Advent 1

December 3, 2006

The Rev. Dorian McGlannan

 

A couple of weeks ago, when I was reading the newspaper, I came across an intriguing article about making bread. I stared at the picture in disbelief. With great anticipation, I ran into tell my husband: ”Look! There is an article that tells you how to make bread with the holes!” In front of me was a perfect picture of beautiful bread with lots of holes. “Not only does it tell you how to make bread with holes, it tells you why the holes are important.” I was beside myself! “It tells you that the presence of the holes means the bread has risen long enough to give it a lot of flavor.” 

 

I read this article about baking bread in which I learned something I had never come across with regard to baking bread. “Less is more they say.  They tell you that you only need a very small amount of yeast – ¼ teaspoon. And you have to let the bread rise over 18 hours. “This is incredible!” I said. “Such a simple secret. How could we not know this after baking bread for so many years?”

 

Sometimes people ask me how I feel about living in Michigan after having spent 15 years in the Northwest. I generally respond with my little spiel about loving this church, the neighborhoods, the schools and so forth. I tell people I miss the mountains of the Northwest but that Michigan has its own beauty. I like snow and so forth. But then I usually tell people: “There is one thing. I have not found a bakery that I like as much as The Essential Baking Company which operates out of Seattle.” Now even the bread dilemma is solved because I now know how to make bread that is almost as good as the bread from the Essential Baking Company. The secret is in the holes!

 

What do the holes represent? Well for one thing, they represent time. You have to let the bread rise for a long time to achieve holes such as this. No more mixing the bread together and baking it a few hours later. This bread has to sit and sit. And the baker has to wait and wait. Tremendous patience is required. My first attempt at this was fraught with checking on it every hour or so. And then I learned to wait.

 

Advent is the season of waiting. It is a season which insists upon slowing us down. For those who read scripture, the irony is stunning. Children say:  “I can’t wait until Christmas.” The gospels tell us we have to wait – that waiting is what it is all about. The advertising industry tells us to buy more – the gospel tells us to do with less. Lights spring up all over the neighborhood – the gospels talk about the darkness before the end of time. If you have ever played the game of opposite day with your children, just think of this as opposite season. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment we crawl into bed, we who observe Advent live in opposite time. Like the bread that sits on the counter, we crave the spaces because the spaces are what is most important.  Like the bread which increases in flavor from sitting and becoming filled with beautiful holes, we increase in our relationship with God through the spaces. 

 

Anxiety picks up in the world around us at this time of year. If nothing else the commercials on television let us know that we live in an anxiety ridden culture. Every other one is about some sort of pain medicine that will give us relief. We see people moaning deeply from the pain until… until this miracle drug or that miracle drug comes blasting on the screen. My personal favorite is the new headache medication that is dissolvable so that it can be taken even while crossing the street. You don’t even have to stop and get a glass of water to take this medicine. Just whip it out of your pocket or purse, pop it in your mouth and off you go. It never seems to occur to anyone that our frantic pace of life just might be the cause of at least some of the headaches that plague our society. I guarantee you this; you’ll never see a commercial suggesting that sitting in a quiet place for a while just might be the cure for a headache as well as lot of other ills.

 

Advent is the season in which God chases us down. One thing about pregnancy that is inescapable is that the baby will eventually be born. When those labor pains begin, the end is in sight. You might have to go through a lot before it actually happens but one way or another, that baby will be born. And so it is with God during this miraculous season, this season of new birth. We may try to anesticize ourselves with a bit too much packed out punch. We may try to escape our inner selves by keeping ridiculously busy. The truth is God will break through with new birth if we just give him a bit of space. 

 

At this time of year, we not only have to make prayerful choices about how we want to spend our time, but we also have to make prayerful choices about how not to spend our time. If our families put pressure on us, we have to take the time to explain why we do not want to participate in whatever they are suggesting that takes away from our desire for a more spiritually based Advent and Christmas. We have to make decisions not to go places that will only increase our anxiety. For some, a trip to the mall can be fun. For others it is a nightmare. Choose wisely; choose what will fill you up rather than what will tear you down.

 

The scriptures for the first Sunday of Advent, regardless of the liturgical year are always about the end of time. The apocalyptic message is woven throughout whether we are reading Matthew, Mark or Luke. It is the message of expectancy, it is the message of waiting, it is the message of being prepared – not being prepared in terms of the trappings but being prepared with our hearts. Are our hearts in the right place? Are we centered and focused on the message of the birth of the king of kings.

 

By being here today, you have made a choice to worship God instead of any other number of things you could have decided to do. You have chosen to be in community with fellow Christians who have gathered together to do our part in seeing the world differently. You have chosen to let the love of God and neighbor rise up within your heart; you have chosen to make the space. When things start to get a little wired as they are bound to do at this time of year, make a space in your hearts for the anticipation of the birth of a new born king. Find a space to just sit and be. Think of the bread rising on the counter – the bread of life that is born in our hearts and souls over and over again. Make the space, live in the space and let the love of God flow in and out of you and all around you. Prepare your hearts, minds and spirits. And the rest – the rest will happen too as much or as little as is necessary. Remember above all else that this is the season of love being born in the spaces of our entire being.