MaryBeth LaMont

We study the past, which we call history, in order to prevent making the mistakes made in previous times in our own time and in the future. At least, that is the theory….too often it would seem we may study the past, we just refuse to learn from it.

What about you and I…do we look at our past to learn from it, or to try and live in it? For many the past is a time of great nostalgia. Many others see their past as difficult and seem to want to wallow in it and often try to drag the rest of us into their self-pity. Still others work hard to ignore their past and struggle to break free from it.

It appears to me that many life lessons for today can be learned by looking at our past. How have major events perhaps impacted us to shape just a bit of who we are now? As I write this, it is the 80th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. What an impactful event for millions! Just the shock and fear alone had the power to impact people. The lives of loved ones gone to war following December 7 piled on the emotional baggage carried from that day.

Later generations had the assassination of President Kennedy and/or the tragic day of 9-11 to touch them. I think of most of our students here now, born right before or after 9-11. The emotions of the day did not impact them directly. Yet if parents had become more fearful, may it have changed how they raised their children? The children, then, could have been impacted by something beyond their personal awareness. We can only wonder what forces have been unleashed by the COVID 19 pandemic that will affect todays and future children and adults.

Each of us have our own histories to add to those outside forces at work on us. Some are joyful and happy stories. Others might be sad or even tragic. We are a collage of people and events that have been part of the “some assembly required” that has been and is at work molding who we are and who we are becoming.

As people of God, what we see in our past need not be something we now fear to review. It is past. It’s time of shaping us has passed. We can look at times, people, and events that are over and learn from them. Part of that learning can be to work hard to avoid somethings in the present and future. Part of that learning can be to keep going with the good things from our past that are still working. And part of that learning can be that somehow, we have worked through a number of these things and they no longer are a threat to our being. We are free to be a new person, not held back by our or any past.

One of John the Baptist’s cries in Advent is repentance. Repentance is expressing sorrow for some things in our past and present. It is an effort to literally fight to turn around and learn from our ways of sin in hopes of having learned something and committing ourselves to no longer sin these sins again. Not repeating is a form of repentance.

This same John who calls all to repentance proclaims of One who is coming. The repentant John is not even worthy to tie this One’s sandals. So much for perfect repentance even for the preacher of repentance. Maybe, as John looks at his own past and present his humility is because he is a preacher of repentance and thinks he ought to do better.

Looking back to learn so as not to repeat but repent is a healthy form of spirituality. It is only unhealthy when we decide to stay in our past to either glorify it or wallow in it. Either way we are stuck there. Repentance is a hopeful act, appropriate for Advent’s hopeful time and spirit. It is the hope of not being stuck but instead being free to move ahead. Allow the past to speak. Learn from its lessons. Move away from it and move ahead into the future, into God’s future. Work to create a new and better past.

What if you are the one who is to come? When is the last time, if ever, you have put before you this thought: “What kind of person will I be 5/10/? years from now?” Perhaps we want to pad our pension, savings, and investments for those future years. Maybe get the kid(s) through college or get ourselves through college and/or grad school.
The movie, “City Slickers” dealt with male friends becoming middle- aged and struggling with a mid-life crisis, I think they had it all wrong. They kept looking back at what they had lost and were losing. Billy Crystal’s character in the movie said he would never look this good again, feel this good, or be able to do in the near future the kinds of things he could now do. Looking ahead at his future was based solely, it seemed, on the past he was losing.

In Advent we prepare for the baby Jesus, indeed the One who is to come. We prepare in our hearts, we prepare in worship with hymns, sermons, an Advent Wreath and Advent scriptures. Even in the midst of our cultural preparations for Christmas, we also occasionally see ourselves preparing for the arrival of the infant Christ child.

Might this season of Advent teach us something? Might it teach us preparation is good and necessary for desired outcomes? Baseball Hall of Fame manager, Casey Stengel, frequently said to be more lucky than good, was fond of saying, “Luck is the residue of design.” An overstatement to be sure. Yet a statement that affirms preparation.

While this pastor is fond of saying, “If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans”, preparation generally speaking, delivers better results than no or little preparation.

So, can the One who comes push us a bit to look at our own life which, while it is happening, is also, at the same time, coming? What preparations do we need to make? What kind of person do we hope will be the one we become? Exercise and diet, among other healthy activities can prepare us to be a healthy person. What might help us become the better kind of person whom we hope to be? With what, and with whom, must we surround ourselves to become that person?

Personally I am a reader. If it has print, I read it. However, I must be careful with my choice of reading materials. Left on my own without much reflection, I continue to read the same kinds of books, periodicals, internet readings, and newspapers. All this can do is make me more of who I am. I need to go outside my interests and, at times, even outside my own values. I need to have my readings do more than reflect who I am, I need them to shape and impact me. Some of that impact needs to be an understanding of how those quite different from me think and react. What kind of different person might God want me to become?

What if you are the one who is to come? Prepare. Quoting the old Advent hymn, “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord”, such needs to be paramount in our preparation. What kind of person might God be calling us to be? If Advent makes us look to the future both near and far, might we include ourselves in that future? Might we see the God calling us into this future is one who will be there both in our travels and in our arrival? Prepare ye! The God of Jesus knows something about coming.