Sermon :: Mt. Hollywood Congregational Church :: Advent 1 :: 11.27.11
(video coming soon!)
On this Sunday every
year we hear the same sermon about keeping watch for a glimpse of hope because
the Christ child is on his way. This year, I am a little hesitant to talk about
hope in this way for the following reasons:
· Occupiers
at Occupy Oakland were tear gassed, beaten, and shot with non-lethal weapons.
· An
earthquake, a 3.9 on the Richter scale shook the bay area.
· An
unrecognizable package was detonated by Berkeley police at the Mormon School
for Ministry, housed across the street from Pacific School of Religion.
· A
man with a gun entered the UC Berkeley Haas School for Business and was shot on
site.
· Another
earthquake, this time 4.0 on the Richter scale, hit the bay area.
· Students
at OccupyCal are beaten for their peaceful protest.
· And
in most recent news, students linked arm in arm at UC Davis are casually pepper
sprayed by cops.
In
my world for the last few weeks, it felt like nothing was going right.
With
that in mind…Let us pray… (God may the words…)
In our first scripture this morning, we hear of
Jesus telling the disciples to keep awake for they do not know when the master
of the house will return. Now, we all know that Jesus is alluding to when he
comes back to earth. And for 1st century Christians to whom the book
of Mark was written, this was an imminent return. Jesus was coming back tomorrow... next week. They thought Jesus was coming
back really soon. You see, it was during this time that Christians were
suffering under the persecution of the Roman Empire. And so this imminent
return was even more significant because the sooner Jesus came back, the sooner
they could escape their scary and dangerous reality. Jesus gave them hope
because when he came back things would be made right.
So now it is now about 2000 years later. Jesus
still hasn’t returned in the way early Christians were expecting. And with
events like the ones I mentioned taking place, any sense of hope feels lost.
So lets explore this idea of hope. What is it that gives us hope? Is it the fact
that Congress just kinda sorta made Pizza a vegetable? Does that restore hope
for our children’s future? Or what about the 2012 Republican Debates? Or maybe
it is the completion of those debates that bring hope? All kidding aside… will
President Obama pulling out the troops by January 1 restore your hope in peace
and justice? Will corporate change provoked by the Occupy Movement restore your
hope in the power of nonviolence? Perhaps after the holidays wind down and the
New Year begins… perhaps THEN we will be able to muster up the courage to be
hopeful. But for now, at least for me, this hope feels lost.
You’re probably thinking, “Gosh... we send her to
seminary and she gets all negative about the world. What are they teaching
her?!” I know, I know, it sounds like the good news of the Gospel this morning
isn’t exactly good news. But! It is. I promise, good news is yet to come.
So here we are, progressive Christians living in a
crazy chaotic world full of death and destruction, injustice and patriarchal
systems, natural disasters and appalling national decisions. So what do we do?
Pray to God and then sit back and relax trusting that God will do it all? Do we
violently push our way to the root of the systems in an attempt to right the
wrongs? Or perhaps we find ways to think creatively and use the skills we
already have to create a better future?
Imagine that: imagine using the gifts and talents
that we already have in our possession to further the Kin-dom of God. Using our
skills and strengths to do what we can to bring hope to the world.
“From the fig tree, learn its lesson:” Jesus said, “as
soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth leaves, you know the summer is
near.” Church, did you hear that? AS SOON AS its branch becomes tender and PUTS
FORTH leaves, you know that SUMMER IS NEAR. As soon as we put forth our gifts,
you know that hope is near. Verse 30 of our text says: “this generation will
not pass away until all these things have taken place.“ We are here to
carry out the Kin-dom of God even if all else feels like its gone to the dogs.
We are here to use our skills in all their various ways because where someone
else falls short, we may pick up the slack. You see, we are the hope we’ve been waiting for.
There is this theme of vigilance and accountability
in the Mark passage that reminds us
to remind each other that we have
these gifts and skills, talents and abilities. And not only that we have them,
but to encourage each other to USE them!
In verse 7 of our second reading today from First
Corinthians, we are told that we have been enriched in Christ so that we are
not lacking in any spiritual gifts as we wait for Jesus to come to earth. You see, Paul was writing to Corinth
because there were a variety of issues ranging from lawsuits to sexual
immorality, divisions among people to idolatry… hm… they all sound related,
don’t they? They also sound a lot like our world today. He was reminding them of the need to
work together to combat these issues in order to bring about the Kin-dom of
God. It was this reminder that each person has been given gifts BY God to use
FOR God. It is not that hope relies on us because God is constantly working
through us. God is working through these talents and skills because it is God
who bestowed them upon us.
Marianne Williamson, quoting JFK, said, “Our
deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure.” This quote by Williamson often stops there. But what
comes after this is just as important. She goes on to say, “We ask ourselves,
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your
playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about
shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant
to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that
is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.” Amen?! That sounds
like a challenge to me. We are being called to claim our identity as
fully-capable children of God whose gifts and skills and talents are beautiful
and wonderful and we are called to use them to re-instill hope in the world and
to manifest the glory of God within us.
Perhaps if we give voice to them and acknowledge
them in each other’s presence we can hold each other accountable to utilizing
them in this world where so much of it is needed. So, church, tell me… and this
is not a rhetorical question. What are some of your gifts? Don’t be afraid! Speak
them out loud! ......... I know there are more, so as the day unfolds feel free to speak them out loud to each other.
The day I started planning out this sermon I got a
quote in my email from Wendell Berry, the insightful Catholic farmer, whose poetry is familiar to many. He wrote reminding us that from this experience of life, we know that human failure is altogether possible because we have done it over and over and over again...And that if we were
trying to look for optimism we would be kidding ourselves. Like I said earlier…
all hope feels lost. But, then he says this… “On the other hand, we want to be
hopeful, and hope is one of our duties. A part of our obligation to our own
being and to our descendants is to study our life and our condition, searching
always for the authentic underpinnings of hope. And if we look, these
underpinnings can still be found.”
And if we look, these underpinnings can still be
found…
I am convinced that this hope can be found within
us. It is in this season of advent
that is now officially upon us that we are being called to hope. “From the fig tree, learn
its lesson:” Jesus says, “as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth
leaves, you know the summer is near.” Embrace your tenderness. Feel your
spiritual gifts rise to every occasion. Bring them to the table. And BE HOPE. Don't just be hopeful. Don’t just say and look. But do and
act. Make hope an action. As you wait for the Christ child to arrive in the coming weeks, know that
you are a talented, fabulous child of God. And know that you are a living, breathing embodiment of
hope.
Amen.
