Sermon, 2003
Rev. Julia Aegerter

"Don't Wait"

For Christians, Advent is about Waiting. Waiting in anticipation. Anticipation of Emmanuel - God with us. Waiting for Jesus the Savior. Waiting and hoping that this will be the year that love incarnates in the world. That this year the world will usher in peace.

That at least is the Christian meaning of the season.  An anticipatory hope of something good to come.

It is a celebration of the birth of one who long ago came to earth and tried to change the people he met. Celebration of the one they call the savior. Now most of us are probably aware that we don’t actually know when Jesus was born nor the circumstances of his birth. But the point isn’t that we can factually pick apart the story. Rather the story was constructed to tell a truth. And we can recognize that message when we read other birth narratives. What we recognize is that people thought he was important. In the oral cultures of that time a person’s importance was indicated by stories about their birth. The alignment of stars and people who make predictions are all indicative of this type of story.

The story about the birth of Buddha(2) is older than the tale of Jesus and it says that one night when Buddhas mother the queen was sleeping she dreamt that angels showed her a palace and then led her to a couch to rest. And while she was resting a while elephant entered the room and gently made his way to her and gave her a white lotus flower. And when the queen took the flower, she heard an earthquake in her dream and the deaf too heard the roar and the blind were able to see and the lame rose from their beds and those who had been unable to speak began to talk together. Trees began to blossom, flowers burst into bloom and the wild animals became gentle.

She told her dream to the king and he asked his counselors about it.  They assured him that he would have a son who would either be a king or a great teacher who would teach the people of many countries things that they did not now understand.    

At the time of his birth it is said that there were angels. And minutes after his birth he stood and took a seven steps while an angel held an umbrella over this head and other angels laid garlands of flowers at his feet. 

There is also a legend about the birth of Confucius(3). Kung the Tall was by now an old man with nine children all of them girls and he was sorely disappointed that he had never had a son. He now had a new young wife and she wished she could give him a son. One day she climbed to the top of a mountain and made a wish and went back home and waited week after week. Finally she felt something moving inside of her and she was happy. One night she had a surprising dream. She saw an animal coming towards her and that animal was a unicorn. And in the mouth of the unicorn was a piece of jade. She took the jade tablet out of its mouth and read it. It said “A son of the Great Spirit is to be born. Someday he shall rule the land of Chou as a good and wise king.”

Weeks later it was time for the baby to be born and her friends waited outside her house hoping to hear good news. And they too had a surprise for high above them they saw two great dragons curling their bodies in and out of the clouds. And beside the dragons, five old wondrous men appeared walking on the clouds. And beside the two dragons and five men, five planets appeared and then five musicians, playing harps and the words that came down from the sky were “This night a child is born. He shall be a great king who shall make good laws and help people to do the right.”

And when the mother in her little house heard the music – her child was born.   

At the time of the birth of Jesus. The Jews were waiting for a Messiah. So many times in our own lives we are waiting. Waiting for something to happen that will make everything all right.

When my friend Betty was diagnosed with cancer; we had a horrible few months while she went through surgery and then the awareness of the degree to which it had spread. During that time I began an avid search for a new car. I looked cars over carefully on the street. I went to car dealerships on Sundays after church and browsed the lots. I spent hours on the internet reading reviews and pouring over comparisons. Finally I settled on a Red Ford Ranger with flare sides. I then test drove one and spent evenings mulling over what accessories I wanted. 

I began to realize what I was doing when I heard a little voice in my head say – When I get a new car – everything will be all right. And I stopped because I knew I was not going to be able to fill an emotional wound with a new toy.

A few years later I had surgery to determine if I had cancer and once again I thought about that red truck. I decided that if when I woke up the Dr. told me I had cancer – I would definitely buy that red truck. As you know the good news was no cancer and the bad news was no truck.

The Jews were waiting for a messiah. When the messiah came the revolution would begin.

I was waiting for a new truck.

What are you waiting for?

Maybe your mantra goes …. When I get a new job …

When I graduate from college …..

When I get a raise …..

When my boss gets fired ….

When the kids are grown …..

These are all variations on

When the messiah comes…. Everything will be all right. 

And when will that Messiah come? That is up to you.

There is a Christmas story about a rather snobbish ox who shared the stable with the family from Nazareth. With considerable amazement he witnessed the visits of shepherds and strangers from the East; heard all the talk about stars and angelic choruses; and finally watched Mary and Joseph flee with their son. .

For days the other animals could talk of nothing but their human guests while the ox silently chewed his cud over in a dark comer. Finally he reproved his companions with this reflection: "I don't understand all this excitement. I don't know, I really don't know why you are so interested in that vagabond family. If they had been anybody worth knowing, they would never have stayed in this broken-down shack. As for the baby, - it was very like any other baby that I ever saw. They were very ordinary people, I would say. Very ordinary people indeed!"

Oxen are long-lived creatures, and this one proved to be the Methuselah of his kind. He was still around thirty-odd years later to witness the dismal end of the stable-born child. He then remarked to his companions, “I knew it all the time. That chap was of no account. He was the very ordinary son of some ordinary people."

Then the donkey who had carried Jesus many interesting miles woke up to say, "Perhaps you are right. This man may have had a humble birth and a humiliating death; an ordinary birth and an ordinary death for such people, but he certainly lived an extra- ordinary life.”

Most of us can confess to being even more "ordinary" than the family from Nazareth, but we can live in an extra-ordinary way. ((1) adapted from Albert Q. Perry)

Each of us, is responsible for incarnating (which means bring to life) that which we want to see in the world.

And so it is written (1):

That there may be love

may we  be loving.

That there may be peace

may we be peaceful.

That there may be joy

may we be joyous.

That there may be warmth

may we be warm.

That there may be kindness

may we be kind.

That there may be friendship

may we be a friend.

When the candle is spent

And the yule log, ash;

And wreath removed

And the tree stand put away,

May we keep alive

In our lives

Love, peace and joy ((1) Adapted from Roger Greeley p197)

In the Hindu religion it is said that every time the world gets really messed up - the divine comes to earth in the form of an avatar. Krishna was one such avatar.

The birth narratives of Jesus, Buddha and Confucius tell us that they were the people that others were waiting for.

Our story this morning reminds us that the day of the birth of each of you was also a special day. Remember – on the day you were born: The sun sent up flames, the moon pulled the ocean into place, the trees created oxygen for you to breathe and people surrounded and welcomed you to the earth.

Perhaps you are an avatar. Perhaps you are the one the world has been waiting for. Or perhaps it is all of us together – each of us bringing a little more truth and a little more light to the world.  May this season remind you that you are each a unique and needed part of this universe.  The world is waiting for you to awaken to your place.

Don’t you wait to take it.

(1)  Celebrating Christmas ed. Carl Seaburg, 1983.
(2)  The Birth of Buddha in From Long Ago and Many Lands, ed. Sophia Lyon Fahs, 1948.
(3) The Birth of Confucius, in From Long Ago and many Lands, ed. Sophia Lyon Fahs, 1948.

Story for all ages “On the Day you were Born” by Debra Frasier.