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Rector's Reflection—Advent 1
November 29, 2009
Years ago, a friend of mine was enchanted by a song by Bobby Vee. She hummed it; she
whistled it; she sang it. All of us who hung around with her learned never to be surprised if she burst
into song—and not always at the best times. I still hear her voice singing, "Oh a tree in motion, see
its gentle sway-ay..."
As I recall, she was the only person in the group that thought the song was even remotely
cool, and what made her obsession even more annoying was that the words were "POETRY in
motion, see her gentle sway-ay..." There was no convincing her that she was wrong. There's a
website called Lyrics 007 that will give you the lyrics to almost any song you'd want to know. I've
thought, whenever I hear that song on an oldies station, I might try to find her and send her the link.
But the fact remains, I know the correct lyrics and I still think "Oh a tree in motion..."
There's a similar memory for me in today's gospel. This first Sunday in Advent is always
about being on guard... about the coming and the coming again of the Lord. Jesus tells us, "Be alert
at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place."
Sadly, a number of years ago I saw a young man in a mall who had on a T-shirt that said, "BE
ALERT. THE WORLD NEEDS MORE LERTS." Advent One hasn't been the same since. Try
as I might, I can't hear "Be alert" without mentally filling in "the world needs more lerts."
Be alert. Year after year we begin with this warning... this advice. In Luke, the warning
comes as a piece of another "little apocalypse" not unlike the one we had a couple of weeks ago
when Jesus sat with his disciples outside the temple and told them the time was coming when even
those massive stones would be cast down. Jesus was talking about the end times, when he would
come again and usher in the Kingdom of God. Be alert, he tells his followers. Straighten up. Love
one another. Focus on what's important.
We, of course, are in the same position as these followers (almost 2000 years later) to whom
Jesus was speaking, but I'll have to admit that being alert for an end time that has been anticipated
any minute now for the last almost 2000 years feels more like a metaphorical lifestyle than a realized
one. But every now an then, events happen that make being alert much more immediate and real
—events like the tragic death of Cole Beilman, as well as the recent deaths of six other USM
students. As Christians we are all looking for the end times, but the truth is, we will probably see
our own end times before the coming of the reign of God. These intermediate end times are
powerful reminders that we always need to be alert—alert enough to tell the people we love that we
love them, alert enough to make the days that we have count. This Advent... this lifetime... be alert.
Susan+
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