November 29, 2015 Thomas E Wilson, Rector
Searching
Advent Hope
The
first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the Church Year; so “Happy
New Year!” As on our traditional New Year’s, we look back at the
past and look forward to the coming year. There were some rough times
in the past year, and there have been some real joys. The first
Sunday of Advent is always a challenge for me because the lessons are
usually all about loss of control over what is happening in the
world. So as I sit down to write the sermon, I am also thinking about
what we are going to do for Thanksgiving Day which comes just before
this Sunday, and all those lessons have to do with giving thanks.
What happens is a little like living through a rapid fire
manic-depressive, bi-polar week. I thought back to my theater days
when the symbol of the two masks of the Muses of Comedy (Thalia) and
Tragedy (Melpomene). The characters in ancient Greek theatre would
put on masks depending on the role they would play to help project
their emotions. But this life is not a play, and we are not here to
play act our way through life. We are here to live into each moment,
each moment of loss and each moment of joy, sometimes in the same
moment.
 |
| Masks of Comedy and Tragedy in a mosaic in Hadrian's villa |
The
dynamic tension of loss and joy is what we call hope, which is also
the theme of the first candle we light in the Advent Wreath. Vaclav
Havel, playwright and first President of the Czech Republic, who had
spent years in prison for his fight against Soviet rule and
Communism, said of Hope: “Hope is definitely not the same thing as
optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well,
but the certainty that something makes sense no matter how it turns
out”
Psalm
25 is the Psalm for today and it is an acrostic poem, in which each
line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In it, the
poet/singer talks about putting trust in God in the face of the
opposition of seemingly overwhelming enemies. Notice how the
writer/singer refers to “the sins of my youth and my
transgressions,” as a way of taking some responsibility for the
situation in which enemies are encircling them, while simultaneously
patting themselves on the back for being humble and thereby deserving
being rescued. Yet the rest of the song underlines the hope that even
if the immediate present is at doubt, there is an underlying meaning
in the relationship.
It
is an appropriate Psalm to go along with the Hebrew Testament lesson
for today from Jeremiah. In this part of the Book of Jeremiah, the
Babylonian Empire had captured Jerusalem in 597 BC and, in return for
not destroying the city, they took a group of the leaders of Judah
and carried them out in exile as hostages, discouraging the remaining
leaders from getting in the way of Babylonian control. The leaders
started listening to the firebrands who wanted the city to rise up in
revolt. Jeremiah warned against that kind of the saber-rattling as
unrealistic and said they needed to find hope in a power greater than
themselves to get through, and learn from, this loss. They jailed him
as a defeatist, tore up their peace treaty and rose up in revolt.
Predictably Nebuchadnezzar brought his armies back to destroy the
whole city, which he did in 587 BC. Jeremiah has a vision where he
hears God saying that, even in the middle of the coming catastrophe,
God will be faithful and redeem even the loss that is to come. God
promises that there will be a new reality which is a continuation of
the love that never ended. Even if the immediate present is at doubt,
there is an underlying meaning in the relationship.
Paul,
writing to the Thessalonians from Corinth in today’s Epistle
reading, is undergoing opposition and he knows the Thessalonians are
undergoing opposition. Yet, he gives thanks for their hope in their
faithfulness to him, to the Risen Christ, and to the hope for a new
reality. Even if the immediate present is at doubt, there is an
underlying meaning in the relationship.
In
the Gospel lesson, Jesus is facing his own dim future. He has gone so
far in pushing the religious and political establishments that all of
his options for a happy resolution have been lost. Yet he has not
lost hope for the fulfillment of God’s redemption of all things.
Even if the immediate present is at doubt, there is an underlying
meaning in the relationship.
I
do not know what will happen to me, to you, or to this church, but I
am thankful for the past year and the relationship we have had with
each other and with God. I invite us to join together in hope for
this coming year as we live into each grace-filled moment of the
present and to the future with the God in whom we place our trust.
Searching
Advent Hope (poem)
The
shaker was making one more Martini batch;
it
would numb, of course, some of still unknown
things
to come which might indeed be of a groan
moment,
where despairs might well joy to snatch.
If
Emily is right in write and hope a tiny feathered
bird
which continues against gale and all adversity;
but
losing control moves the shaker to blasphemy
so
future might well loom a large vulture tethered.
Wanting
a belief, having faith or trust; almost does
a
lot of the time, but it’s like walking across a Swiss
cheese
floor not knowing the step leading to abyss,
fearing,
not death, but foolish seeming lot being his.
He
knows pride keeps note of those coming alarms
If
he but banish pride, hopes will come to his arms.
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