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Second Sunday in Advent – 04 December 2005 St. Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman Isaiah 40:1-11; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; 2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8 “Here is your God!” It was an article by executive director Dr. Paul Hopkins was entitled, “Suffering Together” that caught my eye this week. That isn’t exactly the sort of title I expected to see in the winter issue of the Samaritan Counseling Center newsletter. What’s with this guy? Doesn’t he know it’s almost Christmas? What a scrooge – to write about suffering in such a happy time. Except it isn’t such a happy time. The desert winds blow dry and harsh, in body and mind and spirit, in home and nation and global community. World AIDS day, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the largest US Marine bombing casualty in Iraq in over four months, U.S. capital punishment death number 1000 since the practice was resumed, and on and on. It wasn’t at all a happy time for Israel held captive in Babylon some 2500 years ago. They knew all too well the weakness of human flesh, its frailty like the grass and flowers that flourished briefly only to wither and fade. They knew the blast of hot, dry wind that withered those tenacious plants of their homeland. They stood by helplessly as the chariots of Babylon swept down upon them as a scorching sirocco, and watched as Jerusalem and Solomon’s great temple were reduced to rubble. Like so much straw they were scattered by the winds of devastation, some in exile to Egypt, most taken by the enemy to Babylon. What they longed for was the “comfort” of which the prophet Isaiah spoke… Advent is a time to remember that we too are exiles. We live between the times, looking back to God’s advent among us as the babe in Bethlehem, awaiting God’s coming again with “power and great glory.” And into the midst of this advent waiting God’s Spirit blows life. The Hebrew word Isaiah used for breath (ruach) is also the word for wind and spirit. God sends both the sirocco – the dry wind off the desert – and the life-giving breath into our lungs. God’s spirit is what sustains our lives. It is this ruach – this Spirit – that was brooding over the face of the deep at creation. The sirocco withers the grass, so also our bodies die when the breath is withdrawn. But God’s ruach breathes life into even the most death-filled spaces. Reflecting on her recent divorce, a woman lamented that her life was full of cracks – cracks of brokenness and failure, cracks of self-loathing and anger. “Then one day I realized that it’s the cracks that let light in – healing light, hope-filled light – and they also let light OUT – my light that others might need for their own healing and hope. The day I realized that is the day my own healing began.” These same cracks also let in the winds of hope, and let them out again to be hope for others. Broken in any way? Burdened? Cracked? Join the club, and let the blessings flow! Mark’s gospel announces “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” And then offers as that beginning John the Baptist, the wilderness dude who wore weird clothes and ate stuff apparently worthy of note for all posterity, who called people to a radically new once-for-all-time understanding of repentance and just as radically worked himself out of a job by pointing to one who’d take over and make repentance an even more irresistible option: this one offers the gift of life in the Spirit’s presence. John doesn’t seek honor for himself by challenging the honor of Jesus. He demonstrates appropriate humility by defending his own honor without trespassing on the honor of another. He, like Isaiah before him, was a forerunner of Jesus, a strong and powerful man who worked all his life and died for what he hoped would come true – the reign of God on earth, a place of justice and mercy, of kindness, truth, and love. As we journey through Advent we are called to follow the same path, to walk in John’s sandalprints if you will, awaiting the coming again of the one who will set us free from our sinful ways, our hurtful and harmful relationships, our oppressive systems, awaiting the One who can use our brokenness for good. Follow the path the prophet put forth: “Give comfort! Prepare the way! Cry out! Get yourself up!” Participate in the liberating spread of God’s word into our lives and into our world.
Back to suffering together: We all know something about sharing suffering – recent responses to hurricane relief pleas, Thanksgiving food requests, military Christmas gifts, even the Adopted Families and other alternative gift-giving opportunities show us that. Dr. Hopkins concludes his article with something we all need to remember: [S]uffering together also calls us to think and act strategically, addressing not only the immediate suffering but also the larger structures that can either bring relief for such pain over the long term or impede access to needed care. Levees of compassion must be built even as the floodwaters of despair are pumped out…We see too many divisions in our world. Rich and poor, conservatives and liberals, blacks and whites and browns, public and private sectors, people of infinitely diverse faiths and life styles – all are becoming too fragmented and even polarized. If one member suffers, all must suffer. Even more, out of such suffering must come shared work to build effective and enduring compassionate systems of care. Compassionate systems in government? Even government. Compassionate systems like families? Even families. Compassionate systems like congregations? Even congregations like ours. A voice says, Cry out! Lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, do not fear; say to all who long for life, “Here is your God! Here IS your God! Here!” |