On this first Sunday of Advent we gather to begin a new year by listening to signs and portents of the END. As we hear Jesus’ dire warnings we may feel that we are in the thick of it, as we watch the evening news and see 60,000 migrants primarily from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala at the Mexican/US border seeking safety and hear the latest frightening global climate change predictions.
And today at St. Stephen’s we observe WORLD AIDS DAY. We wear red ribbons today to show our solidarity with the people living with HIV infection. The red ribbons are symbols of our awareness and support and are tributes to the people who lost their lives fighting this disease. This month’s Matthew 25 Offering will be in support of the St. Stephen’s AIDS Ministry.
While we’ve come a long way from the early eighties when those of us who are gay or lesbian lived double lives in secrecy and we can now openly seek help and support for this pandemic disease, thank God, three times as many people are diagnosed in South Florida compared to other parts of the country. There is still a lot of work to do and happily, thanks to our AIDS Ministry here, we are doing our part to help the caregivers and families of those affected.
The focus of World AIDS Day on this 30th anniversary is “know your status.” The focus is meant to encourage people to get tested and to raise awareness of prevention.
“Know Your Status” is also a very appropriate way to begin Advent. “Be on guard,” Jesus says to his disciples during the last week of his life. “Be alert at all times.” His advice tells us that he knows something about waiting, whether it be for the results of the tests, the letter of acceptance, the baby to be born, or the dreaded phone call in the middle of the night.
“Look at the fig tree and all the trees,” Jesus says. If we want to learn what God is up to, we can begin by attending to the world around us, by watching everyday things. Our wise teacher Jesus often uses familiar first-century Palestinian images, first to intrigue his hearers, then at the proper moment to surprise them by revealing something they very much needed to learn. We all need to “know our status.”
Quaker writer Parker Palmer quotes St. Benedict who said “daily keep your death before your eyes.” That may sound like a morbid practice, but I assure you it isn’t. If you hold a healthy awareness of your own mortality, your status, your eyes will be opened to the glory and grandeur of life. And, there’s more of a chance that you will take on big jobs worth doing, jobs like working to raise awareness of how AIDS can cause poverty and devastate a family, jobs like the spread of civility in the face of crass, false, ugly rhetoric, jobs like the spread of justice, peace, and love.
Know your status. Time is passing for all of us and time is all we have. The question is how shall I use it? How will we wait? Jesus’ answer about looking at the fig tree sounds like an invitation to pay attention not only to what may happen in the future, but also to what is happening in front of us right now.
Maybe you already know that the word “apocalypse” means “revelation, as in the moment you are looking at something you have looked at half your life and suddenly you see it for the first time, whether it is a bright red cardinal on your bird feeder, the pain in your neighbor’s eyes, or the face in the mirror. Revelation is the moment when you can see through, see into, see beyond what is going on to what is really going on.
“Be on guard,” Jesus says. “Be alert at all times” so you will not miss God when God comes. “Stand up, raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
I enjoy reading the first and second graders stories and essays the SSEDS teachers tape up in the classroom windows and last week I noticed a window-full of “The Person I Admire” essays. Most of the 6 and 7 year olds wrote that they admired a friend or family member who was helpful, but one student wrote “The person I admire is Rosa Parks because she stood up for what was right.” Wow, I thought, who is that child and how did she get to be so wise at such an early age? If that is what is being taught at our Day School, I say “all right.”
So we wait, we wait for …. Advent is a time of waiting and time is all we have. The question is how shall we use the time we have, how shall we wait? Keep awake; look around you; know your status. Amen.