Year B, Advent 4 St. Paul’s Episcopal Church North Andover, Massachusetts The Rev. Stephanie Chase Wilson
In the name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Advent is a season of waiting, a season of darkness waiting for the light. It is a time of short days and long nights, of bare branches buttressing tree trunks, barns towering over frozen terrain. Cold, crisp air howling like lonely voices crying to be heard. A time of dark, pregnant silence. We button up our coats just a little higher, pulling our hats down just a little lower. We prepare for the coming light, but right now is a time of cold, empty waiting.
During Advent, as we wait, we shop. We buy gifts. We listen to Christmas carols. We watch Christmas specials on TV. Each year we are delighted when once again Rudolph overcomes the Bumble monster, and when Charlie Brown discovers his sorry little Christmas tree isn't so bad after all. My favorite Christmas specials are "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and "It's a Wonderful Life." You see, I believe both of these stories assist us in our waiting. They are both about light overcoming the darkness.
In "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the dastardly Grinch is unhappy with the joy of the people of Whoville during the holiday. He plots to steal Christmas by swiping all their toys and feast. The story ends with a sudden revelation by the Grinch: Christmas doesn't have to do with toys and food, but with something much more substantial. His life is turned around, and so is the sleigh of goodies he is stealing. The tale ends with the Grinch joyously careening down the mountain, tossing out presents to the happy Who's in Whoville. A new life in light as he carves the roast beast.
In "It's a Wonderful Life" our protagonist is George Bailey. George is a likeable, honest, hardworking guy. He's had his ups and downs in life, but has wrestled through them all.
The story takes place one fateful Christmas Eve when George hits a particularly nasty dark spell. Everything he has worked for and sacrificed for his whole life is about to be swept away and he is on the verge of going to jail. In his fear, anger and despair he hits upon the gruesome solution that if he were to kill himself, his wife and family would at least have the insurance money to pay off the creditors. He believes his life is a failure and it would be best just to end it. This is where we meet our friend Clarence Oddbody, AS2 (Angel, Second class). Clarence is an innocent, bumbling angel trying to earn his wings, which he hopes to do by helping George. The remainder of the movie is Clarence giving George a glimpse of what his town would look like if George had never been born. That vision of Bedford Falls as a place of endless fear, hopelessness, and death leads George to a moment of revelation, perhaps not unlike that experienced by the Grinch. For you see it was George who almost single-handedly kept the soul of Bedford Falls alive, something he never realized. It was a divine revelation, revealed to him by a messenger of God, that changed his life forever. The most powerful moment of the film, however, is not at the end when the folks of Bedford Falls rally around to save George. The most powerful moment is when George comes out of the alternate reality and finds himself on the snowy bridge, with a bleeding lip and Zuzu's petals. It’s at that moment that the truth of his wonderful life is fully grasped by George. For him at that moment, nothing has changed. He still expects to go to jail, he still thinks that everything he has worked for is over, yet, everything has changed. He is deliriously happy and capers with delight around his friend Bert the policeman, whom he expects is there to arrest him. It’s powerful precisely because things haven't changed, yet George so obviously has. Speaking of angels bearing divine messages, we might consider Mary's visit from Gabriel. Here is another story of revelation like that of the Grinch and George Bailey. I’d like to consider this encounter more closely and look at it as an example of the four stages of divine revelation. When one experiences the divine in a blinding moment of clarity, there are recognizable stages one goes through.
Mary, a young Nazarene girl, is betrothed but not yet married. One day, perhaps while sweeping the hearth or drawing water from the well, the angel Gabriel appears. There she is, a humble, faithful girl, blinded by the light of one of the heavenly host who greets her and calls her "favored one." Here we see the first stage of the spiritual experience.
When confronted so dramatically by the divine, Mary is “troubled.” Our translation says that she “wondered what sort of greeting this might be.” I prefer the Revised English Bible translation because it explains the reasons for her reaction more clearly. Her reaction is explained as “wondering what this greeting could mean.” It seems less likely that Mary is perplexed by the type of greeting, but instead when confronted by the divine, Mary fears the resulting implications. What it means. Because, you see, divine revelation means that everything changes. This is where Mary undergoes the first stage of the spiritual experience, fear and awe. She then moves on to the second stage, that of perplexity. When told she will bear a child, Mary asks the angel, "How can this be?" She is confused as to how the message can be true. It doesn't make sense to her. The breaking of the divine into her everyday existence is too great a juxtaposition and she can't take it all in. When we experience the divine in our lives, the message, the revealing truth, seems too farfetched. It’s almost too wondrous to be believed.
The third stage is found in the angel's answer, "For nothing will be impossible with God." Mary realizes that she has to expand her limited understanding of the world and rework it to accept the divine revelation. God's presence in our lives means we must rethink the accepted, look for the miraculous. Not all is what we think it is. This third stage is understanding; when Mary removes her own limitations from God's capabilities and allows God's grace to enter in.
The fourth stage is acceptance and obedience. "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Once the message is revealed to Mary and fully grasped, she accepts the call. Divine revelation is always a call, it always has implications. Like George Bailey, Mary's life on the surface is still the same. She is still a young, betrothed, Nazarene girl, yet everything has changed. She is no longer as she once was, and her life will no longer proceed in the way she had always assumed.
Mary goes through all four stages of the divine experience : first - fear and awe, second- perplexity and confusion. Third - understanding, and then the fourth stage - acceptance and obedience. When light overcomes the darkness, we are confronted with a new reality. Divine Revelation makes us see the world, and our place in it, afresh.
According to Luke, Mary is the first human being to learn about the coming incarnation. Mary is a devout Jewish girl who suddenly discovers that God is going to take on flesh and walk among us. A shocking and radical notion to a first century Jew. And in that revelation is a call to service. This call and her place as favored one of God earns her not a life of unending happiness, but pain and suffering. In the words of Simeon "a sword will pierce your own soul, too," [Lk 2:35]. In accepting the call, Mary agrees to change herself to meet this unexpected challenge. Yet Mary's life is also one of great joy and fulfillment. Revelation and the resulting call do not necessarily mean a life of ease, but they always mean a restructuring of our lives to live in accordance with this new understanding. We have to change. It makes life more difficult, but it also makes it infinitely more meaningful and joyful. Because Revelation changes everything.
The waiting is almost over, Christmas is so close we can smell the roast beast. The light that is coming into the world is about to be revealed and it will overcome the darkness. Now we ask ourselves, are we prepared? For when revelation occurs, we must rise to the occasion. Celebrating Christmas doesn’t necessarily mean we share gifts and enjoy a feast, although those are wonderful things to do. Instead it means we accept the Christ Child into our lives and hearts, and that revelation changes everything.
