[Propertalk] I Advent b 2017 - homily - part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's the first part of the first draft for Sunday.
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY   1 ADVENT b 

	ISAIAH 64:1-9    3rd DECEMBER, 2017 

	1 CORTINTHIANS 1:3-9   PSALM 80:1-7, 16-18 

	MARK 13:234-37 

	 “Despair should serve as wake-up call.” 1 

	 What’s this all about? 

	“‘From the very first note, music penetrates the soul and we no
longer belong to this world.’ 

	“These words from the 110-year-old pianist Alice Herz-Sommer
(introduce a) sensitively made documentary about musical life in
Terezin, a garrison town in the Czech Republic which was turned into a
transit concentration camp by the Nazis. Herz-Sommer describes most
movingly how intense music-making … managed to thrive in this
environment, bringing succour, consolation and even hope to those who
realised that there was precious little prospect of their survival.”
2 

	 I quote this not to depress you, but as what I think is a pretty
fair illustration of what the first and Gospel readings describe. 

	 Life is incredibly difficult – both at the time the passages were
written and now. It’s incredibly difficult because of all the
challenges. The people in the biblical times described were so
discouraged. Everywhere they turrned, something dangerous and twisted
would seem to grasp them. They were SO tired of life. It was an
incredible burden, and love, compassion, even a friendly voice seemed
to be far away. 

	 I wonder how many sleepless nights they had, worrying about the
unknown, contemplating the distance to which love seemed to have
retreated. Their hearts must have ached, their minds must have been a
curious combination of being numb, yet also racing incessantly so that
they couldn’t sleep much, even when they lay down and closed their
eyes. They must have wished for an end to the pain, the loneliness,
the uncertainty, the darkness and seeming pointlessness of life. 

	 But the imagery which came to their minds, the imagery of relief,
seemed so dark, so strange. What sort of consolation could that be,
when they wanted the darkness to go away, yet they conjured other
images of darkness? CAN darkness REALLY banish darkness? Surely not.
Surely it is light that banishes darkness, even the tiniest spark of
light, like the single lit candle on the Advent wreath this morning. 

	 Alice Herz-Sommer wrote and spoke of that of which she knew
first-hand, just like Isaiah, just like Jesus. They all saw how
life-sucking darkness of mind and spirit could be. They saw how easy
it could be for people to give up. 

	 So for us. There are times over and over again when we too live with
the threatening unknown confusion. Voices seem so strident, people
can’t find the words or thoughts to express what they feel they need
to do in order to be able to live without worry, never mind pain and
hardship. So, often, people turn to music and, fortunately, the right
music can resonate with us to lift our spirits up out of the pit of
dejection and fear. We’re reminded that we no longer belong to the
world. 

	 Oh, yes, we’re still IN it. That remains so until the day that we
die in our earthly bodies. But we don’t BELONG to it and, the more
often we hear whatever music most inspires us, the more often we focus
our gaze on the flame of the candle, rather than the furnaces and
ovens; the more we can do this, the more help we can find to build up
our faith in our God who will NEVER let us belong to anything but
love. 

	 And the really curious things about what Alice Herz-Sommer witnessed
and experienced is that this needn’t apply only to music which
we’ve heard in the past. This happens, perhaps more strikingly, out
of the music which is written down for the first time, out of the very
pain and fear which seek to hold us bogged down by the falsity of the
world’s evil. 

	 Yet we still wrestle. I have to admit that there are times when I
find music, especially some particular music, drives me to
distraction. It simply doesn’t help. I have to shut my ears to it,
If I can, I turn it off, even preferring silence to what makes me so
uncomfortable, and lonely, and forgotten. 

	What, then, did the listeners to Isaiah and Jesus do? What helped
them? What helps us? For Alice Herz-Sommer, what seemed to help and
lift people out of their despair was a curious mixture of recognising
the darkness of the Nazi regime and all who scared and threatened the
residents of Terezin. 

I’VE HEARD SOME OF THE MUSIC THAT WAS WRITTEN IN TEREZIN. IT
DOESN’T PULL ANY PUNCHES. PERHAPS THAT’S THE FIRST THING THAT
HELPS, WHEN WE ALLOW. WE’RE BROUGHT TO LOOK AT AND ADDRESS THE FEAR,
NO MATTER HOW DISGUSTING OR TERRIFYING IT MAY SEEM. THE HARMONIC
CLASHES IN THE MUSIC, THE IRREGULAR RHYTHMS, THE UNEXPECTED LEAPS IN
THE MELODIES; THEY DESCRIBE SO WELL WHAT WE FEEL, AND HELP US TO
ACKNOWLEDGE, RATHER THAN AVOID, THE PAIN. OF COURSE, THERE IS MUCH
THAT IS LYRICAL, WISTFUL, COMFORTING TOO. PERHAPS THAT’S WHAT MAKES
THE MUSIC SO POWERFUL AND UPLIFTING. PERHAPS THIS IS WHY WE’RE SHOWN
THAT WE NO LONGER BELONG TO THIS WORLD.

	Naming something can take some of the sting out of whatever it is. It
DOES take a lot of courage to look at that, to listen to that. Imagine
if your memory’s most recent experience was of huge tongues of fire
being used to destroy, to dehumanise, to take away life. 

	Imagine if some music talked of the home and the growing-up
experiences you’ve had, and understanding that that part of your
life has gone. 

	Imagine the fear with which Alice and the tens and hundreds of
thousands of prison camp inhabitants must have lived, often before
they were even arrested brutally and dragged away.
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