This weekend we celebrate the First Sunday of Advent and the beginning of a new liturgical year. Once again, we hear from Mark’s Gospel and the need to be awake, alert and always watching? But what are we watching for…and whatever it is, could it be where we least expect to find it? And how can the story of two boys who run Cross Country Track – one of who is blind, help us to see in a new way? Check it out…

1. 1 Deacon Jim Knipper
29 November 2020 1st
Sunday of Advent Princeton, NJ
We gather this morning on this First Sunday of the Advent season – a period of four weeks where we, once
again, prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christmas: the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the Lord,
the fulfillment of God’s promises - the birth of the Christ Child. And with this Sunday we also begin a new
liturgical year…and looking back - what a year this has been. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to over
265,000 deaths in our country – with a new American death every minute…with an unemployment rate of 7%,
with now some 50 million people with food insecurity, including 1 in 4 children and an alarming increase in
anxiety, depression and self-inflicted injuries, especially in our adolescent population.
So needless to say, it is interesting that we opened this liturgical year with a passage of national lament from
Isaiah. For when those words were written around 586 BCE the people were in exile and after 70 years were
finally heading home – but going back to a city, a temple and a land in ruins. They were refugees and
immigrants looking for security, safety, protection, and peace. But note that their prayer of lamentation ends
with a hint of hope when Isaiah writes, “We are the clay and you the potter; we are the work of your hands.”
They are praying, filled with great hope, for healing and mending and restoration to take place.
And so, we too, are reminded that the season of Advent is a time that should be filled with watchful hope. It is
a season where we look to put aside our major worries in our life and seek a way to open our eyes in a
different way. For in today’s short Gospel reading we hear the need to be ‘watching’ several times.
But what are we watching for? As we hear this reading, or a similar version of it every first Sunday in Advent,
our focus usually goes to the need for us to be alert and awake and ready and prepared for the second
coming of Jesus. In other words, in our preparation for the celebration for the first coming of Jesus, we so
often take this reading and focus our attention to the second coming of Jesus. But in doing so – we are
missing out on what’s in between which is the ongoing, ever present coming of Jesus!
For we need to live right now in joyful hope. We must live now with faith. We must live now with great love.
And what Advent is calling us to is to be alert and aware and watching and seeing - but all in a new way –
because all so often we are blinded and looking in all the wrong places.
Which reminds me of an old story about Omar the candle maker who was outside his house busily looking
through the grass. He’s feverishly looking for something when his neighbor comes and he says, “Omar, what
are you looking for?”
And he says, “I lost my wallet and I’m trying to find my wallet.”
And his friend says, “Well, where did you lose it?”
He says, “I lost it in my house, in my bedroom.”
And he says, “Well, why aren’t you in your house and bedroom searching for it?”
And he says, “Oh, it’s too dark in there. It’s much nicer to search out here in the sunshine.”
So many times, we seem to want to seek the out God in all the places where we feel God may be…and then
miss God’s presence right in front of us. But we need to see God present in the light and the darkness…in the
greatest joys and the deepest sorrows…and in the birth as well as the death of humanity. For “God comes to
you disguised as your life,” writes author Paula D’Arcy…it just requires you and I to see differently.

2. 2 Deacon Jim Knipper
In his latest encyclical, Pope Francis calls for all people, regardless of the religious tradition to “see things in a
new light and to develop new responses” to the challenges that lie before us. In a recent article by Franciscan
Dan Horan, he breaks open those words of Pope Francis by describing the challenges that we face to include
the increasing tendencies of nations and peoples to build borders and walls which separate, isolate and
exclude the most vulnerable in our world. Throughout the encyclical, Pope Francis consistently critiques
consumerism, capitalism, nationalism and other ascendant ideologies of our time and thus stresses the need
and importance of new sight in order to build bridges.
The Pope goes on to point out that the lens for our new sight has to be rooted in love – for love is the
necessary ground for building a “culture of encounter…meaning that the we as a people, should be
passionate about meeting others, seeking points of contact, and building bridges…that includes everyone.”
You see, my sisters and brothers – when we live this way – when we live with the joy and alertness and
attentive love that Advent calls us to…we encounter, and facilitate others encountering, God being with us, in
us and among us, over and over and over again.
Take for instance Arkansas high school freshman, Paul Scott who has been legally blind since birth and
practices and competes in cross country track. How? Because eleven-year Rebel Hayes decided to help
someone else – and volunteered to be Paul’s running mate. So, physically and emotionally tethered together
by a common cause and mutual passion for running, Rebel leads and directs Paul every step of the way. In
doing so…Paul is proving that the blind can run cross country…and by assisting with this gift of inclusivity and
showing others what it means to serve others, Rebel is facilitating an encounter of God’s presence in his own
way.
For God is always present and always coming! Therefore, we need to always be alert and ready to open our
hearts and minds and love to this Divine presence and power. Advent reminds us to prepare the way for the
Spirit to enter fully into our world with grace, conversion, justice and restoration…and live in hope for it being
remade so to include the fullness of life for everyone!
So how vigilant are we? How compassionate are we? How awake, alert and watchful are we? You see, the
need to help each other as we go through these difficult times requires watchful hope…hope in our hearts,
hope in our care for others, and hope filled with compassion for the least of our sisters and brothers. That is
what we are reminded of this Advent – which is a time for us to look at how we can better seek out God who
is currently present in all the right…and the ‘wrong’ places.
The focus does not need to be on the second coming or necessarily about our respective final days – but
rather how we live this day, right now. In light of all we have experienced this past year, more so than ever,
this is a time to not be asleep – but to be awake for all those who hunger, thirst and seek to be welcomed with
dignity. And when we do – it is then we will be ready to remember and celebrate with great joy the incarnation
of God who is called Wonder- Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace – Emmanuel – God
who is indeed with us…always.