Good morning! And
welcome to Advent…that season of preparation, anticipation, and not anything
our culture understands or appreciates.
I’m sure y’all
noticed the red and green decorations in the stores…even before all the
Halloween candy was sold out. Even driving in this morning…I saw the large
Christmas ball decorations on the street corners.
While big box
stores have been pushing Christmas for weeks…we come to church and are greeted
with the words of Luke’s Gospel:
"There
will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress
among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will
faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers
of the heavens will be shaken….”(Luke 21:25-26)
The Luke reading
may sound a bit grim…and in so many ways…that seems exactly right for this
season of Advent…and especially for our times right now.
All eyes of the
nation had been focused on the trial in Brunswick for the past month.
And while the jury
handed down guilty verdicts in that case…
One family has had
a son murdered…
Two other families are
living with the punishment that their loved ones committed a murder.
And a community
must now work to reckon with what has happened and heal from the event.
I think the bishops
here in Georgia…our bishop Logue and the Bishop of Atlanta as well as the Lutheran
bishop of the Southeastern Synod got it right when they called for us to pray
for all affected, including ourselves…as we continue to do the work we have
been given to do to reckon with the sin of racism and to strive toward a world
where all God’s beloved children are treated with respect and dignity.
I had honestly and
maybe naively hoped that the pandemic with shutdowns and lockdowns and
dependance on those we called “essential workers”…which included people working
in grocery stores and restaurants…that maybe our hearts would have softened
enough to see how we are… as people… so interconnected and
interdependent.
Perhaps we might
begin to see Christ in the face of the person we regard as “other.”
Time and time
again…I’ve been disappointed and disillusioned that our forced social
distancing has seemed to separate us even more.
Tempers are
shorter.
People are more
rude.
As one of my
friends once said, “We are a long way from the manger in Bethlehem.”
Again…I say…welcome
to Advent….a time when we are encouraged to slow down…take stock of the
messiness that is our reality at times…and to keep searching for that light in
the distance as we look for Christ’s return.
If there’s someone
who understands “messy” and has words that still remain so incredibly relevant
it’s the prophet Jeremiah.
“The days are
surely coming…” he says. They aren’t here yet. They are “surely coming.”
Something to know
about Jeremiah:
he’s the prophet
for people who have been through trauma. And this poor guy has seen A LOT of
trauma.
He’s the prophet of
those residents of the southern kingdom…Judah… who thought they had it all
figured out. The Assyrians had conquered them…but they were going to eventually
overthrow their aggressors.
Instead…they were defeated,
captured and scattered in the Babylonian exile. Jerusalem was piles of rubble
and only a small remnant remained…one of those being Jeremiah.
Now he’d tried to warn
the leaders of Judah of these enemy invasions.
But instead of
thanking him and heeding the warnings…Jeremiah was beaten and ridiculed.
So here he is…in
this city still smoking and smoldering from the Babylonian takeover… and yet Jeremiah
is proclaiming hope.
The hope is not going
to come right away…but “the days are surely coming.”
There is a righteous
branch that will spring up for David (Jer.33:15b). The conquered kingdom of Judah
will be restored…and the ransacked city of Jerusalem will be safe…and will be
called “The Lord is our righteousness.” (Jer.33:16).
These days haven’t
arrived yet.
But Jeremiah knows this
is coming.
He has such an
intimate and close relationship to God (at the beginning of the Book of
Jeremiah…we hear God say that he knew Jeremiah in the womb) and Jeremiah knows
in the depths of his soul that God is going to deliver this frightened and
shaken people.
Those days are
surely coming…so don’t give up.
Don’t shut down.
Keep the faith.
Jeremiah’s lite
motif: Seek God. Seek God. Seek God!
How much do we need
to have the prophet now in our time…during these past almost two years…to keep
our hearts and minds fixed on a future beyond pandemics?
Interestingly…the
symbol of the righteous branch…new life growing… fits with the hope that
follows the “roaring sea” and “fainting in fear” language of Luke’s Gospel.
Jesus uses the fig
tree to reminds us that even when things might be feeling out-of-sorts…there is
hope…like when the leaves of the fig tree start sprouting, we know cold and
winter will give way to warmth and summer.
This is Jesus
giving us a type of pep talk in the same way that Jeremiah was giving
reassurance to his beleaguered people.
Where this
particular passage comes in Luke’s Gospel is right before everything starts
unraveling in Jerusalem and Jesus is arrested.
So he’s speaking these
words in a time where he knows that he’s in danger.
But even in this
moment of uncertainty…Jesus isn’t saying to throw in the towel.
No!
He’s saying, “Don’t
let the worries of this life get you down!
Keep your head up!
Redemption is
coming!
Not as some
after-you-die sort-of-thing; it’s coming now…right now!
Don’t just stare
into the void, but see what is happening around you, and know that hope is
springing up…just like that righteous branch.”
Jesus’ lite motif:
Seek God. Seek God. Seek God.
How much do we need
to hear that message from Jesus now?!
And it is coming
into fruition.
I see it in the
response of clergy in Brunswick who came together to serve as the non-anxious
presence of prayer for the length of that murder trial.
All five of the
Episcopal Churches in the Glynn County area…as well as Baptists, Methodists,
Jews and Muslims…made a point of being outside the courthouse. They all agreed
to work together because they knew how deeply shaken the community had been by
what happened.
And like
Jeremiah…and like Jesus…they also knew that their best offering back to the community
was to acknowledge that while the times are hard…there is still a God who has
not forsaken South Georgia and empowers them and us to seek the Holy that is
present in all people…loving our neighbors as ourselves.
They kept a daily
vigil each morning to pray for the judge, the jury and the families.
They looked to
God…and served as a visible sign of God for a hurting and troubled community.
Not only did this
help serve as a balm to the wounds of Brunswick…it has opened channels of
communication and dialogue among the people of faith in Glynn County.
I pray that the good
work they’ve begun continues…and might even be an inspiration for us here in
Lowndes County.
What an amazing
thing it would be if our three Episcopal Churches might find a common mission
to make life better for all people.
What a positive affect
we could have if the Episcopal Churches joined with other faith leaders to be a
force of love and lowering the temperature on the anger that seems to be
fueling division in the world?
What an outward and
visible sign of God’s grace and love when the Episcopal Churches and all people
of faith come together in unity of purpose to seek God!
Those days are surely coming, says the Lord…
In the Name of our
Undivided Trinity…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…
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