[Propertalk] 1 Advent b

Sat Nov 29 16:13:57 EST 2014

Here's the draft for tomorrow. I'll edit it after errands and going home 
for some lunch!

Hope and peace for Advent!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY				                1st  ADVENT 
B
ISAIAH 64:1-9 						                     30th NOVEMBER, 2014
1 CORINTHIANS 1:3-9						  PSALM 80:1-7, 17-18
MARK 1:24-37

	You, said one of those quizzes on Facebook, this one about who you 
were, supposedly, in the past, “You were an outspoken abolitionist 
during the 19th century and made it your mission to do whatever it took 
to help slaves escape to freedom! This meant becoming a conductor of the 
Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses that 
were established in order to help slaves find their way into free states 
and Canada. While living in Kentucky in 1861, your home served as a 
sanctuary in which slaves could eat a hot meal and sleep in a warm bed 
before heading across the border to Indiana, a free state. When a bounty 
hunter suspected you were assisting the slaves, you were turned in and 
accused of being an agent of the Railroad. You were taken to court and 
served some jail time, but you were soon released when Abraham Lincoln 
issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, which freed not 
only the slaves, but you as well!” 1

	Not a bad piece to write on my resume. I’d imagine anyone would be 
happy to have that written or said about them.

	One thing I take from this is that, an accurate description of me or 
not, it seems that I don’t sit or stand still much – which is how it 
should be, especially in Advent. It’s not that we can’t rest and relax. 
We all need that. But there are ways of resting. There are ways of 
relaxing. There are ways of waiting.

	Several different writers have called us to think about Advent as a 
time of “Active Waiting”.

	The late Dutch-born Catholic priest, professor and writer, Henri 
Nouwen, taught at prestigious universities for about twenty years. Then 
he left to devote the rest of his life to working with mental and 
physically handicapped people at the L'Arche Daybreak community in 
Richmond Hill, Ontario.

	Nouwen wouldn’t separate these two ministries, though. In fact, he’d 
probably think of them as two sides of the same ministry: firing up the 
minds of students about to set out on their vocations and offering his 
own skills and intellect on behalf of those who were, in a variety of 
ways, unable to engage the world on equal terms for themselves. 1 In the 
words of the writer on that piece about the Underground Railroad, Nouwen 
worked not only to free those who were imprisoned, trapped, demeaned, 
who felt that hope was something which existed for other people but not 
for them; not only did Nouwen work to free others, he saw that by doing 
this he was freeing himself, he was uniting himself with everyone else 
in the common yearning to see signs of hope. God had made a promise to 
Henri, to those who live in L’Arche communities, to us.

	This is what fired up Nouwen. This is what motivated him every time he 
talked and acted. The promise which is ours as well as his is not 
something abstract.

This is why Nouwen talked about “Active Waiting”. He wrote, “Waiting is 
essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is 
not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that 
makes already present what we are waiting for. We wait during Advent for 
the birth of Jesus. We wait after Easter for the coming of the Spirit, 
and after the ascension of Jesus we wait for his coming again in glory. 
We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we 
have already seen God's footsteps.

	“Waiting for God is an active, alert - yes, joyful - waiting. As we 
wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we 
create a community ready to welcome him when he comes.” 3

	When He comes, of course, is anybody’s guess. Isaiah and Jesus were 
equally in the dark. They were both equally emphatic about their desire 
to step farther and deeper into the reign of God. They were looking 
around at all the horrendous storms and crises going on about them, and 
they LONGED for the time when societal trees wouldn’t be bent over or 
uprooted, when everything would flourish as God wished. But they were as 
much in the dark about this as you and I. They, too, longed for the 
light that would enlighten the hearts and minds of every creature under 
the sun.

	Even if they were waiting, however; even if they were oppressed by the 
world’s crassness and lac of compassion; Jesus and Isaiah HAD to do 
something -  to speak, to hold hands, to hug, to walk with others, to be 
there to try to transform fear into the hope which God wishes for us. 
The Railroad HAD to run for as long as it was necessary, until every 
last person had become free to take her or his place in creation as a 
means to prepare for wherever God wants each of us to be, in community 
with the Trinity and with one another.

	That’s what it means to wait actively. This is what Advent calls us to 
be – faithful encouragers of all God’s people so that hope will never 
die and justice and mercy be shown to be the rule of life for everyone 
whom God has created.

	The philosophical Indian poet Mirabai talked of the extreme discomforts 
we have to face while seeking union with our Creator and the universe. 4 
She talked of the tension, the tiredness, the threat of being washed 
away by the torrents of confusion, hatred and violence. She echoed 
Isaiah, two thousand years her senior wrote:
		Out in a downpour
		in a sopping wet
		skirt.
		And you have gone to a distant country.
		Unbearable heart,
		letter after letter
		just asking when,
		my lord, when
		are you coming?  5

	When ARE you coming, Jesus? It’s not that we want to stop running the 
Railroad. We just with it were no longer necessary, whether in Ferguson, 
Missouri, or Albany, Oregon, or anywhere else. We can’t escape this, if 
we commit to following Jesus and looking for Him. We can’t escape 
walking with those who hurt so much, who suffer so much.

	The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis has been walking a lot 
these past months, and it’s only intensified these past ten days. On 
Friday, he wrote, “I participated today in the nonviolent direct action 
at the Galleria (a large shopping centre) – and it was incredibly 
powerful. In the words of my friend, Pastor Shaun Jones, ‘today's 
protest is about affecting the lives of those who think that Mike 
Brown's death doesn't affect them.’ I was asked by a media member: 
‘don't you think this is a bit much?’ and I answered honestly, ‘No, I 
don't.’ This is disrupting shopping – people buying things. We are 
called to see Christ not in things but in each other.” 6

	How often do you and I get to talk about how Jesus inspires us – talk 
with words or actions – at Costco, or Freddie’s, or Safeway, or the gas 
station? How often do we get the chance to demonstrate that our 
baptismal acceptance of God’s love means that we have the ability and 
the will to turn our lives around completely? How often do we have the 
opportunity to show that, at one and the same time, Christianity is the 
riskiest thing in our lives and also the most comforting and 
strengthening? How many times can we say, “THIS is what Advent is really 
about. NOT finding all our problems dissolving, but hanging on as 
tightly as possible to the hope that’s engraved in our hearts and on our 
foreheads, hope that says that the Light is coming; that Peace WILL have 
the upper hand; that arguments, and abuse, and isolation WILL end.

So we repeat, in Ferguson and Albany, in Sierra Leone and The Sudan, in 
Afghanistan, and Iran, and Iraq – come, Jesus, and don’t waste any time. 
Resolve these crises NOW!

To which we hear the answer, “Not yet. But you don’t have to wait for 
me. You can start yourselves. After all, I AM
with you! If you want justice, if you want understanding, if you want 
peace, for anyone and for everyone, then let it begin with you.”

	Dean Mike Kinman wrote. “You might be surprised to know that going to 
demonstrations and marching is outside my comfort zone. I really don't 
relish it. I'm much more comfortable behind the scenes or writing and 
preaching. I push this comfort zone in myself because I recognize people 
need to see white church leaders out there with the young people who are 
leading this movement. They are risking so much for the same theological 
principle I hold so dear -- that all God's children are beloved and 
should be treated with honor, dignity and high regard -- the least I can 
do is stand with them.”

	The least we can do – for all or our sisters and brothers, wherever 
they are; the least we can do for Jesus is to stand with them, to engage 
in their problems actively, not simply to think that we can sit and wait 
for Jesus to come in and clean up our messes.

	The Railroad MUST continue to run as a sign that Advent hope WILL be 
fulfilled. And we all know that every railroad needs conductors to help 
people board safely, to travel as comfortably as possible, and to leave 
the train when they’ve reached safe haven, wherever that may be.

	We’re NOT alone on the journey, however. Others are there. You are 
there for me and I for you. We’re each invited to stand for and with 
someone else to be part of the solution of resolutions of conflicts, and 
not part of the problem by isolating ourselves from them. Above all, 
Jesus is there with us, with us all as we work through these days of 
darkness which, at this time of year especially, only seem to be 
lengthening and deepening.

	When all around us seems bereft of support; when all around us seems to 
be filled with anger, and frustrations; when we feel like throwing up 
our hands in the air and crying out that no solution seems possible, 
then, as Mike Kinman wrote, “More than anything, I hope whether we agree 
or disagree, we will keep coming to the Eucharistic table and laying our 
lives on it together with Christ. As long as we keep doing that, Christ 
will be in us and all will be well.” To reach the Table, though, we have 
to show a willingness to make that connection.

	We, they – whoever “they” are – everyone in creation IS waiting, 
anxiously, for the time when every storm, every insult, every assault 
has become a thing of the past. But, until it is, we must be Active 
Waiters.

NOTES:

1 	 
http://www.playbuzz.com/margottouitou10/what-crime-did-you-commit-in-your-past-life?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=page-posts&utm_campaign=what-crime-did-you-commit-in-your-past-life-19-11-14

2	See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Nouwen

3	Taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen , © 1997 
HarperSanFrancisco. Quoted at 
http://stwill.net/online-activities/daily-meditations
4	Mirabai Biography 
http://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/mirabai.html

5	“Out in a downpour” – see 
http://www.poemhunter.com/mirabai/poems/page-2/ quoted by Suzanne 
Guthrie at http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/advent1b.html

6	Mike Kinman Ferguson/St Louis, Missouri 28th November, 2014 
mkinman at christchurchcathedral.us

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