Christ the King-Epiphany, Wilbraham

The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

December 8, 2024 / Second Sunday in Advent

Philippians 1:3-11

Do you remember the days of waiting expectantly for the Sears Christmas catalogue to come in the mail?  Of sitting down with that big, fat book and turning slowly through the pages, dog-earing the ones that showed toys that you particularly wanted?  Do you remember the excitement of going to see Santa Claus?  How hard it was to stand in line patiently while all the children ahead of you climbed on his lap and whispered their wish lists in his ears?  Do you remember how hard it was to go to bed on Christmas Eve?  How difficult it was to fall asleep with the anticipation of the gifts that would appear under the Christmas tree the next morning?  For most of us, those days are long gone . . . those days of wanting some gift so much that you could barely stand it.  But that’s the picture of reality we see in the media at this time of year.  If you believe what you see in the ads on whatever media you consume – whether it’s TV or newspaper or magazines or streaming services that interrupt your viewing with commercials or Facebook – Christmas is all about the presents you might receive – or, and this is only slightly better, it’s all about what presents you can give.  Your holidays will be exceptional if you just buy new electronics or new furniture or a new car.  It’s all about what might happen on Christmas Day.

We even fall into this trap a little bit in the church.  We say that this season of Advent is a season of anticipation of the celebration to come at Christ’s birth; a season of preparation for the gift we will receive; a season of hope for what is to come.  Yes, it is all those things, to be sure.  But while anticipation of a spiritual celebration might be better than anticipating a secular one; and preparing to receive spiritual gifts seems more commendable than just looking forward to material gifts; and hoping for the better world to come seems more praiseworthy than just hoping for a pleasant day on December 25th – even so, anticipation and preparation and hope can leave us feeling dissatisfied with what we already have.  And that, for me, is a problem.  Last week, I encouraged you to practice mindfulness in this season as a better alternative to the headlong rush to December 25th.  Today, I’d like to suggest another strategy for these December days, and that is gratitude, being grateful for what we already have.

I know that my order seems all wrong.  You’re thankful on Christmas Day.  Advent is all about waiting for and hoping for that event for which we are grateful.  And again, I say, yes and no.  I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t be grateful on Christmas Day.  I’m just suggesting that we shouldn’t save the gratitude just for later.

I got this idea from St. Paul, who in the beginning of his letter to the church at Philippi, writes, “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you.”  I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers.  What an amazing attitude of gratitude – and it seems all the more amazing when we take into account that Paul was writing this letter from prison.  Does Paul hope that he will be released from prison?  Of course.  Does he look forward to that day when he will be free?  I would think so.  Is Paul hoping for better days?  Obviously, yes – he is looking forward to that day when he will be able to go back to his mission of spreading the church throughout the ancient world.  But the starting point for this letter is not his hopes or expectations – it’s gratitude.

In this season of hope and expectation, we too would find a better path through Advent if we adopted a habit of gratitude now, rather than holding off on giving thanks until we celebrate Christmas.

• We can be grateful – content with what we have now.  Don’t let the commercial world lure you into its way of thinking.  Your life would not be better just because you were able to buy all the desirable things you see advertised.  Leave the starry-eyed dreaming about toys and gadgets to Santa and the children and be thankful for all the things we do have – both the tangible and the intangible.

• We can be grateful now even if we are not content with what we have or with where we are or how we feel.  How can we be grateful even in the midst of discontent?  Because we know that our pain and our suffering and our discontent will not last forever.  And that’s not just some pie-in-the-sky optimism that better days are coming, nor is it just the realist talking, saying that everything must come to an end eventually.  No, this hope of a better day is backed up by the word of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is his promise that the day shall come when we will be complete in him.  For this ironclad promise, we can be grateful.

• And we can be grateful now for Christ’s advent among us now.  Even though we symbolically hold off on putting Jesus in the manger until Christmas Eve, we must never let our Advent become some sort of a mental exercise where we pretend that Jesus hasn’t yet come into the world.  Because he has already come.  He is already here.  And he comes here among us today, as he does every Sunday, when we receive the sacrament.  No wonder, then, that the word Eucharist means thanksgiving – we are grateful now for the way he comes to us now.

Let’s let Advent turn our way of thinking upside down.  We don’t need to wait for the gift to 

feel the gratitude.  We have such faith, such trust in the promises of our Lord that we can feel thankful now, not just for what we have already received, but also for the gifts yet to come.  Let us be thankful:  that he came among us, once long ago; that he will come again in final glory; and that, in our hearts and in our world, he is already here.