Advent 1 (B) + Be restored in prayer + 11.30.14

www.episcopalchurch.org

M. Campbell-Langdell+

All Saints, Oxnard

(Isaiah 63:19b-64:8; Ps. 80:1-7, 16-18; 1st Cor. 1:3-9; St. Mk 13:24-37)

Restore us, O God of hosts; *
show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Many times, I find the texts of the first week of Advent jarring. Here we are, content after turkey dinner and ready to put up lights or whathaveyou, and here comes the end times!  Woohoo! Talk about getting ready for Christmas, right? A peppermint mocha with your apocalypse?
But oddly enough, pouring over these readings earlier this week, the Isaiah passage really made me think of what is going on in Ferguson, MO. I can imagine the family of Mike Brown asking God to come down and intercede, do anything different, to bring about peace and justice. They don’t want the looting that has occurred. They want peace, and a just resolution. And again later this week, we heard the news that the church that the Brown family attends has been torched. It was nowhere near the other looting sites. My heart breaks for the family and their pastor. Loss upon loss. Possibly they are saying, “God, would you come down and put things to rights?”
Restore us, O God of hosts!

Yes, there were hearts breaking in Ferguson this week, but they were breaking all over the country too. And even so we found ways to be festive, and right here we had a beautiful little Thanksgiving service and dinner.

Yet we are also reminded that when divisions arise, as they did in the church in Corinth, we miss out on what Jesus is doing in the situation. One commentator, speaking of today’s text from 1^st Corinthians, which speaks of the revealing of Jesus Christ, notes that this precedes a section all about how the church in Corinth is divided. Paul wants them to set their church to rights, or they will not see what God wants to do with them.[1] So we, too, if we are a nation divided, cannot see what God would do with us.

So we ask, Restore us, Lord God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we will be saved.

Now, this gospel passage today looks like fearful stuff. Even the stars will fall out of the sky, but Luis Rivera-Pagan says that the point of this passage, which comes right before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, was not to scare. It was to strengthen the disciples with the “spiritual resistance” that they would need to persevere in a world that would not always be their friend.[2]

They needed something that would restore them, and he gave them that by promising them the hope that there would be changes, but that his Word would remain.  And since he is the Word, Jesus further alludes to the fact that his Spirit would be with them, even until the end of the age. They would not be left alone.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts. And help us remember that we are not alone either.
Whether what causes stress right now is holiday preparations and how to stretch the budget for Christmas gifts, or whether our hearts break for the unrest in Ferguson and the Middle East.
Restore us, O God, and help us maintain the hope that you have placed within us.

Now is the time of Advent, when we wait for the Lord, but it is also a time when we can take the time to be restored in Christ.

So… who on earth waits around for someone like we talk about doing for Jesus during Advent (and like we really do in effect all the time)? Who thinks about the one who is to return at every hour, every moment of every day? Well who, but those in love?[3] If the church is the bride of Christ, then we all await the Beloved, looking out the window on the cold nights, just waiting for the love of God to flood back into our lives again. In a typical Christian mystery, it is already here, but in this cold, cold world, we know we don’t quite have it, yet.

We wait in the evening, at midnight, at cockcrow, and at dawn. We wait all the other hours of the day, too. Because we know that our God is coming. How can we wait actively? Not just fall asleep to the lullabies of Christmas Carols? We can draw close to God in prayer.

Restore us, O God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

We will see the light of God’s countenance as we light up the darkness with our prayer. Because the best way to wait actively is to pray. Any of you who have prayed the overnight vigil the night of Maundy Thursday to Good Friday knows whereof I speak. Or perhaps you have experienced this staying overnight at a monastery and praying the hours in community. You feel close to God when you pick extra times to pray, late at night, or when you can’t sleep, or early in the morning before the whole house is awake. I have a lovely book called the Night Offices by Phyllis Tickle designed for just this, but a prayer book or a rosary of any kind will serve. My idea, and possible challenge for you if you choose to accept it, is to take some time to wait for the Lord this Advent, not just when you would normally pray, but at an unexpected hour, whether every day, or once or twice a week, so that you can open yourself up to a new relationship with Jesus. There are many tools to use for this, just ask me if you want suggestions.

Because every moment we spend drawing closer to God, God draws closer to us.
Restore us, O Lord God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

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[1] Rolf Jacobson, Karoline Lewis and Matt Skinner, “Working Preacher Sermon Brainwave Podcast for November 30, 2014,” www.workingpreacher.org (November 23, 2014).

[2] Luis N. Rivera-Pagan, “Comentario-Evangelio de San Marcos 13:24-37,” for Advent 1B, 2014, www.workingpreacher.org.

[3] Mark Allen Powell, “Commentary on Mark 13:24-37,” Advent 1B 2014, www.workingpreacher.org.