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Pam Carey's Sermon at St. Anselm's Church, Sunday, December 4, 2011 Good Morning – St. Anselm’s I cannot tell you how good it is to be home! And St. Anselm’s is my home. When I walk into this place, I can feel the love that is encased in these walls. It feels like a big warm fuzzy hug. You are my family and you have given me love and support in ways that can only be done by a church family. When I made a remark about how difficult it was to find an alb in my size among the borrowed albs at school for deacons, the altar guild purchased one for me. I have felt your prayers as I have met with commissions and committees and answered their questions and those of my own. Some of you that have come from other parishes know how unique this community is. When I left here, I thought all church families where like ours. But I soon learned from listening to classmates and visiting other parishes just how unique and incredible this place is. So I give you my thanks and although I am attempting it, I do not think I will ever be able to convey what y’all mean to me. Well this is the 2nd Sunday in Advent – A season of hope, a season of preparation, a season of awe, and a season of reflection. I love advent. It is my favorite church season. It is the beginning of the new church year. It is a season where we believe in miracles and most of the world is in step in love and peace. The people who John is addressing in the gospel though have hard lives. They are living under the oppressive rule of the Romans, they live in poverty and they are desperate for hope and a new beginning. That is the message that John the Baptist is preaching in the gospel today. A message of hope and a message that the world is about to embark on a new journey. "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me”. Mark tells us in the beginning of the gospel that John appeared in the wilderness “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” I have to confess that sometimes when I hear this part – I see a disheveled guy with a long beard and dirty robe standing on the corner with a sign and yelling – “REPENT – REPENT!” But that would be our modern context of someone like John and we need to look at this through a different lens. I had the good fortune in October to attend a seminar with Marcus Borg. His most recent book is titled – Speaking Christianity. One focus of the book is to encourage people to examine the language of the Bible in the context in which it was written. One of the reasons it is almost impossible to read the Bible literally is because by the time we read it in here in 2011- It has been translated from Hebrew and Greek as well as other languages and the we know the meanings of words change sometimes not only by decades but also by centuries let alone millennia. First, the meaning of sin at the time this was written which was around the year 70 CE was about missing the mark, not quite doing what you needed to, or by doing something that maybe wasn’t in alignment with the kind of person God wanted you to be. So you repented. Which was not whipping yourself literally or figuratively. Thet word repent is about turning back – returning. Returning to God and starting over. And by recognizing where we have made a mistake and startingover we are getting ready. As Isaiah told us to prepare the way of the Lord. In order to do so, we need to go into the metaphorical wilderness. Go into the chaos of our lives. Being still and listening and realizing where we could have done something differently is not usually a comfortable thing to do. Maybe we didn’t really need to cut that person off at the Caldecott tunnel – Maybe we could have really listened to our friend just a little better and heard what exactly they were saying. Maybe we could have gone that extra mile for the stranger on the street. But there is good news here too. Because these are the times when we return to God. We ask for help. Help me – Help me God – I messed up – Please hold my hand and help me do it differently. This is how we begin to prepare the way of the Lord in our own lives. We make ready the way for the light to shine in ourselves. The preparation that Isaiah is talking about is preparing the world for the light and the hope that Jesus will bring with the Holy Spirit. Once we have done the preparation for ourselves, we can help to bring about a brighter world. We can begin to prepare as the psalm says for a world where “justice and peace kiss”. This is a world where everyone cares that children in our own backyards as well as across the earth are hungry. Where everyone cares that children are being bought and sold every day. A world where there is no “other”. Where everyone is first and foremost a person. A place where everyone cares about our home the earth and takes care of it. A world where everyone cares. In this day, we know that at the end of Advent, we will hear the story of Jesus’ birth and the hope and love he brings because we have heard the story before. And in this modern time Advent is also about gifts, and friends, and food. However, on one blog I read, someone was bemoaning the lack of reverence for Advent and was upset with friends that were concerned with making cookies and shopping. But there is more than ample room for both. It is easy to get caught up in all the festivities and preparations for the modern celebrations of Christmas and forget about what the birth of Jesus means to the world. But by all means we should be celebrating as well as reflecting. Jesus is coming and that is reason to celebrate – Jesus was not averse to celebrating. He did go away by himself to pray but he also was called by some a glutton and drunkard. And in my family, I am still the one who gets the least amount of sleep on Christmas Eve because I cannot wait to see what is under the tree. Amen |