Teer Hardy's Blog, page 9
January 16, 2021
The Liturgy of Politics
A generation of young Christians are weary of the political legacy they've inherited and hungry for a better approach. They're tired of seeing their faith tied to political battles they didn't start, and they're frustrated by the failures of leaders they thought they could trust.
Kaitlyn Schiess grew up in this landscape, and understands it from the inside. Spiritual formation, and particularly a focus on formative practices, are experiencing a renaissance in Christian thinking―but these ideas are not often applied to the political sphere. In The Liturgy of Politics:Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor, Schiess shows that the church's politics are shaped by its habits and practices even when it's unaware of them. Schiess insists that the way out of our political morass is first to recognize the formative power of the political forces all around us, and then to recover historic Christian practices that shape us according to the truth of the gospel.
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January 12, 2021
Baptized Into Hope
Before the coronavirus pandemic put the kibosh on my social life our family would visit friends, share meals with other families, and watch as our kids tried to one-up each other on a backyard playset. Inevitably I would have to take one of our kids to the bathroom which meant it was my turn to make sure the kids washed their hands after they had done whatever it was, they needed to do.
Our last pre-coronavirus kid get together had us at the home of a family in which one of the adults is a United Methodist pastor. I took one of the kids to the bathroom and as we were splashing more water on one another than on our hands I noticed a laminated sign taped above the faucet in the bathroom. It read, “Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful.”
After our trip to the bathroom, we stopped by the kitchen to refill a water bottle and snag one of the last juice boxes. I reached for the faucet in the kitchen and the same sign, the one from the bathroom was taped above the kitchen sink. “Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful.”
All four of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – agree that Jesus was baptized and crucified. The details of the Nativity were left out of the Gospel of John and Mark, well, Mark omitted a tiny detail we like to call Easter. The Gospels disagree on a lot of details, often contradicting one another, and that can leave us scratching our heads wondering about locations and timing. But all four of the Gospel writers agree that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.
John the Baptist, living in the wilderness, dressed in camel skin and eating locust and wild honey had been calling the people of Israel to a baptism of repentance – an invitation to turn away from their sins and towards God. John’s invitation was to a human act. As the waters of the baptism offered by John fell down the head and face of the one receiving it, the weight and guilt of the sin of the one being washed by the water remained. This is the baptism the church in Ephesus remembered.
The problem is that the baptism the Ephesian Christians remembered stopped a step short. According to Acts, “Paul said, ‘John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.’”[1] The Ephesian Christians missed that our baptism is not about what John the Baptist did, rather our baptism is into the life and death, the ministry of Jesus Christ, the One whom John the Baptist had been called to proclaim.
Assuming our unrighteousness upon himself, Jesus will take our unrighteousness with him to the cross - by the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, Christ has done for us that which we were and continues to be unable to do for ourselves.
We have been made righteous.
We are right before God.
Our justification began in the Jordan River and was realized on the cross when Jesus died for the empire colluders, thieves, religious hypocrites, and everyday people. John’s baptism was one of repentance – turning towards God. Jesus’ baptism and our baptism into his life, death, and resurrection is about the work completed by God. The waters of baptism are not a solicitation, no, we are celebrating that in Christ we have received the pardon we could have only hoped for and have claimed the name beloved child of God.
“Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful.”
As a pastor one of my favorite things to do, OK it’s my favorite thing to do, is to stand at the baptismal font and baptize new Christians – babies, confirmands, adults, and everyone in-between. What I love about the moment the water runs down the face of the person receiving it, is seeing the hope in their eyes and in the eyes of those who have gathered with them – family, friends, and the entire congregation. Not a hope in their own ability to do, say, or think the right things. No, it is the hope that can come only when we realize that through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, we have been baptized into new life through the One who was baptized by John in the Jordan River.
Every person who has been baptized – regardless if you were sprinkled, poured over, or dunked (remember, it is about the work of God in Christ) – being baptized into new life in Jesus Christ has been baptized into Hope. Hope that can only come from the One Hope of the World.
The Hope found in our baptism is an invitation to clothe ourselves in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Hope in a life that is no longer our own. No longer are we constrained to the trappings of a world that would rather pull itself apart than come together. A life that looks to the glory of God rather than the glory of and for ourselves. A life that leaves the 99 seeking out the one who is lost.
Hope in a death that does not hold the last word. The darkness of death is no more. Death has lost its sting.
And Hope in a resurrection that Christ has promised we too will participate in.
Remember Your Baptism and Be Filled with Hope.
The coronavirus pandemic, in addition to putting the kibosh on Pastor Jeff getting a haircut, has made it so that the liturgical act of remembering this hope cannot be done in the traditional manner we are accustomed to. In years past Pastors Ed, Jeff, and I would stand in front of the congregation, holding the baptismal bowl and invite the entire congregation to come forward, placing their hands in the water with the invitation to, “Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful.”
“Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful.”
In that invitation we are inviting person after person to remember that they are clean.
You are clean.
You are righteous.
Your sins, all of them, including that one you cannot forgive yourself for committing, has been washed away.
It is done.
Once and for all.
For everything, full stop.
No asterisk.
No, if/then prerequisites.
Because you have been baptized into Christ you are no longer your sin.
You are no longer what sin and death call you.
You have been baptized into Hope.
In the waters of our baptism God has clothed us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and given us a full pardon. The baptism offered by John was not able to do this and if we think today that the person doing the sprinkling, pouring, or dunking has any control over what is happening in this holy moment we are wholly mistaken.
Professor James Torrance put it best: “But it is not the water, not the church, not the minister, not my faith, not my dying and rising, which forgives and heals. It is Christ who has done this for us and in us by the Spirit. So, we are baptized ‘in the name of Christ’ - not our own name - and we are baptized into a life of union with Christ, of dying and rising with Christ, in a life of communion.”
In your baptism, you have been raised into a new Hope, and that Hope is new life in the life and death of Jesus Christ.
“Remember Your Baptism and Be Thankful.”
All week I have been thinking about the laminated signs in my pastor friend’s home. The next time I am able to visit I think I’ll bring a Sharpie marker with me and do a little editing while the one of the kids is washing their hands - “Remember Your Baptism – you have been baptized into the Hope of Jesus Christ – and Be Thankful.”
[1] Acts 19:4 (NRSV)
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December 24, 2020
The Light Brings Peace
As part of our preparations for Advent at Mount Olivet, we’ve put together a series of devotionals for the community. These devotionals can stand on their own or be read in conjunction with our weekly worship services. I hope you are blessed by them. The following is my offering for Christmas Eve, December 24, 2020.
Read Luke 2:1-20
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger.” (Luke 2:7, NRSV).
At Christmas God did something unexpected in a time when the darkness of fear ruled the day. The Gospel writer ends with the Good News found in the manger. The darkness of fear had consumed the world but now, it is being consumed by the light of the in-breaking of God’s grace and justice. This holy moment is pregnant with the joyous lift of Christ and is signaling a new time has come. A proclamation for the world - those maintaining power through fear and violence have limited time before them.
God has been on the move throughout the history of creation, present with creation through God’s Spirit, and speaking to creation through the prophets. But in Jesus Christ, God was on the move in a “one-donkey town” through the birth of a child born to parents with meager means. There were no royal decrees delivered or celebratory shouts from the empire. This time of divine action is inaugurated by a “quiet” birth. Quiet, not in the sense that birthing a child is a silent act, rather quiet in the lack of celebratory fanfare.
The proclamation made signaled the arrival of a new order for the world. A liberator was about to arrive, taking up residence in a manger and trading the fabrics reserved for royalty for bands of cloth, promising to bring peace and joy to all of the world. This infant liberator’s arrival was announced by an angelic chorus, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you - wonderful, joyous news for all people.
Don’t be afraid! Peace is here!
Until this moment, peace in first-century Palestine, and going back through the history of the region was ensured by the sword and rulers utilizing fear to maintain their power. Fear of the other kept the people in line.
“Follow me, only I can protect you from them.”
If fear of the other did not work, there was always fear of the one wielding power.
“I have armies and loyal generals. Follow me or you will be struck down.”
The angels proclaimed a new ordering for the world. An order which promised to be different from the ordering of the world by fear. Peace in the Light of God, not peace at the tip of a sword. Fear-based peace is anything but Good News. Fear-based peace is just that, fear.
The wonderful and joyous news announced by the angels was/is for all people. An announcement that the Light of the World, Jesus Christ is here. Here for all people regardless of forgotten covenants, regardless of how dark the curse of sin has become. The Light that brings peace is here. Let us all of creation shout for joy.
Prayer – Your Light is here, Lord God. The inbreaking of your divine peace in the Light of Jesus Christ has transformed all o creation. You have transformed me. I give you thanks for the presence of your Son in my life. Thank you for the witness of Mary and Joseph, the Shepherds, and all who proclaimed the arrival of your Son. May the Light of your Son shine in and through me. Amen.
December 23, 2020
Preaching Christmas (From the Couch)
If you’re like me, Christmas Eve will be an entirely new experience this year. I won’t see my mom or dad for the first time in over 30 years. I won’t be leading worship in a church (or firehall) for the first time since 2010. Like others, I will be worshiping from home with my family, from the comfort of our well-loved couch.
The Crackers & Grape Juice team produces a weekly lectionary podcast, Strangely Warmed, and we’ve got you covered if you still haven’t finalized your Christmas Eve sermon. Regardless of where and how you worship this year, know that the work has been done. The heavy lifting was and continues to be accomplished by God in Christ.
Merry Christmas.
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December 18, 2020
Higher Than Angels
As part of our preparations for Advent at Mount Olivet, we’ve put together a series of devotionals for the community. These devotionals can stand on their own or be read in conjunction with our weekly worship services. I hope you are blessed by them. The following is my offering for December 18, 2020.
Read Hebrews 1:5-14
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son;
today I have begotten you”?
Or again,
“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son”?
6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
7 Of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels winds,
and his servants flames of fire.”
8 But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is[a] forever and ever,
and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your[b] kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And,
“In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like clothing;
12 like a cloak you will roll them up,
and like clothing[c] they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end.”
13 But to which of the angels has he ever said,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
14 Are not all angels[d] spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Throughout the course of my life, I have looked up to a lot of people.
Sports stars – Cal Ripken, Jr., Michael Jordan, David Justice, Rueben “Hurricane” Carter and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Historical figures - Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Ruth Bater Ginsberg, John Lewis, and more.
Theologians – Fleming Rutledge, Stanley Hauerwas, Howard Thurman, and Will Willimon.
People you’ve never heard of – Greg Shipley, Ron Layman, Larry Parsons, Billie Stokes.
I am positive you have a similar list. Having people in our live to look up to gives us the example of something higher to strive toward. Perhaps it is the person’s work ethic or the way they treat others that draws you to them. Or, it could be the way they acknowledge the presence of God in the lives of others.
Before the arrival of Jesus in a manger the people of Israel were looking up to the heavens prayerfully hoping for someone, something to be sent down by God to free them from their oppressors.
The angels came and spoke to Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph. The angels came and spoke to the shepherds who were watching their flocks by night. The longing of Israel would be answered, fulfilled in a manger in Bethlehem, the continuation of the saving works of God.
We continue to look to the heavens today. We petition God to come down from on high, liberating us, healing us from the things that stand against us. The earnest prayers of the people of God today are not unlike the prayers lifted up by Israel as they awaited the birth of the Messiah.
As we look up to the heavens today do not forget that the peace of God we seek, the healing hand of God is already present among us. The One who came at Christmas and promises to come again has not left us to wander this life alone. While we can look to others among us for inspiration, guidance, or example it is our Lord and Savior, who by the power of God’s own Spirit remains present with us today. We do not have to look very far or high to find the presence of Jesus Christ. We the church, Christ’s body have been called to this task. It is why we were formed and why we are sustained by the Holy Spirit.
We are to look higher than the angels, looking to Jesus, but we don’t have to look higher than the heavens to find him.
Prayer – Lord God, Master of the Universe, we are looking high and low for you and yet we have never had to look far for your presence. Be with us now as we find ourselves in a season of waiting. Shine your light upon me, reminding me that you are always present, ever close and never out of reach. Amen.
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December 15, 2020
Hacking Your Way Through Holiday Returns
Twice a month, the Crackers & Grape Juice team publishes a newsletter. Crackers & Grape Juice + is a membership site with a bi-monthly newsletter and secret podcast. You can’t find this podcast on iTunes or Spotify (although we can help you add the feed to your podcast player). Here’s my offering for the latest issue, “Deviants, Mary, Sufjan, and Returns.”
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In just a few days many will rip open gifts they have been longing to receive. Maybe it’s the missing album from your Sufjan Stevens collection. Or, perhaps a new knit hat to keep your bald head warm in the winter months. Either way, many will be receiving gits they cannot imagine living without.
Earlier this month I received my monthly shipment from Dollar Shave Club. No, I' haven’t shaved my beard, but I did need some hair product. With each order, you receive the Bathroom Minutes. The latest issue featured an older article titled, “The Gentleman’s Guide to Returning a Present You Hate.”
Give good gifts yourself
Receive gifts graciously
Returning
Consider regifting
As a kid, I can remember running down the stairs to open gifts. Never once did I think that I’d want to return something that had been given to me. The idea of returning a gift I didn’t want, or worse, regifting, didn’t enter my mind until I was an adult. I’d imagine the same is true for you as well.
At Christmas, the inbreaking of God’s grace in the form of a child up-ended the world. While shepherds, magi, cows, and even the child’s parents may not have known the full implications of what had happened, the world would never be the same. The simple gift from God at Christmas was offered to the world, and well, the hard truth, is within a short amount of time the holy family was on the run because there were some (Herod of Antipas) who did not want this gift. The gift of God in Christ threatened the world many had made for themselves.
We’re not all Herod (though, I bet you can think of a few people right now). Many welcome the gift of Christmas each year, recalling the in-breaking of God’s grace in Christ without a thought of returning or regifting. Yet this time of year, subtly, each of us looks beyond the manger and thinks we either do not need the gift given to us or that we are unworthy of the gift. We don’t need what God has offered us, we’re good on our own or worse, haven’t done x-y-z to earn the gift.
Other than having amazing parents, my kids have done nothing to earn the gifts they’ll receive this Christmas. God isn’t a jolly fat guy in a red-suit keeping a list of who is deserving or undeserving of the gift of the incarnation. We’re all undeserving. We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God and still, Christmas happened. Christ arrived in a manger. And Christ promises to come again.
Christmas is a reminder to us that not only are we worthy of the gift given to us by God in Christ but at the very same time the gift is ours whether we realize how much we need it. The grace of God in Christ is a precious gift, and, by the grace of God, a gift we can’t return. But it is a gift we can share.
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December 8, 2020
Waiting in the Light
As part of our preparations for Advent at Mount Olivet, we’ve put together a series of devotionals for the community. These devotionals can stand on their own or be read in conjunction with our weekly worship services. I hope you are blessed by them. The following is Ellen' McDowell’s offering for December 7, 2020.
The way of the righteous is level;
O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.
8 In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and your renown
are the soul’s desire.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness they deal perversely
and do not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.
13 O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but we acknowledge your name alone.
14 The dead do not live;
shades do not rise—
because you have punished and destroyed them,
and wiped out all memory of them.
15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land. - Isaiah 26:7-15
I’m writing this devotion on Election Day because I’m trying to pass time on this bizarre occasion in a mindful, mid-pandemic, sort of way. Anything to keep me from endlessly scrolling social media, refreshing the front pages of FiveThirtyEight and CNN. I’m waiting. Hopefully, this election is sorted out before you read this devotional.
This year has taught us a lot about waiting. Waiting for test results, for difficult decisions to be made, for the election results to come in. But, we’re also waiting for the heavier things; we are waiting on reform and justice and peace for the brokenhearted. Some of us have been waiting for a very long time for that.
Isaiah is calling the people of Israel to justice in the midst of injustice, for God’s righteousness to mightily fall across the land of their enemies. They are in essence saying, “even though everything is horrible now, we believe that it won’t always be.” They are filling the space, filling the waiting, with a prophetic petition for God’s goodness.
Waiting is a spiritual practice, isn’t it? It’s a chance to sit in the void of our present reality, awe at the emptiness we feel, and decide how we will fill it. Isaiah says that “At night I long for you with my whole being. My spirit within me watches for you”.
As we wait for the world to turn I have to ask myself:
Am I waiting well?
Am I looking for God in unexpected places?
Do I still see God’s children in terms of us and them?
This Advent let God’s grace illuminate the world around you while we wait… and wait.
Lord, help us wait well. Illuminate the hope we’re seeking, the neighbor we’re to love, and the peace you promised. Amen.
-Ellen McDowell
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December 4, 2020
It May Be Dark Out There, But the Lord is With Us
As part of our preparations for Advent at Mount Olivet, we’ve put together a series of devotionals for the community. These devotionals can stand on their own or be read in conjunction with our weekly worship services. I hope you are blessed by them. The following is my offering for December 4, 2020.
“Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.” (Jeremiah 1:9, NSRV)
One of the things I dislike most about autumn and winter is that the days are short, and the nights are long. I was born in the summer. I thrive during the summer. I need warm sunshine bouncing off of my cheeks and cool breezes by the sea. When autumn and winter come rolling to town I am stuck with gusty winds, cold rain, ice, or snow, and being forced for some reason to “fall back.” When autumn and winter come rolling to town, I want to curl up next to the fireplace with a warm cup of coffee, to not emerge out into the world until the spring returns.
Jerusalem was under siege. Times were dark. And it was in the backdrop of the darkness of a siege that the prophet Jeremiah was called by God. Jeremiah was called to have the word of the Lord placed in his mouth. He was appointed over nations and kingdoms to proclaim the world of the Lord.
Being the spokesperson of God under the best of circumstances, during the joy and warmth of spring and summer would be a difficult task. Throw in the darkness of autumn and winter – living in a nation under siege and the task would seem nearly impossible.
Jeremiah was not a stranger to the Lord. God knew him before Jeremiah was born. God consecrated Jeremiah for the calling to which he would later be called while Jeremiah was still in his mother’s womb. The Lord told Jeremiah this and the darkness of the world – his young age and the backdrop of a siege – made it hard to believe that the light of the Lord would be able to speak through him. Jeremiah questioned whether or not he would be able to fulfill the calling placed upon him.
Whether is its autumn or winter, or maybe you dislike spring and summer, while to may be dark out there, but the Lord is with us. While it may seem like we are unable to rise to the task placed before us because the circumstances around us are out of our control the Lord is with us. We are the beloved children of God. The waters of your baptism placed a calling and claim on your life. The Lord has touched your mouth. Whatever you have been called to, the Lord will equip you. The Lord will not leave you in the darkness alone. The Light has come. The Light is with us. The light will not abandon or forsake us.
Prayer - Lord we often carry the darkness with us – self-doubt, criticism, the weight of the world on us – and yet your calling lifts the forces of darkness to give way to your Light. Remind me, by the power of your Holy Spirit, to remember that you have called me, you are with me, and you have equipped me for the task. Amen.
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November 29, 2020
What Are We Waiting For?
At the beginning of November, I was cleaning up the basement after putting away our Halloween decorations. To get to the box I needed for the Halloween decorations I needed to move the boxes containing our Christmas decorations.
“Hey, Allison,” I shouted from the basement. “Let’s put the Christmas decorations up this weekend.
And that is when it started.
The season of Advent is upon us. Whether we are ready or not we are quickly moving closer and closer to Christmas. For the world, Advent is more often a season of the countdown towards Christmas as shopping days become fewer and fewer along with your window for free-expedited shipping. For the church, Advent is a season of foreshadowing as we recall the promise of the Second Advent, the promise that Christ will return, as our attention is fixed on the manger.
During Advent, we are going to explore how the promised coming of Christ, the Light of the world, has transformed all of creation and at the same time promises further transformation. Rev. Fleming Rutledge notes that Advent is oriented "toward a promised future. The other seasons in the church calendar follow the events in the historical life of Christ – his incarnation (Christmas), the manifestation to the Gentiles (Epiphany), his ministry and preaching (the season after Epiphany), his path to crucifixion (Lent), his passion and death (Holy Week), the resurrection (Easter), the return to the Father’s right hand (Ascension), and the descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) – with Trinity Sunday to round it off doctrinally. Advent, however, differs from the other seasons in that it looks beyond history altogether and awaits Jesus Christ's coming again."[1]
The words spoken by Jesus to his disciples were “apocalyptic, threatening, and scary.”[2] “Suffering,” “darkness,” and “stars falling from Heaven,” do not conjure up a Norman Rockwell image in my mind for the season. In describing His return, Jesus painted imagery fit for a doomsday Hollywood production, rather than a children’s Christmas pageant.
The apocalyptic imagery used by Mark underscores the crisis that impends the Son of Man’s return. The darkness underscored by Mark grabs our attention, making us able to hear the rest of Jesus’ words.
“But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come… And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”[3]
Keep awake.
Stay alert.
Wait.
After I shouted from the basement, "Let's put up the Christmas lights" at the beginning of November I waited. Then, I waited some more. I knew Allison heard me. As I waited in the basement, I heard a deep sigh. The sigh sounded like a mash-up of "oh bless his heart," and "he can't be serious." Finally, after waiting what seemed like an eternity I heard, "Let's wait a few more weeks.
“Sounds good,” I yelled as a dagger sank deep into my heart.
Wait a few more weeks? Wait?
Two weeks?
Three weeks?
Four weeks?
I do not like to wait. While may not always display this behavior, I live for a prompt response to an email or text message. The silence that fills the void while I am waiting is worse and an ill-prepared percussionist beating on an unsuspecting cowbell.
An entire industry has been established because, like me, most people despise waiting. Tracking numbers, apps, and real-time GPS positioning can tell us exactly when a package, meal, or person we have been expecting will be delivered to our doorstep. Tracking numbers are now the default for items shipped with the US Postal Service. There is no upcharge.
When Allison suggested that we wait to unleash the Christmas spirit on our home and neighbors I did not know what to do. We are slowly (or not so slowly depending on your perspective) being conditioned to despise waiting.
We have defaulted to reducing wait times as much as humanly possible. Overnight, next-day and same-day shipping are available from big-box and local retailers alike. While this comes as a great convenience, perhaps improving our material quality of life, this has done little to help us learn to wait. And yet, waiting is precisely what Jesus has instructed His Church to do.
“Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.”[4]
This first week of Advent we begin to look for the babe lying in the manger while at the same time looking up to the cosmos wondering and waiting for the return of Christ. Today we find ourselves alongside those who longed and waited for the first Advent, not knowing when or where the Messiah would appear. We wait in the same way they did, needing the same exhortation from the prophets to keep watch and awake.
We do not know what guise Jesus will appear in, and so we find ourselves between two Advents – knowing Christ as come and that Christ promises to come again.[5]
This knowledge does not make the waiting any easier, any less unbearable. The Apostle Peter wrote that we are to wait and at the same time hasten “the coming of the day of God.”[6] We know how to hasten. Even in a time of recommendations and orders to stay at home, we know how to be quick and move in a hurry. We have never been more efficient at moving through the grocery store or Target, and while we may be at home, we are still on the move thanks to Zoom. But to hasten and wait almost seems impossible – oxymoronic of the Apostle to suggest. But the ability to maintain the tension – the tension between waiting and moving, waiting and doing – is at the center of the Christian life.
Because we do not know the time and place of Christ’s return we cannot passively wait. The church is not a passive body. We are attentive to what is happening around us. We are not withdrawn from the world, rather we find ourselves immersed in the life of the community even in times when the community least realizes or expects us.
We live as though Jesus’ return is just around the corner because Jesus tells us he doesn’t know when the return will be, “about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”[7]
We live as though Jesus’ return is just around the corner because we do not know how else to live.
We know that Christ came at Christmas amid the powerful forces of this world: an empire, armies and marching orders, and all the violence that's woven into our lives. But, what are we waiting for now? We wait for what songwriter Thomas Troeger wrote in The Dream Isaiah Saw:
“Nature reordered to match God’s intent,
Nations obeying the call to repent,
All of creation completely restored,
Filled with the knowledge and love of the Lord.”
Waiting can leave us in a space where silence can be deafening. We worry. We become anxious. We read things into the actions and words of others that are a stretch of the imagination or downright false. We do not need to worry. Jesus has already instructed us; he has already told us everything we need to know. And in this space of waiting, we are sustained in Word and Sacrament, sustained by the power of God's own Spirit.
We find ourselves in a time of already and not yet. The Kingdom of God is here, inaugurated in the Christmas manger we look toward, and not yet fully realized as we await Christ's return. As Advent people, we are doorkeepers and people of the watch.
Waiting seems more intense this year, as we wait in the pandemic, waiting for a vaccine, waiting for the day when masks a necessary accessory, waiting for life to get back to normal. The Advent waiting is of a different sort. We are stuck in a time when we can either wait for the promised redemptive work of God in Christ or a miraculous, self-achieving salvation through our own actions.
2020 has reminded us of what many in the rest of the world already knew and lived with every day... that the world is not as God would have it, that just as often God seems absent as present, that “Why do bad things happen…?” are still questions with no answers. We’re all like those in Mark’s parable. We are waiting based solely on the knowledge of the Master’s past actions not knowing if or when he will return. Until we have sat with the ambiguity and darkness of the world fully, we have not seriously considered the cost or scope of our redemption.
We wait for the return of Christ. We wait for the knock on the door, the hand reaching out, and the movement of the cosmos. In the season of Advent, we find ourselves in a position of being right where we hope to be but not yet entirely there as we await the promised return of Christ. The coming of Emmanuel.
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[1] Rutledge, Fleming. Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. Pages 5-6.
[2] Winner, Lauren. “B01: The First Sunday of Advent, Year B.” A Sermon for Every Sunday, 22 Aug. 2019, asermonforeverysunday.com/sermons/b01....
[3] Mark 13:32-33, 36 (NRSV)
[4] Mark 13:35-36, NRSV
[5] Nicene Creed
[6] 2 Peter 3:12, NRSV
[7] Mark 13:32, NRSV
November 27, 2020
Plainly Spoken
Forgiving Lord, I do not want my enemies forgiven. I want you to kill them (as sometimes prays the psalmist!).
Actually, I would prefer to pray that you punish them rather than kill them, since I would like to watch them suffer. Also, I fear losing my enemies, since my hates are more precious to me than my loves. If I lost my hates, my enemies, how would I know who I am?
Yet you have bent us toward reconciliation, that we may be able to pass one another Christ’s peace. It is a terrible thing to ask of us. I am sure I cannot do it, but you are a wily God able to accomplish miracles. May we be struck alive with the miracle of your grace, even to being reconciled with ourselves.
Amen.
For the latest in our series of conversations about the work of Stanley Hauerwas, Johanna, Jason, and I talk about prayer and Stanley’s book Prayers Plainly Spoken.
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