Keep Awake
A sermon by Currie Burris
Mark 13: 24-37
November 27, 2005

Advent. How can it be Advent already? I am not ready for Advent and the Christmas season. Thanksgiving blew through like a speeding train. We still have a pumpkin in our yard from Halloween. The leaves turned and fell, it seems, in one day. Did we ever really have a fall season? Wasn’t it still 70 degrees outside just a week ago? My mind, my spirit is really still back in September somewhere. I’m not ready to put up the Christmas wreaths, to hang the lights, to buy a tree, and to start shopping for presents.

This is partially because of all that has happened this year. This has been a strange, difficult and tragic year for the world. It began with the Tsunami in Southeast Asia, perhaps the most deadly natural disaster of all time. Then came hurricanes, Katrina, Rita and the others (I have lost track of all the names) and the flooding, destruction, and displacement that followed their wake. Then came the earthquakes, the mudslides, tornadoes and more storms. Along side all these natural events came the humanly caused disasters, the wars, the terror bombings and criminality, the things we do to each other. And then there are the global pandemics still burning their way through communities and whole countries, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and another possible one on the horizon, the bird flu.

I wake up this morning and it is Advent, time to get ready for Christmas, time to celebrate the birth of the Messiah, the coming of the Christ child into the world. In some ways today feels more like a time for grieving rather than celebrating.

Do you know why we celebrate Christmas on December 25th? There are several reasons actually, but it goes back to the very early church, the first century of Christian witness, while the church was a small religious sect in the Roman Empire. They were persecuted for refusing to worship the pagan gods of Rome and give homage to the emperor. Any obvious signs of worship and celebration by the Christians apart from the rest of the community would draw attention and violence upon them. So to celebrate Christ’s birthday, Christmas, they chose a date when the rest of the Roman world was also celebrating. They chose the time of the winter solstice around the fourth week in December. December 25th remains the date of the celebration for much of the Christian world, although other Christians have chosen other times since then.

The fact is we do not really know when Jesus was born exactly. It was sometime before the death of Herod the Great (since he figures so prominently in the Christmas story). The time of the year is also uncertain. It could have been in the spring or summer of the year, probably not in the winter (it does get cold in Palestine). In fact you could choose most any day of the year and make an argument for celebrating the birth of Christ then. January 6th? June 5th? May 4th? October 8th? Yesterday? Today? Tomorrow?

But our Christmas is not just the celebration of Jesus’ birthday on some day in Bethlehem so long ago. It is also the celebration in anticipation of Christ coming again. On that day long ago, God broke into the course of human history. God left eternity to be incarnate in the life of a human being. God became one of us. God joined our lives, breathed our air, pulsed with human blood, laughed and cried with a human voice, loved with human feelings, shared our grief and our pain. At Christmas we celebrate that wondrous joining of divine and human destiny: Emmanuel—God-with-us.

And one day, Christ will come again. That one day may be today, tomorrow, or a thousand years from now, and all of history will be complete, God will be all in all, the wrong will be made right, evil will be defeated, and love will reign. Christ has come—Christ will come again.

Someday in the future—and on every day in-between, Christ is coming into our world; God in Christ is breaking into our lives.

God is breaking into our lives in a thousand unknown and unexpected ways. We can’t control it; we can’t predict it. Christ is breaking into our lives—lives filled with trouble, heartbreak and suffering, lives burdened with grief and loss, lives crippled with brokenness and sin. Christ is breaking into our lives with healing and hope. Christ is breaking into our lives bringing redemption from sin, release from captivity, and life from death.

Christ is breaking into lives—without warning, not just on a cold morning in December, but on a bright midday of spring, or a hot sweaty day of summer, or a cold Sunday morning in late November.

We live on the cusp of the in-breaking birth of God at any time and any place:

l Years ago when you were a little girl, wondering who you were and what you were going to do with your life—Christ was breaking into your life.
l A decade ago when you were a young man looking for a way to make it work, a way to make it count, a way to make a life—Christ was breaking into your life.
l Just last year when you stood to make lifelong vows of commitment, a bond of love to last forever—Christ was breaking into your life.
l Last summer when you lost your mother, last month when you lost your cousin, next year when death comes again—Christ is breaking into your life.
l On Thursday as you gathered at the Thanksgiving table with family and friends, or you worked the holiday shift at the hospital no one else would take—Christ was breaking into your life.
l Yesterday, as you walked the malls, rushing to beat the shopping rush, as you stood in endless lines, as you were lost in the crush of traffic—Christ was breaking into your life.
l Last night as you prepared to go to sleep—Christ was breaking into your life.
l This morning as you readied yourself for church—Christ was breaking into your life.
l Today as you sit in the pew, wondering how long the service will last or worrying if you are ready for work tomorrow—Christ is breaking into your life.
l Tomorrow when you confront your boss for the first time, tomorrow when the news of another disaster breaks, tomorrow when the anger rises and you can’t take it anymore, tomorrow when the weight of your debt overwhelms you, tomorrow when the children become just too much, tomorrow when you just want to quit, tomorrow when you don’t know how to go on—Christ is breaking into your life.

In the fullness of this moment Christ is breaking into this place, into this sanctuary, into your life, into your heart. God is breaking into our lives, touching our souls with love, raising our hearts in joy, and blessing us with peace.

“How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.

O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.” (Phillip Brooks, 1868)

Christmas was, Christmas will be, and Christmas is right now. So get ready. It could come at any time. Get ready. No one knows exactly when. Get ready. God will come breaking into our lives at an indeterminate time on an unfixed schedule. Get ready.