LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

A Meditation for the Fourth Sunday in Advent

(given by Ms. Anne Carter Zadig at St. Paul's Parish on December 23, 2007)

You didn’t expect to see me up here, did you? Well, I didn’t expect to be here, either! It all comes of making a flippant remark to my husband. This is what happens when I get to the point where if I see another piece of wrapping paper or scotch tape I will scream!

Yesterday, I had a breather, at last. I went an hour south to see an old friend at her son’s house, and I had some time to think, and to dig myself out of the “I’m too busy to breathe” syndrome. So this is the way God yanked me back, driving down to Easley.

I love the Advent collects, so first I thought about the Advent themes we hear about in the collects each week – do you remember the first one? “Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light…” and the next week, “Give us grace to heed the prophets’ warnings and forsake our sins,” and last week “Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us…”

Oh, my. And I was worrying about wrapping gifts. I certainly wasn’t casting away the works of darkness --- or doing a very good job of heeding the prophets’ warnings and casting away my sins. And this week’s collect, which we said together just a few minutes ago, says “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.” And I have been fussing about fiddly details! I have been missing the point, again and as usual, by my busyness.

Advent is all about waiting, and preparation. In this parish we have waited and waited with Angie and Joy for Isabella’s birth.

As I drove yesterday, I thought about what has been going on this last week, and my great relief (and delight) when Joy’s call came about Angie’s safe delivery and Isabella’s arrival. I think grandmothers, in particular, worry – we are old enough to know about the hazards of birth.

And then I thought about Mary, so young, with such strange things going on – the announcement by the angel of the pending birth of her child, her visit to her cousin Elizabeth. I wonder if her own mother was no longer living? We hear no mention of Anne and Joachim, her parents, in connection with Jesus’ birth - and we know that Mary went to see her older cousin Elizabeth, and I would guess that it was to seek some comfort from someone who was a substitute for her own mother. And Mary waited. And she waited.

We all know the story of the long trip to Bethlehem – can you imagine a trip on a donkey, over rough and stony paths, nine months pregnant? Can you imagine being away from home, no way to make a bed for your expected baby? Being away from any of the caring women in your family at a time like this?

So today we wait, with Mary.

We can look ahead to the story we will hear tomorrow, on Christmas Eve; we all know it by heart! We know now that we will hear that “there was no room for them in the inn.” So when the collect for today says “purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself” we know that we are called, every one of us, in some way or other, to make room in our hearts for the one who is coming, who had no place to lodge at his birth.

And listen to this other part of the collect: it says “purify our conscience” --- Even this late, even overwhelmed by details and too much to do, STOP! Breathe! For with God it is never too late. The collect asks God to do this for us BY HIS DAILY VISITATION – he is with us EVERY DAY, even when we don’t pay attention.

As I say this, I think Oops! I am wrapping presents and grumbling, and God is standing by patiently, waiting for me to wake up.

There is another, much deeper, side to all this, too. God is with us when we feel overwhelmed by little stuff….but more than that, he is with us when we are living through the disasters that life invariably brings. I think every person in this parish has dealt with something extremely difficult at one time or another, many of you in the past year.. This can make Christmas and other festive times very painful. The friends I went to visit yesterday had suffered the tragic deaths of two parents just before Christmas last year. I realized on the way home, though they had not said it, that one of the reasons they invited me to come was because I knew what their last year was like – they didn’t have to explain that this was a tough time. But the great grace of the day was seeing how they had come through the year – of hearing about 8-year-old Katie’s plans to sing in the church choir on Christmas eve, of seeing her older brother go off shopping with his father – of watching Katie and her friend making a gingerbread house – of seeing that in that household indeed they were very consciously “casting away the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light.”

It takes conscious doing to turn from sorrow, pain, and darkness. It takes conscious doing to prepare a mansion for our Lord.

So whether this is an easy Advent for you or a tough one, I ask you to remember that it is in our own hearts that we can make room for the arrival of our Lord Jesus. There is still time to cast aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light! There is still time to prepare, as we wait, together, this wonderful parish family, for God’s great gift that comes tomorrow. Come, Lord Jesus, into the place we have prepared for you. Amen.

-Anne Carter Zadig

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