Already and Not Yet Time

Already and Not Yet Time            The Dover Church

December 2, 2012 – 1^st Advent          Scripture: Luke 21: 25-36

Jamie's sermon last week started me thinking about existential questions and how the human mind deals with them. It occurred to me that two things make humans unique in the animal world, and it is not the opposable thumb or standing upright on two feet. It is the sense of God and the idea of time, both of which cause humans existential anxiety that other animals don't have. Sure, deer are afraid of hunters, but I'm pretty sure they're not out there right now worrying about next hunting season or dwelling on last year's. We humans think a lot about time, the quality of time, the nature of time, where we are in time and how we measure it.

Advent is the church season when time is front and center in our communal consciousness. It is the time when we bring our attention to the paradoxical challenges of living as we do in what I call already and not yet time, when time is already fulfilled, complete if you will, and still not yet, still awaiting fulfillment, incomplete.

Our Advent readings do not jump directly to Christmas but keep us in the present tension while still looking forward to Christ’s Second Coming, which is exactly where most of us live as people of faith, somewhere in the middle. As Christians, there is already so much that is. We already know about Jesus, having had two thousand years of Christmases to get the idea. We know that Jesus started a Kingdom of God movement, that God was and is doing a new thing in the world through Jesus and us. And while we know it and it therefore is already, it is also still not yet as well. We know, but we don't fully live it, because Jesus is not physically here and we do not live fully in the Kingdom, being so busy with other things.

In our lesson this morning, Jesus describes our actual historical time quite accurately: talking about natural disasters, distress among nations, people fainting with fear and foreboding, being weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and worries of this life. If that doesn’t sound like an accurate combination of the daily news and state of so many of our souls on this first Sunday of Advent in the 2012^th year of our Lord in Dover, Massachusetts, I do not know what does? We have so much negative noise surrounding us. We have so much negative energy flowing through us and radiating within us. We are so caught up in so much non-Kingdom of God living that we have a hard time imagining anything else being really possible let alone probable.

A savior ought to do some saving after all, so Jesus offers us a way forward: Look at the fig tree for its sprouting leaves as signs of the coming summer. Not having many fig trees around to look at, let's just do some geographic and cultural translation. See what is going on right in front of you! It’s not all bad! Don’t be afraid! Don’t self medicate! Don’t sink into despair or depression. The signs of the Kingdom of God are all around us right now. The clear signs of God’s abundant and steadfast love are right here, right in front of us, right now. If we can just wake up. If we can just find the strength to not give in. Yes, that’s right. Wake up and be strong. Stop dreaming about how things might be. Be strong enough not to give in, not to be overwhelmed, not to be doubtful or despairing, not to just anaesthetize yourself to the past, present and future. To fight through the inertia and habituation and negativity, to fight through compulsion to run frantically here and there, faster and faster, in hopes of somehow arriving.

It's about living in the here and now. When we pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven," we are meant to mean heaven on earth, right here, right now. Even if we don't quite mean that, even if we don't fully believe what we're asking for, even if we have no actual expectation of the realization of our petition, even with all those even ifs, God takes us at our literal word and answers our prayers nonetheless. Jesus was not kidding when he said, “stand up and raise your heads for your redemption is near.” Everyone of us, right here and right now, has the means for real happiness within reach. Right now, today, in the exact circumstances of your lives, you already have the means for real happiness. A place to call home. Food for the day. Your heart beating, your lungs breathing, and your faculties intact. Someone to love. Someone to love you. Something to do which brings you real joy. Community. The energy and enthusiasm of children. The wisdom and patience of the elderly. It is all right here and it is all anyone really needs to be really happy. If you don't have some of these components, you have come to the right place this morning. The church was meant to be the place to find these things and I will set you right up.

For those of us who do already have these things, we just need to wake up, see them and strengthen ourselves moment by moment to actually be present to them. Wherever you are, be there. However you are, be there. Whomever you are with, be with. Whatever you are doing, do just that. Be present to what is, and you will see and know the Kingdom of God in your life.

It's all already right here, and not quite yet. We need to be filled with the joy of the here and the now because there still is the not yet, how far we have to go to live fully into God's shalom for all creation. And that is why, following Christ even now as our path of happiness, we still wait for Christ to come again and for the fullness which is both our hope and the goal towards which we strive.