REMEMBER, REPENT, REHEARSE
Rev. Dr. Dennis Winkleblack
Prospect United Methodist Church
Bristol, Connecticut
Novemer 29, 2009
Jeremiah 33: 14-16
Luke 21: 25-36
Happy new year! Do you know why I say this? Of course you do. The reason it’s appropriate to say “Happy New Year” is that today is the First Sunday in Advent. As the church counts its calendar, today is the first Sunday in the new year in the season of Advent. So, happy new year!
Of all the seasons in the church year, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost – Advent is may be the least understood and appreciated. A young child once tried to explain Advent. He said, “Advent is a time when we pretend Jesus hasn’t yet been born so we can be surprised at Christmas.” Probably a lot of adults also figure Advent makes no more sense than that.
To add to the confusion, we have these scriptures of the first Sunday in Advent: Jeremiah in the Old Testament is looking forward to the first coming of God’s righteous branch, the Messiah, from David. And, in today’s Gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent we have Jesus speaking about being alert for his second coming, his second advent when God’s Kingdom will come in all its fullness. So, no wonder we’re mixed up.
In any case, this morning I want to try to briefly clarify where we are and what we’re doing on this first Sunday in Advent. I want to use three memorable verbs long associated with Advent. That is, in Advent we 1. Remember; 2. Repent; and 3. Rehearse. A brief word about each.
First, we remember. Why? Because Christmas has a history we need to recall each year lest the holiday is emptied of its real reason for the season.
On a night we now often take for granted, Christmas Eve, the whole of history was turned upside down. Something happened then that had never happened before and that would never happen again. That is, God’s own Son entered our world. Not a prophet. Not an angel. But God’s own self, very God of very God, God’s Son.
Accordingly, it’s important that we remember that night and those circumstances because after that night, life on planet earth would never be the same again.
Oh, of course, since that time some things seem not so radically changed. Hate still hounds us and wars wound us. Children still starve and cancers still riddle our flesh. To be very sure, this eternal kingdom that is present now in a shadowy form may seem slow in dawning – but it’s definitely under way.
And because it is under way there are signs of extraordinary love and grace all around us. Extraordinary love and grace revealed any time someone willingly loves their neighbor as themselves. Extraordinary love and grace revealed whenever someone says no to self so they can say yes to someone else. Extraordinary love and grace revealed whenever one reaches across barriers of race or class or other kinds of differentness to embrace the one who is different.
Extraordinary love and grace all around. All unleashed by the power of God through that first Christmas.
So we remember. But in remembering we are brought forcefully to our second verb: repent. That is, in Advent, we remember the grand plans God has for us and for all of creation and come face to face with the person in the mirror. And realize that there are ways that we’ve not been living up to our end of the bargain as followers of God’s son Jesus. Thus, we need to repent. To change our ways to more nearly conform to God’s ideal.
Some may need to radically change their ways – to go 180 degrees from the path they’ve been walking. Others may need something more like fine tuning. May need the person in the mirror to tell them that they have compromised a bit too much. That they have settled for mediocrity in their lives. That they are cutting one too many corners and their integrity is being threatened. That former promises now broken need to be re-affirmed and delivered on.
Advent, accordingly, is the season to ask “How am I doing as a Child of God?” And, then, if need be, to repent, to change.
Which brings me to the third point: we not only remember, we not only repent, but we rehearse.
What does it mean to rehearse? It means we go through privately what will take place publicly. In the privacy of my study I rehearse my sermons. In the privacy of the choir room, the choir rehearses what it sings for us.
Somewhere a Santa Claus is rehearing his “Ho, Ho, Ho’s” for the children who will soon sit in his lap.
Advent, then, reminds us that our lives, in one way of thinking, are rehearsal for eternity, for the age which begins when Christ comes again. Of course, it’s fair to ask, “how do we rehearse for something so unimaginable, so mysterious as how we will live when the Kingdom of God comes in all its fullness – when we shall be resurrected on the other side of the grave?”
Two words: “As if.” We live Advent as if Christ were coming in his full majesty this very season. For example, if you knew that Christ was going to come again, that the Kingdom of God in all its fullness would arrive before January 1st, how would it change your plans between now and then?
You might think that most would spend their days pursuing good times and pleasures previously denied. But, I don’t think so. Rather, most, I think, would start living now the way they imagined life would be lived in the Kingdom of God. I think we’d grab the Sermon on the Mount about blessed are the peacemakers and those who are merciful and start acting like the people we were soon to become. I even think we would begin to treat other people ss if it were their last day on earth.
Think about that. What a thought! Treating other people as if it were their last day on earth. Do you think that might catch on?
Our life now is indeed a rehearsal for the age to come that shall last forever. In rehearsal, we live as if this might be our last day, which means we live as if it might be the last day of all whom we meet.
So, then a 3-part program for Advent.
- To remember that the Son of God was born of a woman out of love for the world and for you and for me.
- To repent: To change any of our ways that we wouldn’t be proud of were Jesus to return and find us.
- To rehearse. To live now as if Christ might call for me or for you at any moment. To live now like we’ll live for eternity and by all the same ethics.
To remember; to repent; and to rehearse. For, as Jesus said, we really don’t know what day he will return.
