Advent - not a sprint, not a marathon
Preached Sunday, November 19, 2023
at Decatur First United Methodist Church
Psalm 123 (NRSVU)
To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until he has mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.
I love Christmas. I always have. I enjoy the commercial aspects of Christmas, like decorations and lights, shopping, gift giving and receiving, and Christmas music on the radio. I’m here for all of that.
And, I love the church at Christmas. For me, the incarnation is the central act of salvation, and everything else flows from there. I don’t articulate that very often, because it’s pretty nerdy, and because people sometimes think I’m a heretic.
Historically, the church has centered the crucifixion and resurrection as God’s definitive act of salvation and I have no interest at all in arguing that point. My soul feels saved by the physical embodiment of grace that happened when God put on flesh like mine, and we celebrate that at Christmas. I know that God is always with me, but I feel it differently during Advent and Christmas. It’s as if God and I have moved a little closer to each other during those 4 - 5 weeks.
This is not a Christmas sermon, it’s a Sunday-before-Thanksgiving Sermon. Christmas Eve is six weeks away. We are not there yet. But if we aren’t paying attention, we’ll get there and it will just be a nice day. Or worse, it will be awful for some reason beyond our control. And we’ll have missed an opportunity to experience God in a way we don’t have every day. I don’t want you to panic. I’m not going to ask you to make a big addition to your Christmas plans, and I’m not going to ask you to take anything away from your Christmas plans. I’m just going to ask you to stay awake.
At this point in the year, it is easy to look at December 25 like a finish line. We sometimes say in our staff meetings that Advent is a marathon, not a sprint - what we mean is that you have to prepare for a long run - pace yourself, stay hydrated, and focus on getting through the whole race. If you sprint - if you run too fast too soon - you won’t make it to the end. If you’re using running metaphors, this one holds up. But I’d like to suggest a different one.
Psalm 123 is a Psalm of Ascent, it’s one of 15 psalms that were used by those making a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where Jewish men were required to worship at least three times per year, regardless of where they lived. The Psalms of Ascent, including our reading this morning, are prayers that were spoken and sung by pilgrims as they processed to Jerusalem, and at festivals celebrated while they were there.
Pilgrims made these spiritual journeys to Jerusalem because that’s where God lived. In those days the glory of God resided in visible form over the ark of the covenant. Pilgrims made the journey to move geographically closer to God, but the whole journey was a practice in faithfulness, and a conversation with God. Psalm 123 gives us a snapshot of the prayers of those faithful pilgrims. But if you start at the beginning, with Psalm 120, and read all 15 Psalms, you get a bigger picture.
Remembering that they traveled in all kinds of weather and that the road was dangerous, hear these words from Psalm 121 - “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.” To people on a pilgrimage, that’s not metaphorical.
Psalm 122 says, “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” I’ve heard this psalm as a call to worship all my life, and I’ve always thought… Oh that’s a nice sentiment. Everyone should be glad when it’s time to go to church.
But, that is not what this is. For Jesus' family to make this pilgrimage, from Nazareth to Jerusalem, would be like us walking from here to Birmingham, Alabama and back, three times a year. And when they make that long, difficult journey, the faithful recite the words “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” Context is really important.
So, Then we arrive at Psalm 123 - They traveled and the Lord kept them safe. They arrived and they were so glad that they had made the journey. And then, with God accessible to them in a new way, they gave their honest prayers to God about life at home -
“Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.” As a servant is always aware of his master, we will stay aware of you. We will never stop looking for your mercy.
These Psalms of Ascent, when read together, point to a way of life with God that has structure and tradition, but is still a quest and an adventure. Pilgrims intentionally move toward God in the temple AND God is already with them on that unpredictable journey. When they arrive, God is with them in a way that doesn’t happen every day. The journey brings them close to God AND the journey continues. They go home to “normal” life, but it’s not the same, because they are different. We don’t come close to the mystery of God without being changed ourselves.
For those who celebrate a secular version of Christmas, it’s fair to say that Advent is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. December 25 is a finish line. But that’s not the case for you and me. For those of us seeking to come close to God at Christmas, it’s not a sprint, it’s not a marathon, it’s a pilgrimage.
The road from Nazareth to Jerusalem was the same for everyone who walked it, but only some of them were pilgrims. If we want a pilgrimage we have to choose that.
I have been thinking all week about Elvis the snake. If you missed worship last week, I hope you’ll go back and listen to Dalton’s sermon*. I cannot do this story justice, but I will sum up - When Dalton was a child, his family had a pet snake named Elvis. Elvis learned how to get out of his tank, but was usually found quickly in a compromising position with a stuffed animal. One time though, Elvis was missing from his tank, and the Rushings couldn’t find it. They looked everywhere for a few days, but then their awareness of the situation faded, and they rather quickly forgot that there was a snake roaming free in the house, for TWO MONTHS.
It’s such a great story because it describes human nature so well. I’ve been pondering the things in my life that once seemed important and urgent, until they weren’t anymore. I think about the pilgrims moving toward Jerusalem, a sometimes long and difficult journey, and I wonder how they kept going? Faith must have been a big part of that, but they also had something that we don’t normally have - a caravan.
Do you remember the story from the Gospel of Luke where Mary and Joseph lost Jesus for a few days? They were on a journey like this one, and the reason they didn’t know that they had left Jesus behind was that it was a caravan. Friends, neighbors, family and extended family made the journey together, which made it easy to lose 12 year old Jesus, but it also made it possible to make the journey at all. It was safer to travel in groups, and I have to think there was added accountability to keep going.
I think too, it likely made it all the more meaningful when they reached the temple, to be there with people who shared those steps. Did you notice that the pronouns shifted from singular to plural in our reading this morning? It begins with “To you, I lift up my eyes…” and then it shifts, “Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us…” That’s how a pilgrimage is, you start off as an individual and you arrive together. You start off as an I, and you arrive as a we.
This sermon will not end with a walking caravan to Birmingham, at least not this year. I said up front I’m not going to ask you to add something big to an already full season, nor will I ask you to give up something. Whatever is on your calendar so far, leave it. What I’m asking is that we help each other stay awake and aware. While you are doing all the things you normally do, hold space for the idea that you are on a journey toward God. In the midst of holiday gatherings, exams, shopping, concerts… whatever… stay aware that you are not running a race with a finish line, instead you are on a pilgrimage, a holy journey.
Some of you hear me say words like “hold space” and “stay aware” and you are already in that zone. This comes easily to you.
And some of you want to pick up your phone and check your email right now because those words are not concrete. Stay aware of what? Hold space where? Fair questions.
I said I wouldn’t add anything to your calendar. I didn’t say I wouldn’t give you another one**. If you’re accustomed to an Advent Calendar that gives you chocolates everyday, I need you to go ahead and adjust your expectations. This is not that kind of calendar.
This is a calendar that begins on December 1 and continues through all 31 days of the month. Each day has a practice that can be done in just a few minutes, or could be expanded, if you want. The purpose of the calendar is not to give you something else to do during the busiest month of the year. The purpose is to provide us with a caravan, and just enough structure to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
On the first day of December, the prompt is to write down everything big or small that brings you joy. Now, don’t be too precious about this. Just do it. Write it on the back of an envelope while you are waiting for an appointment. Or use voice memos on your phone while you sit in your driveway after work. The idea is to hold space for a few moments of reflection on how your soul experiences joy, and to have a list you can refer back to later. If you finish the practice a little more aware of joy in your life, you’ve done it.
The second day of December, the prompt is to take a photo inspired by the word “joy” and share it with a friend or post it online. And THIS is where we join a caravan. Because, I will forget to do this, and it is literally my job. I’ll get to the second or third day and I’ll forget that Elvis is roaming free in my house. But, if Blair texts me with HER photo of joy. My awareness is back. There’s no need for shame or judgment about losing my awareness, because it’s back now. I will be her caravan when she forgets, and together we’ll make it.
These sharing practices also give us a chance to visualize joy, which is different from making a list, and to see joy from the perspective of another pilgrim. That’s how an “I” becomes a “we.”
The calendar alternates between practices of awareness, practices of sharing, and practices of compassion. Before you leave today, I hope you’ll pick up a calendar off the altar rail. And before you go to bed tonight, I hope you’ll ask someone to be in the caravan with you. My email address is on the back of the calendar, so that’s an option, but this is a great time to trade email addresses or phone numbers with someone in your Sunday school class or even someone on your pew, and agree to check on each other along the way.
You are welcome to take an extra copy for someone who might be interested in joining the caravan as well. Caravans are the safest way to travel a difficult path - they add accountability and community, and it’s just more fun. So everyone is invited.
The road from Nazareth to Jerusalem was the same for everyone who walked it, but only some of them were pilgrims. A pilgrimage is a choice. God is with us either way - it’s our awareness that makes the difference. Amen.
* You can hear Rev. Dalton Rushing’s sermon featuring Elvis the Snake on the Decatur First UMC website. He preached it on November 12, 2023
** If you are looking for an Advent Calendar to share with your congregation, this is the one that we are using from Sanctified Art If you would like to have a hard copy of the Decatur First version (with my letter and DFUMC specific events) for your own personal use, you can email me at jyates@decaturfirst.org.
