ADVENT 4-A – December 23, 2007

Daniel Matthews, the former Rector of Trinity Church, Wall Street, tells a story about a house in his grandson’s suburban neighborhood. There is a huge crèche in the yard but the crèche remains empty until Christmas morning. The house and the lawn are overrun with decorations – lights all over the place, plastic animals and the like all over the yard.

One day before Christmas Dan and his grandson were walking by this particular house. His grandson, not knowing about placing the baby in the manger on Christmas morning, wondered out loud whether or not the family could afford a baby because they spent so much on decorations. Dan Matthews, after hearing his grandson’s question, says he wondered to himself if all of us are like the family that owned the home. He wondered: "Do we really have anything left for Jesus?"

Here we are, the day before Christmas Eve, two days before Christmas. Maybe we might do well to ask ourselves that question: "Do I have anything left for Jesus?" Am I so exhausted by all the things I have had to do to get ready to celebrate Christmas this year that I do not have anything left in me? Am I simply going to float into Christmas and hope and pray I can make it through, hope and pray I am not asked to do one thing more, buy one more present, go to one more party? Is there anything left for Jesus?

If the answer is "I don’t think so," it is probably too late to do anything about it now. At this late date we are not going to get a second chance or get a second wind. We are not going to find the time to get ready if we are not already ready. If we think there is almost nothing left in us, if we think we are almost drained of all our energy, well, we think, there is always next year.

It is so easy, as we have all discovered now and again, to expend so much energy getting ready for some occasion that when the occasion comes, we are almost too tired to enjoy it. I always warn brides and grooms that come two weeks before their weddings, they will be at each other’s throats. They will be so exhausted getting ready for the wedding that all they want is for it to be over, and right now. As silly as it seems, come the day of the wedding most brides and grooms are so tired that they almost have to work to enjoy their own wedding.

Several years ago in Spokane I was a one-day visiting professor at Gonzaga. My colleague, Father Albin Fogelquist, the Rector of Holy Trinity, was an adjunct professor there. That semester he taught a course on Christian marriage. Albin asked me to talk to the class about some of the dos and don’ts as far as the wedding day is concerned. I made up a list that contained ten pieces of advice I wanted to share with them.

Number Ten on that list was this: "Your wedding day is NOT the most important day in your life. Today is. Nevertheless, like today, it is the first day of the rest of your life. It is also the first day of your life when someone else other than you becomes Number One in your life." I believe that is true. But I also believe that I can say the same thing about any day, not just any important day like wedding days and Christmases.

Right now you and I may be feeling quite exhausted and worn out getting ready for Christmas. We may be wondering, along with Dan Matthews, if we have anything left in us, any gas left in the tank to get us to Christmas to celebrate this very important day in the life of our faith. Yet, whether we are running out of gas or already running on empty, like a bride and groom, we will make it through the day. That is our consolation.

The truth is, like brides and grooms and everyone else preparing for some special occasion, before we celebrate Christmas, we have to celebrate today, live today. Today is the most important day of our life. If we live today as best we can, if we live out our faith as fully as we can this day, no matter how physically and mentally exhausted we might be, we will have a lot left for tomorrow, more than enough to celebrate Christmas, and enough to live the day after and all the days after that.

The only time we will not have anything left for Jesus or for anyone else is when we spend all our time and energy and money on ourselves. You see, like brides and grooms, when we put others first, when we serve others first, others do the same for us. When we give of ourselves, others give of themselves. Then together we can live and celebrate today and each and every day no matter how tired or exhausted we think we are.

The truth always is this: when we put loving and serving others first, which is what living out our faith is all about, we won’t have to worry about having enough left for Jesus. We will have already been loving and serving him because we have been loving and serving others.