Deacon Michael’s Homily for 4th Sunday of Advent - December 17-18, 2022

4th Sunday of Advent December 17-18, 2022

The readings for this Sunday on which this homily is based can be found HERE

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Today, to say that the earth is round, it spins on its axis and revolves around the sun is the common knowledge of even elementary school kids.

But this wasn’t always so.

Galileo paid a price for intemperately asserting these realities as fact while they remained a theory still unproven.

And when Columbus sailed the ocean blue many thought they could sail off the edge of the earth.

Telescopes, observation and math established reality as otherwise…

…and the term “flat-earther” has remained as alabel for people who limit their acceptance of scientifically demonstrable realities.

It gets thrown around in debate on everything from climate change, evolution to pandemics.

Ironically, many “trust the science” folk have their own type of

…”flat earth”, or flat “reality issue”.

It’s rooted in a materialist worldview that limits all “reality” and “knowledge”

…only to what can be seen, and touched and weighed and measured.

All else is dismissed as conjecture, delusion, fantasy or myth.

This severely limits the possibility of

…or engagement with,

matters of the spirit, transcendence or mystery

This is becoming an increasingly prevalent notion in our own culture.

You can see it in the manner in which the culture around us,

…has shifted the manner of the celebration of Advent and Christmas.

It takes place almost exclusively on a materialist

…“this worldly” plane

…with a focus is on social events, partying, and material things, albeit in the form of gift-giving

In the Northern Europe there was a tradition of pagan, mid-winter celebrations, pre-dating the coming of Christianity

…celebrating  light in the darkest time of the year, evergreen life in a season of death, the warmth of fire in the coldest of days.

This helpful in lifting the spirits in the dark and cold when it’s easy to feel down

…and would seem a particularly apt antidote to those jousting with seasonal affective disorder.

But for us it all seems to lack a certain context.

Earliest Christian missionaries to Northern Europe adapted and integrated such customs and images into the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord, the birth of Christ

…which the Christians themselves had long since celebrated on December 25th for other reasons.

The celebration and memory of this event, so central to Christian faith

…just can’t be flattened or limited by the narrow bandwidth of a strictly materialist worldview.

For Christians this truly is an event as deep as the netherworld and as high as the sky

…an event and reality that encompasses all of the universe as we know it.

The God creator of the universe, the sustainer of all reality

…came incarnate among us as an icon of self sacrificing love

…part and parcel of the same love that gave rise to all of creation

…and even our own embodied existence in the first place.

 “”Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuelle” which means “God is with us””

For Christians this is realized in the person of Jesus Christ

…incarnate of Mary at Nazareth and Bethlehem,

…crucified, died and buried at Jerusalem

...descended into netherworld of the dead

…rising from there to be seen and heard by his disciples, and

…ascending to the Father

...from where we now await his coming once again.

A sign that is indeed as deep as the netherworld and as high as the sky

…a sign of contradiction to a materialistically flattened worldview

…that denies the possibilities of such deep mysteries and their inherent hope.

When we look at the depths of the universe revealed to us in the night sky by the Hubble telescope

…and wonder at the grand mystery of it all

..we can do so feeling at home in this vast reality.

…after all

…the Magi follow the signs in the same Heavens to the very place we are heading to this Christmas

…to the place where the creator of it all touched us.

Maybe this Christmas we are called to take a pass on the Flat Christmas Society, that reduces these days to just a jovial holiday season…though joy is a part of it all for sure.

 Rather we should make a real effort to keep it deep and high

 …as deep as the netherworld and as high as the sky

…knowing that the one who comes to us is not the highest achievement of humanity,

…but the intervention of the transcendent God of love into the fabric of human history from the outside

…like a blade cutting through this fabric allowing us to see through flattened realities

…into these heights and depths

…opening up new space for us, new possibilities and renewed hope

…and a heightened and