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November 30, 2003
John Auer, Pastor
Scripture
Jeremiah 33:14-16, Luke 2:25-32
"Get a Life! The Christ Who Is Already
Present"
The First Sunday in Advent
We know about putting the Christ back in Christmas. What about
putting the Advent back in adventure? Really looking for something
brand-new to happen? Albeit something foreseen by prophets of old, but
never with the quite same eyes each time? As we never step in the same
river twice, so each time we glimpse the bare promise of God coming
round again, we are at a different place than the last time we saw. We
are a different person. We are a different people.
With all of the times we will sing and hear sung and played this
morning the strains of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom
captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here," maybe we will
get the message there is a certain urgency, expectation and
anticipation, even some desperation, to our time of waiting and watching
for just the most subtle and suggestive of signs that God is keeping the
promise, again! There is a quality of holy impatience to this time of
beginning the journey, the search, the quest, again. Wherever it is we
are going, we know we cannot stay where we are.
The years when Advent begins in November, about half the time, I
guess, I identify with Ishmael at the beginning of Moby Dick: "
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is
a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself
involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear
of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an
upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent
me from deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking
people’s hats off – then I account it high time to get to sea a soon
as I can!"
Does not Dr. Seuss begin Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, from
which we just read to the children, in something of the same spirit?
"Congratulations! / Today is your day. / You’re off to Great
Places! / You’re off and away! "You have brains in your head. /
You have feet in your shoes. / You can steer yourself / any direction
you choose. / You’re on your own. And you know what you know. / And
YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go. "You’ll look up and
down streets. Look ‘em over with care. / About some you will say, ‘I
don’t choose to go there.’ / With your head full of brains and your
shoes full of feet, / you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good
street. / And you may not find any / you’ll want to do down. /
In that case, of course, / you’ll head straight out of town!"
Maybe Advent begins (Was in Gunsmoke?) with getting out of
whatever "Dodge" we find ourselves in.
What we are looking for in these few weeks of Advent is some real
company, some accompaniment, for this journey that is much too
challenging to go alone. Two Sundays ago we heard the playwright
Christopher Fry call what might be a name for this new church year
"exploration into God!" Suffice it to say, in whatever way,
God will not be quite the same for us this year as last! I guarantee it!
Fry says such exploration may lead us where no people, no nation, ever
has gone before. That is the meaning of our being "Israel," in
the sense of God’s very particular hope to the multitude of the
nations, -- 192 of them, at last count and still counting! God’s
message of peace with justice in every last land, every furthest end of
the earth begins this season with the lonely prophetic witness of one
wilderness people, even one wilderness person. Especially we may be
hoping for some company, some accompaniment, in the way of some folks
who are much wiser in waiting and watching than we, some folks who are
clearer than we about just what it is we are waiting and watching for,
about how we will know when we see it, and about how we shall honor it
by our response.
Here is Simeon, for example, looking forward to "the consolation
of Israel," the comforting of his people, the assurance that God is
"Emmanuel," God is "with us," as we seek to keep
faith with the promise. The promise is of God’s Messiah, the one who
is to be "born of God," to embody God on this earth and to
announce by word and deed: God is bringing to bear upon earth every
promise of justice and peace! The signs of what God is doing are even
now available and accessible everywhere to those with the eyes to see,
the heart to believe, and the grace to get out of God’s way! To stop
obstructing God’s justice and peace!
The Holy Spirit here rests on Simeon with assurance God is drawing
near. The Spirit here reveals to Simeon the gift of knowing that the
Messiah has come. And the Spirit here responds through Simeon’s
witness, God’s own "with-ness," that nothing can keep
salvation and liberation from spreading among all peoples of all the
earth! On this first Sunday of the new church year, the renewal of our
journey through life into faith, we ask the same Holy Spirit to rest on
us, to reveal to us, and to respond through us! That we, too, may see,
may believe, may make way for the "consolation" of Israel and
of every people. That we, too, may know we do not have to live in vain.
The coming of the Messiah means it is possible, not just for Simeon but
also for us to die in peace, in just and in lasting peace for all
peoples. It ought to become a universal right, to die in real peace!
Sr. Joan Chittister writes about "Becoming an Advent
Person" – "And now, we all wait, not for the coming of
Christ – God took care of that – but for the coming of the Gospel,
which we are delaying in the name of God." I understand her to mean
that the coming of God in Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, takes away
our every excuse why we cannot be "born of God" ourselves, why
we cannot embody God on this earth, and announce the "good
news" that every good thing is possible here and now! "Waiting
is a call to conscience," writes Sister Joan.
"Waiting leads us to compare what is probable with what is
possible – unless we ourselves do something about it. Waiting engages
all of us in the struggle, for or against, until there can be no
disinterested bystanders, no free rides, no unconscious commitment to
the unconscionable." Advent is time to sort out the unconscionable
from our lives and our life together, to see what an unconscious hold it
still keeps on us, much as we may watch and wait against it. Fr. Jim
Jeffery, in the current Trinity Episcopal newsletter, calls Advent a
time of "loving judgment," inviting us to see and believe,
"Human history is not leading toward an ever-expanding mall and an
increasing military apparatus to protect the mall, but toward God’s
justice and peace!"
We ask one another and ourselves the title of our Advent devotional
booklet, Whose Birthday Is it, Anyway? We affirm with the words
of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," Christ is born to save us and
set us free, to heal us and make us whole. We look to watching and
waiting, looking and longing for signs, as expectant (God)parents about
to give birth to a brand-new world! As with the birth process, the world
we are waiting for is already here! Already formed in Christ, -- hidden,
obscured, denied, to be sure -- but very much present, alive and
well and kicking, even now! The birth of the world, as the birth of a
child, calls upon us to cooperate with the process. It is up to us, as
our kids say, to "get a life!" To welcome a life that is ready
and waiting for us to give birth.
I say the signs of new life are everywhere, for those with the eyes
to see and the watch to keep –
- In the growing number of persons called "cultural
creatives" who are looking for real and lasting
alternatives to things as they are! ** In those becoming
more "conscious consumers," who value
relationships, commitments to partners, to families, to
neighbors, to friends, to colleagues, to co-workers, to
strangers, and to the earth, ahead of material goods,
property and possessions!
- In the beginnings of "faith-based organizing,"
training congregations in skills of asking and listening for
issues and interests of members and neighbors alike and
putting them into actions that challenge both big business
and big government!
- In the emerging of young urban leaders of the "hip-hop
generation" (Come out Thursday night to Bethel AME
Church to watch the James Brown special together!) seeking
alternatives to all kinds of violence, against self, against
each other, against the public, out of respect for culture,
heritage, language, and pride! ** In new ways of seeing and
thinking through the experience, reflection and story of
those who have been left out, people of color, women, even
children, and consequent commitment against all the
"isms" of gender, of race, of class, of age –
May all of our "isms" soon become "wasms!"
- In the coming together of, literally, millions of people in
opposition to the "same old same oldism" of war
and violence, occupation and oppression, as ways to resolve
human difference and human dispute!
- In the questioning of how to do globalization with full
inclusion and with concern for local economies, local
workers, local environments, including the vision of
"Jubilee" as holy promise to break cycles of
poverty and affluence, indebtedness and accumulation, crime
and punishment, illness and treatment, by leveling the
playing field through reparation and restoration!
- In the patient persisting of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender
persons to love the church in spite of ourselves, and in the
painful beginning to accept institutional responsibility for
religious ignorance and malpractice around sexuality!
- In exploring such new economic directions as represented by
land trusts, worker ownership, cooperatives, Alternatives
for Simple Living (who produce this Advent booklet), the
Truckee Meadows Conscious Business/Community Network (Come
out for breakfast here this Friday!), etc.!
- In supporting such organized efforts as Children’s Defense
Fund to demilitarize us as an issue of our own social and
economic justice, and as Christian Peacemaker Teams and
Voices in the Wilderness to create actual "peace
armies" risking their lives for non-violent
alternatives!
Every one of us could name many more signs of new life waiting and
watching to be born, in our own lives and relationships, and in our life
together, in congregation, connection, community, and all of creation.
We will not give birth to them all over night, or even in this Advent
season. But with this day, we are beginning again! Sr. Joan Chittister
encourages us: "Waiting is about the virtue of hope. Waiting gives
witness to the fact that, like it or not, want it or not, help it or
not, God’s will will indeed be done, if not now and not here and not
for me, then surely sometimes, somewhere, for someone, if only I will
wait, with honest heart, in hope." If only we will wait, with
honest heart, in hope. And, amen.
John Auer, Pastor
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