The Better Part

Advent Vespers, Week One

1 Kings 19

The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him.

Luke 10

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

Sermon:

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Silence. Stillness. Peace. These are the gentle gifts of Advent, gifts that our people and our age rather desperately lack.

These Vespers over the next several weeks leading up to the Nativity or our Lord are an invitation for us to enter into the deeper peace of Christ, and along with us, God willing, our families and community and all those whose lives we touch. This is a very frantic time of year. The holidays seem to rush upon us and then right on past before we have time to prepare—largely because we may be preparing in the wrong way. We decorate, we shop, we wrap, we travel. But do we pray? Do we take time enough for silence, for psalmody, for simple, holy gratitude? Do we ever just stop and breathe and be—even if just for a moment?

We are a people forever distracted, forever bewildered, by long hours of work and even longer hours of sensory bombardment. Information, advertisements, and entertainments rattle about our eyes and ears like hail every waking moment of the day. Of course I don’t mean to criticize hard work or entertainment. Both are good things, both are blessings, and we can find God in them if we are shrewd enough to look. But work and fun must be balanced with silence, and with that rarest of all indulgences, leisure. True leisure, mind you, is not laziness, not killing or wasting time, but rather an opportunity to distance ourselves from distraction and to simply be. Leisure means taking time, means waiting, for silence, and stillness, and peace. It is when we are most aware of the world around us, and most open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Leisure, as they say, is the basis for all civilization. It is what makes humanity a little more like angels and a little less like apes. If we find ourselves in an uncivilized time, indeed a rather inhumane time, perhaps it is because we have replaced music with noise, education with fashion, and art with smut. We have replaced things of true and lasting value with things that are quick and easy and shallow. Civilization takes time, takes leisure, to explore what is good and true and beautiful; barbarity requires none. What our world needs now is a time in which to slow down, to breathe, to allow the growth of a space in which peace can abide. In short, the world needs Advent.

I find it interesting that the great theologians and mystics have ever described union with God as both perfect rest and perfect activity. Surrendering ourselves to God brings the sort of peace the causes us to stop doing for others and instead become for others—become saintly, become peacemakers, become little Christs for our neighbors—just by getting out of Jesus’ way. God is not found in the earthquake, the whirlwind, or the wildfire, but in the silence. God is not found in the frantic activity of a household that causes discord amongst sisters and leaves us blind to the presence of God in our midst, but in the humble turning of our hearts and minds toward Jesus.

Here’s what I suggest. Don’t make a list to check off, but create a space in your life for God’s peace to abide. Read a book while sipping cocoa. Stay up staring at the lights in the tree. Step outside, close your eyes, and feel the clear, crisp, quiet air. Take the time to sit quietly before Jesus. Take the time to listen for the still, small voice of God in the silence. Silence, stillness, and peace are of God. Seek Him there—with open heart, with quiet mind, with thankful soul—and we, like Mary, shall have chosen the better part.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.