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Advent 3, Year A
December 13, 2004
Christ Church, Covington
“Go and tell John what you hear and see” (Matt. 11:4).
I was not a good student; a “dreamy lad” in nineteenth century terms. When
I was in my early teens, what was going on in my imagination was almost
always more interesting to me than what was going on around me in the
classroom. Without constant focus I tended to get lost and fall behind.
“Pay attention, John” was the teacher’s constant refrain. A few years
later I learned to be a good student, to get interested and to stay
focused. A proper self-regard helped. But until then, “Pay attention,
John” was exactly what I could not do.
Part of this for most people is simply maturity, the process of gradually
learning to pay attention to what is going on around you. Note that
maturity keeps to no fixed schedule. There is a time in each person’s life
when the beauty of a particular day, or the importance of a particular
event in the world or in the community, or the reality of another person’s
joy or struggle, comes as a revelation, a new realization that teaches us
something about our self. Happy is the person who has the eyes to see
these things for what they are. Happy is the person who is given the grace
to pay attention and perceive them.
Advent is the season in which Christians are supposed to be paying
attention: to the progress of the wreath, the deepening of the dark, to
changes all around us. On this Sunday, it is John the Baptist who points
in a particular direction, beckoning us to open our ears and eyes to hear
and see what God is doing. We are invited by John to turn our attention to
Jesus Christ. John’s ministry is not about himself, but about the one who
comes after him who is mightier than he (Matt. 3:11). “Pay attention,
John”, once again.
There are a lot of things that compete for our attention. We’re tempted to
distraction. What are you supposed to be paying attention to? What points
us beyond ourselves and toward God? Family, friends, job: you know what
you need to focus on. There are things happening in your life that you
need to pay attention to, not because they are ends in themselves (your
family, your friends, your job) but because through them, God is
attempting to get your attention. There’s stuff going on that we need to
pay attention to. Things are taking place that we need spiritual maturity
to see; stuff’s happening that should take us out of ourselves and into
the center of what’s really going on. What’s going on is what God is doing
in the world: in your life, in my life, and in everyone else’s.
Paying attention to what God is doing in these things is a form of
spiritual discipline. In fact, it’s prayer, in its deepest sense. “To pray
is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself… Choice of
attention – to pay attention to this or to that – is to the inner life
what choice of action is to the outer” (W.H. Auden, A Certain World).
Paying attention is more, even, than a sign of spiritual maturity: it’s a
form of worship. It’s a way we invest ourselves; make choices that matter;
determine our direction and orientation. If we pay attention, we won’t
miss what we’re supposed to notice.
Advent is a time for prayer, for paying attention to what God is doing in
our lives. This is a most acute time of the year when it is good for us to
look around and take notice. Family, friends, the work we do: all of it’s
more intense as the year comes to an end and the holiday rolls around.
It’s crunch time, full of joy and possibility and challenge. How are you
going to respond to it? What is God saying to you in the events that are
all around you? What do you need to pay attention to?
The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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