Anticipation

          When I was a kid, December was the beginning of my longing for Christmas.  I could hardly stand the waiting.  I would be taken downtown to see the displays in the department store windows, find myself in the presence of Santa Claus, who would ask me what I wanted for Christmas, and I would be terrified of him.  Good Lord, he knew when I was sleeping and knew when I was awake!  I had heard all of the Christmas stories over and over again and at my young age, I believed every one of them. 

            There was a place in one of the toy departments where there was a long chute that I was supposed to look up.  When I did, an elf called out: “How old are you!”  Frightened, I replied in a little voice:  “I’m four”.  Down the chute came a fire truck all wrapped in a ribbon.  I was amazed at that.  After all, at four, I knew that I had been sometimes naughty.  I had been told that by my mother and I was a bit surprised that the elf at the top of the chute didn’t know that.

            All of these elements are a part of our experience here at the beginning of Advent; the time of longing for Christmas.  We all know that we have been naughty, a wonderfully quaint word, isn’t it; and we wonder if we deserve what it is that we really long for:  not toys or really any things at all.  What we really long for is forgiveness, acceptance and peace in this world.  We would love a culture that accepts everyone for who they are and doesn’t make sharp judgments that separate us from one another.  We would love a government that operates for the common good, not only for those who have a lot of money and power. 

            Here at the beginning of this wonderful season of anticipation, we have lessons that speak to us about what God has in mind for creation.  In Isaiah, the prophet talks about the yearning of God for a new creation:

                                    He shall judge between the nations,

                                    And shall arbitrate for many peoples;

                                    They shall beat their swords into plowshares,

                                    And their spears into pruning hooks;

                                    Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

                                    Neither shall they learn war anymore.

            I grew up during the Second World War.  In my youth, I thought that those five years were eternity.  I remember hearing of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the radio as I was listening to the Lone Ranger.  We had the blackouts, the rationing of everything.  I learned to take the ration books with me to the grocery store when I bought food.  I knew those years as a time of difficulty, but yet rampant patriotism.  There were no arguments that I heard against the war, we needed to defeat Germany and Japan.  It just seemed right to me.  Later, when Korea and Viet Nam became places that we were engaged, the rationale seemed to me to be less engaging.  When Richard Nixon was inaugurated for the second time, I was one of the protesters in Washington on Constitution Avenue, while the President motored back to the White House down Pennsylvania Avenue after his ceremony at the Capitol.  We were protesting the bombing in Cambodia, and I was a seminary student who had been enlisted as a marshal on 14^th street to keep the parade of protesters from crossing that street.   There were busses lined up ready to take scores of people to jail.  None of them were needed.  

            But war has been seemingly a constant presence in our lives, from Bosnia through Iraq and Afghanistan to the present day Middle East and the conflict in Lebanon and Syria.  How is it that we make any sense out of this kind of turmoil?  I pray that we can find a way out of it and find a world where peace is the driving force.

                       

            Looking at the world as we know it, isn’t that what we really want?  Isn’t that what we really need?  We as a people have known very few times of real peace, and we are very tired of war.  When we even contemplate what it would take to have peace in Syria, we shrink from the probability that it would require sacrifice on our part, even lives lost and billions spent to create a peaceful situation in that country.  Internally, in this country, the arguments would rage over whatever was contemplated.  Finding peace by ourselves seems only a faint hope.  That is why we cry out to our God for help.  Only with God’s good Grace can we achieve what we all really need so very much.

            When will God do this?  There is the question for the ages.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tries very hard to give his apostles the answer:

                                          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.

            That is what we need to anticipate during this Advent season.  It isn’t the yearning for gifts, or for glitter; it is the hope for peace and forgiveness that is at the heart of the Gospel, and for which Jesus was born and came to us.  May God richly bless us in this season and give us the eternal hope for Peace and Joy.