Readings
for Advent 1B:
Is. 64:1-9; 1Cor. 1:1-9; Mk.13:24-37
November 27, 2005
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Happy New Year! Happy New Year??? As you might remember, the Christian Church begins its new year on the first Sunday of Advent (unlike the secular calendar year which begins on January 1st). The season of Advent is tucked away behind Thanksgiving Day and before Christmas. If you look in the stores, you will not find any Advent cards or Advent sales advertised. There are no Advent TV specials nor Advent holiday parties. In fact, many people are still away on their thanksgiving holidays. Others have already moved into the holiday shopping frenzy, forgetting about the season of Advent altogether. So, we Christians have the day all to ourselves. Here we are yet again, as we have been for 2000 years, waiting, watching, praying, hoping, daring to face the future. “Behold, I am making all things new.” [Rev. 21:5]
The Christian faith is a forward looking religion; looking ahead to that time when God’s kingdom will come in its fullness. We look forward to a new day, a new dawning, transformation, resurrection. We look forward to the time when justice and righteousness will prevail; a time when nations no longer lift up swords against other nations; a time when the oldest of enemies become the best of friends; when the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard lie down with the kid, and a little child shall lead them; a time when there are no borders or self-interests to protect; when healing and compassion become the dominant themes such that the blind see, the lame walk, the poor are fed, the oppressed are liberated, and all people are given the opportunity to live a full life. [Is. 35, Is. 65, Mt. 11] We are always looking for signs of God’s presence and power; a time when what is holy and of lasting value, will be revealed and preserved; when wrong and evil will be put to an end.
So when will that time come? “About that day or hour, no one knows. Therefore, keep awake.” [Mk. 13] Every major world crisis brings its share of books and leaders describing devastating events as evidence that the end of the world is near. This tendency to use apocalyptic prophecies concerning the end of times, in order to make sense of traumatic upheavals in the world, remains a significant temptation for many Christians, especially those who feel powerless and afraid. But Jesus makes it clear that the end of time is not signaled by such events. Biblical apocalyptic prophecies were not written to predict an exact future or process. Biblical prophecies are rather a diagnosis of the moral and spiritual health of a people as well as a call to bring people back to God. These prophecies (which often quite colorful as well as horrific) are meant to engender hope in the face of hardship and injustice. What kind of hope? Hope, that in the end, God’s justice will prevail. It is into this context of hardship and injustice that the Battle Hymn of the Republic was written by Julia Ward Howard during the American Civil War.
If you carefully read the words of this famous hymn, you will notice she used apocalyptic biblical images of God’s justice prevailing over evil. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on.” When Julia Ward Howe penned the words to this song in 1861, she did not literally believe that God would come down from the heavens with sword in hand, trampling out the evil doers. However, she did believe that God cared about the plight of slaves and that those who believed in God’s ways were called to focus their efforts in ending slavery. So she responded to the call to stand up for justice. In 1861, she visited a Union Army camp on the Potomac River near Washington D.C. The war had just begun.
At that time, the “Southern Army” had had many successful victories, fighting fearlessly for the right of southerners to own slaves. Julia saw the worst effects of the war: death, loss of limbs, horrific sanitation conditions, widows, orphans, and economic devastation. Having been raised as an Episcopalian, Julia held onto the belief that God’s righteousness and justice will ultimately prevail. She believed that all people (e.g. black, white, men, and women) are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. These rights include, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It was for these beliefs that Julia gave of her time, talent, and treasure and dedicated this hymn.
Our present life is lived between two advents. The first advent was the coming of “Word of God” in the person of Jesus, who showed us the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus showed us how to be fully human, made in the image of God. Through his words, works, and spirit, we now know what this path of compassion is all about. We have all the information we need to move forward. However, we have not fully integrated this path of compassion into our lives. We continue in our self-indulgent appetites and ways and exploit others. We do not loved God and others with our whole heat, mind, and strength. We continue to hold onto resentments, hurts, and transgressions. We have not been true to the mind of Christ. And so, although we know what is necessary to move forward on the path of compassion, we are stuck and we do the very things we do not want to do.
It is into this context of being stuck that we await for the second coming of Christ. How and when this second coming of Christ will happen, we do not know. There are many different theological perspectives on the second coming of Christ. Perhaps it will be a gradual awakening of consciousness and action as prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah: “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest...For I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” [Jer. 31:31-35] This understanding of the second coming is embrace by those who have a more positive opinion of human nature.
Perhaps a subtle approach as the “gradual awakening” will not work with a recalcitrant human race. After all, “subtlety” hasn’t worked yet. Will the coming of the fullness of God’s kingdom require apocalyptic events? Will destruction and a traumatic weeding out of evil doers be required in order for justice and peace to prevail? Well, several of the biblical authors believed so. Their apocalyptic visions of the second coming can be found in the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, and other parts of the Gospels.
Whether it is a gradual awakening or a startling abruption, I think we all realize that in order for God’s kingdom to come into its fullness, God must be at the center of our lives. Our unsuccessful schemes for self-improvement, our attempts at extricating ourselves from the traps we have set, our continual preoccupation with our passions and desires, bring us to the deepest level of realization that apart from God, we are lost and cannot save ourselves.
In today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah speaks for a people who have been removed from their home of Israel, exiled to Babylon, and deprived of their rights and land. Knowing that they can not save themselves by their own ego strength and that they are lost without God, Isaiah cries out the Lord: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence...But you were angry, and we sinned; we have become one who is unclean...Yet O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the works of your hands.” [Isaiah 64]
It is this image of God as the potter and we as clay, that I would like to leave you with during this season of Advent. We are malleable people. We are a people shaped by the media, the environment, commercialism, bipartisan politics, secular school systems, and family traditions. But having left God out of our center, we have become distorted vessels, unable to contain the fullness and grace of God that is our inheritance. If we are the clay and God is the potter, what would it look like for us to become submissive to the potter’s hands? What adjustments would we need to make in order to be more pliable so that God can mold us into a faithful people? Would we set aside more time for silence? More time for service? More time for prayerful reflection? Would we seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness? Think about these things. And then, consciously choose a different route this Advent. Place your life into the hands of the divine potter, put on the armor of light, and let God mold you into the person God wills for you to be.
| Updated 12/04/05 |
|