Advent 1: New Beginnings. Good Endings.
The Rev. Dr. Harold H. Weicker
Interim Rector, St. Paul's Church
November 30, 2003

The Readings:

Zechariah 14:4-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-31
Psalm 50 or 50:1-6

he season of Advent begins today, and Advent, by tradition, marks the beginning of the Church Year. Of course, as most of us know, the word "Advent" also means "coming." Therefore, most churches also use Advent to celebrate the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. On top of this, early Christians were convinced that the coming of Christ announced the imminent end of the world, so Advent was marked as a season when they prepared for the end of time. So there you have it. Advent commemorates both the coming of a beginning and the beginning of the end. (That should be enough to confuse you. It makes me think of Abbott and Costello's "Who's on first?")

When we think of it, most beginnings in our life also involve endings. When we marry, our single ways are meant to come to an end. When one starts a life of sobriety, their days of abusing themselves, and others, are meant to be over. And St. Paul urges us as adults to end our childish ways.

So often, the hard, personal work is found in the efforts we have to make to end things. Once we have finished, or ended, something, beginnings just seem to follow. Even then we have to make the additional effort to assure that what we are starting anew moves in a right direction. We all are familiar with playing old tapes. Too often we just start again with old ways that did not work for us in the past. This is hardly a new beginning. Of course, sometimes we recommit ourselves to the good that we once lived, and that is a true beginning.

The Hebrew Bible starts with the glorious words, "In the beginning, God" - to which the early followers of Jesus added, "In the end, God." Advent calls us to remember that God is still in control, even at our end.

In the end, God! After we have done whatever we are going to do to ourselves, each other and this planet- as God had the first word in the making of the creation, just so will God have the last say in each of our lives, as well as at the end of this planet.

This can be a warning, or the promise of good things to come; it all depends on how we treat ourselves, each other, and the world we live in. Advent, therefore, also is a season for the kind of repentance that leads to new beginnings- because, when God has the last say at the end of our earthly life, we don't want our epitaph to be "You blew it." (I am serious about this. The Episcopal Church is not a very accountable church, but I believe we will be held accountable.)

What are some of the things you and I need to repent for and end in our life so that we can have a fresh start and move on to higher ground? What is holding us back from living fully by living more intentionally? How can we discover peace and joy, not just directionless endurance?

Are our answers to these questions material in nature? Do they require a change in our circumstances? Sometimes this is so, but rarely. Deep change usually starts with the realization and admission that everything we need, we have right now, just where we are. How we use what we have, how we make our circumstances work for us- no matter what they are- usually is the key to life-changing experiences.

I want to share a secret with you, today. If you take home nothing from this sermon but this, you will have all you need to become the person you were made to be. The priceless ingredient in all that causes us to change and move into the fullness of Godly life is gratitude. Gratitude is the gateway to right beginnings, because an attitude of gratitude has the power of strength which transforms the debilitating weakness of neediness. Even gratitude for our ability to make positive changes in our life can be what moves us to choose not to live old ways that don't work for us.

Melody Beattie - the well known author of Co-Dependant No More and other powerful books on personal recovery, having lived a life that ravaged her body until her successful change, writes:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

How's that for a personal testimony from one whose life was turned around by gratitude?

Elie Wiesel, a survivor, curator and historiographer of the Nazi holocaust, writes:

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.

And Meister Eckhart, the great 12th century Christian mystic, teaches us how vital gratitude is to our prayer life: "If the only prayer you say in your life is "thank you," that would suffice." Let's all try this out. From now on, start, and end, your prayers with an expression of gratitude to God for what's going on in your life, no matter what is happening.

When we can step back and thoughtfully search for the blessings in what is happening in the present moment, we achieve some objectivity and become teachable. I promise you, God will use this opportunity to talk with us. You can count on it. New beginnings happen when we are ready to listen! And prayers are answered when we move out of the swamp of need and look for the light of potential possibilities.

For decades, the TV evangelist, Robert Schuler, the pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, has built an enormously successful ministry around what he calls "Possibility Thinking." When you think about it, it is not the hype that his critics like to harp on, that has caused thousands to come to God through Pastor Schuler, it is the message he got from Jesus: that, in God, good things are possible, no matter what the disaster is that seems to control the moment. If we at St. Paul's could get this message out, by the testimony of our words and lives, that in God, new beginnings for new life were possible, and people would listen, we could pack this church with people deeply grateful for their discovery of God in their lives.

Now a final word about endings as being a necessary condition for beginnings. I am not just talking about ceasing negative (otherwise known as "sinful") behavior, which is obvious. You can not reach the high ground when you want to wallow in the valley. There has to be some sort of desire for change.

No, I want to point out something just as critical as this necessary wish to change. I want us to consider the space that is created when we end something in our life or something is ended for us. Quite often, these can be times of intense grief- so, when it is hard for us to see the trees for the tears, gratitude can be difficult and the search for possibilities equally hard. But consider this:

We can not keep pouring life experiences into the parameters of our one, earthly life. Even neurologists will testify to the fact that our brain can only hold so much. We have to make space for new ideas and experiences. Our souls, bodies and minds have limits. We are like a glass of water which, when it is full, will spill over unless new space is made, or a filing cabinet which finally can hold no more, unless something is thrown out.

We need to make space in our life for new experiences, new beginnings. We trade in the old for the new. Many thoughtful people of faith have written about the blessings inherent in the "dark night of the soul." For those who have experienced the brilliance of God in times of great adversity, their message is clear. It was in the darkness that they found new light and life. I myself can personally witness that this is true.

What past or present notions and patterns of thought do we need to clear out to make space for new perspectives? What is it that we have considered true that we now have to set aside for new wisdom?

Gratitude and the focused intention to make space for the new are the keys to the door of faith-- faith in the truth that if we give God the chance, God will make us new. Meister Eckhart said, "To say that God is eternal is to say that God is always new." We are the old ones. God is new.

In his second letter to the church in Corinth, St. Paul wrote: "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!"

Today, as we start our Advent preparation for the coming of Jesus into our hearts and world, knowing that we will face God when our days here are ended and this world is over, we thank God for all the beginnings and necessary endings that can bring us into a fullness of life now- life as God would have us live it.

Amen.

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