Homily
2nd Sunday of Advent
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
4 December 2011
Daily Readings
There is great anticipation at KU right now regarding the university's next football coach. The coaching search is dramatic. It is urgent. Sheahon Zenger is the prophet, hitting the road like John the Baptist, trying to sell the KU job. He is working like crazy until he finds the next coach for KU, the one who will gather more people Saturday after Saturday than any other person at the University. The one who will be responsible for generating income from thousands of alumni through football. Whether or not you are a football fan, or agree with all the attention football gets, this is the reality . Every day that we go by without a new coach, is a day lost, a day that perhaps someone else will hire the coach that we need.
Remember the results of the last election, when President Obama was elected? Remember the anticipation and the dramatic coverage. The whole world was watching!
Advent desperately tries to get us Christians back into this mode of anticipating great things, and being alert for the coming of one much greater than President Obama or the next KU football coach. St .Mark writes the first Gospel, perhaps from Rome, where St. Paul and St. Peter had just been executed for their faith, and announces that the one the Israelites have long awaited, the Messiah, and quite certainly the one who has the power to redeem the heart and life of every human person, has arrived. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has arrived!
Advent begs us to enter back into the dramatic first moment of the world's creation, for the coming of the Messiah means precisely this, and more. As dramatic as the moment of our birth was, exchanging the world of our mother's womb for the infinitely bigger world in which we now live and move and have our being, and as dramatic as the moment of our death will be, when we will once again exchange the smallness of this world for the mystery of that reality that lies on the other side of death, even more dramatic is the moment which you and I now share. This is the urgent message of Advent. The coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, among us is a moment even more dramatic than the moment of our conception, the moment of our birth, or the hour of our death. For the moment in which we now live is the moment of recreation, a revolutionary creation even greater than the first creation bringing everything out of nothing. The second creation is greater than the first, for the entry of the Lord of the universe into the time and space of a single human nature is a more improbable creation than the creation of everything from nothing. This second creation is greater than the first, because the second creation will definitely overcome the enemies of life and love that hold sway in the world as we know it, but in the new heavens and new earth, there will be no wasteland of sin nor desert of death. As great as this first world is, we still live in enemy territory. The good news of the Gospel is that the exodus has begun. That is why we praise God with full-voice; not only for the beauty of this world, but because the revolutionary re-creation of the new world has begun in Jesus Christ our Messiah.
The prophet Isaiah and St. Peter and St. John the Baptist are three powerful voices begging us to feel in our bones our need for this Messiah, for one to come and recreate and redeem the parts of us that are already dead, the wasteland of our sinfulness, the desert of our lost hope. They remind us to repent, for no one welcomes a savior if he thinks everything is ok. The prophets beg us out of the sleepiness of thinking everything is good enough as it is. The prophets beg us not to give in to complacency, and not to be deists, who think that because this moment of recreation that we are in is taking thousands of years that the Lord is not close. St. Peter reminds us that for the Lord, a thousand years are as a day. We are in the dramatic moment of recreation whether we believe it or not. The prophets implore us to be as afraid of the Jesus who was born so helplessly in Bethlehem, and who waits for us even more vulnerably in the Holy Eucharist, as we are of the Jesus who will come in glory and rule with his strong arm at the end of time. To be a Christian means to live the drama of Advent, between the time of Jesus' first coming and his last, in the kingdom of the already and not-yet. But make no mistake, the Advent prophets tell us convincingly that the moment in which you and I now stand, is as dramatic a moment as there ever was or ever will be. The moment of re-creation, a moment greater than ever has been or ever will be, has arrived. Jesus Christ has come among us, bringing with him a baptism of the Holy Spirit andof fire. Our passover from the land of the enemy to his kingdom is at hand.
Do not be lulled into thinking the Lord is delayed. Just because the moment of his recreation has begun in the smallest of ways, just because you can block him in tonight's Eucharist be failing to prepare a way to your heart, does not mean that He is not here. Just because we can choose to fill our lives with things other than Him, does not mean that tonight's moment of the Eucharist does not contain the power to recreate you into everything you always promised yourself you would be. Whether you like it or not, He is here, and He is ready. The recreation of the world has begun, and we are in its dramatic moment. Prepare in the your heart, then, a highway for our God.
2nd Sunday of Advent
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
4 December 2011
Daily Readings
There is great anticipation at KU right now regarding the university's next football coach. The coaching search is dramatic. It is urgent. Sheahon Zenger is the prophet, hitting the road like John the Baptist, trying to sell the KU job. He is working like crazy until he finds the next coach for KU, the one who will gather more people Saturday after Saturday than any other person at the University. The one who will be responsible for generating income from thousands of alumni through football. Whether or not you are a football fan, or agree with all the attention football gets, this is the reality . Every day that we go by without a new coach, is a day lost, a day that perhaps someone else will hire the coach that we need.
Remember the results of the last election, when President Obama was elected? Remember the anticipation and the dramatic coverage. The whole world was watching!
Advent desperately tries to get us Christians back into this mode of anticipating great things, and being alert for the coming of one much greater than President Obama or the next KU football coach. St .Mark writes the first Gospel, perhaps from Rome, where St. Paul and St. Peter had just been executed for their faith, and announces that the one the Israelites have long awaited, the Messiah, and quite certainly the one who has the power to redeem the heart and life of every human person, has arrived. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has arrived!
Advent begs us to enter back into the dramatic first moment of the world's creation, for the coming of the Messiah means precisely this, and more. As dramatic as the moment of our birth was, exchanging the world of our mother's womb for the infinitely bigger world in which we now live and move and have our being, and as dramatic as the moment of our death will be, when we will once again exchange the smallness of this world for the mystery of that reality that lies on the other side of death, even more dramatic is the moment which you and I now share. This is the urgent message of Advent. The coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, among us is a moment even more dramatic than the moment of our conception, the moment of our birth, or the hour of our death. For the moment in which we now live is the moment of recreation, a revolutionary creation even greater than the first creation bringing everything out of nothing. The second creation is greater than the first, for the entry of the Lord of the universe into the time and space of a single human nature is a more improbable creation than the creation of everything from nothing. This second creation is greater than the first, because the second creation will definitely overcome the enemies of life and love that hold sway in the world as we know it, but in the new heavens and new earth, there will be no wasteland of sin nor desert of death. As great as this first world is, we still live in enemy territory. The good news of the Gospel is that the exodus has begun. That is why we praise God with full-voice; not only for the beauty of this world, but because the revolutionary re-creation of the new world has begun in Jesus Christ our Messiah.
The prophet Isaiah and St. Peter and St. John the Baptist are three powerful voices begging us to feel in our bones our need for this Messiah, for one to come and recreate and redeem the parts of us that are already dead, the wasteland of our sinfulness, the desert of our lost hope. They remind us to repent, for no one welcomes a savior if he thinks everything is ok. The prophets beg us out of the sleepiness of thinking everything is good enough as it is. The prophets beg us not to give in to complacency, and not to be deists, who think that because this moment of recreation that we are in is taking thousands of years that the Lord is not close. St. Peter reminds us that for the Lord, a thousand years are as a day. We are in the dramatic moment of recreation whether we believe it or not. The prophets implore us to be as afraid of the Jesus who was born so helplessly in Bethlehem, and who waits for us even more vulnerably in the Holy Eucharist, as we are of the Jesus who will come in glory and rule with his strong arm at the end of time. To be a Christian means to live the drama of Advent, between the time of Jesus' first coming and his last, in the kingdom of the already and not-yet. But make no mistake, the Advent prophets tell us convincingly that the moment in which you and I now stand, is as dramatic a moment as there ever was or ever will be. The moment of re-creation, a moment greater than ever has been or ever will be, has arrived. Jesus Christ has come among us, bringing with him a baptism of the Holy Spirit andof fire. Our passover from the land of the enemy to his kingdom is at hand.
Do not be lulled into thinking the Lord is delayed. Just because the moment of his recreation has begun in the smallest of ways, just because you can block him in tonight's Eucharist be failing to prepare a way to your heart, does not mean that He is not here. Just because we can choose to fill our lives with things other than Him, does not mean that tonight's moment of the Eucharist does not contain the power to recreate you into everything you always promised yourself you would be. Whether you like it or not, He is here, and He is ready. The recreation of the world has begun, and we are in its dramatic moment. Prepare in the your heart, then, a highway for our God.
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