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Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 2019)

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ on this, the start of the first week of Advent. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This week is the first week of the season of Advent. For Christians, this is our liturgical new year. This season is a season of hopeful anticipation of the advent, the coming of our Lord. It is an opportunity to consider the impact of His first coming some two-thousand years ago. How the birth of God in human flesh changed the course of humanity. Isaiah describes a people lost to sin and alienated from God. That was their unescapable reality, but the birth of Christ changed everything, it changed that reality. It is a chance for each of us to consider how the coming of Christ has changed each of our lives as well. 

Likewise, Advent is a time to prepare for His second coming in great glory to bring justice and righteous judgment to both the living and the dead. Many are confused by this season. Is it a season of celebration or of penitence? Is it a time of feasting or a time of fasting? Is it just a preliminary celebration of Christmas, or is it more like lent? Advent is unique, it is a time of preparation—and with that, most of us are familiar. But what are we accustomed to preparing for? 

We are all familiar with preparing for our winter vacations, road-trips, and much needed family time. We are also all familiar with preparing elaborate and exciting holiday parties with special foods, drinks, and treats. We are all too familiar with preparing for Christmas celebrations by adorning our homes, our cars, and our sweaters with lights and tinsel and reindeer antlers. But how familiar are we with preparing our hearts? 

Often, the meaning of Advent is lost in the premature celebration of Christmas. Much like the idea of celebrating a wedding reception before the wedding, all of our festivities and parties are often out of place during this season of Advent. Our culture has jettisoned the more somber spirit of Advent, where we are called to become focused and intentional, to ready ourselves for the celebration of Christmastide. 

A feast is always much better when it is preceded by a good fast. Christmas is not just about a single morning gathered around a family Christmas tree, it is a twelve-day feast, a season of feasting and celebration. When we over-indulge and celebrate prematurely, we lose the significance of what we are celebrating, and it becomes all about the celebration, not the cause for it. 

In our culture, there is an unfortunate trend of outsourcing preparation, of just having it delivered, all ready to go. We skip the challenging, tedious stuff, and go straight for the enjoyment. We are too busy to prepare and too distracted to enjoy the preparation. If we allow ourselves to start our celebrations too early, we may find ourselves tired of Christmas before it ever arrives and, more importantly, we will have missed the opportunity to ready ourselves. 

I invite you this year to rediscover the joy of the season of advent. To become as intentional about how you prepare your hearts as you are about how you prepare your homes. To take advantage of the opportunity for a good fast, a break from the materialism and indulgences of this world and to enter into a time of self-examination and preparation in hopeful anticipation of the return of our Lord. 

In our collect for this first week of Advent we prayed that God would give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light so that we might be prepared for his second advent. Let us consider with soberness this week what that actually means. In our Gospel lesson for the first Sunday in Advent, Our Lord tells us to keep watch, to stay awake, to be prepared for His return. “And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” He says it three times in this short lesson. Stay awake. Are we awake? As a culture as a church? Are we awake? 

This is our opportunity to wake up. This is our chance to realize that, just like the Prophet Isaiah describes, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” We do not know the day or the hour of our Lord’s return, but we are called to live as though it is imminent. To take notice of the signs of the season, the signs of our time, and to not be caught unaware. To be ready, on guard, awake and waiting in hopeful anticipation. 

What does it mean to cast away the works of darkness in our lives? I assure you, they are there. The works of darkness are there in each of our lives, whether it be active and intentional sin, or a negligence of our Godly responsibility to live our lives consecrated to Him. As we enter together this season of Advent, a time to commit ourselves more fully to Him, to consider His warning, His challenge to us to remain awake, take advantage of this time and do not miss the this opportunity to consider what works of darkness you need to cast away. 

This is a season of honest examination, a much-needed chance to take a good, long, hard look at ourselves and consider where we need to repent, to re-orient ourselves to Christ. To root out our selfishness, to renounce the materialism of this culture, to recognize and name our flaws and to seek the grace and help of God the Holy Spirit that we might be restored and brought to greater conformity with Christ our Lord. It is a gracious opportunity given to us by our Lord to ensure that we are not caught unaware, asleep at His return, an opportunity to make ourselves ready. Are you ready? Are you awake? 

This same lesson from Saint Mark’s Gospel opens with a prophesy from our Lord that “in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.” What are we to make of this, how are we called to respond? 

Saint Ambrose, in the fourth century, thought this was a reference to the Church, the moon and stars the Lord describes here. He said, like the moon reflects the light of the Sun, which is diminished when the earth comes in between the moon and sun, so too is the church called to reflect the glory of Christ, the Son, and when we allow the things of this world to come between us, we too will be diminished and no longer shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory. I, no more than Saint Ambrose, know whether this is what the Lord meant by his prophesy or if it is a literal darkening of the moon and stars, but the worlds of Saint Ambrose are no less true either way. 

When the church allows the cares and occupations of this world to get in between us and Christ, we indeed are diminished. Our witness is diminished. We must cast off the works of darkness and we must put on the armor of light. That is what this season of Advent is all about. Full commitment of ourselves to our Lord, diligent and awake, awaiting His return. 

During this season, we tend to see evergreens used as decorations in church and homes all around us. Evergreens were originally chosen as a way to express devotion during this season because they represent constancy, stability, and endurance. Whereas the beautiful flowers of spring bloom brightly but quickly fade away, evergreens remain all year round. They represent things eternal. 

This season is an opportunity for us to realign our focus from those things which distract us, things which are temporary in nature, and refocus on things eternal, the things that really matter, that have eternal consequence. So that we might be found awake and ready at our Master’s return. This is our opportunity to ready ourselves. May we not waste this chance as it may very well be our last. 

Almighty and gracious Lord, You have called us to this time of hopeful anticipation, to make ourselves awake and ready. Give us the grace to examine ourselves and truly to cast off the works of darkness in our lives that we might be found ready. To put the armor of light, that we might withstand the distractions and temptations of this world and truly reflect your radiance. We pray this through Your most holy name, Lord Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God now and evermore. Amen. 

Blessings, 
Kenneth++

Abbot, OSC

by Abbott Kenneth Gilespie

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and
hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Brothers, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I think probably all of you know that there is more to our Gospel lesson for this past Sunday, what we read earlier was in many ways just the introduction. Our Lord continues his response to Nikodemus in verse 16 by telling him “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the
judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

You see, we serve a Lord who loves us each deeply, so much so that he was willing to suffer and die for us, that we might have eternal life. In the collect for this second Sunday in Lent we acknowledged out utter inability to save ourselves and asked for God’s mercy, his deliverance, against all the assaults of the body and of the soul. This speaks of a great trust in the Lord, one which carries us through any circumstance, and adversity. The world
in which we live is riddled with adversity, both against the body and soul. The culture and society in which we live is peddling a message that sounds like love and acceptance for all, but in reality, it is nothing more than deceit designed to lead you away from Jesus as your Lord and ensnare you to the lordship of a thousand other false gods, ourselves as our own god being the chief temptation and the most inept choice of all. This is why we commit
ourselves to obedience, to our rule of life, and our bishops. We recognize in our vows the reality expressed in this collect, that we truly are incapable of helping ourselves.

We cannot save ourselves, not by any great acts of heroism or accomplishment, not by a lifetime of service or sacrifice, not by earning more or by name recognition. We are saved only by the grace of God, through faith in our Lord. Our Lord who did not come into this world to condemn us or anyone else, but to offer each of us a means of salvation—of eternal life. But what does this mean to believe in Him? Is it simply to acknowledge he
exists, the man Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth, is that enough? How about to acknowledge, as Nikodemus does, that God must be with Jesus in order for him to perform such impressive miracles and wonders, is that enough? What is this belief Jesus is talking about? This is an important question to consider; our salvation depends upon it.

Is it even enough to just acknowledge that Jesus is God? Is that belief enough? Satan and every demon acknowledges that, so then what is it? What does it mean to believe? Saint Paul tells us in his epistle to the Romans that Abraham believed God, and it was his belief that was counted as righteousness. Abraham did not just believe in God, he believed Him. He accepted what God told him, promised him. As Saint Paul says, Abraham had faith, and it was his faith that set him apart, it was his faith that was counted as righteousness.
There are a lot of ways people can believe in God and still choose to remain lost in the darkness. We have agnostics and deists who believe in a creator, but don’t believe it is knowable. We have those who acknowledge the Father and even Jesus, but that is about the extent of it, acknowledgment. We even have those who call themselves Christians, who visit a church every once in a while, maybe even own a bible and some prayer beads, who maybe even at one point asked Jesus to be their Lord. None of that is enough. We must have faith in Him.

Our catechism in response to the question: What does it mean for you to have faith? Tells us: To have faith means that I believe the Gospel is the truth: that Jesus died for my sins, rose from the dead, and rules over my life. Therefore, I entrust myself to him as my Savior, and I obey him as my Lord. We entrust ourselves to Him as our Savior and obey Him as our Lord. Abraham left everything he knew. The Lord told him to “Go from your country, your kindred, and your father’s house.” That is pretty significant, especially in middle eastern culture. He left his peace, his comfort, his security, his safety-net, and followed the Lord in faith. It is that same faith that we must have. To be willing to walk away from things that are good, things and people we love, and radically follow Christ as our Lord. Even at the expense of our comfort, our security, our safety-net. In this, we can see the wisdom of our vow of simplicity, not to simply deny ourselves joy, quite the opposite, to instead prioritize the joy of God over all else, and to seek to avoid over-complications and unhealthy attachments that distract us from radically following Christ as Lord.

We entrust ourselves to Him as our Savior and obey Him as our Lord. To believe in Him, is to believe that He loves you, that He died for you, that He knows you inside and out and knows what is best for you. To believe in Him is to trust in Him. To accept not just the bits and pieces of the faith that you like, that are comfortable, that make sense, but all of it. The entire Gospel, for it truly is good news.

Almighty God, who loves you deeply, desires you. He wants to save you—he wants the best for you. We must each ask ourselves the question, will I receive Him as my Lord? That is not a once-in-your-lifetime question, it is a question we must answer every day, which every decision we make. Will we receive Him as our Lord? Will we allow Him to keep us both outwardly in our body and inwardly in our soul? Will we allow him to defend us from
all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault our soul? Will we allow him to feed and nourish us through His Church, with His Holy Word and Sacrament, with His Body and His Blood as he promised us he would? Will you receive Him as your Lord?

Let us pray,
Almighty and gracious Lord, grant us the grace to believe, to accept, to trust in You fully, with all of our being. To receive you as our Lord completely and without hesitation or doubt, withholding nothing from You. To entrust ourselves to you fully and obey you in all things. We ask this in Your name, Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who lives and reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and evermore. Amen.
Blessings,
Ab. Kenneth