One
of the delights of having children and grandchildren is the observation of
discovery. New to the world, toddlers do
not have a tally of experiences that teach them what to expect from behaviors
or interactions with the world. The
older they – and we – get, the more predictable the world becomes. If we do “this”, we know “that” will be a
result. We can predict future events
based on our knowledge and experience in the world. For infants and toddlers, the “future” comes
as “Advent”, breaking news from the future not based on knowledge or
experience.
Luke’s
text for today is stressful. Signs. Distress.
Confusion. Fainting. Fear.
Dissipation. Drunkenness. Worries.
“Heavens
to Murgatroid,” Snagglepuss would say. Is
there not a better gospel text for the first Sunday of Advent? I want to look for a beautifully worded bit
of biblical poetry to invite me to contemplate the coming Christ child. Yet every year, whether reading from Luke or
Mark or Matthew, an anxiety laden apocalyptic passage leads us into
Advent.
The
meaning of “Advent”, however, is precisely apocalyptic – something from beyond
us is breaking into our present time and pointing us to the end of time when
all things will come together to worship and praise God for eternity. What comes is not something that we can
anticipate from our knowledge and experience.
It is totally new – beyond us – FROM beyond us. We can easily look
around our world and find distress, confusion, fear, worries. Turned in on ourselves, we can quickly become
depressed by hungers and hurts, sin, natural disaster, emptiness, loss of
purpose.
The
good news, from the gospel writers’ points of view, is that from all things
that distress us, God brings redemption.
The text feels like anxiety; but it brings the promise of peace.
We
have plenty of work to do. The gospel’s
promise of peace does not absolve us of responsibility for the shape of the
world around us. To the contrary, the
infant we worship demands strong commitment to his purposes of love and peace –
the gospel compels us to love our neighbors, and it gives a really broad
description of who our neighbors are.
With our engagement with the world, walking with Jesus, we will be
prepared, as Luke invites us, to stand before the Son of Man.
"Blessed by the God of Israel, who comes to set us free,
Who visits and redeems us, and grants us liberty.
The prophets spoke of mercy, of freedom and release;
God shall fulfill the promise to bring our people peace.”
-- Michael Perry, 1973
Gracious
God, who sent the prophets to be messengers of repentance to prepare the way
for our salvation: open our eyes and
hearts to see and receive the cautions of the prophets to forsake our sin and
to turn to the light that puts the darkness behind. May we celebrate righteously the remembrance
of holy nativity so that through righteous living, we may wait with joy the
coming in glory of Jesus who invites us to live with him and with you and with
the Holy Spirit forever. Amen.
Rev.
Jack Lipphardt
No comments:
Post a Comment