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