Advent 1 (C) + Pause, find hope + 11.29.15

(https://yourcoachingbrain.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/pause-1.jpg)

Melissa Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Jeremiah 33:14-16, Psalm 25:1-9, 1st Thessalonians 3:9-13, St Luke 21:25-36)

In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety (Jer. 33:16a).

Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.

What do we desire right now more than to be safe and sound? There have been so many violent events all around the world in recent moments. Just in this past week, on the day after Thanksgiving, another violent attack, this time in a women’s clinic in Colorado. Lord, have mercy. We also heard more about another shooting death of a young black man in Chicago. Christ, have mercy. And environmentalists tell us that the carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere are now above 400 parts per million, a number that is dangerously high, and could quickly become toxic. Lord, have mercy.

And we are tired. Tired of hearing bad news. I hear that our festival of capitalism called Black Friday wasn’t near its recent frenzy this year. Could it be because the American people yearn for a deeper peace and joy than can be found in the thrill of a bargain or of a muzak version of “Jingle Bells?” Yes, folks got out there and purchased a few things they wanted or needed, but it seems that we didn’t have the same crowd seeking thrills in deals. We seek something deeper, but the trouble is that a lot of us feel empty and dry. I have heard of preachers feeling like the words dry in their mouths as they try to respond to another tragedy. They open their mouths and no platitudes can escape. They seek a word of hope and relief to share.

But God does not grow tired. God has not run dry of words to share with us. God calls upon us. But we need to be able to hear God through the roar. We need to be able to pause just enough to be able to understand what it is God wants to share with us. To slow down just enough to attend to God’s voice.

Show me your ways, O LORD, and teach me your paths (Ps. 25:3).

Show me your ways, O LORD, and teach me your paths.

Teach us your paths. We need this time of Advent more than ever. At least I do. I need to learn the ways and paths of God so that I can walk amidst the pain of this world.

Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near (Luke 21:28).”

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus tells us that when the hard times come, we need to take heart and have hope. We need to stand up and raise our heads in confidence.

Although we do not know if we are in the end times, and in fact this is one of the realities that we live into every Advent season—we always await the second coming of Christ—we do know that we are facing hard times in our world. So, how do we live in hope? How do we live in confidence? How to we raise our heads instead of cowering in fear or hiding in the various distractions of our modern lives?

I read a little essay on the “Living Compass” website this week, which is the same group that made the Advent reflection book we will study during Advent and discuss in our Wednesday services (those books are in the narthex, by the way, and we should have at least one per household). The theme of this essay was taking a pause. The author started off by talking about how one might practice mindful eating at a holiday like Thanksgiving by taking small breaks in one’s meal to enjoy. These pauses also allow the body to register if it is full, allowing for a heathier enjoyment of the holiday. The author, Scott Stoner, went on to say: “This struck me as good advice, and a good metaphor, for how to live during the next four weeks.  To live mindfully, we need to remember to create times to pause, times to reflect on whether we are trying to do too much, buy too much, or eat too much.  Creating ‘living pauses’ will help us to not arrive at Christmas ‘stuffed’ and exhausted.”[1] What I great way to be sure that we really absorb all of this upcoming season!

I also think that taking pauses like this serves another purpose. They help us to be more present to the people around us. To interact with one another in love and hope and without fear and greed. We cannot and sometimes do not want to avoid all the Christmas festivities and shopping that come before Christmas. For some of us, this is a busy time for work or family life, also. But no matter what we are doing, we can remind ourselves to occasionally take a pause in the middle of it. To enjoy the moment. Someone once described this to me as a 20-second pause every 20 minutes. It does not even need to be noticeable to others, just to ourselves. This practice that allows us to “just be” for a moment will in turn help us to love others a little better.

I had the good fortune of visiting Costco this past Wednesday. Yikes! In a way, it was a bad idea. But I had two specific types of items I wanted to purchase and this seemed to be the time when I could do it. When I got there and finally found a parking spot, I entered and was immediately wow-ed by the long checkout lines. But I took a deep breath and decided to proceed calmly, making my way first to one department and then another and trying my best to interact with the other shoppers as people rather than as obstacles in my path. I managed to find a line to get to the checkout and waited my turn, gradually moving forward. Miraculously, this all moved a lot more quickly than I had anticipated. But there was a moment, amid the hubbub, just before I was up at bat at the check stand, when I lifted my heart and just enjoyed the moment. When I felt connected to all my unknown brothers and sisters there in the store experiencing what holiday merriment they could. Leaving the store, I tried to be helpful to one or two confused shoppers. And I left, feeling less stressed and more hopeful.

Saint Paul speaks to the Thessalonians today, and I always remember this letter because we studied it as a small group Bible Study at church three years ago now. I will always remember that sweet experience, and how I learned more from our parishioners about the love that Paul and the Thessalonians shared. I also remember that we learned about how the Thessalonians were scared about how the second coming of Christ would occur and especially what would happen if some died before Jesus came back. They wanted to be read.

This Advent we, too, prepare for the second coming of Christ, but our fears seem more rooted in worldly affairs and I think we often fear each other more than anything. How can we find that renewed hope and confidence that Jesus asks us to have? There is something fascinating here in Paul’s words, because as their leader and the founder of their community, he could easily command then to love each other better or to be more holy, but he seems to know that God is the one who needs to do that. So instead he asks God to make them increase in love for each other and he asks God to strengthen them in holiness.^[2] Only God can do this work in us. Only God can do the work of strengthening our hearts so that we can face this world and whatever it brings.

But we can do the work of pausing from time to time, each day and possibly several times a day. To listen, and to let God speak to our hearts. So that we can live a life of confidence, filled with hope, this Advent and always.  

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[1] Scott Stoner, “Words of Wellness: The Importance of Pausing” (November 27, 2015), http://www.livingcompass.org/wwow.html?ArticleID=339.

[2] Karoline Lewis, Rolf Jacobson, Matt Skinner, “Sermon Brainwave Podcast #449: First Sunday of Advent,” (for November 29, 2015) http://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=687.