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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.

Imagine! Martin Luther had a problem with religion and with being religious! Writing in 1538 on Psalm 51 (A psalm for cleansing & pardon: “Create in me a clean heart O God…”) said “A person may be pious and not Christian.” In a sermon on Matthew 21:1-9 he warns against “too much religion” lest we “lose Christ.”

What might Luther mean here? Luther’s point is in synch with his theology of grace; a theology that says our faith is all about Christ, not us. Any kind of saving done is by Christ and Christ’s work, not ours. Not our deep emotions, not our pious and even good works, not our right belief, but God’s grace granted to us in Christ….not even our right stances on important issues of life and living.

“Too much religion, but no Christ.” What does that mean in 2021? It means, to paraphrase author and professor emeritus of Boston University, Carter Lindberg, we too often use our feelings of faith to “baptize” other areas of life we affirm. Our country becomes a godly country never in need of repentance. Protestantism is never in need of reformation. You and I are “all right” after all. Often there is little to guide or correct us other than our feelings, intuition, politics, or tradition.

Luther himself asked he be judged not on his person. If you have read very many of Luther’s works you would be glad of that. He asked to be judged by his writings, many of which in his later years, are also problematic to say the least. Luther hoped others would be able to say of himself, “Whether Luther is a rascal or a saint I do not care; his teaching is not his, it is Christ’s.”

Perhaps the first step to shedding our religion and pious ways is to come to accept a level of comfort with this same wish Luther had for the judgement of his followers. Can we come to not care if others consider us rascals or saints? Can we hope instead in some of what we do and what we leave behind others catch a glimpse of Christ?

Pieties are interesting. Growing up where I did I was able to witness a vast array of ethnic groups: Italians, Germans, Slovaks, Poles, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Russians, and even quite a gathering of Tiroleans. All of the same Roman faith but with such different and differing pieties! I also noticed those Lutherans and German Reformed more recently descended from Germans had entirely different pieties than those called Pennsylvania Dutch who had been settled in this country far longer. German piety, for example, said, “No swearing, ever!” Pennsylvania Dutch were known to swear freely in church.

There are reasons for piety, our heartfelt, sincere response to God and God’s grace. Many of us have our own unique individual acts of faith. Perhaps a special prayer or action before or after receiving Holy Communion. For some, crossing oneself is a personal piety, for others refraining from doing so is such. In themselves they are not the issue. Luther left the safety of the Wartburg Castle where he had been hidden, to chastise his followers for destroying church artworks including stained glass, crucifixes, and statues. He demanded to know why someone would destroy something that might aid in the expression of a person’s faith.

Our pious expressions are not the issue. The problem is too often we hide behind them so we don’t have to deal with the real “me”. The one God knows and sees and the one we try to cover up a bit before others if not before God. In the midst of all our faithful feelings we need to also remember not to lose Christ in the actions. The sign of the cross is about baptism….into Christ’s death and resurrection. Standing for the gospel is not simply ritual, but a sign of honor and respect for Christ, proclaimed in the gospels. Repentance is not a quid pro quo; it is trust that Christ is who Christ said he is and God’s forgiveness is as promised.

So, bend, bow, repeat certain words, cross or not, stand, kneel, close your eyes in prayer or keep them open; do your own thing or not. Fight for your just cause, but remember it is not about us…it is about Christ, the one who calls not for our religion but for our faith and trust.