A People of Two Calendars: Cross Pressures

A Sermon by Andrew Colman based on Luke 21:25-36

The Southern Gothic author Flanery O'Connor truly was one of the great writers of the last century. Her short stories and her novels have been the illustration of countless sermons since they were written, not to mention all of the books appreciating and analyzing her words.

    She was also a deeply, deeply faithful Christian. 

One of her lesser-known works is actually her prayer Journals. While she did pray her "traditional prayers,” as she calls them, she also prayed through her pen. I commend this book to you as another book of Psalms, as they are deeply faithful words. 

There is a line in one of these prayers that struck me as speaking into our world and, in particular, this season of advent; it goes like this, 

"I want very much to succeed in the world with what I want to do. I have prayed to you about this with my mind, and my nerves on it strung my nerves into a tension over it, and said, “Oh, God, please,” and “I must," and “Please, please." 

        I have not You, I feel, in the right way.

    Let me henceforth ask you with resignation- that not being or meant to be slacking in prayer but a less frenzied time.

        Realizing that the frenzy is caused by an eagerness for what I want and not a spiritual trust. 

            I do not wish to presume. I want to love.

    Oh God, please make my mind clear.”

Flannery O'Connor, as far as the world is concerned, reached a status of greatness as an author - and yet we read here and for the rest of her life - we know that she strove to be a better and better author

So much so that she worked herself up into a frenzy!

All of this begs a question that speaks into this next month of our year.

Was God and everyone who read her overjoyed with O'Connor's writing that it communicated and continues to communicate the Gospel to countless readers?

Of course, it was beyond what she could have imagined.

And did she fret and frenzy? Did she resolve to be a better and better writer anyway? Yes

This has a familiar ring to it. 

It's because we, as Christians, are entering into a time of year where we have a bit of a split personality; we are people who live by two calendars. 

There is the calendar of the World that starts on January 1st. With Fireworks that light up the sky in bursts

And there is the church calendar that begins today, this evening, with the season of Advent.

This calendar begins not with fireworks that light up the sky but one that, Fleming Rutledge has said, "begins in the Dark."

It's worth a little footnote here: Charles Taylor, a Catholic Canadian Philosopher who wrote a book called A Secular Age, where he peels back the layers of our day-to-day lives, would call this a cross-pressure. 

A moment when we are spiritually pressed in two very directions that both have genuine appeal and goodness. On the one hand, we have our Christmas trees and Christmas parties, and we make time to connect with friends we haven't seen because we've been too busy. On the other hand, we have the Season of Advent, the season of waiting and anticipation so that we might fully appreciate the Coming of Christ both at Christmas and at the Culmination of Time.

These are both good things! But they do not reconcile well at all. 

These cross-pressures are everywhere in our lives, and they cause a lot of internal dissonance. 

There is no easy answer to relieving this cross-pressure. Hopefully, knowing that this is part of our lives can help us make better choices in our day-to-day. 

These are two very different kinds of beginnings. 

On January 1, we are still in the throw of the Christmas/ Holiday Spirit. Many of us are still on our Christmas vacation. School is out; it is one of those blessed days of the year when most stores are actually closed, so we have the opportunity to spend time with our friends and family without the nagging feeling that we are missing out on a much-needed piece of a paycheck - or we can let go of any feeling that someone is expecting an email response within the next few hours.

In that space, there can be a real sense of optimism. It's why gym memberships increase and New Year resolutions are made.

Society has decided that this is the moment where the slate of the last year can be wiped clean, and the chance to have another crack at it, whatever it is, is at hand.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with wiping the slate clean and having another go at whatever you’re working toward. We do it every week! In fact, I think it's great that there is a moment when the world says, “OK, let’s move on from what happened last year and try again, or let’s move on and try something new.”

The thing is, during the January New Year, we just kind of blaze through the festivities of the holidays. When the time for New Year’s resolutions comes, we give it a few moments of thought—maybe even a few hours or even a whole week—where we think about what we want in the next year. 

Like O'Connor, we need to know how and where we want to succeed in this world with what we want to do.

Advent, on the other hand, is the beginning of the Christian New Year, and it turns that all on its head. 

Instead of beginning with fireworks and an Audacious New Year's resolution, we begin in the Dark. 

We begin with a /less frenzied/ pause, full of contemplation, on both the state of the world and the state of our lives - our body, mind, and spirit. 

And let's be honest - this is not always a particularly fun place to be. 

Contemplating the state of the world right now can bring on some pretty serious anxiety with senseless wars raging, with more and more reports of abuse cases from many different denominations of the church, including our own, coming to light, climate change, and those are just a few of the front page headlines, let alone the below the fold stuff.

And contemplating the state of ourselves, especially in the dark, where we know that no one can hear our thoughts, is often not really any better.

And yet, and yet this is the place where billions of Christians around the world choose to begin their Spiritual Year. 

Not with fireworks but in quiet contemplation of the state of things for the things that are to come.

With, again like, O'Connor named it, a sense of resignation as to what is actually true, what is really going on out there and in here.

At the beginning of this service, Zoe lit the first candle on our advent wreath. It is the candle that burns in the place of Hope. 

You see, it's not quite true that Advent begins entirely in the dark.

When we pause and look and take stock of what is really going on, with Christ in our hearts and on our minds, we will always find that there is always the light of hope in even the direst situations, even if it is just a low glowing ember. 

But a low-burning ember can be stoked into a small flame. In fact, it has staying power that fireworks could/ should never match. 

A small flame into glowing fire used to light a candle, and then one candle lighting another.

One candle can help you read, light your steps to get you out

But that kind of work does not happen at the burst of fireworks. (Don't get me wrong, I love fireworks; for a long time, I thought they were silly, but then something happened, and now I just love them)

That build of hope comes when it's given its due. Given its time for discernment, time to be built build well, time to develop relationships, not as a flash in the pan. 

Like what we so often see and feel in the January new year.

I misrepresented O'Connor a little bit earlier.

While she did, in fact, as we read in her prayer, want so badly to be successful at what she wanted - what she wanted was not only to be a Great writer.

But to be a great writer, through whose writing communicated the Grace and Mercy of God.

What she dwelt on and saw in the world during her time was the racism in the United States, the South in particular.

Her resolution, year after year, was to shine Christ's light into that deep, deep darkness through her words.

So, her prayer is one of accountability to God. There to keep her honest about what she was truly working towards. Not to be a great writer for the sake of being great but writing great stories for the sake of pointing her readers to the God of Mercy and Justice.

So, as we move into this season of festivity and connection and abundance AND this season of Advent, of pause, contemplation, and waiting. 

May God help us to keep the words of this evening’s Gospel in our hearts, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

The stuff of this world will pass away, but the Love of Jesus Christ will last forever.

Amen