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Advent 1 — Hope

The Good News Written

Jeremiah 33.14-16 (The Inclusive Bible, Priests for Equality)

“The days are surely coming, says [the Eternal], when I will bestow on Israel and Judah all the blessings I promised them. In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous branch from the line of David, who will bring justice and integrity to the land. In those days Judah will be safe and Jerusalem will be secure. They will call the land, ‘[The Great I AM] is our Justice.’”

Jan Richardson

“The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before. It is not possible to keep it from coming, because it will. That’s just how Advent works.”

Luke 21.25-28 (The Inclusive Bible, Priests for Equality)

“Signs will appear in the sun, the moon, and the stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish, distraught at the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the earth. The powers in the heavens will be shaken. After that, people will see the Chosen One coming on a cloud with great power and glory. When these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your ransom is near at hand.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, November 29, 2009.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, which is the first Season of the Christian Year. Advent means “coming” and is the liturgical preparation for the story of the coming of Jesus, which we will celebrate at Christmas. But Advent is more than remembering, it’s also an expression of hope for what still can be. We continue to wait and to work for the coming of the Christ Consciousness to be fully expressed through each of us so that we can have a world where no one is untouchable, no one is unlovable, and no one left in the margins. We await not only the coming of a little baby in story and in ritual, but also for the coming of the kin-dom of God where all that the baby represents will finally be made fully manifest in our world.

We’ve been waiting a long time. Jeremiah was waiting. Jeremiah was waiting for the day when everyone would know that God is, among other things, the desire for justice, equality, and opportunity for all people. Jeremiah longed for a day when everyone would say, “The Great I AM is our Justice.” The I AM in each of us still hopes for and calls us to work for justice and equality.

And Luke’s community, likewise, is waiting.

By the time Luke’s gospel was written, there had been a lot of waiting. Hundreds of years had gone by waiting for the prophet Elijah to return… and that never happened. Hundreds of years had gone by waiting for an anointed, warrior-king to rise up and restore Palestine to political independence. No such warrior-king, or “messiah” ever showed up… but there was this Jesus who came along, and he was so wise, and so charismatic that many people hoped and even believed he would be that warrior-king to raise an army, resist Rome, and establish an independent kingdom that would thrive and prosper again.

Jesus was very popular in the rural areas, but one fateful day he made a trip to the big city, Jerusalem. He got noticed by powerful people there, and was soon arrested, charged with treason, convicted, and executed. And hopes seemed dashed.

But then hope rose again… as stories started being told that Jesus’ execution didn’t take. Somehow, in some mysterious way, he didn’t stay dead. And since he didn’t stay dead, maybe one day soon it would be him and not Elijah who would return. And this time, instead of raising a rebel army, he would come with the forces of heaven stamp out injustice and bring in a new world of peace and justice and prosperity.

But by Luke’s day, even this new hope was getting old… they had been waiting for decades. And in the meantime, their holy city and their beautiful Temple had been destroyed and uprisings against Rome had failed bitterly and with extreme consequences. And so the waiting and the hoping continued; and in difficult times, hope can seem elusive. So people like Luke had to encourage their communities to find reasons to hope, to never give up, to not let circumstances dictate their feelings. Hope is a choice that one can make at anytime… never let anything beyond you steal your hope, Luke and others keep saying. Our Good may seem delayed but it is not denied… keep hoping, keep waiting, keep working.

Luke, like others before him, uses apocalyptic imagery; but apocalyptic imagery isn’t the language of despair, it is the language of outrageous, indomitable hope.

Sun, moon, and stars are heavenly luminaries and they represent the governments that seem to be all-powerful. As they try to prove and maintain their power – wars, holocausts, and annihilation occur. We saw it with ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe. We saw it with the evil of Nazi domination in the mid-20^th century. We saw it with the slave-trade. We saw it with apartheid in South Africa. We saw it as European settlers dehumanized the original occupants of North America, seizing their resources and destroying their cultures. We’ve seen it as politicians and preachers continue to wage psychological warfare against same-gender loving people and attempt to dehumanize and erase them in state constitutions and ecclesiastical pronouncements.

Oh we’ve seen the signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars. We’ve seen the nations in anguish, distraught at the roaring tides of change and at the waves of outcry demanding justice, inclusion, and equality. We’ve seen the powers in the heavens, that is, the governments who thought they could play God… we’ve seen them shake and quake with first rage and then fear. Luke saw it in his day, and history has repeated itself over and over again.

Luke, like John, borrows an image from the book of Daniel. In Daniel, there is a vision of a Chosen One cloud surfing as an image in opposition to the imperial powers of the day. Luke borrows that image and applies it to Jesus. When life seems cloudy, stormy, unmanageable, terrifying, look up (Luke is saying)… look past the storm, look past the clouds… the clouds are moving, they can’t last forever. And as the clouds drift by, there is the Truth for which Jesus lived still standing… amid the storm clouds… the Truth of our sacred value, the Truth that we can choose how we respond to whatever happens in life, the Truth that nothing can separate us from the love of God… not even the storm clouds of injustice or disease or poverty or prejudice. And when you remember the Truth that Jesus symbolizes for us, then stand tall and raise your heads, because your sacred value has been reaffirmed. The storm will pass, but the love of God in which we live and move and have our being will never end!

The clouds might temporarily hide the sun’s light, but they can’t destroy it. The sun is shining even when we cannot see it. Stand tall. Lift up your heads. Dare to hope. Don’t give up too soon. The clouds will drift away, and we will see again the sun that never stopped shining.

The conflicts and troubles and storms aren’t predictions of doom for the future… just the opposite. They are responses to difficulties of the day… they are dramatic ways of saying the difficulties will one day give way to a better reality, a better experience, a better world. Help is on the way, and it begins with the power of hope, and hope is something we can choose to embrace at any time… even now.

Psychologist and Philosopher William James said, “Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.’”

In troubling times, the young Jesus movement, represented today in Luke’s gospel, is doing just what William James suggests. They are responding to overwhelming discouragement and disappointment by imagining how things might improve, by clinging to hope no matter what, by insisting that nothing can deny nor diminish their sacred value. Even in the face of death, they are choosing to sing the song of life. Even when things seem hopeless, they find and employ the language of hope. And their powerful witness can inspire us today to face difficulties with the same self-assurance and the same indomitable hope.

As we face difficulties and disappointments with hope, with a vision of improvement, with deep faith in our sacred value no matter what happens around or even to us, with a belief that we can stand tall, with heads raised even in the stormiest times of life, we, like Luke, will be reminding the world that hope is a powerful force… in fact, it seems to set in motion the very power of God.

Luke reminds us that: “We have a hammer, and we have a bell. We have song to sing, all over this land. It’s the hammer of justice; it’s the bell of freedom. It’s the song about love between our brothers and sisters all over this land.” And this is the good news. Amen.

The Good News Affirmed

I’m thankful for the power of hope.

I choose to embrace the power of hope.

I lift up my heart.

I look beyond the storm clouds.

The sun is still shining.

And I know that ultimately, all is well.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20091129_1.mp3)

Video readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/video/20091129_1.wmv)