In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Get ready!  Get ready!  He’s coming!  You better be ready!

Welcome to the season of Advent . . . the season of preparation.  The season when we get ready to celebrate both the birth of Christ AND prepare for His coming again . . . while, of course, we also get ready for Santa.  This is the season when popular culture bombards us with demands that we be Happy, Happy, Happy . . . and Spend, Spend, Spend . . . while the church threatens us with dire warnings urging us to Repent, Repent, Repent!  But whether we’re being assailed by demands that we “have a Merry Christmas” or we’re being pressured to reform our lives because “the end is near,” the message of preparation is the same . . . whether you’re preparing for Santa or for Christ . . . “Get ready, get ready, get ready . . . you better be ready!  He’s coming!”

But we’re pulled in such different directions by popular culture on the one hand, and the church on the other, that I find this to be a very confusing season.  Oh sure, December can safely be described as a time of preparation . . . and, despite the calls to replace “Merry Christmas!” with “Happy Holidays!,” most everyone admits that the season has something or other to do with Jesus . . . but, nevertheless, just HOW are we supposed to put together the call to be “Happy, Happy, Happy” with the demand that we “Repent, Repent, Repent”?  Every year at this time I find myself struggling with this question.

So I’m very happy to report that this year I THINK I’ve actually found a way to put it all together . . . and yes, I’m very pleased with myself . . . I just hope that you’re pleased with my solution, too!  So . . . I wanna start with the Church’s message for this season as expressed in the Gospel text for today.  Just a few moments ago we heard Jesus warning his disciples to prepare for the coming of the Son of Man . . . a time that will be as fearful as the time of Noah, when a great flood destroyed the earth . . . a truly dreadful, terrifying time.  According to the Gospel, that’s what we need to get ready for.

Think of some time when you were really frightened . . . maybe when you were a kid.  I was left alone a lot as an adolescent, and I can remember more than one night when my parents were away and I was certain, CERTAIN, that I could hear people trying to get into the house.  Lying in the dark, having been awakened by . . . something . . . I’d hear some strange noise, far off in the house.  “It must be . . . . them . . . they’re here . . . and they’re coming for me!”  I’d lie very still . . . listening . . . waiting.  Finally, I’d make myself get up.  Turning on the first light was always the most difficult.  “Click.”  I’d stop and listen, holding my breath, frozen in place, trying to hear any movement.  All alone, my heart pounding, I’d make myself go through the whole house, turning on lights, checking doors and windows . . . making certain no one was breaking in.  The basement was always the worst.

Can you remember some time like this?  When you were really scared?  Remember how ALERT you were?  Remember how all your senses were fully awake?  You were ALIVE, right?  Your vision, your hearing, your sense of smell were all fully operating . . . you were FULLY awake.  Well, THAT’S the point of stories like the one we heard from Matthew this morning.  The point is to wake us up.  I think that stories about the end of time . . . about Judgment . . . about the Second Coming of Christ . . . are meant to make us alert . . . aware.  Maybe these stories were written to frighten us, but I don’t think that’s their PRIMARY purpose . . . what they’re really meant to do is wake us up!  They’re meant to remind us of what it’s like when we’re fully ALIVE . . . alert and aware.

Okay, so now let’s turn to popular culture.  And no, I’m not gonna talk about the message that we should “Spend, spend, spend” . . . but I AM gonna talk about some of the things that are used to move us to the point of wanting to spend our life’s savings buying presents for everyone.  What’s on television at this time of year?  Endless reruns of Miracle on 34^th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life . . . all sorts of shows that are supposed to make us feel all warm and runny inside . . . commercials that are supposed to make us cry!  Movie theaters, magazines, newspapers . . . they’re filled with heart-warming stories that are supposed to make us feel “Christmas-y”.  Popular culture doesn’t use fear to get its message across, it uses sentimentality.  But, in a way, the goal is the same.

What do all these heart-warming – or heart-rending – stories achieve?  They awaken certain yearnings . . . yearnings for companionship, and family, and warmth, and love.  Maybe we remember a happy childhood and yearn to hold onto it and recreate it . . . or maybe we acknowledge a happiness we’ve never known and yearn for desperately.  Whatever our past or present, in this season popular culture works very hard to awaken certain desires.  And, yes, merchandisers then hope to convince us that we can fulfill these desires by buying presents . . . as if the ritual of gift giving can create the relationships we desire and the world we yearn for, filled with warmth and love.  But, whatever we think about the commercialization of this season, popular culture IS trying to rouse us . . . to make us alert to our hearts’ desire.

See the connection?  As far as I can tell, both the church and popular culture are trying to wake us up . . . to bring us to LIFE!

Of course, you and I are all grown-up now and terribly sophisticated . . . right?  It’s not as easy to frighten us as it was when we were children.  The Scripture stories about the end of time are visions and allegories . . . right? . . . we aren’t supposed to take them literally, are we?  And they certainly don’t frighten us, do they? . . . not truly, not deeply.  And although we may shed a tear, in the privacy of our homes, during our 53^rd viewing of It’s a Wonderful Life, we’re pretty savvy customers, right?  We know better than to try to make our family look like the one created by Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed in the movie, and we can’t be tricked into foolish consumption by cheap sentimentality.  But protected by our armor of experience and maturity, we may miss the very good thing that both the church and popular culture are trying to do to us in this season . . . which is to WAKE US UP!

Now I’m remembering a movie that’s almost 20 years old . . . do any of you remember a movie called Moonstruck?  It’s about a crazy family in Brooklyn and it starred Cher and Nicholas Cage.  Early in the movie there’s this great moment . . . Cher plays a woman who’s got her life all organized and planned out, and she’s getting engaged to a fellow she’s been seeing for a long time.  But along comes Nicholas Cage . . . this impetuous, passionate lug . . . and he falls in love with her practically at first sight.  When he declares his undying love, Cher looks at him like he’s crazy and slaps him hard, yelling, “Snap out of it!”

Well, that’s what I want to say to you, “Snap out of it!”  Snap out of whatever it is that lulls you into letting your life slip by, without you noticing it.  Snap out of spending your life living in your regrets or in your dreams . . . and wake up to NOW!  That’s all we’ve really got . . . this moment right now.  That’s the lesson of Advent . . . we don’t know what’s gonna happen in the next minute . . . so be alert, be awake, be ALIVE . . . right . . . now.  Because not only is this the best way to live . . . it’s the best way to prepare for whatever is coming our way.  Being alive to the NOW is the best way to pray . . . it’s the best way to know God and to be ready for God.

You see, God is with here, in the “right now.”  When we stop paying attention and let our lives slip by us, we let God slip by us, too.  Paying attention to what we’re doing . . . living more and more in the “NOW” . . . being awake and alert . . . is prayer.  To really experience our lives . . . is to experience God.  So don’t sleepwalk through your life!  Wake up!  And don’t rush through your life, either . . . TASTE it!  SMELL it!  FEEL it!  Live your life with all the attention . . . with all the awareness you can bring to it . . . and you will be praying.  You will be intimate with God.

And you will be prepared . . . ready for anything.

Wake up!  Wake up!  Get ready.  He’s coming!

Amen.

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