LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Advent IV + 12/18/05 + St. Paul’s, Lake James

Two concepts, symbolized by two words, are the heart of this sermon. The words are mansion and sign. See what you think of them.

At least 1200 years ago, and quite probably even a few centuries earlier than that, a collection of liturgical forms and prayers was assembled. In it was the very collect we prayed to God this morning on the fourth and last Sunday of Advent. In one form or another, that prayer is apt to be especially familiar to many priests and acolytes because it is one of the prayers traditionally recited just before entering the church for celebrations of the Holy Eucharist. Listen to the beginning of that collect once again: Purify our consciences by your daily visitation so that, when our Lord comes to us, he may find in us mansions prepared for himself…”

That Jesus may find in each one of us a mansion prepared for Him is a rather striking idea. It brings to mind another text where entering and living in a mansion is also found. I am thinking of the words in St. John’s Gospel, so often used at funerals: “Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and also believe in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If that were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be.” So we have two mentions of mansions but what a difference between them! In today’s collect, we asked God to enable us to become mansions prepared for Jesus, while in the 4^th Gospel, Jesus promises mansions prepared for us!

Consider that word “mansion.” When you see or hear it, what does it mean to you? I suggest that a “mansion” is not a shack or a casually pitched tent. It is not a temporary or inferior building but rather an outstanding edifice, one which excels when compared to buildings which are merely “ordinary.” Mansions, what Jesus promises us, and what we prayed to be for Him are things of exceptional quality – the very best!

Now, for a moment, let’s go to the second word: “signs”. Signs, in our visually-oriented culture, are familiar things. They are all around us. If you were asked what signs are for, I think you’d have no trouble in answering that they are intended to convey particular information which, in turn, might bring about desired responses. Some of us here this morning are old enough to remember the funny Burma Shave signs which used to dot the roadsides of our country. One reason they were so effective is that they were designed to be read quite easily by passing motorists. The signs consisted of sets, each sign having only a few words, with the final sign being humorous, usually producing a chuckle and perhaps, on marketing day, the purchase of that shaving cream. Those signs wouldn’t be as effective today with our high speed driving, but some of us miss them anyway. In any case, whether the signs we do see these days urge us to “Fly Delta, we’re ready when you are” or warn “wet paint,” their purposes and messages tend to be quite clear.

There is a difficulty with most signs – at least for many of us. The first time one drove past the Burma Shave signs, the rhyme and the humor were appealing, new, and funny. However, if you were a commuter, passing those signs day after day, the likely result was that the signs just became part of the familiar scenery, taken for granted, and virtually ignored. Their impact would have shrunk to zero.

In the same way, many Christians have become so used to the vocabulary of “church talk” and the beloved but so-very-familiar Christmas customs, that the startling reality of the Incarnation almost disappears! The proclamation that “Christ is born!” gets replaced by a concern for “why did we sing that hymn tune instead of the one we always used to sing? and attention shifts from the Great Message to minor matters.

The first witnesses of the birth of Christ may well have been amazed, uncomprehending, even afraid, but we latter-day Christians tend to have more trouble in knowing how to appreciate and convey to others the awesome fact that the Word was made flesh and lived among us. It’s all so familiar, we are so used to the signs and their messages that we hardly see or hear them. What can we do about that?

On this last Sunday of Advent, the Church offers us signs, but unlike roadside sayings, billboards or newspaper ads, these signs are not made of metal, wood or paper. These signs are people – real people! Today’s Gospel tells of God’s invitation to a young woman to become the Mother of the Messiah. Mary’s willingness to say “yes” – to accept the Vocation of being the Mother of God’s Divine Son, came despite what must have been her bewilderment, even her being frightened. Her openness to God’s will is certainly a reason for us to honor her, but even more, to see in her act of obedience a sign, an example of the way we should respond to the vocations to which God calls us. Think of this: like Saint Mary, every Christian’s God-given vocation, no matter whether we are priests or layfolk, rich or poor, old or young, every Christian is called to be a bearer of Christ – to others. Now I know that sounds good, something which fits in a priest’s sermon, but putting it into practice can be quite another thing, can’t it?

How often do we pray to know, really to know God’s will for us in a particular situation, but then shrink from actually going ahead with it, finding it too difficult, too risky, or too costly in one way or another, and so, go our own way, a seemingly easier or perhaps safer way instead. Mary’s example is given to us not only to remind us of what she did, but also (perhaps especially) to remind us of what we should do in the present. We worship a Messiah who not only came in the Bethlehem stable, but who comes – comes to us even now. He comes, truly comes to us in His Holy Word – the Bible. He comes, truly comes to us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, Holy Communion. Jesus comes, truly comes to us through our senses, through our awareness of the holiness and beauty which is so much a part of God’s creation. Jesus comes to us through our sufferings and sorrows, in the moment now present and in the moment about to begin. That’s true no matter where we are or what we may be doing. We meet Jesus in people – people who are mansions in which HE is present. The Blessed Virgin Mary was, and is, one of those people. If we ignore her, if she has no place in our prayers, our thoughts, our lives, at the very least we close ourselves off from a sign, from the vehicle God intends us to have.

The practice of the Church, for a time sadly ignored, but in our time happily being revived, has been to recognize holiness not as an abstract, a quality which, in theory, can exist, but as something to be found in real people – people who can serve as models, as examples of what, by God’s grace we – yes you (and yes I) can really be. That’s why the Episcopal Church calendar is filled with holy days in honor of Mary and so many other saints who in their time and in their ways so loved God that they were and are, signs to us of Christ’s love.

I believe in the concept of holiness because I have met, known, and been greatly blessed by some saints. Saints, remember, are not a different species from the rest of us, they are not “demi-gods” nor are they even perfect people. They are human beings for whom the love of God is so central and important that they are quietly powerful examples to others of what we are all intended to be by the God who created us. Anyone who met the late Father Whitney Hale, sometime Rector of the Church of the Advent in Boston would know why I say that he is one of the main reasons I believe in the existence of saints. If you think about it for a moment, I suspect you can remember and thank God for someone (or more than one) whose life had that effect on you, people who were, or are, truly mansions in whom the love and reality of Jesus could be experienced by others. That’s astounding but true! Even more astounding is the fact that becoming mansions prepared for Jesus is not something reserved to the super-religious, to the clergy, or to people who happened to live in the Holy Land 2100 years ago. It is open to each one of us, the “ordinary folk” if you will, open to anyone and everyone. Not only can be we be blessed by signs, we can be signs!

Mansions and signs. That’s a message of this fourth Sunday of Advent, a message which can make quite a difference. So, as the ancient words of our Eucharistic Liturgy bid us, “Lift up your hearts” brothers and sisters in Christ. Lift up your hearts so that the King of Glory can come in – can come into us, finding in us mansions prepared for Him, making us signs to others.

Our King and Savior now draws near. Come, let us adore Him.

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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