[A
sermon preached on the third Sunday of Advent, 2019, St. Richard’s Church,
Winter Park, FL]
Today is
the third Sunday in Advent. This morning we light the Shepherd’s Candle
symbolizing Joy. Hence this Sunday is
called Gaudete Sunday, the Latin word for rejoice. In contrast to the
somber Sarum blue candles of the other Sundays, today’s candle is a rose-colored
candle to reflect the theme of Joy.
As of
today, we are halfway through this four-week period of silent, mindful watching
and waiting called Advent. Virtually every culture around the world has a
ritual commemoration that falls on or near the winter solstice, the time when
the shortening days begin to lengthen again and the light begins to return to
the darkened world. Among these many commemorations, Jesus is our reason for the
season.
There is
something very powerful about watching and waiting in darkness for the coming
of new light, new life, new ways of being human. Episcopal priest Barbara Brown
Taylor reminds us that
“New life starts in the dark, whether it is a seed in
the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”
A
Counter-Cultural Season
In a
consumerist culture, not only are we told that money can buy our love, we
come to believe that our happiness is impossible without the goods and services
we are told we cannot live without.
And yet,
our lessons today exhort us to take Advent seriously. The writer of the Epistle
to James tells his flock to “be patient… until the coming of the Lord. The
farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until
it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient.” He ends by
urging them to “Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.”
There are
three elements in this short passage, attributed to the brother of Jesus, that bear
attention. The first is the theme of Advent: patient waiting. The second
is the need for strength. The third is the hopeful expectancy of
the coming of the Holy One.
Our
collect today reflects the need for strength in this time of patient and
expectant waiting. The collect begins with the words “Stir up your power, O
Lord, and with great might come among us.” The collect continues to note why we
need the Holy One to come among us with power: “[B]ecause we are sorely
hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and
deliver us.”
In M.
Scott Peck’s book The Road Less Traveled, he talks about the potential
that every human being has to defy our innate tendencies toward entropy, to simply
sink to our lowest levels of functioning. According to Peck, all of us are born
bearing the image of G-d and all of us have the ability to grow ever more into
the divine likeness, thereby living into our highest potential as human beings.
So why
don’t we?
Because
it requires sustained effort, the willingness to endure the pain that all
growth entails and the willingness to delay gratification along the way – all
things we well-trained consumers are loathe to do. As our collect puts it, “we are (indeed)
sorely hindered by our sins.” We need the empowering presence of the Holy One
if we are to even have a chance of becoming fully human and to do our part in
building the Kingdom of G-d.
The
God With the Magic Wand
So we are
being called during Advent to be patient, to wait silently, expecting to be
empowered by the coming of the Holy One among us. Indeed, in December 2019,
perched on the eve of an election year that promises to be brutal, we are going
to need all the patience and strength we can get just to survive.
But what
is it we are waiting for? And how will we know?
If we are
being honest with ourselves, many of us would love to simply wait for G-d to
come and save us from ourselves. We’ll provide the thoughts and prayers. But let
G-d take care of climate change and school shootings. Let G-d save the
immigrant children dying in cages on our borders. Let G-d step in to staunch the
hemorrhaging in our nation’s soul whose despair reveals itself in the waves of
addictions and suicides we are seeing sweep across our nation.
If we are
being honest, we will admit that most of us don’t want to be bothered with
reflection on our own lives either individually or collectively. We don’t want
to consider what our own role in these problems we face may be. We want a Messiah who will come and save us
from ourselves. And we want to buy into theologies that assure us that we
ultimately have nothing to do but wait and, of course, buy into the right
theology. G-d will do the rest.
No muss, no fuss.
I wonder
if we can hear the entitlement in that approach. We are, indeed, well-trained
consumers.
When
the Holy One is Among Us
But we
are hardly alone in that. Today’s Gospel depicts a worried John the Baptist
writing from Herod’s prison, facing his own mortality. One has to imagine that
the prophet is engaging in second thoughts, wondering if everything his life
ministry was about is coming to a bitter end. All of his hopes and dreams for the
redemption of the people of Judah appear on the verge of being dashed.
Matthew’s Gospel has him wondering out loud:
“Are you the one to come or are
we to wait for another?
The
writers of Matthew’s Gospel place the words of the Prophet Isaiah in Jesus’
mouth in response: “Go report to John what you have heard and seen: The blind
see again and the lame walk; lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead
are raised and the poor have good news preached to them.” This list of
achievements is taken nearly verbatim from the Book of Isaiah, the source from
the Hebrew Scripture used more frequently than any other in the Gospel writers’
portrayals of Jesus.
The use
of prophetic materials here is important. How would these ancient peoples know
that their Messiah has come? Because the suffering peoples in Judean society
find their lives improved and their dignity restored. And it is important to
note that none of that happens because G-d swoops down and waves a magic wand. It
happens because the people of Israel have lived into their part of their
Covenant with G-d.
In our
Gospel reading, the presence of the Holy One becomes manifest in the very human
work of healing and encouraging those who suffer, all of which results from the
coming of Jesus. And when Jesus departs, he will call those who follow him in
every age to continue that same work.
So if
this scripture were being written today, it might read something like this:
In
response to John the Baptizer’s question “How can we know that the Holy One has
come among us?” we might answer this way:
·
People
who disagree on the way the world should be find ways to see past political
ideologies and religious beliefs to recognize the image of G_d on the face of
the other and embrace them as fellow children of G-d. The blind see
again. The deaf hear.
·
People
struggling with disabilities - whether physical, mental, psychological,
political, socio-economic - are provided the means and encouragement to fully
participate in the society that everyone else takes for granted. The lame
walk.
·
People
with diseases once seen as morally reproachable from HIV to addictions to
mental illnesses are embraced and helped to heal. The lepers are
cleansed.
·
Children
in cages on our borders are reunited with their families. People of color find
they can trust law enforcement to respect their dignity. Debt laden graduates
of our colleges are freed of their debt slavery to pursue the lives that we,
their parent’s generation, always took for granted. The poor receive good
news.
How we
get there is another story. That is why we need this period of Advent to
consider carefully our lives, our worldviews, our values in the silence of
these shortening days in which we wait for the return of the light. It is why the
G_d who is always present with us must discernably come among us and stir up
the power we will need to make hard decisions and then bring them to fruition.
It is why we need the scriptures that remind us that we, in all our
shortcomings, are not terribly different from all of the other people of G-d
historically and yet, G-d has always been present with us and continues to call
us to lives of compassion and loving service.
So let us
rejoice this Gaudete Sunday with the hopeful expectation that the Holy One will
indeed come and dwell among us. Let us take this period of Advent seriously as
we quietly, patiently consider what our own role may be in the coming of G-d’s Kingdom.
Most importantly, let us be patient with ourselves, recognizing that we are
called only to do what is ours to do. And knowing we cannot do any of this
alone, let us turn humbly to the Holy One who is always with us, guiding us,
strengthening us, and ever willing to forgive us when we go wrong.
Let us
pray: Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might
come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your
bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ
our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and
for ever. Amen.
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Harry Scott Coverston
Orlando, Florida
If the unexamined life is not worth
living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not
worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.
For what does G-d require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?
(Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures)
Do not be daunted by the enormity
of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are
not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
- Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish
Sages (1993)
© Harry Coverston 2019
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1 comment:
This is a great post, Father. I look forward to reading more!
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