First Sunday of Advent - B November 27, 2005

Isaiah 63: 16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7 1 Corinthians: 1:3-9 Mark 13: 33-37

Just over a week ago, the school Parent Board arranged for a family activity by sponsoring the appearance of a magician for an evening’s entertainment. The response was excellent. In fact, unfortunately, some even had to be turned away at the door. Magicians are fun, as those who attended can attest. Their skill is based on illusion, on the belief they create. Whatever the setting or the situation they establish, the tension that is created is quickly resolved. The person, for example, who appears to be cut in half is soon restored.

Often we would like God to be like a magician. We would like God instantaneously resolve a problem, a difficulty, that bewilders us. We would God immediately to restore health, provide a job, prevent a disaster, bring peace. But that does not happen. Many times, was we go through life, we can feel just like Isaiah the prophet. Where are you God? We are wandering, we are lost, we sense abandonment by God. There is a sense of loss of what we believe and hope. We seek a purpose or a meaning in our lives, an anchor or foundation for our living. We would like God to “rend the heavens” - come from behind the curtain - and solve the problem, make everything whole again, renew and remake whatever has been upset or disturbed.

Why does this not happen? Why is there no magi wand available? The answer is: because of the manner in which God created us, created the universe. We are not just an audience watching God. We are participants in thus great and ongoing act of creation. We are given the power to choose, to determine how and when we act in our world. In reality, we are both part of the problem, but very much also part of the solution. God, as the ultimate source of life and of all that is, provides us the means by which we are engaged in the development of creation, of our world, of our lives.

In the imagery of Jesus speaking in the gospel of Matthew. We are to be awake, alert, awaiting and expecting the presence of God with us. We are to search for the opportunity, the means by which we bridge the gap between God and ourselves, by which we can overcome whatever it is that has separated us from our God, that has led us to a sense of loss and abandonment. We must be alert to make the effort, awake to the possibilities which God’s presence offers to us.

This is the sense, the atmosphere, the mood of the season of Advent in the life of the Church. Unlike the magician who solves the mystery of one trick and quickly moves on to another - because his act is based on illusion. Our anticipation of God’s action is based on a knowledge and faith in God’s love as shown and experienced in God’s relationship with us. It is an anticipation of a participation in a growing and deepening relationship with God that leads to the entry into the world of the Son of God - the creative Word of God - in the person of Jesus Christ.

The anticipation of this season of Advent seeks to renew in us a realization of the impact of the event of Jesus Christ. As Saint Paul recalls for us, it is in Christ Jesus, the Son of God who assumes our humanity - that the response to the plea of Isaiah is found. Beyond the hope, beyond the imagination of the prophet, God will enter into our world in order to join us in life and living.

The season of Advent seeks to remind us of the history of God’s action for us. We are called upon, in response, to show that same anticipation and expectation of the reality of Christ being able to be with us now. As the world once awaited the action of God, we, believers in Jesus Christ, must engage with Christ in faith and confidence. Aware of God’s action on our behalf, we need to renew and rekindle the wonder and awe that inflames faith and trust. We need to light up in our lives our wonder and awe at the magnificent plan of God’s loving care for us made real in the Incarnation, God becoming flesh in Jesus Christ.