ADVENT 1-B – November 27, 2011

How are you doing as we move into what commentators call "the season" – meaning the season between late November and late December? In the world around our faith community "the season" is about shopping, cooking and eating, decorating, gathering with family, and gift-giving. I have nothing bad to say about those "seasonal" activities. They are engaged in by faithful Christians // and non-Christians alike (*). It is easy to fall in with the world around us in enjoyment of "the season," and (on the question of "how we're doing" with the season) to fret, "I'm not doing that great because there's so much I still have to do to get ready."

Shoppers this year could getting ready by doing their "Black Friday" shopping before Black Friday. It caused a stir among some employees of department stores because they were expected to work the sales before the clock struck twelve on Thanksgiving. What about their holiday, what about their family time, what about just being "off?" Whether or not we were shopping this weekend, most of us would rather be ready sooner than later. If we get a jump on "the season" and are ready early, we believe we will feel less hurried and harried come December 24. We'd rather not feel hurried and harried then. So how are you doing at the beginning of the season... the season of readying ourselves for the arrival of Christmas?

In the church we are every year reminded that our "season" is out of sync with the world's season. There may be lights on our houses already and a tree up, but in the church it's Advent and – except for putting some greenery on our doors – we will not decorate until worship has ended on the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. Our first Advent readings are about John the Baptist and about God coming not as a baby but as a mountain shaker and a sun darkener. We are out of step with the culture, but we are getting ready in our own way. Sheri, our highly organized office administrator, has a to-do list for every member of the staff (color-coded). We'll be checking things off day by day. Four weeks from today is Christmas day... plenty of time to take care of what isn't accomplished yet, plenty of time to make up for whatever is lacking.

In the season of enjoying preparations but also rushing to get them done, in a season of happy excitement but also anxiety about what is still needed, what we are not lacking (St. Paul says) is the spiritual gifts we need. It's strange in this season packed with secular concerns to hear Paul say: You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we are thinking about gifts to buy and wrap and send and give; and Paul, turning our attention to spiritual gifts, amazingly tells us that we are not lacking in these. We might be thinking, "I have some gifts already stashed away (electronics, clothes), but spiritual gifts are exactly what I lack!" We think Paul doesn't know us very well; we are more materialistic and less spiritual than he imagines. When it comes to the condition of our souls during "the season," he sounds awfully optimistic.

Paul first wrote those words to the church at Corinth, and that church gave him more headaches than any other. The congregation was split into unhealthy factions, the members were easily impressed by the ways of the world, they did not have much of a heart for the least of their neighbors. (They would have eaten first at the New Day Dinner on Wednesday.) So Paul is not telling them that they exhibit a generous sharing of their spiritual gifts. Although they have them, all kinds of other influences are at work against the maturing and the exercise of their gifts. Just like for us, acquiring the best products at the best prices, looking good in the community, associating with the best people: in Corinth and in Johnstown whatever spiritual gifts we have are easily crowded out by worldly concerns. So what can Paul mean when he tells the Christians in his most troublesome church that they lack nothing in terms of spiritual gifts?

Most important is that when he speaks of the grace they have received, the enrichment of their speech and knowledge, the strength of Christian testimony among them, the spiritual gifts that are not lacking: every single time, the word "you" is in the plural. In the English language, we don't have "you" singular and "you" plural. In Western Pennsylvania, however, we have "yunz" and in the South "y'all." Spiritual gifts are not like the Christmas gifts hidden in our closets, our private stash. Spiritual gifts are distributed throughout the faith community, y'all.

No one of us has every gift! Each of us lacks qualities and abilities on Paul's lists (from 1 Cor. 12 and Romans 12): generosity, cheerfulness, diligence, healing, teaching, leading, and so on. It is together that we lack no spiritual gift. If one of us is grumpy, another is cheerful. If two of us are stingy, three are generous. We are "waiting for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ," (whether as a babe in Bethlehem, or the Son of Man coming when stars fall from the sky, or Jesus Christ perfectly manifested in his body the Church), and we have every spiritual gift we need. God, who is faithful, will strengthen us and grow us in the use of our gifts... so that when Christ is revealed we will be ready.

The Christmas gifts that I ordered from catalogs haven't arrived, and I haven't addressed one single card. I am nowhere near ready for Christmas. If I am ready when morning comes on December 25 (every gift bought and wrapped), I will still be lacking in spiritual gifts. But we are not and will not be lacking. God has called us into a gifted family of faith that, whether ready for Christmas or not, today enters the season of Advent. We wait not for the calendar to say December 25 but for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we wait together.