• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Happy New Year 
Sermon for Nov. 29
th
2009
Jeremiah 33: 14-16 Luke 21:25-36
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
,The Two-Fold Coming of ChristApocalypse Explained 187b
Happy New Year!This is the time when we get to boggle those around us by marking a year which begins, not the day when the Romans inaugurated their officials, but the Sunday which brings us into the four weeks of Advent.For the first half of the yearly cycle in Christian liturgy is structured around thelife of Jesus Christ. Plainly, that life starts with his earthly birth. But rather than plunginginto the celebration of Christmas, the season of Advent comes before that.What would startle so many of our friends and neighbors is that according totraditions, Advent was not a time for starting the Christmas jubilation early. No, it wasobserved as a “penitential” season. Like Lent, it was a time for fasting and prayer, andone when the church furnishings were draped in purple (with rose-pink to mark a Sundayof relaxation when folk expressed their relief that it was half done with.) Weddings wereavoided, and “dancing and similar festivities were forbidden.” (In some places, the fastwas already begun after Martinmas at November 11
th
, known as “St. Martin’s Lent”.)It was certainly not characterized by ostentatious rejoicing of “the most wonderfultime of the year.” A recent commentator laments:
 
…the disappearance of Advent seems especially disturbing,for it's injured even the secular Christmas season: opening ahole, from Thanksgiving on, that can be filled only withfiercer, madder, and wilder attempts to anticipateChristmas.More Christmas trees. More Christmas lights. More tinsel,more tassels, more glitter, more glee -- until the glut of candies and carols, ornaments and trimmings, has leftalmost nothing for Christmas Day. For much of America,Christmas itself arrives nearly as an afterthought: not thefulfillment, but only the end, of the long Yule season thathas burned without stop since the stores began their Christmas sales.
1
At this point, it would be easy for me to deliver a rant blaming things on“commercialism”. But there is more going on here. The confusion comes from regarding“Advent” as a preparation for Christmas (or “the holidays”). But in truth it is anobservation and meditation on the Lord’s Coming.As our readings reminded us, there are TWO comings of Our Lord and Saviour.First, His advent into the natural world, as a child outwardly resembling all others.Second, His advent in glory, proclaiming the establishment of His new Kingdom.As most of us are aware, this might almost be called “the Church of the SecondAdvent”. And it is fitting for us to bear in mind, not “the very craziest of SecondComings”, but His long-awaited Second Coming even more than for those who, like St.Cyril, looked to it (or still look to it) only as a future hope.For it is true already that notonly has Jesus come to redeem the world, but that NOW the Lord Jesus Christ reigns,whose Kingdom shall be for ages of ages.In an attempt to do my part in defending the spirit of Advent against the premature Christmas onslaught, I will conclude by reading a familiar poem by LawrenceFerlinghetti:Christ Climbed Down 
William Linden
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...