A Sermon for II Advent All
Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC
December 9, 2012 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
There are four candles which form the outside circle of the
Advent wreath which surrounds the center candle, the Christ Candle. The
symbolism is that, in order to appreciate the birth of Christ in our daily
lives, we need to first burn with these opportunities for grace. The candles
represent Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, and each one relates to a week of Advent,
the preparation for Christmas.
Last week in my sermon on the first Sunday of Advent, I spoke
of how we might find Hope in the middle of all hell breaking loose. This week,
the second Sunday of Advent, I want to look at Love. Now, one of the problems
we have in language is that we want to treat “Love” as something that one has:
“Do I have enough love?” Or, we tend to see “Love” as the warm goosey feeling
in response to someone liking you a lot. However, the Wilsonian definition of “Love”
is a verb not a noun and is how we act: “Love is not what you think or feel but
what you do.” Act first and then feel or think later. Harry Stack Sullivan, the
founder of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, reminded his patients and students:
“It is easier to act yourself into a new way of feeling than to feel yourself
into a new way of acting.”
I saw a wonderful demonstration of love this last week. I
agreed to give the invocation at the County Board of Commissioners meeting and
on the agenda was a presentation by the Monarch Lighthouse Club Bell Ringers, a
group of intellectually disabled adults who ring bells. These people have been
told all of their lives by the larger society that they don't quite measure up.
Yet here they come, armed with their sets of different colored bells and, under
the direction of their leader who affirmed them in love, they ring their bells
together to make a wonderful sound. As I looked in their eyes, I saw that, in
thanksgiving, they give their best, joining with others as part of something
greater than their own agendas, to create something beautiful for the benefit
of somebody else. That is love as a living verb. I have invited them to come to
this church to show you love in action.
Each of the stories in the lessons for today is about love as
a living verb - people loving. Malachi, whose name may mean “Messenger of God”,
probably lived in the 5th century BC when the Temple had been
rebuilt by the exiles coming home from Babylon. However, it was a
disappointment because they lacked the money for a first rate structure, and
the priests seemed to display more than their fair share of corruption, offering
damaged animals and rotten food for sacrifice and charging the full price. It didn't look as if it was ever going to get
better. The avarice of the Priests and
the shoddiness of the Temple were symptoms of the people's own lack of respect
for God, family, and neighbor. The bad
news and the good news is that we get the Temple and Priests, and they resonate
with our own actions. Malachi points out that the laypeople do the same thing
when they withhold the wages of the laborer in the field, and when they rob God
and neighbor by not paying the full tithe - instead of giving off the top, they
only offer the leftovers. The “Messenger of God” points to another way of
living. Instead of complaining about how bad is that thing there, the Temple,
or that person there, the Priest, he suggests that we start to live as if the
Temple were indeed a place where we can return to respectfully meet God with
the best we have, and that Temple is found in the sacred space between us and
our family and our neighbor. The Messenger of God hears God say, “Return to me
and I will return to you.” Love is about returning even after disappointment.
Paul's letter to the Philippians shows how Paul decides to
live his love by giving thanks for all things. He loves by imitating the example
of Christ’s pouring himself out for him, and Paul pours himself out for others.
We learn love by example of others. Paul has had some rough times, but he deems
all of those events as meaningless when he compares them to the thanks he has
for Christ and these friends he has in Philippi. If you want to be thankful to
God, practice being thankful to the people you see. Love is not about giving
approval for getting what you want; it is about loving the gift because it came
in love.
The Song of Zechariah, which we used as our psalm for today,
and the Gospel lesson are bookends of the same story in Luke. Zechariah is a
Priest at the Temple, and he and his wife Elizabeth have no children in their
old age. One day Zechariah goes into the
Sanctuary of the Temple as part of his shift to light up the incense and offer
prayers. The worshippers wait patiently outside, and they wait and wait and
wait. Inside, the Angel Gabriel has shown up unannounced to tell him that they
will have a son whom they will name John who will prepare a way for the Messiah
to come. Zechariah scoffs at Gabriel
saying they are too old, in the same way that Sarah had laughed at God for
making the same promise to her and Abraham. He is so overwhelmed that he cannot
say a word and finally, when the worshippers get tired of waiting for him, they
find that he is mute. They send him for an extended rest cure or Sabbatical in
the Hill Country of Judea, and during that time, Elizabeth gets pregnant. They
will get a visit there from Mary, but here I am getting ahead of myself, for
that visit is in two weeks when Mary sings about peace.
Zechariah, who had worked for years at the Temple dutifully
doing his religious job, not thinking twice about how awesome it was to do what
he was doing in that awesome place, and
now far away without the job to keep him busy, finally has time to see how
God is indeed awesome in daily life.
During the naming ceremony, he follows the Angel’s instruction and writes that
the child's name will be John, and Zechariah devotes the rest of his life to
teaching his son John about how to find
God in the places of living life instead of in religious activities. Zechariah
gave his best, joining with Elizabeth as part of something greater than their
own agendas, to create something beautiful for the benefit of somebody else.
That is love as a living verb.
John, in today's Gospel lesson, leaves the Hill Country and
goes to the Jordan River valley where he preaches that faith is about how one
lives one's life and not about religious duties. Luke introduces this part of
the story by writing down all the leaders of the nation - “ In the fifteenth
year of the rule of Caesar Tiberius—it was while Pontius Pilate was governor of
Judea; Herod, ruler of Galilee; his brother Philip, ruler of Iturea and
Trachonitis; Lysanias, ruler of Abilene; during the Chief-Priesthood of Annas
and Caiaphas,” - not as a way of saying “Once upon a time”, but as a way of
telling us that love comes inside history while we are living life, as when
John meets Jesus and teaches him that love is lived. But I get ahead of myself for that is for the
lessons next month on the second Sunday of January.
At last week's confirmation service in this church, I saw love
in the parents who brought their children up, giving their best, moving outside
their own agendas to present their children for the service of something
greater than themselves. I saw love in the teachers spending the time to give
their best. I heard the choir give their best for something greater than themselves.
I saw people sign up to give their best for helping our homeless guests this
week. I saw people reach up to the Angel Tree to pick a name to whom to give
their best for a child they will probably never meet. I saw the outpouring of
food for the reception for the Bishop as people gave their best so that others
would be honored. Love is the everyday verb of our lives as we live love with
God and one another. Today, please don't hold on to your love as a noun but BE love
and give it away.
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