FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT – 03 December 2006
ST PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ABQ NM – the Rev. P. L. Holman
Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 21:25-36
“Watchful Hope”
It is good to be back among you to begin together this journey through Advent. The two weeks in Madagascar went by quickly, days filled with face to face meetings and worship, feasting and travel, laughter and not a few hugs and tears. It was truly an honor to be present on your behalf with our companion synods as they celebrated their first 20 years in ministry in the north, and to meet with two groups of leaders forming new synods who hope to be in companion relationships with the Rocky Mountain Synod as well. We have returned with greater insight into the ministry challenges and gifts of this partnership; we have returned with wonderful stories of the amazing work God is doing through the faithful people of the Mahajanga and Antsiranna Synods as well as the Northeast Synod located in Sambava; and we have returned with many questions about the future of this companion synod partnership. Most of all, we return to you blessed to have renewed old acquaintances, made new friends, and ready to begin a new church year preparing and praying for the coming again of Christ among us. We return renewed in hope, hope that is very much aware of the fear, despair and other challenges the world throws up against it.
We return to you in Advent hope. Advent is our time to watch and wait and listen for the coming of the Lord, on guard against the fearful powers of this world trusting with hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise. We have that promise from the stories of the past that renew our hope time and again as we hear them. The prophet Jeremiah, speaking as the reign of abusive kings comes to an end, speaking of hope for a new king and a new reign: the days are surely coming when God will enact newness, transforming Judah’s world and its leaders. We who know Jesus hear in Jeremiah’s words the promise of Christ coming again to complete the promise if newness, to lift the veil of fear and evil and embrace the world in peace. From Luke’s Gospel, as Jesus names the signs of the end times, hope comes in the form of a call to be alert and pray “that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.” It is in a way an alert hope, a watchful hope that shapes our Advent journey and our life together -- an engaged and honest hope that does not deny the brokenness of our lives and of our world, but names it and trusts the light to shine ever more brightly to guide us to life knowing that the One who is Light is already in our midst.
The central worship symbol of these Advent days is our wreath of candles -- one candle for each of the four Sundays in the season. Today we light one candle. Each week we add another light, symbolizing the growing Light of Hope even as our days here grow darker until the winter solstice. Then on Christmas Eve we will light the Christ candle, and individual candles, reminding us all that Christ the Light of the world is indeed the hope that outshines all fear, our guide through the greatest darkness the world can claim.
It was quite disorienting to find myself going from dark mornings in ABQ to sunrise between 4 and 5 a.m. in Madagascar. I am not a morning person, though in the past 20 years I have learned to arise with first light and appreciate that time of day (especially if I don’t have to think or talk with anyone). But on the island of Madagascar, located south of the equator and intersected by the Tropic of Capricorn, the sun rose early and so did the community. That made for very long days! Unlike the trip in summer 2005, this time there were no power outages to speak of, perhaps because presidential elections are today and the incumbent was doing his level best to make sure he kept folks in his good graces. [I understand some here were worried about our safety when they learned of an attempted military coup the first weekend we were on the island. Let me assure you we were quite safe – I knew nothing of the problem until we arrived back in the states!] It was a treat to have lights and air conditioning in the hotels where we stayed, and lovely starlight at night in a place where street lights are virtually nonexistent. But perhaps the most inspiring “light” was the light in the faces of the people who welcomed us and invited us to share in their celebrations.
In Mahajanga we were invited to process with the leaders and sit in the chancel for their 20th anniversary worship service. Before the service when the President learned that my luggage had been left behind in Paris and would not be there in time for me to vest, he insisted they loan me a robe and stole for worship. What they provided fit perfectly! At communion time, quite against Malagasy Lutheran Church polity, I was invited to serve communion and to pronounce the table blessing. What a joy to begin with familiar words, “May the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ…” and have 2000 bright eyes suddenly staring up at me, alerted by the sound of the female voice ringing out from the chancel! That story made it around the island before we did – that simple act of trust and faith by male colleagues gave renewed hope to women theologians who are still hurting from the synod assembly’s recent decision to rescind their earlier approval of women’s ordination. The women can be educated to be pastors but cannot serve in the church…yet. There is hope for change, but it is hope against great odds. And in the interim, wonderful gifts for ordained ministry are going unused.
The second Sunday we were in the Antsiranana synod for their 20th anniversary celebration. I preached at the Friday night worship, Pastor Jim Gonia on Saturday morning and Bishop Bjornberg on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday we vested and processed through town to the church where worship began at 8 a.m. and lasted five and a half hours. Five and one half hours -- that was a record for us Americans, and even a few Malagasy folks admitted it was a bit long. But what really made a lasting impression was the theme of their celebration: Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. [I’d try to say the Malagasy but Rijasoa would laugh at me!] They even had a theme song to go with it! Here is a community struggling with rampant child prostitution and health crises, and a country whose political situation -- in the government and in the church -- is volatile, and whose battle to achieve some semblance of honesty and accountability in government, stability in the economy, and quality water/sewer/road infrastructure, is a steep uphill one. In the midst of all that the gathering centered in “Jesus Christ—the Light of the World” was a gathering that put real flesh on the concept of “watchful hope.”
Advent means “coming” or arrival, yet this time of the church year is not just a time to remember 2000 years ago when God took on flesh and was born of Mary. Nor it is simply about sitting patiently and prayerfully waiting for the second coming of Christ, hoping to have our personal lives in order so that we can pass muster at the final judgment. Advent reminds us that our lives are involved in the process of the in-breaking of God’s reign on earth now, in the ongoing reconciliation of all creation with God now which one day will be complete. In these “between times” days we are called to be faithful stewards of all God has entrusted to us – of property and wealth, of relationships and wit, of opportunity to learn and to teach, of opportunity to forgive and to be forgiven. After all, it is rather hypocritical of us to long for the coming of the Lord and the deliverance from an evil world when we in our own brokenness contribute to that evil…
Jesus Christ is the Light of the World, a light that shines on every darkness and fear in order that fear not have the last word, but hope. Daniel Berrigan, in a reflection on Advent, used words from scripture to respond to the desperate situations we watch unfold in our world on a daily basis:
It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss — This is true: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction – This is true: I have come that they may have life, Jesus said, and that abundantly.
It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever – This is true: For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of Peace.
It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world – This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus said, and lo, I am with you, even to the end of the world.
It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church, before we can be peacemakers – This is true: I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young shall see visions, and your old shall have dreams….
So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope.
Ha! Even in watchful hope!
Let us see visions of love and peace and justice.
And let us pursue those visions!
Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ – the Life of the World.
Indeed, Jesus Christ, the LIGHT of the World!
Amen.