[Propertalk] 2 advent c

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

It was a surprisingly busy end of week, so I think I forgot to post this 
.... still reading it! There are about nine hours before I have to offer 
it to the congregation! 8 - )

Bob


THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY 
THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT (c)
BARUCH 5:1-9                         	              9th DECEMBER, 2012
PHILIPPIANS 1:3-11				           			CANTICLE 16
LUKE 3:1-6							
	
	Sometimes we can be SO dense. It may be unintentional. There are very 
few of us who actually enjoy being mean, or stupid, or even careless. 
Yet it happens, and, more often than not, it happens because we weren’t 
expecting some situation to crop up, we were simply unaware of what and 
who are around us. Quite likely it happens also because we don’t stop to 
think, to pay attention, to ask a simple question – above all, to show 
compassion and interest.

	Some people talk about “God Winks” to describe those occasions when 
one’s life is offered a transformative moment. Author Madeleine L’Engle 
called it a wrinkle in time. Whatever these are, God gives us all sorts 
of opportunities to respond – to respond to absolutely everyone. 
Teenaged Malala Yousafzai, the young woman from Pakistan who’s 
recovering in a British hospital after she was shot out of religious 
extremism rage, wrote last week, “One smile, can start a friendship. One 
word, can end a fight. One look, can save a relationship. One person can 
change your life.” 1

	It’s a helpful reminder to us in terms of how we present ourselves to 
others. But it’s something that WE need to take to heart for our own 
lives, for our own encouragement. No matter what’s going on in our 
lives, God presents openings for us, through which we can catch glimpses 
of the fact that neither gloom, nor rain, nor cold, nor anything else 
shall oppress us for ever.

	Baruch was the secretary of Jeremiah, a prophet not exactly

known as the practical joker of his day, so we can guess that Baruch’s 
life can’t have been a barrel of laughs either. Yet here he wrote one of 
the most upbeat comments in the midst of isolation, and loneliness, and 
heartache.

	People felt cut off from everything that made them comfortable, from 
everything that gave them assurance of being loved and respected. Baruch 
was writing to the people of Jerusalem during the period when many had 
been taken into exile in Babylon. But even those who remained behind in 
their own city felt as if there was nothing which could inspire them. 
Corruption, inflation, low wages, foreign domination of the markets and 
businesses – everything seemed to bring depression at the thought that 
there was no end of stress in sight.

	But Baruch wrote that there WAS hope. There’s ALWAYS hope where God is 
concerned. And just look at the hope!

	THAT’S what Advent is about.

	Have you ever been so excited about something that you had a hard time 
containing a smile? I’m sure that’s a question few if any need to be 
asked. Maybe a better question is, “When was the last time you were so 
excited when you were anticipating something enjoyable, something 
wonderful?” It may have been a little while, but I’m sure we can all 
remember the circumstances leading up to it, not to mention the occasion 
itself.

THAT’S why Baruch and John the Baptist were so fired up. They knew that 
something was afoot. They’d seen signs. They’d had a gut feeling about 
this.

Both of them were faithful in their religious practice. They were 
accustomed to thinking frequently about God’s relationship with 
creation. They worried about their neighbours. I mean, more than just 
making sure no one broke in to steal their Christmas presents. They were 
worried about what disabled them, what was hurting them or depressing 
them. They were like ancestors of Malala. They knew the benefit of 
giving smiles; exchanging touches; speaking the right word – and they 
knew EXACTLY the right word to say to make others smile so that they 
were given courage and hope for the future.

But the good thing about Baruch and John was that they didn’t have the 
slightest need to pull any punches, to butter up people. They took their 
vocation from God seriously. They stayed focused throughout their lives. 
And what they sought was the attention of everyone whom they met. They 
didn’t know exactly when God might act, but they were absolutely 
convinced that God WOULD act, and they wanted people to pay attention so 
that they could see, and hear, and respond. They wanted their neighbours 
to experience love, and support, and hope.

It’s so easy for folk to become discouraged, especially if things have 
been dull, or boring, or if stress has been building up as families 
worry about health, and so on. The issues never really seem to change.

So when people show an interest, when people talk about making things 
more like plain-sailing, when people refer to eradicating obstacles to 
ease of pilgrimage, or at least smoothing them out somewhat, then we 
listen.

We’re being given encouragement and hope to finish our Advent journey. 
It’s assurance that our hope is justified.

Advent invites us to listen. That’s why we change our habits, not to 
conform to the world, but to witness to it, to become voices ourselves, 
voices telling the world that roads, hills, mountains – everything will 
come together to make the arrival and the ministry of God’s Messiah more 
readily accessible. So we enter this building a little more quietly. We 
find a seat and don’t engage in chatter. We do whatever we can to make a 
special space in which the slightest sounds of hope may be amplified for 
our own hearing.

Notice that Baruch and John spoke to a very specific group of people – 
their OWN people, from their own cities and countryside. Not those 
living on the coastal plains, not those in interior valleys, not those 
up in the mountains or the neigbouring countries. Baruch and John spoke 
directly to the people with whom they interacted every day. They 
probably bought their groceries from them; had a new door made for their 
home by them; sat next to them in synagogue or the amphitheatre. These 
were people whose names they knew. They may not have liked all of them, 
but they knew them, so could speak to them directly. They tailored their 
message for each person so that everyone could catch that smile, that 
word, that gesture of hand or raised eyebrow.

Remember what Malala said? “One smile, CAN start a friendship. One word, 
CAN end a fight. One look, CAN save a relationship. One person CAN 
change your life.”

And that smile, that word, look, that person – we need not wait for 
God’s Messiah for these. We can and DO encounter them in God’s angels 
all around us.

God’s messenger John the Baptist arrived in such an unusual and 
unexpected way. Born to aged parents who felt comfortless and shamed; 
dedicated to God from his conception – before, if you count Elizabeth’s 
prayer; fully engaged in religious thought and practice. John was 
welcomed by his father who sensed in his childlike cries the lips of God 
for John’s people.

Here’s one instance in which the mystic poetry of older

language seems to combine the obvious and the hidden revelation of God’s 
interaction with us. Zechariah, staring into his son’s eyes with love 
and amazement at John’s birth, uttered the incredible words, “The 
dayspring from on high hath visited us …”

One smile, one word, one look, one person was to reveal God among us, 
and that person was John. Bearing a message from before creation, John, 
as Baruch before him, brought the message that we can trust God who 
hears our pleas for help, who knows how tired we can be, who realises 
how lonely we are when we’re separated from those who provide constant 
reminders of love.

Baruch, and John, and people around us today, speak to us of the power 
of love to overcome and enrich us. They invite us into God’s company, 
and walk with us. So we can wait – while details are worked out – 
knowing that we’re loved. But we have to wait.

	Baruch, John, and all the others speak to us about hope. But they also 
speak to us about waiting. A priest-counsellor wrote, “Even though I’ve 
done plenty of it in my life, (…) I still don’t enjoy waiting.  I trust 
it more.  I trust the whole process of change, transformation, and 
evolution more than I use(d) to.  But I still almost reflexively resist 
waiting (of which there are two types). …

“First, there is waiting when you know an answer is coming or an event 
is going to happen, waiting knowing that the waiting will come to an 
end.  This is a very concrete and tangible form of waiting. I have 
waited for medical test results more than a few times.  I have waited 
for babies to be born and for parents to take a last breath. …”

	But then there is the second type.  “When you have no idea when that 
waiting will end or what the waiting will bring… well…this is a 
different kind of waiting.  Waiting for the pain to end after the death 
of a loved one.  Waiting for a job offer week after week, waiting for a 
way to rebuild a home after a storm, …  We might even be waiting to see 
what God will do with our lives.  (This is) waiting without knowing.

	“During Advent, a season of waiting, we are suppose(d) to know what we 
are waiting for.  We know that we are waiting for the Light to burst us 
open.  We are waiting for the Holy One to come onto the scene and into 
our hearts and show us the way.  We know Christmas will come. We are, we 
assume, waiting for what we know.

	“The deeper truth, however, is that we really have no idea what will 
happen when the Light enters our lives and shows us the way.  In this 
sense, we are waiting without knowing what will happen or what will be 
required of us.  We cannot afford to be sentimental about the Light 
entering our lives.  Jesus might just turn things upside down, leading 
us down a road that we never wanted to travel.  How many of us are 
really waiting for the unknown, for the Light over which we have no 
control?  How many of us can tolerate waiting, fully expectant and open, 
to what the Holy One will do with our lives if we just surrender?” 2

	But Baruch, and John, and those around us say to me, say to you, that 
no matter what the waiting is like, or how long it takes, love, 
compassion, joy WILL be there. Reassured by this, then, we must now tell 
others, in the formal church and out of the formal church.

	Things ARE being made straight, and low, and smooth. We WILL see the 
salvation of God.



NOTE:
1 	Quoted on her Facebook page 
http://www.facebook.com/malalayousafzaiofficial
2	“The Work of Waiting”  December 3rd, 2012 by Amy Sander Montanez 
http://www.buildfaith.org/2012/12/03/the-work-of-waiting/#more-7984



Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)