It's been awhile since I've posted! December was absorbed by a big Christmas giveaway at the Parktown Food Hub and then recovery from that event! But I have been to Springmoor a couple of times and today - when the promised ice and snow turned into more rain and 34 degrees - seemed like as good a day as any to catch up.
This was the message on the second Sunday of Advent (December 6, 2020) and it was preached three times in one day! First at The Crossing service at St. Philip Lutheran, then at the later service at St. Philip, and finally in the evening to the beloved people of Springmoor Retirement Village. It was a long day. But thanks to the miracle of modern technology you can still see it being delivered or read it below.
The texts for the day are:
Come Holy Spirit. Tune our ears and open our hearts to expand our understanding of your peace so that it doesn’t pass our understanding by such a wide margin. Amen
WELCOME TO THE WILDERNESS!
Wherein today we hear the rest of the story about violence and power and God.
Sometimes the Old Testament gets a bad rap. People say things like “wow, God is really mean in the Old Testament” or “all that violence! What kind of God orders everybody killed?” And those are hard questions. But they do not reflect the whole story.
On top of that, we live in a broken world and are in a culture that prioritizes power, status, privilege, and maintenance of those things at all costs – including force. We are so accustomed to the use of violence that it’s hard to imagine other ways of solving problems.
It really isn’t a very peaceful way to live.
Take the Babylonian captivity, for example: The Israelites were living their lives. Doing whatever they thought was best – but not necessarily living God’s vision.
Then along come the Babylonians. The big bad country with the most weapons, the most soldiers. They could swagger in and do pretty much whatever they wanted.
Through the prophets – including Isaiah, who we hear from today – God told the Israelites that the Babylonians were coming
The prophets narrated the captivity as it happened.
And in the end, it was through the prophets that God told them the rest of the story.
God let the Israelites feel the consequences of their behavior… but God never let them down.
In today’s gospel lesson, Mark is quoting Isaiah 40, verse 3:
Here it is from Isaiah:
In today’s gospel lesson, Mark is quoting Isaiah 40, verse 3:
Here it is from Isaiah:
A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
And in Mark:
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
It’s a perfect introduction to John being that voice. To John being the fulfillment of prophecy at a time when the Israelites were discovering that God had not been abandoned and they would still be saved.
Do you suppose that John, the guy wearing camel hair and eating bugs and honey, was what they expected for the “voice” that was prophesied so long before?
John calls the religious leaders a brood (or den) of vipers. Since those were the people who were supposed to be leading people to God, I cannot imagine that they were impressed.
But also, I’m pretty sure they never saw it coming.
John talks about power, too – something that those religious leaders really loved (at least the version they knew and trusted.) Jesus says that “one more powerful than I” was coming. Well imagine that. Someone more powerful than a guy who eats bugs?
Can you imagine that ANYBODY expected that the powerful one would act like Jesus acted? All the evidence says…
NOPE.
But still, I wonder what would have happened if those religious leaders had *really* paid attention to the rest of that passage from Isaish? To the rest of the story.
There is singing in verse 9:
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
And right next to that, in verse 10, mightiness:
See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
And then the kicker that ties it all together:
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Singing, and a mighty arm – and gentleness?
Or as it says in the Common English Bible:
God will gather lambs in his arms and lift them onto his lap.
Does that sound like a mighty arm, and power?
Apparently so…
At least to the God of hope.
At least to the God of hope.
Apparently so…
At least to the God of peace.
At least to the God of peace.
If you were here last week you heard me talk about the Advent For All that South Durham Connections is sharing with any and everyone. Last week’s piece of the Advent puzzle was HOPE
This week we encounter PEACE.
How peaceful would it be if mighty arms were used to cuddle and comfort in our laps the most vulnerable among us?
How is that even power? Are you rolling your eyes internally just a little bit, thinking… there she goes again… that bleeding heart… that’s nice for Sunday morning church but come onnnnn… join us in the “real world.” And yet – all I’m doing is sharing what God himself said … in the Old Testament no less!
I receive a daily quote called “This Nonviolent Life” and on Wednesday (12/2) the quote was from my fellow Texan Walter Wink. He said:
"Our society is so inured to violence that it finds it hard to believe in anything else. And that phrase believe in provides the clue. People trust violence. Violence 'saves.' It is 'redemptive.' But when we make survival the highest goal and death the greatest evil, we hand ourselves over to the gods of the Domination System. We trust violence because we are afraid. And we will not relinquish our fears until we are able to imagine a better alternative."
Now Wink was a Methodist pastor and I’m pretty sure the “better alternative” he would have described would be “power” that comes from Isaiah’s version of God, cuddling little lambs in his lap, being kind to nursing moms…
* Giving attention to the weakest and most vulnerable* The hungry and homeless* Those who don’t expect to live long lives because of gun violence* The abused and abandoned* Orphans* Women who fear for their sons’ lives* Families who take risks – and arrive at a place where they are punished rather than heard* Everyone who is cast aside because they haven’t been seen and heard, because they don’t have enough earthly power* Because they don’t have enough money, or strength, or capacity for domination of others to overcome injustice and pain
Those are the people that Jesus the Good Shepherd pulls onto his lap and snuggles comfortingly.
And in doing so, Jesus shows us that the real power is in PEACE. That in peace we are empowered beyond more violent kinds of power.
This is not the so-called “peace” of avoiding conflict by giving in, or of armed “peacekeepers.”
This is a peace (and yes, it DOES pass all understanding because as Walter Wink said, we simply cannot imagine this kind of peaceful power on our own) that comes from moving towards a world of wholeness,
A world where everyone’s need to be loved and cuddled in a loving lap is met.
That includes the people who struggle and can’t seem to “get their lives together”.
That includes people who have forgone deep relationships and care by prioritizing money and the power of violence above all else.
This wholeness is for happy go luck playful people who can’t seem to stop playing long enough to face their problems
And people who are so worried about their problems that they can’t seem to let go long enough to enjoy the opportunities for love that surround them.
I could go on and on, but in the end, what counts is that this love, the LAP OF LOVE, is for YOU.
Regardless of which side of earthly power you are on at any given moment: wielding it or being battered by it.
Jesus came and gathered the hurting close (defying human power) while chastising those who help human power (also an act of defiance.)
And it got him crucified.
But it could not keep him dead and it is in the Resurrection that we find our best hope for peace today.
That Jesus who defied all human-sanctioned power is the one one – the ONLY one – who was not held by death.
It is that Jesus, that fact of Resurrection, that allows us to have peace now, despite all the temptations to other ways of being.
It is that Resurrected Jesus who defeated violence.
Who gives us the PEACE POWER to be the ones who gather the vulnerable into comfort and safety.
Who gives us the PEACE POWER to be the ones who gather the vulnerable into comfort and safety.
Even when the “prevailing wisdom” is to “teach them a lesson.”
In the Resurrection we are freed to love contrary to the world’s common sense.
And that, my beloveds, is the rest of the story.
Amen.
Amen.
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