Prepared vs Unprepared

When I think about it, I was raised to make all kinds of preparations.  As a younger child, my mother would ask, often, “ Do you have clean underwear on?”  She always gave the same reasoning for the question by saying, “god forbid a car hit  you and go to the hospital; what will they think if your underwear is dirty?”  I now ask! I don’t care what they think; just FIX ME!  As a Cub and Boy Scout I took an oath to Be Prepared. When going on a hunting trip with my father, he would always let me know if I was prepared or not.  I learned to be prepared for pop quizzes.  I was warned to be prepared when I took a wife, decided to become and father or certain profession.  Then as a young pastor I learned quickly the importance of being prepared “in and out of the pulpit.”   

This past week, I reminded myself of just how unprepared I was when coming down a flight of rock steps.  I was in Massachusetts during a very wet snow.  During the night the temperature had dropped precipitously and frozen the beautiful snow; turning it to ice.  On the third step down, I slipped, my feet going straight in front of me and literally bounced on my butt and right elbow down, on every edge of rock tread, ending into the side of the car.  Trying desperately to catch my breath, thanking God I was still alive, yet in tremendous pain, these thoughts came to me: “O’ no, I didn’t bring my Medicare (I despise capitalizing that word)  and supplemental insurance card!; I left them in my car, at home.  I’ll be waiting in an overcrowded  emergency "guest" room until admissions sorts through those forty individuals who entered prior to me for information as far back as a birth certificate before I am able to tell my unconvincing story of forgetfulness, excellent family history, and imbalance on ice due to not taken the opportunity to practice. There really is the need to respond to Bettyann, with a bit more joy, when she asks me if I have everything I need." 

For Bettyann and I, this Christmas season, as the past forty seven, is a season of preparation. We are busily preparing our home for guests, we decorate (she directs and I do the ladder) cook special meals, and we individually purchase gifts as we anticipate the arrival of Christmas morning. In general, we have always busied ourselves with preparations because of the joy and gladness we anticipate with the arrival of Christmas day. Since Thanksgiving, I have been reading and reflecting on Advent, which culminates in the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and discovered discovered a season of preparation in an entirely different way.

I have been learning that the first movement of Advent calls me to prepare my heart through repentance for the day of the Lord. I'm seeing with clearity that Advent not only looks ahead to the birth of Jesus as a baby, but also to his coming as the Messiah King. The ancient prophets of old heralded a Messiah who would usher in the kingdom of God; but the prelude for his coming would be a righteous cleansing. The prophet Malachi warned: "But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap."  Malachi 3:1-4.

 

The coming "day of the Lord" would bring a cataclysmic cleansing. Like a refiner's fire that burns the impurities from precious metals, the Lord would purify the priestly line and establish righteousness. Echoing this prophetic tradition, the voice of John the Baptist hundreds of years later called the people to "prepare the way of the Lord." John called for a preparation of repentance, just like the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi: "Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

As Isaiah envisioned, repentance prepared the way for the coming Messiah. The Messiah came as the refiner's fire, and as the one who brought low every mountain and hill in the judgment of unrighteousness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lamented this lost theme of the preparation of repentance in an Advent sermon he preached in 1928:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer shares, It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming, so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God....We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for every one who has a conscience. Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness. God comes into the very midst of evil and of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love.  A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ed. Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), 185-186.

For the very first time in my life, I understand that the Advent season intends to prepare my heart through repentance, for God will come again to judge the world in righteousness. The prophets similarly intended to prepare hearts with repentance as they looked toward God's entry into the world in Jesus Christ. I rejoice that such repentance does not leave me in fear or shame at my undoing. Rather, my godly repentance prepares the way for hope—hope that in Jesus, God's justice and mercy are joined. Isaiah envisioned a hopeful outcome from the preparation of repentance: "[A]ll flesh shall see the salvation of God....Like a shepherd He will tend his flock, in his arm He will gather the lambs, and carry them in his bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes" (Isaiah 40:5-11). The God who will judge the world in righteousness is the same God who gathers people like a shepherd and tends the flock with gentleness. The most vulnerable—lambs and nursing ewes—are not forgotten.

So, Bill, this season of Advent calls for the preparations of your repentance. For you it will be a repentance that acknowledges the need for change. Not your underware or snow tires, or jacket.  But a change of the soul. It will be a repentance that brings hope into your personal culture busied by all your preparations, a repentance that brings hope in the loving justice of God.

 

 

 

 

For both, Bettyann and I, the Christmas season is a season of preparation. We are busily preparing our home for guests, we decorate (she directs and I do the ladder) and cook special meals, and we individually purchase gifts as we anticipate the arrival of Christmas morning. In general, we have always busied ourselves with preparations because of the joy and gladness we anticipate with the arrival of Christmas day. Since Thanksgiving, I have been reading and reflecting on Advent, which culminates in the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and discovered discovered a season of preparation in an entirely different way.

I have been learning that the first movement of Advent calls me to prepare my heart through repentance for the day of the Lord. I'm seeing with clearity that Advent not only looks ahead to the birth of Jesus as a baby, but also to his coming as the Messiah King. The ancient prophets of old heralded a Messiah who would usher in the kingdom of God; but the prelude for his coming would be a righteous cleansing. The prophet Malachi warned: "But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap."  Malachi 3:1-4.

The coming "day of the Lord" would bring a cataclysmic cleansing. Like a refiner's fire that burns the impurities from precious metals, the Lord would purify the priestly line and establish righteousness. Echoing this prophetic tradition, the voice of John the Baptist hundreds of years later called the people to "prepare the way of the Lord." John called for a preparation of repentance, just like the prophets from Isaiah to Malachi: "Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."

As Isaiah envisioned, repentance prepared the way for the coming Messiah. The Messiah came as the refiner's fire, and as the one who brought low every mountain and hill in the judgment of unrighteousness. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lamented this lost theme of the preparation of repentance in an Advent sermon he preached in 1928:

"It is very remarkable that we face the thought that God is coming, so calmly, whereas previously peoples trembled at the day of God....We have become so accustomed to the idea of divine love and of God's coming at Christmas that we no longer feel the shiver of fear that God's coming should arouse in us. We are indifferent to the message, taking only the pleasant and agreeable out of it and forgetting the serious aspect, that the God of the world draws near to the people of our little earth and lays claim to us. The coming of God is truly not only glad tidings, but first of all frightening news for every one who has a conscience. Only when we have felt the terror of the matter, can we recognize the incomparable kindness. God comes into the very midst of evil and of death, and judges the evil in us and in the world. And by judging us, God cleanses and sanctifies us, comes to us with grace and love."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Ed. Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), 185-186.

TFor the very first time in my life, I understand that the Advent season intends to prepare my heart through repentance, for God will come again to judge the world in righteousness. The prophets similarly intended to prepare hearts with repentance as they looked toward God's entry into the world in Jesus Christ. I rejoice that such repentance does not leave me in fear or shame at my undoing. Rather, my godly repentance prepares the way for hope—hope that in Jesus, God's justice and mercy are joined. Isaiah envisioned a hopeful outcome from the preparation of repentance: "[A]ll flesh shall see the salvation of God....Like a shepherd He will tend his flock, in his arm He will gather the lambs, and carry them in his bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes" (Isaiah 40:5-11). The God who will judge the world in righteousness is the same God who gathers people like a shepherd and tends the flock with gentleness. The most vulnerable—lambs and nursing ewes—are not forgotten.

So, Bill, this season of Advent calls for the preparations of your repentance. For you it will be a repentance that acknowledges the need for change. It will be a repentance that brings hope into your personal culture busied by all your preparations, a repentance that brings hope in the loving justice of God.