Yo - Brothers and Sisters!
Advent 1 a, December 1, 2013 -Matt. 24:36- 44 with Isaiah 2:1-5 in the b.g.
Advent is to be a time of hope in God. That's a mouthful. For God is mystery. We can't actually see God the way we can see each other. Nor can we fully comprehend God's ways – the miracle of birth, the vastness of the universe, the detail of our own DNA. There are realities that devastate us – illnesses, sudden death, inequity, prejudice, bigotry.
And yet God promises to be present in certain realities. Some would say this is foolishness, utter darn nonsense, that the great God, Creator of the universe would somehow be present: in the water and the word; in the wine and the bread: coming in ways that comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
All of which delivers us into today's Gospel. Jesus is speaking of his return calling Himself (in a multi layered metaphor) the Son of Man. Were you listening? Jesus employs two images to speak of the Son of Man's coming. One is the flood, although here there is nothing mentioned about the wickedness of the people – only their unpreparedness for the flood. The second image is just as alarming. Jesus employs the image of a (are you ready?) thief in the night.
What might Jesus' approach, His surprise coming, rob us of?
Perhaps Jesus' approach, His coming into our lives daily and ultimately, will rob us of our delusions of self-control. This delusion of self control is one serious problem. Our delusions of self control include the following: we have to be happy or somehow we must make ourselves or others happy. How foolish and impossible this is. Such delusions also include the insatiable drive to have more, get more, just "enough" (as if such an insatiable drive could ever be satisfied). Do you remember that old country song, "Looking for love in all the wrong places". When we give in to this delusion of "more" we are looking for meaning, purpose, even fulfilment in all the wrong places. Finally such delusions also include the feeling that we have to always work to experience meaning. All these delusions of self control shroud us in a darkness that is very deep.
Nevertheless to whatever darkness is ours that accompanies our delusion and striving after self control comes light. The light that comes is the light of God. Such light may first approach us as a flickering candle or a baby crying – or even some seemingly ordinary, or perhaps to others unreliable, witnesses refuse to shut up. They have seen something amazing and are joyfully compelled to tell others, any who will hear.
So, dear people, as would be followers of Jesus, we are called not to escape from this world but to live in it. We are called both to face the darkness outside of us and inside of us. We are not to run from nor deny the realities of Syria where over a million children are now refugees. We are not to run from nor deny the magnitude of the damage from the massive typhoon that struck the Philippines. Nor are we to deny the powers of violence, hunger, and homelessness right here in the Lower Mainland and across Canada. Instead in facing all of this we are to examine the causes around us and within us. We are to seek God's direction in working to change the things that deny or limit life. We are to see what we can do. To be sure we can't do everything. Just as surely we must do something. Remember, know, God is with us and for us, with the world and for the world. This reality, this promise, this presence of God is THE LIGHT, the light that dispels darkness.
John's Gospel calls Jesus the light of the world. Jesus in Matthew calls himself the Son of Man. The Son of Man promises to be coming AGAIN.
I am convinced today that He comes around us. Are we too busy doing our necessary daily tasks to see Him? Look. See. Two have people have walked out into the traffic on the Queensborough Bridge so that a mother duck and her babies can safely cross. There is a homeless woman who looks right into your eye, maybe into your soul as you drop a loonie or townie into her hat and says "God bless you!" There are even a group of teenagers who are daring to lustily sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as they host the Salvation Army kettle outside a local Safeway store. Do we see Him coming?
Can we, do we like the prophet Isaiah, see this very word of God? Can we envision like MLK Jr. a new world where former enemies are being transformed into friends – and then where countless new possibilities irrupt? Can we like Isaiah envision God changing the hearts and minds of people and the powers that be so that all the money (literally BILLIONS OF DOLLARS) now being spent to develop weapons of war are redirected to peaceful means of education, health care and food for all? Is this only pie in the sky? Or is this truly God's will?
Even now God is working to accomplish this. God's modus operandi is often people. It may be hard to imagine – perhaps impossible for us to see right now. Remember the darkness is sometimes SO DEEP! But also remember and know: Jesus comes to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. The oppressed will be liberated! (Luke 4)
How amazing this will be for all who are oppressed: people suffering domestic violence, the hungry, the homeless, the addicted, the fearful, the refugee fleeing for his or her children – people, including you and me.
The darkness is great! But the light of Christ comes – bidding to shine on and through all.
Do we see it? Are we intentionally living in ways that will increase our ability to see, to behold, to celebrate, to hope, to share, to love, to forgive? Are we?
I close with an image from my colleague Pastor Michael Rodgers.... A rabbi in the middle ages once posed this problem to his students: "How can you tell," he asked them, "the precise moment that night becomes day? How can you tell that morning has begun?" "Morning begins," answered one student, "when you can tell the sheep in the pasture from the goats." "No," answered another, "morning begins when you can just make out the path ahead."
Finally the rabbi gave his answer. "It is not morning," he said, "until you can recognize the face of a sister or a brother in the face of everyone you meet."
Oh people of God: may this morning be such a morning for us. People get ready there's a new day coming. Amen.