t be. But “What time is it?” GOD KNOWS.

Jesus knows this, and encourages us to have that same faith. And he knows us. He knows we wonder and ponder and worry and plan. God made us smart, made in God’s own image, and we have been called to love God with all our minds, too. God calls us to trust us in our view of time as well. What time is it? GOD KNOWS.  

If God knows, and we trust God, WHAT HAVE WE TO FEAR? Really. 

When I was a kid, my parents told me to get ready and get in the car. I would. They would take me where I needed to go. Could be to Church, could be to McDonald’s. But they were in charge, and they were there to raise and get me to where I needed to go. Or where they wanted to go. It was often someplace fun, just to be together. But never, not once, did I question them. They were in the driver’s seat. In the fullness of time they would get us where they wanted us to go. I had faith in them.

I am a driver now. I steer the direction my car goes. It is hard for me not to drive. Maybe I have control issues. (I do.) But we so often want to think that we are in control. And there is so little that we can control. Things happen, some great, some horrible. We all know this from living our lives. And so much is out of our control. 

God, what time is it? Time to get a new watch? No. Time to have a little faith. The faith of a mustard seed. Friends, we need to see that the God of Scripture, the God who has been with you throughout the highs and lows of your life, the God who is the same Yesterday, Today, and Forever. If we have the faith in this God at all, then we need to let go of our need to steering wheel. That is God’s job. (God is already there whether we want to admit to it or not.)

I find it funny when I see the bumper sticker “God is my Co-Pilot.” Not funny, ha-ha, funny strange. If God is your Co-Pilot, then you are in the wrong seat.

What time is it friends? Time for us to have Faith. Today is the first day of Advent. One of our two intentionally penitential seasons, along with Lent. This morning (at the 10 o’clock service) we sing the Great Litany to prepare us for this time of preparing our hearts and minds for the coming of Christ into our Liturgical Year at Christmas, and preparing for Christ to come again. Today is our New Year, hence we paraded into the Church to kick things off right. This season will be one of introspection and hopeful anticipation. We have foreign dignitaries and guests next week, here for our new bishop’s consecration. Then we have our new bishop doing our first ecclesial visit in three years (THREE YEARS) that has felt more like a decade.

Then we wrap up our time of preparation hearing from our deacon, the one tasked with turning our heads and hearts outward. Even today, she is serving another church where their leadership needed a break. God bless her.

I invite you friends to be intentional amongst the outer preparations and decorations. There is so much trying to draw our attention, to consume our limited bandwidth. But put first things first. Start your day with Scripture and prayer. Get your house in order for none of us know the day or hour, we look forward to so many coming to visit, but Jesus tells us to always be ready. To have our house in order. 

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

We are bouncing between Chronos and Kairos, between the chronological planned and Fullness-of-Time Serendipities that God has in store. May these next four weeks be filled with both. And that is life. Our plans, and those times when God breaks through our plans. When we tell God how things are going to be, and then God laughs. Our planning, our scheming, our hoping, our dreaming, could fall apart in a moment, but no matter what we have lined up pales in comparison to what God has in store.

Be ready. Something big is about to happen. Happy Advent. Amen.