Advent - Year A -- 2016
Indexed by Date. Sermons for Advent Year A
Isaiah 2: 1-5
Psalm 122
Matthew 24: 36-44
I seem to recall that there was an old rusty anvil hanging around our property somewhere when I was young. A various times our property had housed a farm, a massive grist mill and a blacksmith shop. So we had a lot of stuff and junk! I’m not sure if the anvil is still around; I haven’t seen the barrel butter churn and the horse collars since I was a teen. I haven’t thought of most of the stuff in years! The only other place I would have seen such an anvil thing would be in a museum or at an historic site. Of course an anvil is used by a blacksmith to help shape objects such as horseshoes and, I suppose, plowshares! Being a blacksmith is far from what you would call “light work”; it’s hard, heavy and hot. The shaping of hot iron takes skill, muscle and a heavy hammer.
John Moses, my colleague in Aylesford, recently posted this on Facebook, “ Any damned fool can make a war, and many have. It’s making peace that’s hard. Hence the image of the smith at the hot forge beating weapos into good tools.”
This passage from Isaiah prompted me to think of an organization that had fallen off my radar. Project Plowshares, a division of The Canadian Council of Churches now 40 years old that “works with churches, governments and civil society, in Canada and abroad, to advance policies and actions to prevent war and armed violence and build peace” from their website
I think it is significant that the swords are not destroyed, nor are they beaten into toys or weird street art; they are beaten into implements of agriculture. They go from killing to feeding and sustaining life. Of course the plowshare Isaiah was talking about would have been for a one sod plow pulled a donkey or ox and not one of those fancy smanchy rollover plows, with 14 or more mouldboards that cost close to $100,000. With one of those you can go back and forth and all the furrows fall in the same direction.
One of the things that suffers first during any time of military conflict or war is the ability of the common people to feed themselves and to provide the economic necessities of life by trading agricultural products. I believe it was the Romans who, when they destroyed the city of an enemy, also salted the fields, so that nothing could grow there for many years. As part of “le grande derangement”, or the Expulsion of the Acadians, as history has tended to call it, the homes, barns and crops of the Acadians were destroyed by King George’s army. It’s still going on!
Not that long ago I saw a picture of a very forlorn man looking at his destroyed olive grove. He is a Palestinian resident of what is sometimes called the “Occupied Territory” who had, up until that point earned his living from olive trees that had sustained his family for generations. Then the Israeli Army came in and uprooted and destroyed all of his trees. I’m not sure if they had a plan for his land or not! It happens over and over again in the occupied territories. What is God’s response to these and other evils in the world?
There was an episode of Criminal Minds in which one “un-sub” had a mental disorder which made him see the words that others spoke, as if they were suspended in the air, on an invisible blackboard! Isaiah speaks to the people of his vision in which he has actually SEEN the word of God come to life - but its more than words hanging in the air - he has seen justice and peace lived out. His vision was of the word of life made real and take shape and form. Its more than a pollyanna, “nothing is wrong”, kind of vision; its filled with concrete examples, meeting the deep-felt needs of the people.
My mom would come home from a tea or supper and wonder out loud how some people made “such flaky pie crust”. I found a new recipe and showed it to her but her comment was something along the lines of, “you don’t put that in pie crust”. I’m told that one of the definitions of insanity is to do something in the same way, time and again but expect a different result.
Advent hope is about looking at the vision of Isaiah, the promise of God, and resolving to live into that and make changes so the vision becomes more and more real.
It’s not that we can do it all on our own, but that we actively participate in God’s future. Centuries ago St Augustine wrote of such hope and faithful action, “Without God, we cannot; without us, God will not.”
What is it that God wants? This, and other passages tell us. No more children dying? We have the means to improve child and maternal health here and around the world.
No more grinding poverty? We have the means to reduce poverty if we had the will.
No more war? If we put as much effort into peace as we do into war, I wonder what results could be achieved?
I saw something on the internet the other day. A woman was yelled at for giving a coat to a homeless man. The protester’s problem was that it was just a band aid solution and did not help people in any substantial way. This prompted the young student to develop a program to employ people who then earned enough to get a roof over their heads and through extensive consultation with the homeless developed a coat that could be transformed each night into a sleeping bag and back again! Then she opened a manufacturing facility to make these coats which employed street people. So she taught marketable skills and met an urgent need at the same time.
Christmas is often a time for feel good movies about changed hearts and lives but the trick is to make those changes sustainable over the long haul.
The trick, I think, is to be able to see what we want and then to take what steps we can to make that a reality.
So lets fire up the forge, put the swords into the fire and when they are red hot lets pound with all we are worth and make a plowshare of life, love and justice.
Amen!
Isaiah 11: 1-10
Psalm 72
Matthew 3: 1-12
In the movie “Beyond Rangoon” Dr Laura Bowman goes on vacation to Burma after the murder of her husband and son. Depressed and not thinking of her own safety, she becomes caught up in the struggle for democracy there and must flee for her life. After a harrowing river crossing she arrives at a hospital in Thailand and immediately offers her services to the much overworked staff. In her struggle she had found a reason to live. Her medical training was obvious and a staff member looks at her with bewilderment, and asks, “Where did you come from?” Then she corrects herself, asking something along the lines of, “Oh, I don’t care, how long can you stay?”
I suspect that more of you will remember the old western that made popular the question, “Who was that masked man?” and the response, “Why he’s the ...........”
John the Baptizer wasn’t a masked crime fighting hero or a doctor whose personal crisis intertwined with a political one but when he appeared out in the wilderness of Roman controlled Palestine, I’m sure people were wondering who he was, where he came from and how long he was staying? No doubt he was not the first “weird wilderness preacher” ; oppression and occupation tend to I’ve rise to such preachers!
Putting together the pieces, mostly from the other gospels, we know that he was the son of Elizabeth and Zachariah’s old age, a distant cousin of Jesus, Mary’s boy. Since we’ve peeked at the ending we know that he was eventually executed because he told the truth to the wrong person.
In the middle though, his one role in public life was to prepare the way for the promised one, which the gospel writers assert to have been Jesus.
The language he uses for repentance is the same as for “turning around”; to repent is to change direction. The language he uses for “preparing the way” is the same language used for “road building”.
Those of us who live or have been attempting to travel in the vicinity of Holmes Hill Rd. this fall, know a great deal about road construction which at this point seems more like “road destruction”! However, once they have replaced and connected all the water, sewer and drainage systems they will fill up the leftover holes, level and pave the street, build a sidewalk, paint the lines and place the necessary signs. Somewhere in there will be winter! And THEN we will all heave a huge sigh of relief.
John the Baptizer spoke of preparing the way for the promised one in the same way a village of that era would prepare for the visit of a dignitary. They would fill in the holes and cut down the hills! Perhaps they sent out soldiers to remove the thieves that hung out in the wilderness to prey on travellers. I’m not sure what else that would have been involved in the days of chariots and horseback but we can imagine what it would involve here: a new coat of asphalt and fresh white and yellow lines, well tended shoulders and, of course, strategically placed flowers. Removing street people and other “undesirables” is often part of the program. I read that when Pope John Paul II visited a slum in a South American country to find they did have running water - it had been put in the week before! They wanted to leave good impression!
Road building is work and would have been especially so before bulldozers, excavators, carry-alls and back-hoes. John tells the people they need to prepare themselves for the coming of the one whose appearance had been anticipated for generations.
Just what was this “promised one” going to do for the people? Well, to steal a phrase that has recently become well known, he was going to make their nation great again! He was going to bring their nation back to the glory days of the great King David. All of those things mentioned in the passage from the Older Testament were going to happen when this promised one came. It would turn the world as they knew it upside-down!
In this passage he spoke to the rich and powerful and “told them off”! Notice, he called them “a bunch of snakes” and said that they could not avoid the coming destruction by showing up to hear him preach! He told all of them that they could not count on their ethnic identity as “God’s Chosen Ones”. It was true repentance that God wanted and repentance was NOT just a guilty feeling, though it may start with that, it was, as I said, turning and going in a new direction. It was the kind of deep realization that resulted in a CHANGE of action and life.
Let’s not forget that the people had to go out to the wilderness to hear John and his message. The people of Israel were shaped and formed by their wilderness experience under Moses; it was time for similar experience!
At this time of year we are bombarded by “feel good” movies, some of which are quite “sappy” but, in the end, involve a plot which shows life altering change. For example - Ebenezer Scrooge goes from being a miserable miser, who didn’t even really care for himself, to a kind and generous man. After the visits of the spirits, “he knew how keep Christmas well”. George Bailey did not so much change as he realized the value of a life focussed on the small things in life and the well being of his community and family. The Grinch’s heart grew bigger and 51 years ago, has it really been that long, Charlie Brown, upset with the over rampant commercialization of Christmas puts on a play which tells the story of Christmas from the Gospel According to Luke. This anti-commercialization message was, ironically, paid for by Coca-Cola! Despite low expectations when first produced this award winning cartoon has been aired every year since.
I’m a little cranky when I see all the tv shows which pay little or no attention to religion of any kind for 249 episodes a year, more or less, but have to gather the whole cast around the Christmas tree and have Grandpa tell “the most important story there is.”
What are we to do with these biblical messages in Hantsport, and surrounding areas, in the last days of 2016. Can we place ourselves in the crowds that gather to hear John? Can we hear Isaiah afresh? Do we want the lion to lie down with the lamb? Do we really believe that the message of John, and the birth of Jesus has life altering and world altering potential?
Families are incredibly busy these days - jobs are becoming more demanding and less rewarding. If you are one of these families you are probably saying, “I DON’T need another task?” This “time out” though has the potential to give great rewards - and benefits.
Are we willing to step off of the treadmill of mindless consumerism and incessant busyness, and go into the “wilderness”, even if it’s just for a few minutes each day and intentionally focus on what it is that we really hope to for this Christmas? Take out your hymn book or these Advent passages and look at the message that is proclaimed - really look at it. Reflect on what it is that we hear, say and sing?
What is ONE change you could make; what is ONE new direction for you to take this year (keeping in mind that the year has just begun! You have more than the rest of this month to get it done! ) Let us prepare to go into the new year with a new focus!
Amen!
Isaiah 35: 1-10
Luke 1: 47-55
Matthew 11: 2-11
A number of years ago an older parishioner named John told me this story of an event that had taken place a couple of years before I arrived at that Charge. The telephone rang and he answered it.
“Hello”
“Hello John”
“Hello, ........ who’s speaking?”
“John, this is your mother” said the somewhat elderly female voice on the other end of the line.
Now, this man was himself elderly and his mother had been dead for some time. “I’m sorry ma’am, you have the wrong number.”
“Is this John?”
“Yes I am”
“Well, this is your mother,” the voice insisted, sounding somewhat annoyed.
“No ma’am, you have the wrong number,” insisted the man!
“Don’t be foolish John, it’s your MOTHER!” the woman insisted even more emphatically!
Of course it was small village so the person who answered the phone asked the woman what the last name of her son was and the mystery was immediately solved. She had meant to phone her son, the local United Church Minister at -2336 but had phoned -2339 instead. By coincidence, the minister was also named John.
On the day in question in today’s passage from Matthew’s gospel John, the Baptizer is the one who is confused and disappointed. He had spent his public ministry telling people to prepare for the arrival of a mysterious, “awaited one.” The people who went to hear him in the wilderness were called to be baptized, confessing their sins and John saw his work as making the path straight for this mysterious messiah!
The Christian church has believed that Jesus of Nazareth was in fact that “awaited one”, that “messiah”. John seems to have believed this, at least initially, but I wonder when the doubts began to creep in?
It’s a sad thing when you get what you hope and pray for and then discover that it’s not what you really wanted after all. In the movie, “Home Alone” 7 year old Kevin MacAllister wished for his family to disappear and through a comedy of errors they all left on their vacation without him! Initially, he was elated, but by Christmas Eve he was really, really wishing for them to return home.
Real life is not a comic Christmas movie though. I married a couple who had several children by the time they separated. I heard that they broke up because he did not really want to be a dad anymore! Perhaps it wasn’t what he thought it would be. I suppose that at least some divorces involve the realization that “this is not what I thought it would be like.”
John, and the rest of Israel, had a generations old hope that the Messiah would be a certain way and do certain things to make their nation great again! It involved military and political action! Jesus came but clearly “marched to the beat of his own drummer.” He had different ideas of greatness that involved service, rather than prestige and power! It quickly became clear that he was not going to lead an armed insurrection - his way of change involved hearts and minds adhering to the original covenant they had with their God, generations before.
We are all approaching Christmas with our own set of expectations and hopes. The media feeds us lots of hype about gorgeous well trimmed trees, happy families, lots of presents and a table laden with good food. In this perfect Christmas vision there is peace, harmony and family bliss.
MOST times, we fall short of these lofty goals. Sometimes it is because we have set up an impossible ideal. Sometimes, we need a little help.
At the Hantsport Food Bank we know that next week we will pack 50 or more hampers so that these families can have at least some of those expectations met. It’s a sad reality that we need to do this, yet we rejoice because we have the food and gifts to meet the need. Many of you have brought items for our food bank, to share with those who don’t have what they need this year. I thank you on their behalf.
However, even in the households that have all the “stuff” that money can buy and have the “look” of a great Christmas things are not always as they seem. I know that family violence spikes at this time of year. It’s not all that hard to figure out why this is! People have more time at home and the stress of unmet expectations combined with an extra trip or two to the liquor store can push an already tense situation over the edge.
Yet, we all have the Good News to guide us! The Christmas Carols we sing with great gusto know all too well the needs of the world to which Jesus came, but maybe we sing those words without really expecting them to be true. We also sometimes forget that he did not come to stay in the manger in Bethlehem. Jesus did not come to remain a baby and stay confined to a stable with smelly animals - he came to grow up and go out into the weary and imperfect world, to “infect” and “transform” and “change” weary and imperfect lives with the kind of hope that gets things done.
What would a world look like that did not need “white gift” events or food banks? What would a world look like where everyone had meaningful work? What would a world look like where health care could address things like cancer and debilitating genetic illnesses? What about all the places in the world where the streets are not safe, either from the bombs, shells and bullets of armed conflict or the violence of gangs and deep systemic problems?
Mary and Joseph did not expect to be in a barn in Bethlehem for the birth of their first child. For most people there are glitches on the road to parenthood - some babies are born on jet planes - some in taxi cabs.
Yet our faith asks us to realize that God is with us in the unexpected and that God calls us to be the support for others in times of unexpected crisis -
When John sent his disciples to Jesus wondering if Jesus actually was the Messiah, or not, Jesus told them to focus on what WAS happening, not on what was NOT taking place.
The world comes to the church asking much the same question. What actions and activities do we at Avon United have to show them? AA meetings hosted. UCW work. Prayer Shawls given. Food given to those in need. The sick and shut-ins visited. Money given to support refugees and other mission projects. People who reach out to neighbours in need.
If the Christmas story is only for the ideal situations - and the ideal people, then it is not Good News at all.
So, welcome the Christ story into your imperfect lives, into the flurry of unmet expectations this year.
It doesn’t matter where we are when the story meets our lives.
Amen!