Advent One

• Today is November 20, 2008 on the calendar, but on the Church Calendar today is the New Year’s Day. Although we are 26 days away from Christmas today is The First Sunday in Advent, day one in 2009. Today is also the commemorative Feast Day of St. Andrew. Saint Andrew was one of John the Baptist’s disciples who saw Jesus and knew Jesus to be the Messiah and then told his brother, Simon that he had seen the Messiah. It is fitting that on the first day of the New Church Year, we commemorate the first man to tell someone about Jesus.
• In today’s Gospel reading we hear of the Sun, Moon and Stars being darkened and falling from the sky. Mountains and valleys represent the powerful and the weak in the world in Isaiah and the Gospels. The birds and the lilies are birds and lilies that Jesus uses to make a point. Think about our pagan ancestors and what they thought of the Sun, Moon and Stars; they gave them names of deities because to them they were gods and goddesses. Many of them were hunters and warriors, such as Orion, Sagittarius, Diana, Hercules, Apollo and Ares. These gods are still worshiped when worldly authority preys upon the weak and wages war on enemies.
• Pagan godlike behavior can be seen in the competitiveness of businesses and special interest groups lobbying and manipulating Congress. The Wall Street elite, before the latest crash called self-proclaimed them to be “masters of the universe” a true deifying title. They followed the god Mammon and accumulated wealth as their greed ran rampant. Celebrities as well are made into gods and goddesses when they can openly be naked and the media celebrates their life styles of sex, drunkenness and substance abuse. The media makes them into demigods and demigoddesses who can avoid legal punishment when they openly break the law. They do not have to pay the full penalty nor any penalty at all because they are seen as being above the law as gods and goddesses.
• Allowing these gods and goddesses to dominate us as well as the world leads to death and destruction. However, the One True God is loving and selfless. By living a life without fear we can live a life controlled by life and not by death; we can do this by obeying God who is light and love.
• This creates a big order of change not only for us but also for the entire world. This is a Spiritual Revolution called the Kingdom of God. This is usually seen as life inside ourselves and inside the four wall of a congregation. It is seen as having no place in the world, because it is a change for us only. I cannot imagine what life for me would be without the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How would anything in my life make sense at all? It just wouldn’t. The Gospel of Jesus Christ exists to be spread beyond the four walls of a congregation and into the whole world. There are too many victims suffering the results of the pagan worship of Mammon. These are the victims of sex and drug abuse. These are the victims of greed.
• It is the duty and joy of every Christian to be the light in the darkness about us to show that the One True God is love and light; He is selfless and cares for and cares about us.