Sermon; Advent 1B; Mark 13:24-37

Happy New Year!

As Dcn. Sue pointed out last week, today is the beginning of the Church year. This is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. This is the time that we in the Church eagerly await the coming of the Messiah. The key word being, “wait.” For we can't be too eager for his arrival lest we be like the five foolish bridesmaids who were not prepared to wait long. So wait we must.

Waiting is the theme of Advent. In the liturgical cycle of the Church year, while the world is already pushing Christmas (one radio stations has been playing Christmas music since November 1), we wait for the Christmas season to properly arrive. Today's gospel passage has many references to waiting: waiting for the end of days, waiting for the arrival of summer, waiting for the return of the master.

But within this time of waiting is also a time of activity. We prepare for summer by watching the fig tree. We prepare for the end of days by being alert. We prepare for the return of the master by doing the work assigned to us. Advent is about waitng, but it is also about keeping awake and keeping alert.

We are in the season of waiting, and not just because it's Advent.

In my Wednesday Word last week I pointed out that coronatide – this season of the coronavirus – was like Advent in that it was forcing us to wait. We are waiting for a vaccine. We are waiting to shake hands again. We are waiting to hug our friends again. We are waiting to not worry about forgetting our masks. We are waiting to gather again. We are waiting to sing again.

Remember, though, Advent isn't simply a season of waiting, it's also a season of keeping awake, keeping alert, and making preparations. There's a difference between simply waiting and actively waiting.

We heard this several weeks ago with the parable of the five foolish and five wise bridesmaids. Five were foolish because all they did was wait, and they were caught off guard when the bridegroom arrive. Five were wise because they took an active role in the waiting and made preparations during that time of waiting by having extra oil. Expecting parents do the same thing. We don't just wait for the baby to arrive before doing anything. We move into an active period of waiting. Bassinets, cribs, rockers, and other furniture gets purchased; as do clothes, diapers, and other supplies. Rooms may be painted or decorated.

In this waiting there is activity. In this waiting there is preparation.

This is what we traditionally do during Advent – we wait and we prepare. We wait for Christmas while making our preparations, both in the Church and in our personal lives. At home maybe we work on Christmas lists, put up and decorate trees, bring out Christmas villages, and work on sending cards. Or maybe we do something else to prepare for the holidays. At church we change the hangings, bring out the creche set, and begin thinking about the coming of the Messiah, both at the Incarnation and at his future coming.

This year, though, is so beyond normal we may wonder where to begin. After all, part of the beauty of the holidays is sending time with family and friends. For some of us, decorating and preparing for the holidays will only serve to remind us of what we've lost this year. For others, it will be a way to return some sense of normalcy to our lives.

So here we are in this season of Advent, waiting and preparing. We are also in a season of coronatide, waiting for the season of COVID to come to an end. This year, this coronatide Advent, has taken on a whole new meaning because of this.

This year we must recognize the difference between a longed-for normalcy and where we are now. Because if we wait and prepare for a return to normalcy, a return to how things have always been, we aren't really preparing at all – we are only waiting. And in that sense we would be just like the five foolish bridesmaids who were waiting for things as they expect them to be.

In this season of coronatide Advent let us wait and prepare for that of which we are unsure. Like the five wise bridesmaids were prepared for the uncertainty of an unknown arrival, we too must be prepared for an uncertain future.

We can wait all we want for a vaccine, or to shake hands, or hug, or gather, or sing. But all of those may still be a long ways off. The challenge we face is this: how do we actively wait in the meantime? How do we wait for the return of those things while preparing to do the work of the Church in the meantime?

This season of coronatide Advent isn't calling for us to sit and wait. Instead it is calling for us to keep awake and to keep alert.

This can be a time for us to think creatively about how to live into our mission of worshiping, welcoming, serving, and encouraging. Because right now there are not right answers, there is only the wrong answer of sitting and waiting.

This truly is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. This is the time of active waiting. I don't know where we will end up, but I will work with you to ensure that we are awake, alert, and prepared for whatever comes our way and whenever that may be.

This is Advent. Let us wait, but let us not be idle.

Happy New Year.