It’s Advent (I almost want to add, “at last”). We had friends over for dinner the other night. It was a lovely evening. At one point, while I was out in the kitchen cooking, I heard them ask Brad about whether we would get a tree for Christmas. The question seemed to come up because we don’t have any decorations going on yet.
Of course we don’t! We’re good Anglicans. Christmas begins at sundown on the 24th of December. Harumph, harumph!
When I got back in the room I told them all, fondly, of how while I was in seminary at Chelsea Square in 1995, we had our collective parents visit us for Christmas. And of how, the Advent Police (which was just a joke!) would prevent excessive decoration before the 4th Sunday in Advent. Still, I think it is important. My neighbor across the street has had Christmas ornaments out since mid-October. Last year when I finally strung Christmas lights during Advent 4, she came over and cried about how great it was I put up lights. I’m glad she likes them. I’ll do it again this year. But not until it is time.
God’s time is not my time or your time, but it is our time. Because in God’s good time all is revealed. I remember only barely an excruciating letter telling me that, although I clearly was called to the priesthood, I would have to wait a bit. That was God’s time catching up with my time. And it was right. And here we are two decades later. I am God’s priest in Christ’s church. And it all is good, in God’s good time.
So we have to just catch on to that. For us, gay folk, we have to sort of bear down, as they say, about how slowly our rights are being made permanent in the US. Not to beat a drum, but my friends, if you would move to Canada, or the Netherlands, or Belgium or Spain, you would be protected under the constitution as a gay citizen, you would be permitted to marry, and not treated as a criminal when your partner died. And you would have the right to live and love, as it says in the psalm “righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
I wish. I can’t wait.
Well it isn’t time for Christmas lights yet. It is Advent. It is time for darkness in the evening, for getting used to the different schedule of the sun. It is time for contemplation as cold approaches. It is time for careful planning about what we will do for our families in the new year. This is the purpose and the meaning of Advent. And, of course, also, to be still, to listen for the voice that cries out, to know that for God a day is like a thousand years. To know that God is not slow about God’s promise, to know that waiting with God is the path God has chosen for us.
I love Peter’s letter (2 Peter 3:8 ff.); it is from the heart. Do not fear, do not fold up, while you wait, “strive to be found at peace; regard the patience of Christ as salvation.” It means to persevere my friends, persevere mostly in love. Love, love, love. That is how to prepare for God’s good time.
God’s kiss … think about that. How sweet is the kiss you know from the one you love? And yet, how complex is the love you share that greets that kiss? Think about that when you think about how God’s kiss can happen, when righteousness and peace kiss each other? What will that look like in your life? Righteousness means being right with God, peace means being right with each other. As we know from Jesus, both are the same, we cannot be right with God unless we are right with each other, and we cannot be right with each other until we understand that to do so is to be right with God. Righteousness, peace, indeed must kiss each other.
There is another way to look at this kiss, as well. In many cultures a kiss is a greeting. Is this kiss, God’s kiss, a beginning? Advent my friends is “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” who will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Take time, God’s time, to be ready.
2 Advent (Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8)
©2011 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 