The Hope We Sing

Isaiah 64:1-9

                Healing begins in pain.  Joy begins in sorrow.  Hope begins in Lament.

                It is Advent and soon we will be enjoying Christmas parties, Christmas carols, the lights, sounds, and smells of the ‘happiest time of the year.’ There will be mistletoe strung up for young (and not so young) lovers to kiss under.  There will be fires and egg nog and Christmas trees and sappy movies on TV.  People of all races, denominations, economic status and orientation will join their voices in singing Silent Night.

                But not today.  All of that will happen later.  Not today.

                Today as I sit the only singing I hear is the protesters in Ferguson, MO demanding to be heard.  The only fires I see are those burning up buildings in a once proud St Louis Suburb and the only decorations I see are the garish displays in department stores eagerly anticipating people to come and worship at their altars. What should be a beautiful and hopeful time of the year has turned into a parody of itself.

                And maybe that is why this reading from Isaiah is so appropriate for today.  Wheras the Old Testament readings for Advent are normally prophetic songs of coming happiness and joy, today’s text is a painful exploration of God’s absence and a lament over what has happened to the people of God.

                Isaiah lives in a time of deep turmoil where nothing is certain except disappointment, despair and destruction.  His nation has been attacked at every side and what was once a great and mighty kingdom is now destroyed and burned to the ground.  The Assyrians have come and attacked the people of Israel.  They have taken most of the kingdom off to captivity or dispersed it to the seven winds.  All that was left was the tiny city of Jerusalem, and even that is surrounded and almost brought to the place of destruction. 

                Jerusalem! The Holy City! Was burning and was under the threat of being completely and utterly destroyed.  How could such a thing happen? After all, Jerusalem was the Holy City! It was the city that YHWH lived in and from where he protected his people.  Had YHWH been defeated? Had YHWH abandoned his people?

                And that is the question that dominates this reading: where is God? Where is YHWH? Where is the Divine Presence that would come and take care of the people?

                Just before this passage, Isaiah sets the mood for it by stating: “We have long been like those who you do not rule, like those not called by your name” (Is 63:19).  We are not your people…you have forgotten us, left us, departed from us.  We are not special…even in your sight.

                And then there comes the great cry from Isaiah that opens this chapter: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence!” (Is 64:1).  What a great image! Oh God! Just tear it off and come down! Make yourself known! Be with us! Help us! Set things right!

                Isaiah looks back at history and knows that God has helped his people in the past by wonderful and mighty deeds.  So where is God? Where is He now? Why won’t he help? Why does he not care at the situation we now find ourselves in? This entire passage speaks of Isaiah’s pain…it is pain seeking understanding! WHERE IS GOD?

                Don’t we wonder the same thing too? WHERE IS GOD?

                We see a city burned to the ground – WHERE IS GOD?

                We watch as a twelve year old boy is shot by police – WHERE IS GOD?

                We watch as our loved one suffers with debilitating cancer – WHERE IS GOD?

                We watch as terrorists behead innocent people and kill thousands more – WHERE IS GOD?

                We struggle to make ends meet, give our children clothes and food, and we get further behind every day – WHERE IS GOD?               

                Does He not care? We know that he performed miracles all throughout the Biblical times.  He walked on water, gave sight back to the blind and raised the dead.  WHERE IS HE NOW AND WHY DOESN’T HE DO THESE THINGS ANYMORE?

                Now most of us wouldn’t think to ask these questions in church…because it may sound irreverent.  Others say that He does do these thing today and provide scanty and anecdotal evidence that cannot be verified.  But even if He does, he doesn’t do it on the grand scale that He did in the Bible.  He doesn’t part the Red Sea or raise the dead or provide food for the millions of people starving around the world.  

                We are not the only ones who think about this either.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian who was imprisoned by the Nazis.  As he thought about this very problem, he came to a very different answer:

               God would have us know that we must live as men who manage our lives without him.  The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us (Mark 15:34).  The God who lets us live in the world without the working hypothesis of God is the God before whom we stand continually.  Before God and with God we live without God.  God lets himself be pushed out of the world on to the cross.  He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us.”

“

                In essence, God allows himself to be moved out to the corners of existence because that is where he can help us the most.

                But this may not help when we see Ferguson burn or hungry people struggling to find food or single moms struggling to find answers, but maybe it provides a reason. 

                This divine absence has its negative effects on the people.  Notice in verse 5: “you were angry and we sinned, because you hid yourself, we transgressed” (64:5). Perhaps it’s a notice that we don’t do well as a people without God, without the divine essence.  Because of this, we read, "we have all become like one who is unclean and our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.” (64:6).

                Now this is a happy tiding for the beginning of Advent, isn’t it? How come there are no Christmas carols about this?

                But there is truth in this.  Isaiah is looking at his community and he realizes that there is no one who is righteous, no one who is immune from the evil and no one who has it completely ‘right’.  But more than this, we all have our sins and we all participate in the evils of our community.  We are all, in a sense, part of the problem.

                In the reaction to Ferguson, I have noticed that there have been some who have tried to paint this into other people people’s problems.  This about ‘looters’ or ‘thugs’ or ‘police’ or….fill in the blank.  What they fail to realize is that what happened in Ferguson is indicative of the fact that our society is broken and that is because it is made up of broken individuals.

                We may never know the exact details of what happened in Ferguson.  Since there will be no trial, there will be no further chance to examine evidence.  But what we do know is that Ferguson reveals a major crack in our culture and in our society.  Our world is broken and we cannot always sing for joy when we see these cracks. 

                But this does not mean that there is no hope.  Isaiah begs and pleads with YHWH, “Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and not remember iniquity forever.  Now consider we are all your people” (64:8).  Even more desperate is the end of the chapter, “Our holy and beautiful house, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins.  After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord? Will you keep silent and punish us so severely?” (64:11-12).

                The answer there is supposed to be a ‘no’ that we are expecting God to show up and answer his people and to reveal his presence to us once again.  Even though our world is a mess, even though our relationships are in tatters, even though our security has been breached and even though our economy is anemic…God is not done with us and He will be heard again.

                It may be easy for us to look at Ferguson and wonder where God is.  It may even be easy for us to dismiss his presence and say that he has abandoned us and this world…but this is not the whole story.

                Advent reminds us that even in the most ruined of places, in the most desolate spots in our lives, hope can still be sung and joy can still be found.

                Right now, things look pretty bleak for race relations in the United States…even and especially in the church.  Despite Paul’s insistence that there is neither Jew nor Greek (Gal 3:23), Sunday is the most racially divided day of the week.  The break down on opinions about Ferguson came down on racial lines with over 70% of white people believing that Michael Brown got what he deserved.  The posts on the internet range from borderline insensitive to downright offensive concerning race. 

                And yet, in spite of this…there is a sense of tremendous hope.

                Church groups are beginning to bring up the issue of race in their midst once more.  Church groups are responding and reaching out to those who have needs.

                Advent reminds us that just when things seemed their most desperate, God showed up.  After 400 years of not hearing from God, Israel could have easily abandoned their beliefs about God altogether.  Their kingdom was gone, tattered in ruins.  Yet in the midst of those ruins, in the most unlikely of places, God showed up and the world was never the same.

                As we look at the smoldering ashes of Ferguson, a world tattered and in ruins, dare we to hope that God may show up again this Advent…to change the world once more? 

What's in a name?

Names are funny things.  One of the largest industries in today’s world is the whole baby-naming market.  We can hire consultants for just names and some communities try as hard as they can to make unique names or unique variations of names (Shaniqua or Cheerokee).  We may have lost our minds when it comes to the whole name thing.  We publish lists on the most popular baby names and we read books on the meanings of names. 

            We had fun naming our kids.  My wife and I know that we wanted our kids names to mean something, so that when our kids asked, “what does my name mean?” we could answer with something better than “because we liked it.” (When we found out we were having a boy, I tried to convince Marilee that we needed to name him ‘Luke’ so I could say, “Luke, I am your father!”).  We agonized over names and we tried to be political, so as to not have one side of the family represented too much. 

           I had wanted to name our oldest daughter, “Autumn.”  In fact that was going to be her name until the day she was born.  I had heard of the name “Abigail,” but I was pretty sold on “Autumn.”  But on the day she was born, when the nurse asked us what her name was, I responded, “Abigail.” Abigail is a Hebrew name, from the Bible, that means, “My Father’s Joy.”  It just seemed to fit her and the situation we now found ourselves in as a family.  We have similar stories for our other kids, and we each wanted their names to be something significant.

            Today’s readings are all about names…well, one name in particular….ok...two names in particular.

            Our gospel reading is the familiar story of Jesus’ birth, told in Matthew’s gospel (Matthew 1:18-25).  Matthew sets up the story for us perfectly by saying, “When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child…(Matthew 1:18).  So we have here a young couple (no matter how old Joseph is, he is still fairly young) and they are engaged to be married.  What a wonderful time of life!  Happiness and joy abound and there is to be a celebration soon!

            Except Mary is pregnant.

            Now many of us know we live in a time when this would not be a particular problem.  In fact, in our day and age, this seems to be a normal transpiring of events: Boy meets girl, boy and girl have sex, boy and girl exchange names, boy and girl move into together, boy and girl have child and then eventually maybe boy and girl get married.  This is not the time nor the place to discuss the merits or demerits of such a situation, just be it to say that this caused a problem for Joseph. 

            Ancient Jewish purity laws called for a woman to be a virgin when she was married.  The punishment in more of the rural areas like Nazareth, the punishment for not being a virgin was either divorce (which involved disgrace and abandonment) or death.   

            But, why? Why is this such an important deal? Was it just that they were uneducated hicks…you know the sort that watch Duck Dynasty and drink beer out of a can? Or was it just that they were prudes and wanted to stop everybody from having a good time?  Or were they just not enlightened like we are (I mean you can see how well our current sexual ethics are working out for us!) So what was it?

           

            Well, mainly it was about a name.  In a time before DNA and genetic testing, family lines were extremely important to people.  This was a society were everything, from the throne to property lines depended on your family heritage.  As we have moved further and further away from hereditary rights, bloodlines have become less important (as well as our sexual purity). Joseph couldn’t legitimately give his blessing to a child that wasn’t his and he would mess up all the genealogical charts for generations to come.

            So Joseph, a righteous man, now has  choice to make…how to get ‘rid’ of Mary.  Perhaps if he lived in Jersey or worked with the Sopranos, there would be a different option, but Joseph decides to divorce her secretly. 

            And most of us would probably agree with this decision…I mean, after all, what else could he do? He couldn’t marry her and care for her child, could he? He couldn’t really kill her, right? So a quiet divorce sounds like the best option.  Things are desperate for the young carpenter and his fiancée.  And Joseph probably felt that God had  abandoned him, that God was distant from him and that there was no help coming from God in this situation.

That is, until, God pipes in.

            The Angel appears and first tells Joseph “do not fear” (v. 20).  Interesting choice of words…it is not that he should not fear because of the angel, but that he shouldn’t be afraid to marry Mary and to raise her Son.  The reason for this is because “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit…”(Mathew 1:21).  This is all done in fulfillment of Isaiah 7, which culminates with the baby’s name, “Immanuel”.

            Immanuel. 

            What a name!

            But what’s in a name anyway?

            To understand this prophesy, we need to go back to Isaiah 7.  As we return to this text, we have almost forget everything we know about it.  We have imported the Christmas story so much to it, that we go back to see what was happening.

            It was a desperate time for the nation of Israel.  The country was at war and was about to be destroyed.  King Ahaz was frightened the king of Assyria would overwhelm him and his people would be enslaved, killed, or deported.  He is looking at the end of his reign, the end of his kingdom and the end of the world, as far as he knows!

            Into this, Isaiah comes to him and says tells Ahaz to ask for a sign…any sign! But Ahaz is so scared that he won’t ask for a sign. So Isaiah give him a sign anyway:

Behold the virgin shall conceive and give birth and bear a son, and his name shall be Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). 

            There has been a lot of discussion about this sign…does it present a miraculous sign? Is the “virgin” still a virgin when she conceives, etc?  I don’t necessarily don’t want to be dogmatic here, but I think we should take the following things from Isaiah.  First, the ‘virgin’ isn’t really a virgin.[1] There is nothing supernatural about the sign, as it is a reference to the time when the siege will be over.  Rather, the most important thing is the name:

            Immanuel

            But what’s in a name?

            Immanuel literally means “God with us!”  The message that Isaiah wants to present to Ahaz is that despite the overwhelming nature of the events that are happening around you, God is with you. God is with you and will deliver you, save you from your enemies.

            That’s a powerful message.  Because Ahaz probably felt that God had abandoned the people of Israel.  He probably felt that God was distant from him and that really there was no help coming from on high. 

            How many of us feel the same way?  How many of us feel that God has abandoned us, that He is distant from us and that he is not coming for us.  This time of year, I always think about those people who feel that God has completely ignored or abandoned.

            I think of Scott, who was desperately trying to put his family back together after his wives numerous affairs and disastrous financial decisions.  “I don’t know where to go from here,” he said as he sat in my study.  “I don’t know who I am supposed to be and I don’t know how I’m supposed to get there.  Where is God?”

            I think of Alice who has been struggling with alcohol for such a long time.  “All I want is one more drink and then I can stop.”  Rehab never quite worked for her and she keeps losing the battle with the bottle. She has lost her job, her family and her God (she thinks).

            I think of Jacob, a youth group member who is trying to find his identity.  He feels an attraction towards men and feels that his family would completely reject him if they ever found out the truth about him.  “I mean, God hates fags, right?”

            And yet, we see the truth played out before us in this reading.  Jesus, the Angel declares, is God with us.

            God with us in our joy.  God with us in our despair.  God with us in our victory and God with us in our defeat.  God with us in our struggles and God with us in our sin.  God with us when we are happy and God with us when we are sad.  God with us in the crowd and God with us when we are alone.  God with us in all aspects of our lives. 

            This is the Gospel for us today, that God is with us.  God was with Joseph in those dark moments of his life, to give him courage to live out God’s plan for him.  God is with us in all situations of our lives.

            The theologians like to use big words and the word they like to use for this is “incarnation”.  That the fullness of God has come to dwell in the baby in Bethlehem.  This was a miracle in the biggest sense of the word because what it says is that, “I, God of the universe, Creator of heaven and earth, the one who has the power and the ability to preserve and destroy any life I see, have come to live in your world.  I want to experience all things with you.  I want to experience your joys and your sorrow.  I want to be with you in all things.”

            One of the great promises of the Old Testament is that “I will walk among you and will be your God and you will be my people” (Lev 26:12).  But there was always something that got in the way.  The people sinned, God got mad and He sent the people into Exile.  But When Jesus comes, he announces to the World, “I am here! I am with you! I am walking among among you! (or as John says, I will ‘dwell’ among you”

            And this promise has no end.  It is no surprise that Matthew ends with Jesus’ promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  Did you hear it? I am with you. 

            So what is in a name?

            First, we have a sign that God has not abandoned or forsaken his people.  God will never just cast us off to the winds.  That is a collective as well as an individual promise. 

            Second, we have knowledge that God is going through all things with us.  He is experiencing the joyous moments as well as the defeats with us.

            Third, we have a promise that God will never leave us or forsake us.  By coming in the person of Jesus as Immanuel, God has permanently identified with us.

            So no matter what you are going through this Advent period, no matter what joys and what sorrows you have during this period in life, remember that through it all, God is with us…God is with you…after all, it’s all in his name.

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[1] The Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 has hmlc (which means ‘young maid’ and could mean ‘virgin’) and the Greek of the LXX has  paqehnoj (which means virgin).  Matthew definitely has the LXX in view and it is clear that he indicates that Mary was a virgin throughout her lifr

Running on Empty

           

         

            Today I had one of those days.  You know the type….the days where nothing seems to go right.  I thought I had things under control…until the most embarrassing thing happened. 

            I ran out of gas.  Literally. 

            There I was, driving along and everything was going well.  Next thing I know, the car is sputtering and I am pulling over to the side of road…completely immobilized.  

            Of course, when this first happened…I didn’t realize I had run out of gas.  I ran through the myriad of issues for which I have had my truck towed in the last three months.  I was instantly hit with anger and the thought, “this can’t be happening to me!”  I have had to repair the breaks, the tires, the driveshaft, and the fuel pump all within the last year. I have towed this car more than any other car I’ve owned….or known about.  So I instantly thought that something was majorly wrong with it. 

            That was, until, somebody I was talking to reminded me that my fuel light had been on.  Of course my fuel light was on.  It’s almost always on.  I no sooner fill the car with gas the fuel light goes on.  I can go with days with my fuel light on.  And, in fact… I had gone days with the fuel light on.

            Oh.

            Then I realized….I had been driving for days with the fuel light on.  The time had finally come when it was completely out of gas.  I was stuck on the road…and there was nothing I could do about it. 

            I called the tow truck and waited for them to arrive.  I called my wife and my office to let them know what had happened.  I let the people who were waiting for me know what had happened as well.  And then I just…waited.

            As I waited, I began to think about my life.

That is NOT my car

            How often does this happen?  How often do I run out of gas.

            Now, to be honest, I have never actually run out of gas in my car…until today.  And I thought back to all the things that were going on in the last couple of days.  I can reason with myself that I was busy…I was too busy in fact.  I tried to pack too much into the last couple of days to make a quick stop at the gas station.  That lack of a trip to the gas station, messed up my schedule and the schedule of others.  I let myself down and I let others down…all because I was too busy to go to the gas station…to take care of my car.

            How many of us are running around on empty…spiritually…emotionally…mentally speaking? How many of us won’t…or can’t…make time to get some gas…to take some time and recharge.  We live in a go-go-go culture and society in which every waking moment has to be spent doing…something…even if that something really isn’t important. (watching Duck Dynasty is not all that important).  But we all have to be going.  And by going…we drain our fuel.

            And that’s the problem.  We try to go as hard as we can for as long as we can.  We take energy drinks rather than admit we need sleep.  We pay attention to our cellphones rather than talk to the people who are right next door to us.  We pretend we don’t need rest, to regroup, to recharge…and then we deny ourselves any chance to do so.  When we crash, we often crash hard, and we don’t need to.

            If only we would refill when we had the time.

            Isaiah talks about those who ‘wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and now grow weary.” (Isaiah 40:31)  Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Never growing weary? Never running out of gas? 

            Isaiah is referring to a number of things.  First, he is referring to the time when the Messiah will come and establish the kingdom of God.  At that point, those who wait will not grow weary (because weariness will not exist).  But he is also talking about one of the ways to renew ourselves. 

            We can be renewed by waiting for God…by cultivating our sense of God’s presence and coming.  We can do this by any number of spiritual practices.  We can fast, pray, read, study…sleep...(I’m of the opinion that sleep is a spiritual practice!)

            Or we can do this by taking care of ourselves.  Sometimes people spend too much attention on themselves (we call this selfishness), but often people don’t spend enough attention to themselves and they don’t attend to themselves.  After a while, this can result in all sorts of problems.

            Take for example any number of stressed out moms out there in Americaland.  They work hard at work…or work hard at home.  They take care of the kids and everything else and don’t take care of themselves very often.  They run far too long on far too little…and they burn out.  When they do, they are not very much good for anything else. 

            A common example can be cited (and I may have cited it before).  When you are going on an airplane, when the stewardess is going over the preflight information, they talk about the air tubes coming down.  It is always stressed to put your own tube on first before you help another person.  The same is true to life.

            As I watched all the cars going by today, in fast paces, trying to get to where they were going, I wondered how many of them were low on fuel, low on energy and about to crash.  We should all take some time to refuel so we don’t find ourselves immobile on the side of road called life.

Wake up! An Advent Reflection

So…be honest….how many of you enjoy coming to church? I mean, really enjoy waking up and getting ready for to come to church? If you have kids, you know that this is a weekly struggle of getting them roused and out of bed, dressed to be somewhat acceptable for societal standards and then throw some breakfast down them and throw them in the car to get them to church on time. 

            In my house, Sunday morning normally begins something like this:

            Me: Owen…wake up.

            Owen: uhhhhhhh…….(rolls back to bed)

            Me: Owen…WAKE UP!!!! We have to go to church!

            Owen: uhhhhh……..why do we have to go to church?

            Me: Because God said so!

            Owen: I don’t want to go to church!

            Me: I don’t care what you want to do….you are going to church! Now GET UP!!!!

            So, this conversation probably sounds familiar in your household.  Church has never been a place that most people have bounded out of bed and headed towards.  Even time is different at church.  I can watch a movie and it feels like no time has passed at all, but a 15 minute sermon….oh my!

            In a lot of ways, I can sympathize with kids…and others…that don’t find church enjoyable.  Growing up, I never wanted to go to church.  Of course, I was an atheist, so maybe that had something to do with it.  I remember one Christmas when my friend really wanted to bring me to church.  He mustered all his nerve up to ask me to go to church.  When he finally did, I simply responded by saying, “Church? Church? It’s Christmas Eve, why would I want to go to church?” (Irony is not lost on me now)

Most of us are probably not morning people...

            My attitude was a long way from the Psalmist’s attitude: “I was glad when they said to me, let us go up to the House of the Lord.”  Glad?  As a kid, I never went to church gladly.  I always resentfully and never found it joyful….simply boring.  I mean, after all…what does the Church have to say to me? To us? To the World? Anything? What can the Church offer?

            This really is the question that the Church asks itself again at the beginning of Advent.  As we begin a new year, the church asks itself, “why do we exist? Do we have any meaning? Is there a purpose to this?”  In the midst of the holiday season, after the busyness of the year, the Church often forgets why we are here and what we are about.

            It’s almost like every Advent, the Church needs to be reminded about its purpose, its vision and its destination. 

            That’s why Advent starts off with these magisterial images of a new world.  Isaiah kicks off our new year with a vision of a different world…a world renewed…a world changed…by God.

In days to come the mountains of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it.  Many peoples shall come and say, ‘come let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in its paths.  For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples.  They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn for war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:2-4 NRSV).

            Now talk about an unbelievable picture! Not only will there be world peace…but people will ask…and WANT to go to CHURCH!  Seriously, though, we see that the world is to be transformed into a different place…different from the one we know…the one filled with anger and violence, warfare and strife.  It sounds almost too good to be true.  But it’s not…it’s the Gospel in action.

            Isaiah’s vision is meant to inspire the people of Israel…and the world…to look forward to a new dawn.  The time of Advent is a time to refocus on where we are going as a people.  We have been wearied by reports of World events…of wars and rumors of war…that it is hard for us to imagine that anything else could be different.  One of the reasons perhaps that many people find church ‘boring’ is because we have forgotten this vision of where we are going.  We have forgotten the message that we are supposed to be living out.  We have forgotten to offer people the very thing they are looking for: peace.

            The vision of Isaiah offers something completely different than anything the world can offer.  We often speak of ‘peace’ in political terms.  And while the vision definitely encapsulates this, it is much more expansive than this.  It is for the Hebrew word ~wlv that captures the sense here.  This means ‘completeness’ or ‘wholeness.’  People will be so at peace that disarmament will be an individual project, where people will give up their weapons and contribute to the common good by providing food for all.  

            But how is this supposed to come about?  We sometimes read a passage like this and we think that this is going to happen overnight, as if we don’t have to do anything.  We can sit back and let nature take its course and peace will magically appear.  But that’s not how it happens, is it?  This vision of Isaiah is the destination to which we are heading. It is God’s promise, but the way we get there is to live ourselves into it. 

            That is why Paul, in his letters to the Romans, tells people to ‘wake up.’ “you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep’ (Rom 13:11 NRSV).  What does he mean by this?

      

      Paul has been talking about how different the Christian life is in light of the promises of God.  He is trying to get the people to live into those promises of God.  He says that we should lay aside the ‘works of darkness’ and put on the ‘armor of light.’ What ‘light’ is Paul talking about? It is the same light of Isaiah. The early Church theologian Origen says, “the light is dawning everywhere, and the reign of darkness is rapidly coming to an end,’ which is because of the decisive work of God in Jesus Christ. 

            Paul declares that it is a ‘new day’ and because of this new day, people are changed people.  What is remarkable is that even in the midst of preaching the gospel of grace, Paul declares the ethical imperative for the people to enact the gospel promises of peace. We are to become ‘peace’ people…a community of Shalom.  We are to ‘walk in the light’ and to encourage others to live into the gospel values of peace and love and wholeness.

            I love when the church gets this right…and we do!  We have to remember that it was the Church that built and developed many of the early hospitals.  It was the church that retained a love of education and sought to educate much of the world.  It was the church that led the way in developing orphanages and it was church that has helped many people get back on its feet. 

            Personally, I remember a time when my church personally helped a young family get back on their feet.  It was near Christmas time and this family was living out in their car.  They had a very small child and another child on the way.  Our small church, with its budget stretched beyond imagination stepped up and provided a place for them to stay.  We were able to get the young man a job so he could work and provide money for his young and growing family.  This was a time when church ‘worked,’ when we were able to be that community of shalom.

            But too often, the church has lost sight of this.  I mean, how often have you heard of a church that has been a shining example of shalom to the world?  Too often, we get bogged down in internal conflict within the church.  We fight over…well everything! We fight over what type of music should be played, we fight over the color of carpets and we fight over who said what to whom.  Forget ‘world’ peace…often times we would like to find peace in our own church!

            And yet, isn’t this the entire point of what we have been celebrating? Isn’t this what Jesus, Paul, and Isaiah point us to during this time…during every time?

            What would happen if we took these passages seriously? What would happen if we truly began living in peace? What would happen if we became a ‘shalom’ people?  Sound too good to be true?   Maybe…but when people become captivated by the message of peace…with the message of the gospel…anything can happen…at any time!

            There is a reason that Jesus warns his disciples that the kingdom of God can break out and occur at any point.  Advent should be for us a time to stay alert for new possibilities, for new signs of the coming of the kingdom.  Jesus warns his listeners that life may seem to go on normally, as if nothing would ever change.  But here…and there…change can happen! The kingdom of peace can break in at any moment.

            You may have heard the story that happened during WW1 on Christmas Eve, but it is worth telling again.  The trenches of France were hardly a place where peace could reign…it was hardly a place that peace could have a foothold! People had been shooting at each other, killing each other and it seemed like there would be no end.  Then Christmas Eve came around and there was a ceasefire.  Somebody began to sing ‘Silent Night’ and before you know it, others joined in.  The German lines heard the singing and then they began to sing the song.  In that moment, dreaded enemies…people who had been shooting and killing each other just moments before, were joined together in their hearts and in their voices as they sung of eternal peace.  After this, hockey games happened between the two sides and there was, for a brief shining moment, a living realization of Isaiah’s vision.  Peace had come into the world! 

            As Advent begins, we hear the Gospel call back to the vision and promise that God has for the world.  We are called to come awake and to live out the gospel values that help embody the kingdom of Peace that Jesus has come to establish.  We are called to look out for signs of that peace that is breaking into our world.

            People have learned to ignore the Church because we have strayed from our vision.  Instead of a kingdom of peace, they see a people who have lost their way, who no longer know what they are living for.  The church has often times lost its excitement and passion for the coming kingdom… to embody the promises of God.  They may hear us singing our Carols and our Hymns, but they don’t think we mean them. 

            Advent is a time for us to renew ourselves and our Church.  At Advent, God calls us to

Wake Up! 

            But the message is not, “Wake up, we have to go to church.”

            No, instead, the message is and always has been, “wake up…it’s time to be the Church.”