Advent is the name of the days where we prepare our hearts, households, and churches for the celebration of our Lord’s human birth at Christmas. Advent is also when we start the next church year, not the secular calendar that begins in January, but the sacred calendar that forms a grand circle that annually begins in Advent leads to Christmas, and then moves on to Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost marking movements of the heart and mind through time. We’ve all done this before. In fact, we do it every year. We know what is going to happen next. Is there anything new to learn? Looking at that circle, I can see asking why do this at all?

We hear another one of Jesus’ parables today. We are told that the kingdom of God is like ten bridesmaids, half of them are wise and half of them are foolish. So the challenge to readers is to determine what it is that makes the wise bridesmaids wise so that we can be like them. The parable is set at the groom’s house. The maidens wait for the groom’s return from the bride’s house where he has gone to gather his bride and bring her to his home. They went out a short way to escort the new couple in a festive torchlit procession back to their new home. The delay was likely about negotiating the details of the marriage contract and it could take a while. They have torches (or lamps) because they expected that it would stretch past sundown (but not until midnight). So they all get drowsy and fall asleep waiting. So far, the wise and the foolish are the same….

As a kid I loved to read stories where the young protagonists, whether in Narnia or someplace closer to home, found their own strength and defeated the powers of evil. If they could do it, maybe I could too. As I’ve grown older, having experienced failure and weakness, I’ve become less optimistic about my capacity to do heroic deeds, and I wonder, is heroism the best model for our aspirations? Are we called to be heroes for the Kingdom of Heaven?

Halloween is a uniquely American holiday. It comes to us from the early colonies and has only gained in popularity year after year. Like many things in our country, its Christian origins tend these days to be forgotten. In fact, some people (Christian and non-Christian) seem to think Halloween is an anti-Christian holiday, a kind of ungodly protest against our faith. The truth is, Halloween only makes sense in terms of our faith and its Christian character remains for all to see. It is on October 31st because November 1st, the day after, is All Saints’ Day, the day we celebrate the lives of dead Christians who have not only gone before us, but in many cases died for us, so that we could live better lives–even in this world–than they did. One can only conjecture why the founders of our church named this church St. Paul’s, after a man who has been dead for nearly 2,000 years. After all, it could have been “The Church of What is Happening Now” or even “Brookline Community Church.” But no, instead, they chose to have the ongoing identity of the community they founded here to be tied to this act of remembering the faithful departed, celebrating their lives, keeping their faith, maintaining their hope, and imitating what was best about them. To make this abundantly clear, the founding date of St. Paul’s is October 31st, 1849, nearly 174 years ago to the day.

In our Gospel reading this morning, we are told that religious leaders set a trap for Jesus, and yes, even Jesus had a small group of people that were out to bring him down. As the crowds gathered around Jesus in the usual way, their delegates approached Jesus with loads of flattery and then asked him an apparently straightforward question, “Tell us what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” (Matthew 22:17). Why was that a trap? It is because there are only two answers, “yes” or “no”, and either one of them were likely to get Jesus killed. His homeland had long been occupied by the foreign power known as Rome with soldiers everywhere. Rome collected taxes from the people it occupied to pay for the cost of their occupation. Many in Jesus’ country greatly resented this arrangement, one that they never consented to, paying tribute to the conquerors (and, arguably, their gods), year after year…

Although it is the scripture readings that are meant to provide the primary fodder for sermons, another rich resource for reflection in our Anglican/Episcopal liturgy is always the Collect for the Day. This is that prayer which brings to a close our gathering rite after the song of praise. The collect of the day sets the tone, “collects” our intentions for the worship that follows, and unites us as a worshiping body. The collect for today is especially rich, worth probing more closely, because it gets to the beating heart of our relationship with God: prayer.