Keep Hope Alive

 

I don't think this sermon needs much of introduction really. I will share that what shaped it is the impending doom I am feeling and sensing that is out there amongst my friends and many of my congregation as we prepare for "President Trump 2.0." 

The country has enjoyed some version of stability and normalcy for the past four years under the Biden administration. But even Biden could not accomplish some ambitious goals when the Republicans in Congress...assisted by Senators Joe Mancin and Kyrsten Sinema from the Democratic Party...nixed important pieces of legislation. People decry "illegals" entering the country through the border with Mexico, and yet when there was a bipartisan bill that could address many of the problems at the border, one phone call from the aggrieved and unhinged president-to-be stopped the bill from being passed. Afterall, the leader of MAGA needed an issue to harp on for the campaign.

I bought gas on the way to Valdosta tonight. It was $2.74 at Costco. I only report that since so many people seem to think that the president sets the gas prices (presdients don't wield that sort of power). Still, for those of us steeling outselves for what's coming, we're taking note of all the petty complaints about an otherwise robust economy we had to read on our social media feeds. It will be entertaining, and really sad, when those who believed the president could set the price of eggs and gas discover that they don't do that. However, their economic policies can make markets either stable or chaotic...and the markets don't do well with chaos.

With all that in mind, I look to the readings for Christmas I and came to the conclusion that it is on us to keep hope alive. See what you think.

Texts: Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2: 1-20

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“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined.”

These opening words of our First Reading from Isaiah tell a story of a people living in a time of tremendous turmoil and upheaval.

The Bible isn’t a history book…but these writings of the prophet were reflective of actual historical events.

There had been wars…and rebellions…and invasions in the 8^th century BCE that had resulted in the Assyrian Empire conquering and oppressing the people of Israel and Judea.

Not long after that…less than a hundred years later…the Babylonians would take over Assyria…further scattering and depressing the people.

The terms “darkness” and “light” are metaphorical.

“Darkness” is about oppression and fear.

“Light” is about relief from such circumstances.

And the words of the oracle that Isaiah is speaking to these beleaguered people are about hope.

A hope that stands on the horizon…if they can hold on through these desperate and troubled times.

Many of them could not. But for the remnant that remained…that glimmer of hope became the great light that delivered them out of captivity.

For Christians…we see this hope as a signal that crosses time and space many centuries later in a bright star in the sky over Bethlehem…signaling the birth of the Christ child.

And just as it had been during the rule of the Assyrian Empire…the Jews of that Palestinian region found themselves under the thumb of another empire…this time the Roman Empire.

We hear Luke tell us that Augustus has put out the order for everyone to report to their town of origin for the census.

And so miles around the countryside…obedient people are making their way back to their hometowns.

Think of it as if that were to happen today…it’s as if the President told everyone to go back to the places where they were born…it would be like the Thanksgiving or Christmas travel seasons…only on foot.

Joseph and Mary get to the inn…but everybody else has beaten them to this place.

There was no place to go.

Even the guest rooms were full.

So they end up out in the barn…with the animals.

To make this situation more dramatic…Mary goes into labor.

She gives birth to Jesus…outside of the inn…amidst the animals.

Lowing cows…braying donkeys…baahing sheep.

Meanwhile…in another corner of this landscape…the shepherds are also outside in the fields tending their flocks.

Shepherds are not romantic figures in this society.

They’re the working poor and the disenfranchised…living on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

In our own time…we might think of them as the undocumented workers who fix our roofs and work on our bridges.

It’s to this group that the angel appears…telling them…the unclean and the unknowns…that there is good news…happening right now…in Bethlehem.

Good news for all the people.

“To you…yes, to you…the poor and powerless…the forgotten…the marginalized… a Savior has come into the world.

To you…you people out here in the deep darkness…a great light has come…wrapped up in swaddling clothing. Go…see for yourselves.”

And if one angel saying all this wasn’t enough…Luke brings out a chorus line of heavenly beings…singing and trumpeting:

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

This is definitely NOT a silent night!

Between the animals and the angels…the mad rush of shepherds showing up in the manger…an exhausted Mary with her bone-weary Joseph…are tending to this newborn…wrapped in cloth to keep him warm now that he is outside the womb…and in the outside world.

The Savior…the promised Messiah…is not born in a palace.

There are no rose petals.

Even as an infant…Jesus is with those who don’t enjoy the benefits and privileges of the well-connected and well-heeled.

From the very beginning…Luke shows us that Jesus…who is part of the tribe of Israel…is embedded with four-footed creatures and the working poor of his people.

And that is good news for them…and us.

Because…as we all know…this baby will grow up…

And Jesus and his ministry of love isn’t going to be received as “good news” to those who enjoy status and prestige in the Roman Empire.

This good news is for the ones who have been waiting for someone to tell them that their lives matter and are not forgotten.

This is the God with us…who will know human suffering with us.

These thoughts and these messages…are part of Mary’s pondering as she considers this new life she is tending to in an animal’s trough.

I was recently reflecting upon the experience of greeting one of our congregation’s favorite babies… Avery’s son Sayler.

I remember I was having a really rough week…one of those where it feels like nothing is going right.

That’s when I got the text that Sayler had been born at Archbold Hospital in Thomasville.

I was happy to be invited to visit and come up to this sweet and sacred space where the family had gathered to marvel at this beautiful little boy.

And it was when I was handed Sayler and got to hold hm that I felt all the weight of my troubles fall away.

Here in my hands was life…and hope.

Babies are such fragile and utterly dependent beings.

Their tiny bodies rely on us…the adults…to be careful and nurturing.

Babies need attention and love to grow and thrive.

In fact…studies done at the University of Miami confirm the importance of babies being touched and lightly massaged to help stimulate their cells.

So…when we think about the events of this Holy Night…the cacophony and the joy of angels and animals…the excitement and the exhaustion of the people…all placed against a backdrop of living under the thumb of a Roman Empire…we can see how this child…the Son of the Most High…this Prince of Peace…represents a hope that requires care and attention.

That hope today rests with us to not only be seekers of the light…but to be bearers of it as well.

 

Because even as we sing of peace on earth and good will toward everyone…we know that not all is peaceful.

And there are still those with the power who do not necessarily work for the common good of all people.

And so we revisit this story every year…a way to remind ourselves that hope comes as the gift from God to us in the Christmas season.

That hope…even if it feels fleeting at times…is given to us to handle with care and grow it larger and into something greater…because the world still needs a great light of Hope…Peace…Joy…and Love to shine in the deep darkness.

May we…like Mary…ponder these things in our hearts…and commit ourselves at this Christmas to keep hope alive.

In the name of our one Holy and Undivided Trinity.

Merry Christmas.

 

Mary the Prophet

 

I love the Magnificat, though I don't always like the tune settings. I always want the song to have more oomph than most composers seem to want to give it. 

I also love the statue called "Mary as Prophet" on the VTS campus. But it wasn't until I was writing this sermon, and spent some time with the words of the Magnificat, and read around the story of Mary's trip into the hill country to see Elizabeth, that I found so much richness and depth and meaning to this moment. When Peggy Parker made this statue, I have to wonder, if she made the same connections that I did to the great prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah? 

And did VTS understand what it did by placing this statue between the ruins of the burned down old chapel and the much bigger new one?

I'm including with this post the prayer I'll be using. It's from "Daily Prayer for All Seasons" put out by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 2014 and pulled from the Revised Common Lectionary p.34. 

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Prayer: O God of Elizabeth and Mary, you visited your servants with news of the world’s redemption in the coming of the Savior. Make our hearts leap with joy, and fill our mouths with songs of praise, that we may announce glad tidings of peace and welcome the Christ in our midst. Amen.

 

The Song of Mary…the Magnificat: so good…we actually heard it twice this morning.

It’s a song of might and resilience…one that ought to be heard as a rock anthem or even a power ballad.

It’s Mary’s song…her own remix of a prayer she probably memorized from her Jewish upbringing.

It echoes the song of her ancestor Hannah when she became pregnant with Samuel, the prophet and last judge of Israel in the Old Testament.

This song rises up from the core of her being…a shout to the heavens of praise and intensity.

But that’s not where this story begins.

There’s a logical build up to this tune.

Like I said a few weeks ago…of all the evangelists…Luke is the one who is a composer and librettist on the level of Rogers and Hammerstein.

If we know anything about their musical style…that duo always made sure there was a dramatic development in the story  that made singing the logical climax.

And therefore…there has to be an emotional build to this young teenage mother-to-be singing out “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord!”

So let’s back up a moment and get a sense of what all has happened.

First thing to know…Mary…a young Jewish girl descended from the line of David…engaged to a carpenter named Joseph…gets an unexpected visit from the angel Gabriel. Gabriel tells her that God has a special mission for her: she’s going to give birth to the Son of the Most High.

“Oh…and by the way…your relative Elizabeth? Yeah, the older woman who thought she was barren? Well…she’s gonna have a son and she’s gonna name him John.

Her husband Zechariah… who thought I was kidding and has been made mute as a punishment for laughing at me… is gonna declare their child “the prophet of the Most High” and their kid is going to prepare the way for this son you’ll be having. How do ya like that, huh?!”

Mary…as we might imagine…probably stood still for a moment in stunned silence and awe.

This is fantastical news…way beyond the bounds of human comprehension.

And so Gabriel finishes this declaration with, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Again…Mary is listening to all of this.

She’s trying to make sense of this.

She’s a young unwed girl.

There are serious consequences for her being pregnant and unmarried in this culture.

Nonetheless…from the depths of her being she responds: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

This utterance is no less brave and courageous than that of her Jewish ancestors…such as the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah. When told that they must go to their people and be prophets of sometimes really unpleasant tidings…they protested.

Jeremiah said, “I am only a boy.”

Isaiah tried to say, “Oh, no…not me: I am a man of unclean lips.”

And God said to both of them: Don’t tell me what I already know. You’re it! I got your back. Now go!

Through the Angel Gabriel…Mary is getting the same charge…one of God saying, “I know this is scary…but I’ve got your back, Mary.”

And Mary accepts the charge.

But…and there is a “but” here… unlike Jeremiah and Isaiah…she’s in an extremely vulnerable position.

By rights…the society in which she lived was allowed to vilify her and stone her death for being pregnant out of wedlock.

Joseph…as the man…could have told her he wasn’t going to marry her and left her defenseless against those who would see her as a less than because she was pregnant and put her to death.

So, she takes off to the hill country.

A thousand thoughts spinning in her head.

She’s going to Elizabeth…a relative of some kind.

We don’t know what the precise relationship is between them.

What we do know is that Elizabeth is a type of “auntie” figure…a trusted older adult…someone Mary feels comfortable enough with that she knows she can tell her what’s happened and receive good counsel.

I think this is something quite relatable.

I’m pretty sure everyone here at one time or another has faced a time when we’ve felt as if we’re in a pickle.

We don’t know what to do or how to make sense of a situation.

And that’s when we go looking for those helpers: a good friend… a parent… maybe a teacher or colleague…even a therapist… or a priest.

Someone who you know will listen and help guide you through the haze and the fog to making the right decision.  

There’s a statue on the campus of Virginia Theological Seminary by the artist Peggy Parker.

It’s called “Mary as Prophet.”

It’s located between the area of the old chapel and the new one.

And it depicts this encounter between these two women…symbolically like the statue’s location…this is the old Elizabeth and the young Mary….the mother of John…keeper of the Old Testament…and the mother of Jesus…who will usher in the New Testament.

I’ve posted a copy of a photo I took of the statue on the bulletin board in the parish hall.

Parker depicts these two women as being of African descent…a break from what we normally get shown here in the west.

She shows Mary looking wracked with anguish because…well…as I’ve said…this pregnancy could land in her in some serious hot water.

One arm is cradling the very small baby bump.

Her other hand is clutching at the collar of her robe.

Her gaze is off into the distance.

The Elizabeth character is reaching out…placing her hand on Mary’s elbow… a sign of reassurance.

She’s looking into the face of this younger woman.

And her face speaks of concern…caring…and comfort.

I imagine as we look back at the Gospel that this was perhaps how things were the minute Mary arrived at this home in the hill country.

And then…when she reveals the message of Gabriel…not only does Elizabeth respond positively and affirms this calling….

We hear that John… the one who baptizes at the Jordan River…the one who demands a reformation of the way the Jewish religion is practiced under the Roman occupation…even HE is leaping for joy at the sound of her voice.

One prophet recognizing another prophet.

With all this confirmation…with all this encouragement…Mary cannot contain herself any longer.

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord

My spirit rejoices in God my savior!”

Mary…serving as a prophet…pulls on that ancient song of Hannah.

In the face of whatever danger or disgrace may come her way…she sings all the louder:

“He has shown the strength of his arm

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones….

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

For he has remembered his promise of mercy…”

When we hear these words…and consider the circumstances that led her to sing out this way…we are reminded that God continues to seek and find not the rich and famous and powerful.

God comes to those who others ignore:

a young teenage girl and an old woman…

to be the ones to raise up a generation that will lead their people to new hope…and greater love.  

Their words…their songs…echo into our own time…to inspire us to never lose sight of a God who stands on the side of those who are the marginalized.

As we approach Christmas…may our hearts and minds be so stirred by Mary’s song.

May we find our own voice…fashion our own tune…to proclaim the greatness of God.

Because…with God…nothing is impossible.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We Need John the Baptizer

 

If you are wondering what happened to my sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent, I didn't have to preach because we had our "every fifteen months or so" visit from Bishop Frank Logue. If you want to hear what he had to say, you can always check out the St. Barnabas YouTube Channel. 

And as we inch ever closer to the resumption of the chaos that was the administration of our president-elect when he was in office from 2017-2021...I have doing a lot of reading of the preachers of the Confessing Church movment in Germany during the reign of the Third Reich. I came across a sermon on portion of our Sunday Gospel. The preacher, Helmut Gollwitzer, used the Luke text to call out Germans for their cruelty to the Jews. He was preaching the Sunday following the infamous Kristallnacht, when the Nazis smashed the store front windows of Jewish establishments and burned their synagogues. 

While I don't anticipate the thugs of this incoming administration doing that, I do fear that there are going to be some truly awful things done to immigrants and very likely transgender people, who are less than one percent of our population, will also have a target on their backs. 

With that in mind...this is is the sermon I wrote. See what you think.

Texts: Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent, BCP 212

Luke 3: 7-18

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"Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us…."

That’s what we prayed at the beginning of the service.

And I have to wonder if that’s what motivates the outburst from John the Baptizer in our Gospel this morning.

I always love seeing the meme passed around on social media with the bearded guy in a brown sackcloth growling out: “Happy Advent, you brood of vipers!”

Because his words are so jarring…I think it’s easy for us to get too fixated on that first part of the Gospel.

There’s a lot more happening here…and we’ll get to that in a moment.

But first…just as a refresher…this Gospel lesson is found in the third chapter of Luke…beginning at the seventh verse.

In those first six verses we heard last week…as Bishop Logue noted in his sermon… Luke…the meticulous note taker and keeper of orderly records of everything… listed out the names of all the major powerful political and religious leaders of the day… the functional equivalents of who is president…who serves in the U.S. Senate all the way down to the mayor of Valdosta. Names that the Jewish population would have easily recognized…and could make life easier or harder for the folks of that time.

And God…in God’s mission of redemption of the people…those huddled masses yearning to breathe free…surpassed all the prestigious leaders in the Roman Imperial matrix and went straight to John…out in the wilderness conducting his baptisms in the Jordan River….and gave him the charge.

God tapped him to live out the words of the prophet Isaiah…serving as a prophetic witness himself of the new thing that was coming into the world.

John has been loud.

He’s attracted the attention of people… a lot of people.

And among those coming out to see him are the very people John can’t stand.

See John was not just some lone guy doing his own thing out by the Jordan River.

He was the leader of a movement…the Essenes…a break away sect from the Judaism of the day.

The Essenes felt that Judaism wasn’t cutting it any more…and that the leadership had become corrupted by the forces of the Empire.

John and his disciples were seeking a purer form of the religion…getting back to the “true Judaism.”

So when the crowds start coming…and John sees tax collectors…who were Jews working for the Roman Empire…and Pharisees and Sadducees…who were the Jewish leaders he’d had a problem with in the first place…and soldiers…the locals who had come to serve the Empire under Herod…John starts demanding “Who sent you?!”

Not only is he angry…there’s an air of suspicion in his tone…which makes sense.

The world of John…the First Century Palestine…was full of uncertainty.

It was tumultuous.

And for anyone on the wrong side of the Empire…it was dangerous.

So it makes sense that he’s on guard.

John bellowing out an invective such as “brood of vipers” is the typical street back talking an underdog uses against their bully.

But can you imagine how this must have shocked the crowd?

It certainly isn’t the normal way to greet people who are coming to be baptized!

And given that these are people with positions and privilege…they could have taken this tongue lashing as reason to retreat into their shells again.

But something happens.

After John has dressed them down so thoroughly…demanded that they must “bear fruits worthy of repentance”…they stop.

They listen.

They ask, “What are we supposed to do?”

I have to wonder if John wasn’t a little bit surprised. 

Here he’s called them names and questioned their motives for coming out there…and now they’ve asked him…him…to tell them what they would need to do to show that they’ve truly had a change of heart…and demonstrate their willingness to repair the breeches in their society?

How should they make amends and live differently?

And so he tells them: got two coats…give one to the person who doesn’t have one.

Tax collectors: quit with your practice of tacking on an extra percentage for yourself. Just charge the tax owed.

Soldiers: heard what I said to the tax collectors? You get a salary. Don’t go twisting the arms of other poor Jews and basically stealing their lunch money.

In other words…live your lives in harmony and without brutality toward others who are living under this tyranny of Rome.

Such a scene is an important one for us to see in our own times and during this Advent season.

We need those John the Baptizer figures calling us to account…to wake us up to the ways in which we live and move and have our being that may be making things harder on others.

It can be things we’re not even conscious of because we live in a society that keeps us distracted from noticing what we ought to be paying attention to and questioning.

We see it with the whole debate about public schools and public libraries.

There is so much focus on banning books and trying to suppress knowledge…preventing us from getting to know each other better…that we are in fact becoming more and more isolated…and fragmented…and suspicious of each other.

There’s no harm in learning the story of our country through the eyes of her immigrants.

There are important lessons to be learned about what promises were made and promises broken to the indigenous populations.

And… hard as it may be to hear the true stories of the slave trade and the way our European ancestors made it acceptable to enslave Africans for profit…these are the real stories that remain as sins we’re still dealing with today.

Because such wrongs have lived on in the invisible lines of where people can live…which influences whether they have good schools or even something as basic as a grocery store nearby.

When we learn each other’s stories…and listen to the experiences of people different than ourselves…we begin to form stronger communal bonds.

This can lead us to question other things that we seem to take as “just how things are”:  

Why is it that some kids must depend on their schools in order to get proper nutrition and then families have to scramble in the summertime?

Why is it that city and county own buildings that stand empty, but they can’t seem to figure out affordable housing?

When we insist on going to stores on holidays, do we remember that the person working may be having to take time away from their family for our convenience?

John the Baptizer told the crowd he baptized with water…but what he also did was to trouble the waters of his time.

He told them they needed to start waking up and paying attention to the needs of those around them.

We need to hear that message too.

Because…as our opening collect said…”we are sorely hindered by our sins.”

Not just our personal wrong doings or slights.

There are things that have been and are still being done in our name that are counter to our baptismal promises to seek and serve Christ in all people…and respect the dignity of every human being.

Those acts…whether we actively participate in them or not…still require us to stop and listen…

And we are left with that same question: “What should we do?”

We should begin with where God meets us…in our own bodies.

It begins with our self-care.

It’s like the instructions we always here on the airplane. If for some reason the cabin starts losing pressure and the oxygen mask drops down…put your own mask on first and then help your child or other fellow traveler.

But if we’re breathing fine…then do tend to that person who isn’t.

We should raise our voices to attract attention to those people…and those places that aren’t doing OK.

Because in caring enough to notice…and in the giving and the receiving…we build up community.

And building community…strengthening the bonds between people… that’s the true joy of this season of expectation and celebration of God’s gift to us in Jesus.

Because building community and empathy and trust…is the work of Jesus.

The one who is even greater than John…the one who points the way to Love…and coming at a time when Love’s presence is most needed.

May we be the bearers of the light of joy.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

Don't Give up on Hope

 

We're starting a new church year with a Gospel focus on Luke. And as always the first Gospel reading is one that sets a scene of a people living with uncertainty and things falling apart around them. 

What timing for us as we face a world that is turning toward authoritarianism and anti-democratic "norms." 

Thankfully, the Gospel...as dire as it sounds...also is a story of Hope and of Love that overcomes all attempts to kill it. May that be the thing that we look to in these upcoming years.

Text: Luke 21: 25-36

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Happy Church New Year!

And welcome to Advent…a season of waiting and preparing for the coming of birth of Jesus.

We’re moving on from hearing stories from the Gospel of Mark…and turning our focus to the Gospel of Luke…with the usual smatterings of lessons from John as well.

Luke’s account of the life and ministry of Jesus is very orderly…and directed mostly to the newly arrived Gentiles into the faith in ancient times.

Luke also is a Gospel for the underdogs: caring for women, children, the sick and the poor are important to Luke…and they are the central characters in Jesus’s healings as told in this Gospel.

And since caring for widows and orphans and the downtrodden and destitute were commands made of Jews…once again…we must remember that Jesus is giving us a perfect demonstration of how to live as a faithful Jew.

His chief mission was not to start a church…but as Bishop Michael Curry says…Jesus was about starting a movement…to recapture the imagination of the Jewish population.

Unlike Mark…the writer of Luke’s Gospel was not a first-hand witness to Jesus. 

Luke follows most of Mark’s story…and adds some color and gives more examples of Jesus’s teachings in the form of parables.

As I like to say…Luke is a little bit like the Rogers and Hammerstein of the Gospels.

There are moments where something big happens in the story… so big that the characters must burst into song.

Now …that didn’t happen in today’s Gospel.

And if it did…I imagine it would not be a sweet and uplifting tune like the Magnificat.

Today’s Gospel would more likely be set to some screaming death metal guitars or a punk rock anthem.

“Signs in the sun…moon…stars…nations confused…roaring seas…powers of heaven shaken.”

If we’re having some déjà vu…it’s because this is the same “Little Apocalypse” language we heard two weeks ago as we were finishing Mark’s Gospel.

And for the original hearers of this message back in the First Century…they were a people who were feeling and reeling from cataclysmic events that had left them shaken. The attempted uprising against the Roman Empire had resulted in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem for a second time…and the people had scattered in fear. To them…their world was crashing all-around them…and the promised return of Jesus…the Messiah…hadn’t happened as predicted.

We may not be able to relate to that sort of worldview…sitting here in 20-24 America. 

Or maybe we can understand it…in our own context.

Think of what it was like when Hurricane Idalia swept through the area.

Large branches and whole trees came down on homes and cars.

Power was out for a period of time.

All of it causing the headaches of finding roofers…and tree removal companies…and adjusters.

And then…just as things were coming back to something more normal…there was the overnight hours of Hurricane Helene this September…a storm that was initially forecast to be much further east of Valdosta.

More trees crashing into homes…blocking streets…the whole landscape of Valdosta State’s main entrance off North Patterson Street showed that nature had decided to clear cut the campus forest.

Power poles all around the area were snapped in two.

So many were without electricity for days and weeks.

Even the people in the higher elevations in the Carolinas were not spared as Helene’s rains wiped out whole areas with mudslides.

And all this coming after living through the COVID pandemic which seems to have left everyone more irritable and impatient than they were before 2020.

With wars overseas…and our anger-fueled politics in this country causing us to become the Divided States of America…maybe we can tap into those fears that our biblical ancestors were experiencing when the Roman Empire was trampling them down.

And that’s where it becomes important to hear again Jesus saying…”raise up your heads…your redemption is near…because even when heaven and earth pass away…my words will not pass away.”

Just as the prophet Isaiah offered comfort to the exiles returning from Babylon…Jesus is saying to the disciples of then…AND now… if we experience feeling as if the tectonic plates of our lives are shifting… hang on to my words… my love… my peace… my hope.

That’s what we need to always keep in front of our eyes.

It’s no mistake then…that on this First Sunday of Advent… as we hear disquieting words of people fainting from fear and foreboding of what is coming…we are lighting a candle for hope.   

This hope is the promise that nothing…not death…not rulers…not things present or things to come…or any powers…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

It’s this hope burning like the flame on that candle that represents a light so powerful that no darkness can overcome it (John 1:5).

People will try.

There are always going to be those who push fear and attempt to snuff out that powerful fire of Love by cutting people down…and telling them the lies that they don’t matter…that our lives aren’t worth anything.

But hope is always there to remind us that if God loved the birds and the bees and the lilies in the field…then guess what: God loves you and me even more!

This is same hope that the 20^th century theologian Howard Thurman found as the source of encouragement in the face of the racism and white supremacy in the country during his days.

Thurman understood that it was the hope found in the life of Jesus…who stood up to the hypocrisy and cruelty of the systems that existed in the First Century…that pointed the way for all those who have ever felt like their backs were against the wall.

By drawing upon that hope…anyone who has ever felt like one of the left behinds or forgotten could keep their light shining within their heart.

Because ordering one’s inner life around the teachings of Jesus provided that outer shell of protection from the furious fearful winds kicked up by those committed to darkness.

And that’s the key here to hope…

We must pay attention and order our inner lives…and focus on that sixth sense that tells us God is with us…God is living and breathing through us. And God is never far from us or leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Stick close to that source of light and hope…and make room in your hearts for the mercy and love of God to be your guide through this season and beyond.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.