The Art of Subtraction

Isaiah 2:1-5

Romans 13:11-14

There is a Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale titled, “Hans in Luck.”  In this story, Hans has been working for his master for seven years.  He is ready to return home and so he asks his master for his reward.  His master, deeply appreciative of his hard work for seven years, grants him a piece of gold as big as his head.  And with his giant lump of gold, Hans sets out for home. 

 

But the lump of gold is large and heavy and hard to carry.  When Hans meets a man on a horse, he mentions that he sure wishes he had a horse to ride home.  The man asks him if he’d like to trade his lump of gold for the horse – and he does.

Then on the rest of the way home, he trades the horse for a cow, the cow for a pig, the pig for a goose, and finally he trades the goose for a couple of heavy grindstones.  When he stopped for a drink at a well, he accidentally dropped the heavy grindstones into a deep well.  And here’s how the fairy tale ends . . . 

When Hans saw [the stones] sinking to the bottom, he jumped for joy, and then knelt down, and with tears in his eyes thanked God for having . . . delivered him in so good a way . . . from those heavy stones which had been the only things that troubled him.

"There is no man under the sun so fortunate as I," he cried out.

With a light heart and free from every burden he now ran on until he was with his mother at home.

The story about Hans and his luck is very short.  It’s only a couple of pages.  But when you’re reading it, you’re thinking that this Hans is a real dummy.  He earns a fortune and then keeps making one stupid decision after another.  He keeps letting others get the best of him.  Every transaction lessens the worth of what he has.  He winds up with nothing at all after all that work.  And so we expect him to bury his head in his hands, crying in remorse at his own foolishness.  But that’s not what happens.  At the end, Hans finds his way back home.  That is, he comes to himself.  He discovers his real life, “with a light heart and free from every burden.”

I tell that story here at the beginning of Advent, just in case there might be some of us here who would like to go back home; in case there are some of us who would like to rediscover the light-heartedness and joy that God offers to us if we’re willing to subtract and simplify. 

Traditionally, Advent has been a holy time of preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth.  And yet the typical American December feels far from “holy.”  It feels busy, distracted, expensive, and stressful.  So how can we clear some space in our lives this season?  Can we simplify and minimize?  Can we create some boundaries and protect what’s most important?  Can we de-clutter the month so that we can give our best attention to the hope that Jesus brings?

While we often read the gospel stories of Jesus’ birth during Advent, the lectionary also offers us this reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans.  And in this reading Paul offers us two connected images – waking from sleep and getting dressed for the day.  And these images come with a note of urgency – it’s time.  And the time is later than you think.  So there’s no time to piddle, no time for anything that’s not essential.  It’s time to get up and get dressed.  So subtract what you don’t need to do.  Cancel what you don’t have time for.  Get rid of anything that’s costing you precious time.

I occasionally have nightmares that I’ve overslept, that I’m in danger of missing some vital appointment or some crucial meeting.  Has this happened to you?  And of course we have all had the experience of waking up late and really needing to hustle in the morning.  There isn’t always time for everything.  Do I have time to shower?  To brush my teeth?  Should I grab fresh clothes out of the closet or just throw on the clothes lying by the bed?  Do I have time for coffee?  (If not, this is obviously going to be a terrible day!)

This is the season of Advent, the season of watching and waiting for God’s coming to us in fresh and surprising ways.  This new reality is right in front of us, says Paul.  There is a new day dawning in the East, the arrival of God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ.  And it’s time to wake up and get dressed. 

You and I have lived through a few Advent Seasons.  Some of us more than a few.  And we know full well that this season can very easily slide past us without much notice.  There is nothing magical about these traditional seasons on the church calendar.  They can pass without anything interesting or new happening in us and around us.  In other words, we can sleep walk our way through this month just like we sleep walk through much of our lives.  But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

With God’s help, we can live a life that’s fully awake.  What would that feel like – to wake up to this amazing news of God’s love, to dress for the day and walk right out into it?  It would be a life with all of its senses activated, a life attuned to the newness of this light just dawning over the horizon.  To wake from sleep is to register what’s really going on around you and within you.  To wake up involves being aware of your own desires, awake to the intensity that drives you to a life of joy and contentment and gratitude and kindness.  Many of us have blunted, blocked, or stunted our desires.  We don’t quite know what we want.  So as we begin Advent, let’s be honest: we have lots of ways to deaden our desires.

That’s why Paul warns us about the “deeds of darkness”.  Paul is pointing us to some of the common ways that we refuse to wake up and pay attention to our own lives.  Chief among these strategies is busyness and distraction.  We keep ourselves preoccupied, so that we can avoid the burning question: What do I want?  What would it feel like to be fully awake?    

So get up and get dressed.  Don’t wear things that weigh you down or clothes that don’t fit.  Here Paul imagines a range of different ways that we waste our time and dull our senses and distract ourselves: partying and dulling our senses with alcohol or drugs.  Don’t wear attitudes and habits that damage your relationships: quarreling and jealousy.  Get dressed and put on the new life that God offers us in Jesus Christ. Subtract whatever gets in the way.

Our reading from Isaiah reminds us that this Advent Season is a wonderful time for us to address the anger, hatred, violence, and revenge fantasies in our own hearts.  Isaiah invites us to dream of a world in which wars and hostilities are overcome in a world of different people coming together as God’s beloved family.  Isaiah invites us to dream of a world in which the lust for dominance and violence is washed from our own attitudes and outlooks.

In the middle of the twentieth century, the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr pointed out how we often hide and disguise our hatred and aggression in our political views.  His point was that people who are kind and caring on the personal level can shift their secret anger and hostility to some higher level of community life.  When we do this, it allows us to pretend that we are not full of violence.  After all, we would never hurt or harm or violate someone we know personally.  And yet we might support policies at the national level that do enormous harm to others.

For example, we would never walk up to the front of a long line and announce to everyone else, “I want to be first.”  And yet Niebuhr helps us understand how that secret desire to be first, to be dominant over others, can disguise itself in our support for policies that promote our own welfare at the expense of others.  Friends, the God who arrives in our midst as Jesus from Nazareth invites us to dream of – and work towards – a non-violent world.  And the work of turning our weapons into useful tools can never happen unless all of us deal with the poisonous anger towards and fear of others in our own hearts.

During college I lived on a dormitory floor with one, large shared bathroom.  It gives me shivers, just to think of it now.  It’s hard for me to share a bathroom with my spouse, let alone 40 guys in college who aren’t very hygienic.  I once discovered a roll of yellow caution tape.  I put it across one of the stalls with a sign that said, “Out of order.”  For a couple of glorious weeks I had that stall all to myself.  Anyway, the reason I’m telling you about my college dormitory bathroom is that one morning I walked into the bathroom and used one of the urinals.  There was someone else a couple of urinals down from me.  And it turns out he had fallen asleep with his head leaning against the wall above the urinal.  My point is – we can sleep through anything if we’re not careful.

 

The good news of the Christmas season is simple.  It’s about incarnation.  God’s enfleshment.  God’s willingness to be right here with us in the ordinariness of our fragile, vulnerable, anxious lives.  God loves us so much that God comes to meet us in the life of Jesus from Nazareth.  And God’s love is knitting people together in a new kind of community – full of care for one another across all kinds of differences.  God’s love is moving people from fear and defensiveness towards open-heartedness, hospitality, kindness and care. 

What do you need to subtract this season?  What’s getting in your way?  What’s tangling your feet when you’re ready to run?  How can you simplify?  My prayer is that we will make the most of the time – the holy time – of this Advent Season.  We won’t ever get this particular chance for renewal and growth again. 

If your month is clogged and congested with all kinds of obligations and events, you may need to pray for the courage and discernment to say “no” to a few things.  If you and your family have gotten into patterns of entertaining and distracting yourself by playing the role of the American consumer, of buying stuff you and others don’t need, you may need to find ways to simplify your spending.  If your life feels cluttered and you feel overwhelmed by what you’ve accumulated, you might need to start giving stuff away and getting rid of it. 

In the coming month I’m going to focus on a couple of things.  First, I’m going to limit the time I spend on my phone.  Phones are fine, I just want to spend less time on my phone so I make time for other things that are important to me.  Second, I’m going to clean out my closet and give away all the stuff I don’t wear and don’t need.  These efforts might not seem all that spiritual or holy, but they are small steps that can help me move in healthy directions.  They might clear a space in my own life so that I have the time and the energy to respond to God’s arrival with wonder and joy. 

There is something coming to birth in you.  There is some kind of aliveness and energy that wants to surge through your life, connecting you with your deepest desires, with other people, and with the whole world as it shines with the glory of God’s arrival.  If there’s something getting in between you and the life to which God is calling you, subtract it.  Let’s all take the odd road traveled by Hans in Luck, the road of finding more life by getting rid of all we don’t need.